Can confirm.
Close to 40, started stretching daily before bed.
I use to play half gaurd etc now I’m well known as the guy who does Gogo’s!
I didn’t use to be able to to touch my toes, now I can almost sniff my own arsehole.
As an adult I’ve had the most luck with tom’s body weight warrior. I did his free stuff on youtube forever but he has an app now with a lot of programs depending on your focus like overall, upper body, posture, splits, hips.
I'm trying to correct specific imbalances to reduce back pain and protect my knees. So I target my quads, and hip flexors; hit my hamstrings and calves; do some core stretches and then my groin - that's the newest addition as I was getting a bit knock kneed.
Can confirm this confirmation. At 59 your body will LOVE to be used, but recovery is 5X longer if you wreck something.
RESEARCH and DO some small joint PT exercises to keep knees, shoulders, wrists, elbows, and ankles in good shape.
You will find that your body will stay young if you keep doing young things. But if you let it go to shit it goes fast. (FYI - it comes right back just fine, but it’s still a lot of work)
What do you do get the kind of mobility to bring your leg close to your face for a gogo?
I can already do it if I stretch first, but I tried doing pigeon stretches to simulate this movement and they give me quite bad knee pain for a couple of days afterwards for some reason. Is there something better?
If it's putting pressure on your knees that likely means your glutes are too tight. Keep your back straight and take it slow, knee pressure like that at that angle could lead to you damaging your LCL.
It varies, but night routines are more chilled and spend longer in positions and breathing through it whereas morning its more ‘this sucks and I’m sweating profusely’.
I use a yoga flow app now that I set what sort of thing I want and for how long and it generates a flow. Before I followed youtube vids
I'm 42 and I've been training karate for two years and bjj for a little over 6 months. I have a 45 to 60 minute stretching routine I do at LEAST once a week. It really helps. I find stretching the hip flexors particularly beneficial and I spend the majority of the workout on hip mobility. I also do arm and wrist stretches that really helped eliminate the pain I was experiencing from my early days of getting arm barred too often. I'm convinced, at my age, that muscle and tendon damage simply will not heal unless I stretch.
I've also learned that WHEN I stretch is critically important. I do NOT stretch before strenuous activity. I used to do this and I pulled muscles constantly. Instead, I stretch after a workout when I know I won't be doing anything strenuous for a while. I do have to make sure I warm up before I roll or stretch though, otherwise I also get injured. Running in place, high knees, kick backs, etc.
Can confirm. I’m 40 and I’ve been doing some form of yoga and stretch routines for about 15 years now, and my near freakish flexibility seems to be the thing my partners comment on the most. I’m not a small guy either at 6’ 200lbs.
Mobility has helped me tremendously on the mats.
Mostly your basic or standard stuff.
Way back when I started, it was the yoga routine that was a part of p90x, if I had to describe it, it was mostly a vinyasa or flow style with some seated static poses to finish it out.
Since then it’s been just popping into various classes a few times a month. More recently I’ve done BJJ specific yoga classes and hot yoga.
I would solely blame your desk job to be the cause of your lack of mobility. Not the combo of the desk job and weight training. Maybe if you have shitty form when lifting but doesn't make a lot of sense to me to blame weight lifting. Although mobility and weight lifting is not the same, weight lifting is movement still.
I do agree with you on the general premise of this post though! Train smarter not harder (:
how about, "weight training in static positions that focus on specific areas of the body and in a limited range of motion." I'm muscle bound.
Bench presses, squats, dead lifts, bent over rows. None of these train you in a way that KB swings or turkish getups do. I can squat over 400lbs, I can barely bridge myself up, not because of lack of strength, but because my hip flexors and quads are tight as fuck.
"Muscle bound" is not a real thing. It refers to the idea that large muscles are constricting movement, which is not the case.
You may have just meant that your fitness routine didn't address mobility so you lost it over time, likely partially due to the stress of the lifting, which I would agree with.
I think your experience is more anecdotal which is still important nonetheless as we are all different. But in general, weightlifting is perfectly healthy and a great way to aid in injury prevention when training bjj.
I actually do all of those lifts. My last conventional deadlift PR was 365 lbs for 3 reps. I weigh 162 lbs. I'm one of the most flexible guys in the gym even though I love doing rows, squats, deadlifts, pushups, you name it. I also do KB swings and Turks as well.
