The Biggest Lie About Jiu Jitsu Injuries | Your Physical & Mental Guidebook to Injuries in BJJ

if you're like many others you first<br>heard of jiujitsu on Joe Rogan or<br>watching MMA and it pequ your<br>[Applause]<br>interest maybe you had a friend that<br>made it sound super accessible and fun<br>and he convinced you to stop by an openm<br>or a trial class one day and despite how<br>difficult it was you saw all these other<br>working professionals participating in a<br>sport in a way that you just don't see<br>all that often especially for something<br>centered around live combat and what<br>really got you hooked was how<br>surprisingly cerebral the art was sure<br>it was a great workout but class left<br>your mind racing you'd search techniques<br>online watch match breakdowns anything<br>to scratch that mental itch for progress<br>and man was at progress addictive go<br>from a completely uncoordinated fish out<br>of water to the proverbial shark in the<br>ocean you know the kind of dudes who<br>used to shove you into lockers 10 years<br>ago big OES but then that first injury<br>hits and your obsession is taken away<br>from you for a few weeks man you get<br>some confusing advice from the wise<br>sages you go to class with you go online<br>hoping for some clarity and it's even<br>more conflicting information what the<br>hell do you do now do you just tuck your<br>possibly broken arm in your belt and<br>keep training like that old lanky brown<br>belt who walks funny you rub CBD on it<br>and sit in a sensory deprivation tank<br>like your 10th Planet buddy said you<br>should is it really possible that those<br>FP weirdos really never feel pain and<br>all you have to do is spin around with a<br>kettle bell like you're a Beyblade at<br>this point you'll honestly do anything<br>as long as it's not an early morning ice<br>bath with that weird antia dude before<br>you ground yourself on your morning walk<br>to his favorite naked yoga a spot in the<br>woods where he does happy baby Facing<br>East to recharge his perenium by the<br>power of the Rising<br>Sun before we jump into some solutions<br>let me tell you a little bit about<br>myself so you know that I'm not just<br>some influencer talking out my ass my<br>name is Alex sterer and I own electrum<br>performance in San Diego California this<br>is a strength and conditioning gym where<br>we work primarily with jiu-jitsu<br>athletes I've worked with plenty of<br>practitioners from multiple time world<br>champions all the way to hobbyists who<br>are looking to get out of pain and just<br>extend the life of their Jiu-Jitsu<br>career a little bit more overall our<br>facility has seen more Jiu-Jitsu<br>athletes than any other one gym in the<br>world and it's been this way for a long<br>time but I'm not just a strength and<br>conditioning coach I've also trained<br>Jiu-Jitsu myself since 2004 and I've<br>seen the many ways that this sport has<br>changed and evolved in that time and<br>despite how much the sport is changed<br>I've also worked in other division one<br>sports and can see just how far we have<br>to go the biggest difference that I see<br>between Jiu-Jitsu and other established<br>Sports is what athletes do off the mats<br>to really make sure that their bodies<br>are adequately prepared for their<br>demands within the sport and I'm not<br>sure why this part lags behind in<br>Jiu-Jitsu so much maybe it has to do<br>with the old saying strength versus<br>technique as if we have to choose<br>between one of these variables or maybe<br>it's just the fact that people who<br>trained Jiu-Jitsu didn't really tend to<br>have experience in strength training in<br>the past but for whatever reason there's<br>a lot of improvement that we can do off<br>the mats to really enhance and increase<br>the duration of time that we spend on<br>the mats throughout the rest of our life<br>while this may come as a surprise I<br>think the sport that really highlights<br>the value of strength training is<br>actually cross country in Cross Country<br>a 300 lb squat won't decrease the time<br>it takes for you to run a mile but cross<br>country athletes definitely squat they<br>do this because of the positive<br>adaptations that occur from squatting<br>the changes that will occur in the bone<br>tendons and ligaments that allow them to<br>have higher training volumes and spend<br>more time running this prevents those<br>chronic overuse injuries that you'll see<br>from people who don't lift weights and<br>this is primarily from the general<br>adaptations that occur from those large<br>sweeping movements in the weight room<br>those bang for your buck exercises that<br>you're probably familiar with your<br>squats your deadlifts your bench press<br>those sort of things another way that we<br>can look at this General Adaptation is<br>in the shoulders