I'm just getting over an injury that was completely, utterly, absolutely my own fault. I was taking it easy during a sparring session with an older, lighter lower belt and ended up in caught in a crazy omoplata/kimura/crucifix position. I should just have tapped out and carried on, but instead my ego got in the way and I kept on holding on, looking for a way out for far too long. Yes, I got … [Read more...]
Endurance Sports and BJJ, with Paul Kindzia
Paul Kindzia was immersed in the world of marathon and triathalon for many years before immersing himself in BJJ, even going so far as to write a book on the topic called 'Master Jiu-Jitsu, Master Life'. He's got a really interesting story because he went from a fat 220 pound accountant living on soft drinks and fast food to a 13 time elite Ironman. And now he's a highly ranked BJJ masters … [Read more...]
Rehab and Prehab for Martial Arts
It was a pleasure to talk with Dr Mark Cheng about injury rehabilitation and rehabilitation today on The Strenuous Life Podcast. Mark has worked with lots of combat athletes in all sorts of martial arts disciplines. He has also trained with some really good instructors, some of which I know personally. Here are just some of the things we cover in this podcast... The process of … [Read more...]
Podcast: How My Diet Experiment Could Have Gone Terribly, Horribly Wrong…
I recently gave the full-on ketogenic diet a try (which I discussed in episode 173 of my podcast - Self Experimentation and Limiting the Downside of Experiments Gone Wrong). For a month I consumed very few carbohydrates and hugely increased the amount of saturated fat I was eating. A typical 'breakfast' was a shake made of whipping cream, coconut milk, spinach and blueberries with about … [Read more...]
Podcast Episode 173 – Self Experimentation and Limiting the Downside of Experiments Gone Wrong
In this episode of The Strenuous Life Podcast I talk about the importance of self experimentation and how your results may be different from most other people's. I share some dietary experiments I've been fooling around with and exactly what I've been doing to limit the potential downsides. And somehow I drag the conversation down into musing about limiting the downside when dating crazy … [Read more...]
A Weight Cutting Plan for BJJ, MMA, and No Gi Competition
Weight cutting is a fact of life in modern MMA and also in many jiu-jitsu and submission grappling competitions. And the person who does it correctly usually has an undeniable advantage. But it can also be very dangerous if done wrong - people have sabotaged their performance, gone into kidney failure, and even died after cutting weight badly. So if you're going to cut weight you need to do … [Read more...]
Podcast Episode 106 – Top 5 Nutrition Tips for Martial Arts
The Christmas binge is over and it's time to take control of your diet again! In this short episode I give you my top five pieces of advice for cleaning up your diet and not sabotaging your training with crappy nutrition. This podcast episode, along with all my others, are available on my Strenuous Life Podcast, which you can subscribe to with a few easy clicks! Choose your audio player below … [Read more...]
Podcast Episode 61 – What Steps to Follow to get Back to Training after Being Injured
Unfortunately injuries are just part of the game, and getting back to training after recuperating from an injury is always a tricky business. In this episode I give some of my best advice about exactly how your return to the mats should be structured. This is advice I've learned the hard way so take my advice - for the longest time I didn't use it myself and I wish I had! To hear this podcast … [Read more...]
Podcast Episode 54 – Quick Rant on Should You Still Train When You Are Sick?
Here's a quick rant about whether you should still train if you're beginning to come down with something. The lessons in this particular podcast have repeated themselves many times until learned... This podcast episode, along with all my others, are available on my Strenuous Life Podcast, which you can subscribe to with a few easy clicks! Choose your audio player below and click on it to open … [Read more...]
Training BJJ As You Age – Video and Podcast
If you're doing any kind of martial art - be it BJJ, MMA, Kickboxing, Taekwondo or whatever - then your game needs to evolve every decade. This is because of the age-related changes in your body. I got this from the legendary Dan Inosanto who started training at age 11 and is still practising martial arts in his 80's. To hear this podcast episode in full, you have a couple of options. The … [Read more...]