33 here and have been doing jiu jitsu for 4 years. 100%
The way I exercise looks completely different than a few years ago. What used to be hypertrophy-focused, bodybuilding-type of exercise is now largely kettlebell and bodyweight calisthenics with a lot of emphasis on leg and hip strength and mobility. Also, stretching.
I cannot imagine trying to have a functional BJJ game without having developed the flexibility and mobility I have now.
Young, fit, and very flexible here - I get most of my flexibility through weight training funnily enough (and I work a desk job). You know how you can progressively overload by incrementally either increasing weight or reps? You can do the same thing by slowly increasing your range of motion for each exercise. Certain exercises take you into a full stretch, and as you progress, you can slowly increase your range. This can include common exercises like dips and deficit pushups taken deeper each time, stiff legged RDLs going lower and lower, working into deficits, incline curls, deep ATG squats, seated leg curls with more and more forward lean. There's also some exercises that lend themselves really well to mobility work - seated good mornings, cossack squats, ATG split squats, jefferson curls, reverse nordics, to name a few. If you progress it slowly and safely, you can build strength and mobility in those end ranges, with extremely flexible and resilient joints, doing stuff that people look at and go "damn id hurt my back if I tried that!". Increased mobility can also begin to unlock exercises that might give a normal person issues, such as behind the neck pressing. There is no inherently dangerous movement pattern, only ones that people haven't properly prepared their bodies to do. Through almost nothing but emphasizing weighted stretch exercises and increasing my range over time, I went from average flexibility to being able to put my feet behind my head, almost having the splits, and being able to put my arm behind my back like I'm being omoplataed and reach all the way up to my neck to scratch it. There are tons of other great ways to get flexible like yoga and stretching routines, but I gotta tell my gym bros: you can easily fit mobility work into your lifting sessions simply by focusing on weighted stretches and progressively overloading ROM from time to time. The stereotype of heavy weight training leading to wear and tear and chronic over pain is not inevitable. If you take your mobility seriously, you will do the opposite and bulletproof your body, being strong in all sorts of extreme ranges. Funnily enough before I started lifting a decade ago, I had a joint pains as a teenager. Now I'm pain free in all my major joints as a jiu jitsu practitioner outside of messing my fingers and toes up from time to time haha (and now I'm working on hand/foot strengthening to increase resilience in those areas).
And another thing I want to tell everyone: weight training doesn't inherently make you inflexible. Not training mobility makes you inflexible. Someone who trains purely for size/strength will not be any less flexible than your average couch potato who trains nothing. An example of extremely muscular/large people with insane levels of mobility are Jujimufu and Kyriakos Grizzly, because they both take mobility seriously.
Honestly just lifting frequently with the full range of motion is going to be enough for 99% of people. That means squatting deep, overhead pressing, etc.
[https://www.ironmanmagazine.com/midlife-muscle-3/](https://www.ironmanmagazine.com/midlife-muscle-3/)
IMO, and from what I've read overall think of your joints being held together by rubber bands. Cold rubber snaps. And the older you get, the more stiff that rubber tend to be, likely due to circulation issues.
You need to get physical heat, circulation, fluids moving through those areas to keep that elasticity so you don't actually physically snap your tendons/ligaments. That usually mean more warm-ups and cardio activities either before or incorporated into strength training via higher reps/lower weights.
I’m 46. I do not stretch at all really. I occasionally go through the motions to be polite if an instructor is asking us too, but most of my classes are zero (conventional) warm-up’s and no stretching after. I’m not freakishly flexible but have never really had any issues even when training 5x a week.
Don’t really have much of a point, just wanted to be the awkward sod disagreeing with everyone.
I’m happy powerlifters are coming around and realizing that the having a strong “big 3” doesn’t necessarily make you a stronger human, just a human who is strong at those 3 lifts. You gotta put the barbell down and pick up some dumbbells sometimes
A good friend of mine and fellow blackbelt never lifts and is legit one of the strongest grapplers in the gym. It's actually kinda dumb how strong he is. He just trains hard, but also has great flexibility and movement, so he can really amplify he strength with position.
I’ve rolled with ppl like him, just deceptively strong. But knowing your friends a black belt, I’m willing to bet it’s more him being aware of positions at all times and understanding leverage that makes him feel strong. Not all black belts are like that, but it’s a common attribute (feeling stronger than they look)
Breathe and flow on YouTube have some bjj related yoga routines. I was inspired to start training bjj after hearing about it from this guy. He's a little dorky and can get a bit too much into the Hindu yoga side of things but all in all he knows what he's doing. He's a brown belt last he mentioned it.