of someone who can<br>bench 500 lb that person was clearly not<br>capable of withstanding those forces<br>when they were born or when they first<br>came into adulthood not only were their<br>muscles not strong enough but their<br>joints actually couldn't withstand that<br>Force if you look at the course of that<br>person's strength training career<br>adaptation occurred not just in the<br>muscle but in the bones and connective<br>tissue that allowed that person to<br>support that much weight that sort of<br>General Adaptation is the benefit that<br>we look for in strength training sure<br>it's cool to see improvements in<br>performance but the best thing that we<br>can do for ourselves in the weight room<br>is allow our joints to change much like<br>in that 500 lb bench presser or like<br>that cross country Runner that allows us<br>to withstand greater forces on the mats<br>and spend less of our time<br>sidelined by injury so while I will get<br>into some very specific exercises that<br>we can do while maybe we are injured I<br>want you to really focus on those<br>preventative things those big bang for<br>your buck exercises that may not look<br>exactly like the things we do in<br>Jiu-Jitsu but really allow our joints<br>connective tissue and our skeleton to<br>change in a way that makes it more<br>resilient and less prone to injury these<br>examples also highlight why lower<br>threshold activities things like yoga or<br>light stretching or more functional<br>training that you'll see mace work that<br>sort of thing doesn't apply a stressor<br>that promotes long-term change the same<br>way that traditional strength training<br>does it's not that these things are<br>useless they're just not going to create<br>a more robust system that allows us to<br>increase our training frequency those<br>feel-good exercises can be done as maybe<br>maintenance or to allow us to feel<br>better for a specific training session<br>but they're not going to to provide the<br>lasting results that allow us to prevent<br>injury so in today's video I'm going to<br>get into the different ways that we may<br>experience injury and the different<br>joints that that's associated with but<br>most importantly at the end of the video<br>I'm going to get into the mental<br>approach the way that you can really fit<br>injuries into this overall framework and<br>take direct action so that you can pull<br>yourself out of that injury and extend<br>the length of your Jiu-Jitsu career so<br>if you're dealing with an injury right<br>now you're welcome to jump to the<br>section that addresses that specific<br>issue if not there's value in watching<br>all the way through and certainly<br>watching the mental Approach at the end<br>of the video let's get to it before we<br>dive into the physical side of the<br>injuries in our sport let me just say<br>that this video is not meant to treat or<br>diagnose any sort of specific injury<br>nothing can replace an in-person<br>professional so I would highly recommend<br>finding a cash based PT in your area so<br>you can lean on them anytime you have an<br>injury that's tough to figure out so for<br>each body part today I'm going to go<br>over two distinct sections one is going<br>to be the lower threshold stuff that you<br>can do if you're currently experiencing<br>a tweak or an injury and two I'm going<br>to get into some of those more advanced<br>progressions or the things that are<br>going to really elicit long-term change<br>and prevent further injury to that<br>region so let's jump into the<br>neck the neck is one of the most<br>commonly abused parts of the body while<br>on the mat ranging from clubs to Stacks<br>to direct submissions like Guillotines<br>and rear naked chokes the neck takes a<br>lot of direct trauma while we're on the<br>mats combined with the fact that it's<br>maybe one of the most undertrained areas<br>off the mats this is a recipe for<br>consistent neck issues and it's no<br>coincidence that almost every Grappler<br>after around you know brown or even<br>purple belt level has some sort of neck<br>issue if we're currently experiencing a<br>flare up in the neck something like<br>stability ball Isom are a great way to<br>apply Force to the four main directions<br>associated with our neck without any<br>motion that may further agitate it we<br>can move further away from the wall for<br>it to be a bit more advanced and to have<br>some more loading or we can get closer<br>to the wall if our neck is particularly<br>bothered at that point in time now once<br>our neck isn't really in pain it's<br>important that we begin to load the<br>region and provide motion those old<br>school neck harnesses are a great way to<br>do it some people nowadays use the iron<br>neck that can be a good option or if you<br>don't have any specialized equipment<br>even lying neck