There’s a very large overlap between people who are software engineers and jiu-jitsu practitioners, at least in New York and California.
Injuries are unfortunately a part of the sport, but with some luck the vast majority of those injuries will be light sprains and muscle aches. The art is often called the “gentle art”, but as anyone who trains knows, it can often be anything but. From random knicks and bruises to knee-on-belly and pressure passing, it’s not uncommon to walk away from a class feeling like your body is completely destroyed. I’ve been training this sport for a long time, and I frequently get asked how I’ve been able to get so much mileage with so little damage. Instead of answering the question every time and missing certain details, I’m creating this post as a reminder for myself and as a reference link for others who ask me this question in the future.
Take all of this with a grain of salt, I am not a medical professional and my advice is ultimately a reflection of survivor bias.
Diet and Sleep
Food and sleep are probably the two best things you can do to promote recovery. My goal is to train 5-6 times a week, some of those will be good days and some will be bad days. I take high-dose fish oil supplements which anecdotally seem to do wonders for soreness and stiffness. I also consume lots of protein in the form of eggs and aim to get a minimum of 6 hours of sleep a night. If you’re not eating and sleeping enough, your performance will lack and the chance of injury goes up the longer you train.
Hydration
Staying hydrated is pretty important as we lose a lot of water during rounds and drills. Some people swear by adding rehydration packs and other minerals to their water, but I personally haven’t felt much of a benefit from taking any of those. I drink reverse-osmosis water which is known for being absolutely devoid of any salts and minerals, which some fellow training partners say I should add to my water to ensure I’m hydrating properly. I personally have not felt or seen a difference with just drinking water without anything added, and will probably continue to drink plain water for the foreseeable future.
If you’re cross training for hours or have a much higher activity level, it’s something you may want to keep an open mind about but for my activity levels it hasn’t been necessary.
Stay Loose, Stay Flexible
Resisting every takedown and fighting every scramble to the death during training is a great way to ensure your career is short and injury prone. Staying loose, flexible, nimble, and keeping a focus on active movement over winning every position will help you flow roll more and endure less injuries. Similar to a tree in the wind, the tree that fights the wind is the one that breaks, but the tree that goes with the motion is the one that survives the storm.
If you want to go 100%, you do that during tournaments and competitions. Your home gym training classes are not where you fight championship rounds, they are for refinement and learning new techniques and adapting your muscle memory.
Take Time Off
I try to train 5-6 times a week throughout the year and then towards the holidays at the end of the year, I take 4-6 weeks off. It serves as a great reset and gives my body time to heal from any nagging injuries and inflammation I may have picked up throughout the year, and I find it gives me a fresh perspective on the mats when I return to training. There’s definitely a bit of mat rust on return, but with that comes the ability to revisit your game and make changes that just aren’t possible with the tunnel-vision that comes from doing the same thing over and over. This doesn’t become a couch potato of course, as I’ll switch up my routine and do strength and conditioning instead for a few weeks.
Knees and Shoulders
If there’s anything I’m paranoid about, it’s any sort of injuries or pain with my knees and shoulders. These sorts of injuries start small but quickly become long-term nagging injuries that may never return to 100% without proper care and treatment. If I feel anything off with my knees and shoulders, I immediately try to avoid that body part for a few training sessions and often that’s more than enough for whatever happened to work itself out and start to recover. However I try to stretch and use that particular body part as much as I can outside of jiu-jitsu. I don’t stay off the mats, as I find being sedentary has the opposite effect to promoting healing. Active movement and recovery works really well for me, and I can say with a fairly high degree of confidence that choosing to train and avoid certain body parts has helped me recover faster than if I had simply chosen to do nothing for long periods of time.
Strength Training
Strength training is amazing for promoting strong bones and muscles, and I can say it is a large part of why I’ve been able to avoid many injuries. When taking a fall or moving at a certain weird angle, it’s our muscles and strength that help prevent a lot of the damage that occurs in these split second movements. My strength training routine is very simple, I avoid all machines (except leg press and leg curl) and only stick to barbells and dumbbells. I don’t squat (this is a controversial one) and I limit my deadlift weights to around my body weight. Other than that, the big excercises are lat pulldown, bent over row, benchpress, bicep curl, shoulder press, and tricep extension.
I certainly add other exercises, but I’d say these exercises comprise 75% of my workouts on a weekly basis. Try to strength train at a bare minimum at least 3 times a month, the more the better.
Stretching and Flexibility
Yoga is a great activity for balance and flexibility, and just like strength training can help prevent a lot of injury. While I don’t practice much yoga myself, I work on my flexibility almost every training class as it’s a pretty important part of jiu-jitsu. If you’re not flexible, you’re more prone to injury just because your muscles and body are limited in their range of motion, especially quick scrambles where things can get overstretched in a split second. I don’t have a focused list of stretches, but I recommend stretching in general to promote good flexibility and mobility. It will pay dividends in jiu-jitsu, but also as your body gets stiffer naturally due to age.