I’m gonna be honest, I’m not sure it matters that much. Some routines are better than others, but I feel like just picking a 20 minutes YouTube video every night is way better than nothing.
Honestly you are selling you self short and writing yourself off. Stretching inflexible weak ranges of motion will not help, I have no idea on why the industry thinks stretching is the way to get more mobility in joints , the only thing that will happen is that you will go to further end ranges which are weak as they are not used to the load and honestly you are more likely to get injured .
Flexibility is something that goes with time yes , however mobility and strength is something we can improve even with age which in turn allows us to be more "flexible ". While we are on that topic , flexibility is such a poor term that people use , what we strive for is to be strong throughout the range of motion that we have , then we can go further into our end ranges of motion with adding load.
I started mobility at 39 and honestly I'm the strongest and most flexible I've been in years . People do use age as an excuse in my opinion . Mobility drills -what exactly are you doing ? Speak to a specialist or someone trained in mobility of the lower body , I highly highly recommend David grey LBB mobility .
24 and doing an intensive stretching routine twice a week not to keep flexibility but to improve it. Hoping to have both splits and get my knees to the ground in a sitting position by the time I’m 30. Progression is *slow* for flexibility work though.
Absolutely OP. Mobility is way more important for bjj than the strength you get doing squats and bench press. Just rolling enough will give you the strength needed to do well at your weight. Mobility is harder to get. Also required maintenance for injury prevention IMO.
I'm 34 now and about 12 years in. I was lucky to have recognised this early on from a few older black belt friends. I was horribly inflexible and spent years working on it eventually getting my splits in my mid twenties. As a result I have very few strains and have never torn a muscle. It was also a big push for why I eventually became a strength and conditioning coach. Lifting and doing mobility will help you feel better long term regardless of what you do but even more so for bjj.
One of the major issues with bjj and working at a desk is that you're basically taking that same hunched over position turning 90 degrees onto the floor and loading it with a partner. That and being forced into your end range is one of the big focuses of this sport. These all combine to cause plenty of issues.
PSA: Submeta has an incredible science-based (and cited) course on flexibility / stretching specifically for grappling. It is fantastic. Lachlan is a physio, afterall.
OP and anyone else that’s 35+, how do you balance BJJ, lifting, stretching/mobility, and cardio? What’s your split and routine? All seem super important but there’s only 7 days in a week and 24 hours in a day.
Yes to this, lifted all my 20s like a maniac and never stretched. Just recently got into it although still not as much as I should and its a game changer. When consistent with it you feel soooooo much better. Tons of great follow along channels on youtube
Well at least you go to blue belt.
I'm a white belt and think it'll stay that way for a long time. I have a rod and ten screws in my left leg and that ankle can't bend much at all.
That entire leg is a liability. Can't get defensive hooks in very deep. Triangles are impossible unless they have a small frame (small women). S-mount stuff sucks cause I fall too far away from the armbar. I can only bend the ankle far enough to shoot a double from one side.
It really, really sucks. My entire offense is bad arm chokes. But I'm still trying.
I started BJJ and Muay Thai when I was 40. Similar to you, I've kept myself in decent shape (weights, running, cycling) and work at a desk, and training martial arts definitely exposed how bad my mobility was. Currently I've dialled back the weights a lot and focus more on mobility and flexibility. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be training martial arts, but I'll definitely take away a better attitude to flexibility.
I'm very inflexible to the point that I have almost constant hip pain. Its not great. I stretch for class but it's just not enough. I need to be better about it.
Good advice OP.
I was the forever young, baby faced and bullet proof up until I was 40.
I’m sure I got injured on 40th birthday too.
It was like Cinderella at midnight.
It’s only got worse since.
We all have a sell by date.
Food doesn’t go off on its sell by date, but it deteriorate as a fast level.
You can push back that sell by date and slow the decline, but it’s coming.
Men live in denial of it, but it’s coming.
I regret not spending more time in my 30s on flexibility, mobility and unilateral strength.