curls where you hang<br>your head off the edge of a bench place<br>a plate on a portion of your head and<br>resist that motion can be a great way to<br>start to train the neck and the muscles<br>associated with the neck through a full<br>range of<br>motion another commonly injured joint is<br>the knee now there's obvious ways that<br>the knee is targeted in Jiu-Jitsu like<br>in leg locks with knee bars and heel<br>hooks but there's even positions like<br>pummeling a leg inside to retain guard<br>it's very common to pop uh or<br>potentially even tear your LCL while<br>retaining guard and somebody places<br>pressure on you so if our knees are<br>currently achy one of the best things we<br>can do is a timed wall sit keep in mind<br>that we're trying to just get some<br>activation and lubrication in the joint<br>we're not really trying to go for<br>fatigue here these can often be used<br>before jiu-jitsu or lifting to decrease<br>that pain response a little bit to allow<br>us to get more effective training in<br>another good low threshold exercise<br>where we can start to involve some range<br>of motion are banded TK step Downs the<br>band provides a little more resistance<br>for the quad and the motion allows us to<br>start to load the knee and show our body<br>that it's okay to be loaded and move<br>through a range of motion now contrary<br>to what you see a lot online there<br>aren't any magical exercises to<br>bulletproof our knees you'll see a lot<br>of things with the knees over toes brand<br>and while these aren't inherently bad or<br>incorrect they're also not magical<br>straightforward old-fashioned exercises<br>like squats and lunges do a great job of<br>progressively overloading these<br>structures and there's even data to show<br>that it results in hypertrophy of the<br>major ligaments of the knee making them<br>harder to injure one special<br>consideration that might be really worth<br>your time is training your hamstrings<br>through knee flexion something like a a<br>Nordic hamstring curl because the<br>hamstring tendons insert in a way that's<br>parallel to our ACL they can directly<br>brace the ACL or help absorb force in a<br>motion that might otherwise cause damage<br>to that structure so training our<br>hamstrings is super important as<br>well the low back is a region that's<br>very commonly injured or experiences<br>pain in the general population but the<br>unique demands of Jiu-Jitsu makes this a<br>problem area for us as well this region<br>experiences a ton of motion in Jiu-Jitsu<br>whether it's flexion while playing uh<br>certain guards barolos are getting<br>stacked but also a lot of the rotation<br>that occurs in Jiu-Jitsu whether that's<br>finishing a submission like a heel hook<br>or a kamur the spine has a lot of<br>Mobility requirements in Jiu-Jitsu but<br>it's not just about the mobility there's<br>also significant loading on that lower<br>back think of maintaining a wrestling<br>stance as somebody's clubbing your head<br>you'll often feel burn in those erector<br>muscles of the lower back there's also<br>significant loading in more extreme<br>positions like stack passing so how do<br>we possibly prepare our body for this<br>let's take a look the lower back is not<br>just one of the most commonly injured<br>regions but it can be particularly<br>debilitating when we're in the midst of<br>a flare up for that reason sometimes we<br>need some strategies that are a little<br>more indirect for us to be able to<br>decrease that pain response something<br>like banded glute work or even just a<br>walk outside if if we can manage it can<br>get that pain response a little bit<br>lower can increase our heart rate and<br>can allow us to potentially do something<br>a little more direct to help pull us out<br>of this flare up once we can handle more<br>direct work something like a Superman<br>cross crawl is a great way to tax the<br>muscles that surround the low back<br>without bringing us through a range of<br>motion that the body might not be ready<br>for yet when it comes to training the<br>back in a more healthy setting people<br>are are usually a little bit off the<br>mark in terms of how to do this and get<br>ourselves ready for something multipler<br>like Jiu-Jitsu we've got the obvious<br>ones um braced exercises like squats and<br>deadlifts these exercises can allow us<br>to experience a significant axial load<br>and can make the structur surrounding<br>the spine far more resilient but we also<br>want to make sure that we train each<br>motion of the spine and do so under load<br>this is where exercises like zercher<br>deadlifts loaded side bends and<br>rotational exercises like Med ball<br>throws can be a great way to really make<br>sure that we're covering all of our<br>bases and making sure that the spine<br>isn't more susceptible to injury