BJJ Wristlocks Everywhere!
For some reasons wristlocks in BJJ just don't get no respect. Many grapplers consider it OK to tap out to armlocks, triangle chokes, shoulder locks or lapel chokes, but for some reason wristlocks are considered super cheesy. However the wrist is just as legitimate a joint to attack as the elbow, shoulder or knee. In fact there's a meme going around the online BJJ community right now. I … [Read more...]
Torn ACL Info for BJJ / MMA / Judo / Grapplers FAQ (ver 1.2)
Stephan's Note: Most of the following FAQ was first published on the mma.tv forum by 'The Stewed Owl.' I thought it was so valuable that I contacted the author and asked him if I could republish it on Grapplearts. He kindly agreed, so here it is! But first, here are my own thoughts on training with knee injuries (including ACL tears) in … [Read more...]
The Red Line in Jiu-Jitsu
I once flew in through the mountains in a helicopter with my friend Kevin at the controls. He was not only a commercial pilot but also fellow whitewater paddler. We had commandeered a helicopter for 'a maintenance flight', but the real reason we were airborne was to scout a remote river in northern British Columbia, almost at the Yukon border. The idea was to fly over the river and down its … [Read more...]
Sitting is the Devil – Go and Sweat!
Sitting is the new smoking my friends - it's really, really not good for you. So if you're doing a lot of travelling, otherwise known as sitting on your ass, then you've got to offset it with some exercise. So go to your hotel, check in, and before you go for dinner and before you dive into your emails... GO GET A SWEAT ON! It doesn't need to be an epic workout, immortalised in poetry and … [Read more...]
Staying Fit When You’ve Got No Time
Almost everyone is busy these days; jobs, girlfriends, wives, families and other adult responsibilities really get in the way of the full time training lifestyle! But sometimes one's life goes to ludicrous speed for a while and it becomes even harder to train, exercise and stay in shape. At that point it's not so much about making fitness and martial arts progress, but rather trying to not … [Read more...]
Should You Stretch Before Jiu-Jitsu Training?
Some experts tell you that you should only stretch after a workout when your muscles are tired and your body warmed up. Static stretching before a workout, they insist, can actually lead to more injuries not less. And there is some evidence from the running world to prove this... This is the exact opposite approach used in most traditional martial arts classes, where the instructor makes … [Read more...]
Protect Yourself And Your Training Partner At All Times
The other day I almost tore a partner’s ACL off the bone, which would have required him to have surgery and many months of rehabilitation. What happened exactly? I was more experienced and a bit bigger than my training partner that day and we were doing some no gi sparring. Because of the experience discrepancy I was hyper-focusing on a couple of very specific positions, namely Ashi … [Read more...]
How to Safely Practice Dangerous Leglocks
Q: Given that leglocks are dangerous, how do you train them safely and still have confidence that they will work in a 'live' setting. A: Although ANY submission is potentially dangerous, cranking someone with a heel hook or toehold can not only end the match, it can end your opponent's athletic career. Go here if you don't know what a heel hook is. . If you don't know what a toehold is, … [Read more...]
How to Train BJJ with an Injured Neck
Necks are delicate things. Seven small stacked cervical vertebrae protecting all the nerves in your spinal cord and held together with a multitude of flimsy ligaments and muscles. Yet in BJJ we stress the neck continuously. We attack it with chokes, crucifixes, and cranks. We stack our opponents, turn their heads with crossfaces, and scissor his head with our legs. We also use our head … [Read more...]
On Starting a Conditioning Program for BJJ & Submission Grappling
There are lots of reasons to start doing a conditioning program if you're training in BJJ or submission grappling. The most important (yet often overlooked) benefit is to injury proof your body and allow you to train longer, harder, and more often. Other benefits can include increased strength, improved muscular endurance, elevated aerobic and anaerobic capacities, and more explosiveness, all … [Read more...]