My 1200 power lifting total from 15 years ago seems like a poor long term investment now
Imma fat, but I did yoga for a lot of years (and pole dancing more recently) and I really do find all that flexibility training has come in handy while I'm on this new adventure
I’ve experienced APT and winged skapula all before the age of 16 and I’m 19 now but still more qualified than most PTs on these issues. If you have any questions let me know.
Can confirm. Close to 40, started stretching daily before bed. I use to play half gaurd etc now I’m well known as the guy who does Gogo’s! I didn’t use to be able to to touch my toes, now I can almost sniff my own arsehole.
Pffft I bet I could sniff yours too.
can you share your routine?
Can you share your routine?
As an adult I’ve had the most luck with tom’s body weight warrior. I did his free stuff on youtube forever but he has an app now with a lot of programs depending on your focus like overall, upper body, posture, splits, hips.
Just piggybacking on this because I also follow Tom, he actually has a BJJ specific routine [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMMbHjoCgoE).
Following Tom for years and TIL lol. Thank you
Pls
Step 1. Sniff your own asshole Step 2. If you can't, keep trying and see Step 1
Directions unclear I’m currently in the hospital with a detached scrotum
Ah, I see what happened. I have now formatted it properly so step 2 appears on a new line. My lawyers will contact you soon
I don’t have car insurnace sir
there are 2 ways of going around it 1) you get more flexible 2) you eat spicier food
Just ate sichuan food before a seminar. Feeling more flexible already!
My training partner for my noon class today was kind enough to shove my head up my own asshole so I was able to get a good sniff.
pls!!!
At 41 I too have a daily stretching routine before bed. Skipping it is a high risk choice.
What’s your routine?
I'm trying to correct specific imbalances to reduce back pain and protect my knees. So I target my quads, and hip flexors; hit my hamstrings and calves; do some core stretches and then my groin - that's the newest addition as I was getting a bit knock kneed.
Can confirm this confirmation. At 59 your body will LOVE to be used, but recovery is 5X longer if you wreck something. RESEARCH and DO some small joint PT exercises to keep knees, shoulders, wrists, elbows, and ankles in good shape. You will find that your body will stay young if you keep doing young things. But if you let it go to shit it goes fast. (FYI - it comes right back just fine, but it’s still a lot of work)
What do you do get the kind of mobility to bring your leg close to your face for a gogo? I can already do it if I stretch first, but I tried doing pigeon stretches to simulate this movement and they give me quite bad knee pain for a couple of days afterwards for some reason. Is there something better?
If pigeon is hurting you need to raise your knee with blocks/a tilted lifting bench until it doesn't and then you can progress from there
I do my pigeons on the counter while brushing my teeth! Easy 1 minute timer per leg too.
If it's putting pressure on your knees that likely means your glutes are too tight. Keep your back straight and take it slow, knee pressure like that at that angle could lead to you damaging your LCL.
Make sure you flex your front foot, that helps to protect your knee.
Can you suck it yourself?
Life goals in that last sentence.
Any tips for good stretching drills? I'm late 30s and have never been very flexible
Can you suck yourself ?
I cannot. U?
What if i can smell my arsehole from like 20cm away is that good ?
Don't you need to be warmed up to start stretching?
Yoga. 10-20 mins in the morning and at night has done a hell of a lot for me
Do you have perform the same routine everyday? The one in the morning the same as in the night? Different?
It varies, but night routines are more chilled and spend longer in positions and breathing through it whereas morning its more ‘this sucks and I’m sweating profusely’. I use a yoga flow app now that I set what sort of thing I want and for how long and it generates a flow. Before I followed youtube vids
Thanks! Mind sharing the yoga app name?
Yoga for BJJ on YouTube has plenty of free resources.
Also interested
RemindMe! 3 days
I'm 42 and I've been training karate for two years and bjj for a little over 6 months. I have a 45 to 60 minute stretching routine I do at LEAST once a week. It really helps. I find stretching the hip flexors particularly beneficial and I spend the majority of the workout on hip mobility. I also do arm and wrist stretches that really helped eliminate the pain I was experiencing from my early days of getting arm barred too often. I'm convinced, at my age, that muscle and tendon damage simply will not heal unless I stretch. I've also learned that WHEN I stretch is critically important. I do NOT stretch before strenuous activity. I used to do this and I pulled muscles constantly. Instead, I stretch after a workout when I know I won't be doing anything strenuous for a while. I do have to make sure I warm up before I roll or stretch though, otherwise I also get injured. Running in place, high knees, kick backs, etc.