in any<br>one region as soon as we get on the<br>mats being the most mobile joint in the<br>body the shoulder has injury concerns in<br>almost any sport but in Jiu-Jitsu it's<br>often specifically attacked moves like<br>omop platas kycks koras all directly<br>attack the shoulder and bring it to<br>endpoint ranges of motion there's also<br>more indirect ways that we can injure<br>the shoulder if we don't break fall<br>appropriately or are avoiding an off<br>balance and sticking our arm or elbow<br>out we can experience damage to a region<br>known as the AC joint in the shoulder so<br>let's look at a few different ways to<br>address shoulder issues so when the<br>shoulders are in the middle of a flare<br>up there's a couple different strategies<br>we can use to address them one is<br>through isometrics and banded internal<br>or external rotation is a great way to<br>introduce isometrics to the shoulder we<br>can also do some scapular exercises<br>things like scat pull-ups from a dead<br>hang or scat push-ups can allow us to<br>train some of those smaller muscles<br>around the shoulder and decrease pain in<br>a healthier setting any sort of push or<br>pull be it vertical horizontal is a<br>great way to load the shoulder<br>incrementally over time this incremental<br>stress is going to allow that shoulder<br>to not just be stronger in that plane<br>but in various contexts on the map but<br>outside of regular pushing and pulling<br>there's another motion that I think is<br>often overlooked that plays a huge role<br>in shoulder health and that's by<br>addressing the long head of the biceps<br>tendon my favorite exercise to tax this<br>region is an incline biceps curl if you<br>really go through a full range and feel<br>a deep stretch at the bottom you'll feel<br>it not just across the elbow like any<br>other biceps curl but you'll feel it at<br>the shoulder as well and that's because<br>this portion of the bicep also crosses<br>the shoulder and plays a huge role in<br>shoulder health so make sure to sprinkle<br>these in not just for vanity but for<br>shoulder health<br>the armar is maybe the most recognizable<br>submission in Jiu-Jitsu it comes as no<br>surprise that our elbows end up taking<br>some abuse this is further compounded by<br>the fact that they take a lot of impact<br>as we avoid off balances or breakfall<br>incorrectly lastly the repetitive motion<br>of gripping can leave the tendons up by<br>the forearm feeling less than great<br>After High Volume training let's check<br>out ways to address this due to the fact<br>that the elbow is actually made up of<br>more than one joint we can often benefit<br>from doing some forearm work to fill in<br>the gaps of the rest of our training<br>things like pinch grip carries or<br>extensor work can often have a very<br>beneficial effect on the elbow other low<br>threshold exercises like banded bicep<br>curls or tricep push Downs can do a<br>really good job of increasing blood flow<br>to the elbow and decreasing that pain<br>response once we're healthy traditional<br>pushing and pulling is going to be the<br>meat and potatoes of loading this region<br>and making it more resilient but even<br>some good oldfashioned pump work some<br>bicep and tricep exercises can do a<br>great job of making this area less prone<br>to injury some people argue that bicep<br>and tricep work are anything resembling<br>bodybuilding isn't functional but if<br>you're able to progressively load this<br>region and increase its ability to<br>tolerate Force it's going to make that<br>region harder to injure this is<br>extremely functional if we're looking to<br>increase the duration of our Jiu-Jitsu<br>career the strongest muscles of the body<br>cross the hip so it's no surprise that<br>this region is the breaking force behind<br>many different submissions combined with<br>the fact that this joint moves in all<br>three planes can end up feeling a bit<br>beat up after some high volume training<br>since our hips have to do so much in<br>Jiu-Jitsu it's pretty common for them to<br>get tweaked or achy when they are we<br>want to have a variety of low threshold<br>exercises to really address these issues<br>a good place to start is some banded<br>glute work or paused glute Bridges we<br>can also start to tax the groin or<br>adductors by doing things like<br>Copenhagen planks the pain is more on<br>the anterior side of the hip things like<br>straight leg heel touches are a great<br>way to start to load that region with a<br>very controlled range of motion in a<br>healthy setting we want to be hitting<br>heavy compound movements for the lower<br>body to really make those hips more<br>durable and resilient things like hip<br>thrusts squats deadlifts and lunges are<br>a great place to start but the hip is a<br>joint that moves in all three planes so<br>we want to