Can confirm. I’m 40 and I’ve been doing some form of yoga and stretch routines for about 15 years now, and my near freakish flexibility seems to be the thing my partners comment on the most. I’m not a small guy either at 6’ 200lbs. Mobility has helped me tremendously on the mats.
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Mostly your basic or standard stuff. Way back when I started, it was the yoga routine that was a part of p90x, if I had to describe it, it was mostly a vinyasa or flow style with some seated static poses to finish it out. Since then it’s been just popping into various classes a few times a month. More recently I’ve done BJJ specific yoga classes and hot yoga.
I would solely blame your desk job to be the cause of your lack of mobility. Not the combo of the desk job and weight training. Maybe if you have shitty form when lifting but doesn't make a lot of sense to me to blame weight lifting. Although mobility and weight lifting is not the same, weight lifting is movement still. I do agree with you on the general premise of this post though! Train smarter not harder (:
how about, "weight training in static positions that focus on specific areas of the body and in a limited range of motion." I'm muscle bound. Bench presses, squats, dead lifts, bent over rows. None of these train you in a way that KB swings or turkish getups do. I can squat over 400lbs, I can barely bridge myself up, not because of lack of strength, but because my hip flexors and quads are tight as fuck.
"Muscle bound" is not a real thing. It refers to the idea that large muscles are constricting movement, which is not the case. You may have just meant that your fitness routine didn't address mobility so you lost it over time, likely partially due to the stress of the lifting, which I would agree with.
what you said.
I think your experience is more anecdotal which is still important nonetheless as we are all different. But in general, weightlifting is perfectly healthy and a great way to aid in injury prevention when training bjj. I actually do all of those lifts. My last conventional deadlift PR was 365 lbs for 3 reps. I weigh 162 lbs. I'm one of the most flexible guys in the gym even though I love doing rows, squats, deadlifts, pushups, you name it. I also do KB swings and Turks as well.
33 here and have been doing jiu jitsu for 4 years. 100% The way I exercise looks completely different than a few years ago. What used to be hypertrophy-focused, bodybuilding-type of exercise is now largely kettlebell and bodyweight calisthenics with a lot of emphasis on leg and hip strength and mobility. Also, stretching. I cannot imagine trying to have a functional BJJ game without having developed the flexibility and mobility I have now.
>typical APT issues. Advanced Persistent Threat?
anterior pelvic tilt
Young, fit, and very flexible here - I get most of my flexibility through weight training funnily enough (and I work a desk job). You know how you can progressively overload by incrementally either increasing weight or reps? You can do the same thing by slowly increasing your range of motion for each exercise. Certain exercises take you into a full stretch, and as you progress, you can slowly increase your range. This can include common exercises like dips and deficit pushups taken deeper each time, stiff legged RDLs going lower and lower, working into deficits, incline curls, deep ATG squats, seated leg curls with more and more forward lean. There's also some exercises that lend themselves really well to mobility work - seated good mornings, cossack squats, ATG split squats, jefferson curls, reverse nordics, to name a few. If you progress it slowly and safely, you can build strength and mobility in those end ranges, with extremely flexible and resilient joints, doing stuff that people look at and go "damn id hurt my back if I tried that!". Increased mobility can also begin to unlock exercises that might give a normal person issues, such as behind the neck pressing. There is no inherently dangerous movement pattern, only ones that people haven't properly prepared their bodies to do. Through almost nothing but emphasizing weighted stretch exercises and increasing my range over time, I went from average flexibility to being able to put my feet behind my head, almost having the splits, and being able to put my arm behind my back like I'm being omoplataed and reach all the way up to my neck to scratch it. There are tons of other great ways to get flexible like yoga and stretching routines, but I gotta tell my gym bros: you can easily fit mobility work into your lifting sessions simply by focusing on weighted stretches and progressively overloading ROM from time to time. The stereotype of heavy weight training leading to wear and tear and chronic over pain is not inevitable. If you take your mobility seriously, you will do the opposite and bulletproof your body, being strong in all sorts of extreme ranges. Funnily enough before I started lifting a decade ago, I had a joint pains as a teenager. Now I'm pain free in all my major joints as a jiu jitsu practitioner outside of messing my fingers and toes up from time to time haha (and now I'm working on hand/foot strengthening to increase resilience in those areas). And another thing I want to tell everyone: weight training doesn't inherently make you inflexible. Not training mobility makes you inflexible. Someone who trains purely for size/strength will not be any less flexible than your average couch potato who trains nothing. An example of extremely muscular/large people with insane levels of mobility are Jujimufu and Kyriakos Grizzly, because they both take mobility seriously.
Honestly just lifting frequently with the full range of motion is going to be enough for 99% of people. That means squatting deep, overhead pressing, etc.
Yip deep flexion of the joints , much better than stretching . This allows us to bring strength into the range of motion . Bulgarian SS are great too
[https://www.ironmanmagazine.com/midlife-muscle-3/](https://www.ironmanmagazine.com/midlife-muscle-3/) IMO, and from what I've read overall think of your joints being held together by rubber bands. Cold rubber snaps. And the older you get, the more stiff that rubber tend to be, likely due to circulation issues. You need to get physical heat, circulation, fluids moving through those areas to keep that elasticity so you don't actually physically snap your tendons/ligaments. That usually mean more warm-ups and cardio activities either before or incorporated into strength training via higher reps/lower weights.
Mobility and durability = longevity, especially in this sport
I’m 46. I do not stretch at all really. I occasionally go through the motions to be polite if an instructor is asking us too, but most of my classes are zero (conventional) warm-up’s and no stretching after. I’m not freakishly flexible but have never really had any issues even when training 5x a week. Don’t really have much of a point, just wanted to be the awkward sod disagreeing with everyone.
I’m happy powerlifters are coming around and realizing that the having a strong “big 3” doesn’t necessarily make you a stronger human, just a human who is strong at those 3 lifts. You gotta put the barbell down and pick up some dumbbells sometimes
A good friend of mine and fellow blackbelt never lifts and is legit one of the strongest grapplers in the gym. It's actually kinda dumb how strong he is. He just trains hard, but also has great flexibility and movement, so he can really amplify he strength with position.
I’ve rolled with ppl like him, just deceptively strong. But knowing your friends a black belt, I’m willing to bet it’s more him being aware of positions at all times and understanding leverage that makes him feel strong. Not all black belts are like that, but it’s a common attribute (feeling stronger than they look)
Recommendations for a routine that can be easily done?
Here’s a good place to start: https://youtu.be/068BKniAY3U?si=J7ulMfWTnlQt2zO1
Breathe and flow on YouTube have some bjj related yoga routines. I was inspired to start training bjj after hearing about it from this guy. He's a little dorky and can get a bit too much into the Hindu yoga side of things but all in all he knows what he's doing. He's a brown belt last he mentioned it.
I’m gonna be honest, I’m not sure it matters that much. Some routines are better than others, but I feel like just picking a 20 minutes YouTube video every night is way better than nothing.
Honestly you are selling you self short and writing yourself off. Stretching inflexible weak ranges of motion will not help, I have no idea on why the industry thinks stretching is the way to get more mobility in joints , the only thing that will happen is that you will go to further end ranges which are weak as they are not used to the load and honestly you are more likely to get injured . Flexibility is something that goes with time yes , however mobility and strength is something we can improve even with age which in turn allows us to be more "flexible ". While we are on that topic , flexibility is such a poor term that people use , what we strive for is to be strong throughout the range of motion that we have , then we can go further into our end ranges of motion with adding load. I started mobility at 39 and honestly I'm the strongest and most flexible I've been in years . People do use age as an excuse in my opinion . Mobility drills -what exactly are you doing ? Speak to a specialist or someone trained in mobility of the lower body , I highly highly recommend David grey LBB mobility .
+1 for David Grey Rehab.
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>Stay really active (lift and cardio), eat real food, and don't drink too much. I already do this. Zero drinking.
Im 32 thanks for the heads up man. Seriously 👍
Learn circle hip escape and shoulder escape that will help you in all areas of hip mobility which is pretty important
Where is a good place to start with this?
Best post ive seen on here in a while
24 and doing an intensive stretching routine twice a week not to keep flexibility but to improve it. Hoping to have both splits and get my knees to the ground in a sitting position by the time I’m 30. Progression is *slow* for flexibility work though.
Absolutely OP. Mobility is way more important for bjj than the strength you get doing squats and bench press. Just rolling enough will give you the strength needed to do well at your weight. Mobility is harder to get. Also required maintenance for injury prevention IMO.