make sure to train other<br>positions as well things like hip<br>abduction and adduction are really<br>important ways to train the upper glutes<br>and the groin or adductors and we can do<br>things like cable Striders to really tax<br>the hip flexors through a full range of<br>motion so with all of these areas you'll<br>notice significant overlap with<br>traditional strength training movements<br>and in team our Flagship subscription<br>service we make sure to cover that meat<br>and potatoes every single month but each<br>month also has a new Focus where you<br>might find more of those specific<br>exercises to allow ourselves to really<br>spread our approach and cover our<br>bases last but definitely not least I<br>want to talk about the mindset that it<br>takes to recover completely from an<br>injury and that takes the form of what I<br>like to call an antifragile mindset<br>maybe the best counter example to this<br>is the popular YouTube video called<br>Jiu-Jitsu saved my life but destroyed my<br>body if we don't have the right mindset<br>or the right set of physical tools to be<br>able to address injuries we can often<br>feel like we have this limited fuse left<br>in terms of our training career but<br>having the right mindset and developing<br>a staircase approach allows us to stay<br>rooted in reality the reality that we<br>are probably going to get hurt at some<br>point and we have the power to be able<br>to deal with that injury so step one in<br>this staircase approach is to assess<br>what we can currently do from that point<br>in time we try to set up a logical set<br>of stairs to return us back to the sport<br>that we were trying to play in this case<br>rolling live Jiu-Jitsu for example if I<br>hurt my knee I would want to make sure<br>that some of those lower stairs are<br>things like being able to balance on one<br>leg or do something like a lunge long<br>before I have somebody attacking my legs<br>in Jiu-Jitsu so Step One is develop that<br>staircase plan once we're hurt step two<br>is making sure that we're really taking<br>one step at a time along the way way our<br>power of focus is also really important<br>here we want to focus on the staircase<br>that we're at the things that we can<br>currently do and not spend too much time<br>focusing on the top of the staircase or<br>wishing that we were already back there<br>right now we also want to keep in mind<br>that sometimes we have to temporarily go<br>down a stair to be able to progress<br>forward this is okay rehab is never a<br>perfectly linear or straight process so<br>we we're going to have these little<br>setbacks or speed bumps along the way to<br>our ultimate goal of getting back to<br>Jiu-Jitsu and maybe the most important<br>part of this is the understanding that<br>our body is adaptable and capable of<br>incredible healing there's plenty of<br>different examples of athletes who've<br>experienced traumatic injuries athletes<br>like Shawn Livingston or Alex Smith come<br>to mind where they experienced<br>significant trauma and they were able to<br>come back and play their sport at the<br>highest level despite having an injury<br>that was so extensive that doctors told<br>them they wouldn't be able to walk again<br>I say this not to belittle whatever<br>injury you may be going through right<br>now but to give inspiration and to show<br>you that given the right mindset we can<br>absolutely come back from almost any<br>injury one of the final things that we<br>want to do on the staircase before we<br>get back to Jiu-Jitsu is directly<br>address the motion that caused the pain<br>or injury in the first place any sort of<br>trauma in this case physical involves<br>facing that trauma so to make sure that<br>our body is ready for the demands of<br>Jiu-Jitsu again we have to be able to<br>face the exact motion and the exact<br>forces that cause that injury in the<br>first place overall if you take these<br>different steps to Heart it puts the<br>responsibility of healing in your hands<br>and gives you an action-based approach<br>to be able to pull yourself out of this<br>state of injury and accept where you are<br>at any one point in time this prevents<br>us from getting overly emotional and<br>allows us to continue to take<br>appropriate steps and get back to our<br>sport this step-by-step approach is<br>always going to give us our best chance<br>at a complete recovery this is what it<br>means to be antifragile I hope you found<br>this video helpful if you did please<br>like subscribe and make sure to share it<br>with somebody else who's constantly<br>hurt or<br>something check out my<br>channel check out my other videos I'm<br>here to help I'm here to help<br>you that's why I'm<br>here why do I always do this at the end<br>it's always like<br>this hey subscribe hey like this please<br>do you like me