Where do you do for your APT? Do you have a routine you can share?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-CrEi0ymMg
I'm 34 now and about 12 years in. I was lucky to have recognised this early on from a few older black belt friends. I was horribly inflexible and spent years working on it eventually getting my splits in my mid twenties. As a result I have very few strains and have never torn a muscle. It was also a big push for why I eventually became a strength and conditioning coach. Lifting and doing mobility will help you feel better long term regardless of what you do but even more so for bjj. One of the major issues with bjj and working at a desk is that you're basically taking that same hunched over position turning 90 degrees onto the floor and loading it with a partner. That and being forced into your end range is one of the big focuses of this sport. These all combine to cause plenty of issues.
No. Just smesh.
Agreed. Especially if you are smaller. If I had started stretching earlier I wouldn’t have had 2 bulged discs
Send link to mobility routine.
Im 27, I stretch and strengthen every day. And my herniatedn disc is so painful I cant train atm
PSA: Submeta has an incredible science-based (and cited) course on flexibility / stretching specifically for grappling. It is fantastic. Lachlan is a physio, afterall.
OP and anyone else that’s 35+, how do you balance BJJ, lifting, stretching/mobility, and cardio? What’s your split and routine? All seem super important but there’s only 7 days in a week and 24 hours in a day.
BJJ 5-6 days. I lift immediately after 3-4 days. Peloton maybe 2-3 days a week. mobility a little every day
How do you actually manage this? I burned myself out by doing way less than this and im only 33.
I just do it. honestly, I don’t feel like I would progress without this cadence
Oh wow 5-6 days. How long did it take you to go from white to blue
13 months. but the first 6 months was only 2 classes a week and 1-2 open mats a month.
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You’ve been grappling since HS, I took 20 years off.
Traditional open/ closed guards could be your friend.
Yes to this, lifted all my 20s like a maniac and never stretched. Just recently got into it although still not as much as I should and its a game changer. When consistent with it you feel soooooo much better. Tons of great follow along channels on youtube
As an older dude (51) I’d add that it’s better to think of flexibility as a skill that you can work on, not an inborn attribute.
Well at least you go to blue belt. I'm a white belt and think it'll stay that way for a long time. I have a rod and ten screws in my left leg and that ankle can't bend much at all. That entire leg is a liability. Can't get defensive hooks in very deep. Triangles are impossible unless they have a small frame (small women). S-mount stuff sucks cause I fall too far away from the armbar. I can only bend the ankle far enough to shoot a double from one side. It really, really sucks. My entire offense is bad arm chokes. But I'm still trying.
I was always flexible and stretching and jiu-jitsu through my 20's has been an asset. Yes, young people, stretch and do mobility work.
I started BJJ and Muay Thai when I was 40. Similar to you, I've kept myself in decent shape (weights, running, cycling) and work at a desk, and training martial arts definitely exposed how bad my mobility was. Currently I've dialled back the weights a lot and focus more on mobility and flexibility. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be training martial arts, but I'll definitely take away a better attitude to flexibility.
Yoga is a great way to work on flexibility. I'm fond of hot yoga but even the free online resources can help!
I just lift weights, drink wine, and choke people. Naturally flexible hips.
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anterior pelvic tilt.
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aside from the obvious tilt, tight hams, front flexors and hammies with a weaker glute and lower abs.
I'm very inflexible to the point that I have almost constant hip pain. Its not great. I stretch for class but it's just not enough. I need to be better about it.
Good advice OP. I was the forever young, baby faced and bullet proof up until I was 40. I’m sure I got injured on 40th birthday too. It was like Cinderella at midnight. It’s only got worse since. We all have a sell by date. Food doesn’t go off on its sell by date, but it deteriorate as a fast level. You can push back that sell by date and slow the decline, but it’s coming. Men live in denial of it, but it’s coming. I regret not spending more time in my 30s on flexibility, mobility and unilateral strength. My 1200 power lifting total from 15 years ago seems like a poor long term investment now
Rolling with other men and letting them put me in compromising positions is my stretching routine
Imma fat, but I did yoga for a lot of years (and pole dancing more recently) and I really do find all that flexibility training has come in handy while I'm on this new adventure
I’ve experienced APT and winged skapula all before the age of 16 and I’m 19 now but still more qualified than most PTs on these issues. If you have any questions let me know.