CBR

How To Be The Best At BJJ All The Time.

May 1, 2018

Correct the technique of higher ranked, more experienced people than yourself.
They love it and will view you with respect and awe.

Never wash your rash guard or gi.
Just keep it in your car or balled up in your bag. If someone complains they clearly don’t understand the #bjjlifestyle.

Don’t pay any attention to what is being taught.
If you haven’t seen it before it’s definitely bullshit. If you have seen it before you already know it and it’s not worth your attention.

When your partner is practicing a new technique counter it every time to show them they are doing it wrong.
This way they will know that you are definitely better than them and they will appreciate the constructive feedback.

Always roll like you’re in the final of the Mundials.
If you’re not practicing winning, you’re practicing losing.

Attempt nothing.
Just hug your partner and perform a 300 second isometric squeeze. If you don’t attempt to do jiu jitsu you can’t fail at doing jiu jitsu.

About to lose? Start coaching or fake an injury.
You haven’t really been submitted if you stopped trying.

Either don’t trim your nails or trim them right before class to ensure that they are razor sharp.
If your training partner has to leave the mat to make sure they don’t bleed out from the thousands of cuts you just inflicted that stills counts as victory.

Always brag about the submissions you got in training to other class members.
Re-live your favourites with anyone nearby. Your past submissions are like MASH reruns – no one ever gets sick of them.

If you compete in a tournament and lose be sure that everyone understands that the problem wasn’t your poor work ethic, your low level of fitness or your complete lack of technique – it that you (select all that are appropriate):

Were sick
Haven’t slept well all week
Didn’t eat before the match
Ate too much before the match
Had a BYE the first round
Had an opponent who had a BYE the first round
Lost to the guy who won the division
Were robbed by the ref
Had an injury
Lost to a sandbagger
Faced an opponent who was on steroids
Didn’t have enough time
Got DQ’d for some bullshit
Lost by a bullshit advantage
Faced an opponent who just stalled
Were tired from traveling

Just remember that you don’t need to do better; you just need to convince yourself – and everybody else – that you already have.*

Explain how if this was a no gi match you totally would have won.

Explain how if this was a gi match you totally would have won.

Explain how if this was an MMA match you totally would have won.

Exclusively go for techniques you are not allowed to do.
Neck cranks, finger locks and nipple cripples should be your go to moves. BJJ is a martial art for the street and you refuse to water down its effectiveness.

Ask for advice from your coaches and training partners about a problem you are having. Explain to them how it’s not actually a problem and why you are not going to follow that advice.
That way they will know that even your problems are actually successes they don’t understand.

Beat the hell out of new guys.
This will show them the power of BJJ and guarantee they come back.

If you are tired wait until you are losing to stop.
You shouldn’t give your training partner a false sense of success by letting them tap you just because you are tired from all the winning you have been doing. Instead stop rolling and the moment you end up in an inferior position you can’t easily escape from and explain that you are not unfit – you’re just recovering from a max deadlift attempt and the three different Crossfit WODS you considered doing earlier that day.

Don’t tap.
If your training partner let’s go to make sure that you don’t get hurt then the submission wasn’t really on. If you get hurt then they are being way too reckless and there’s no way they could have got you if you had been going as hard as they were.

Always use extra force and power when rolling with anyone smaller and weaker than you.
They will appreciate the respect you show them by not holding back and be encouraged to get better. Whenever you roll someone bigger or better than yourself complain that they are too rough.

Before rolling explain you have an injury and want to go light.
After they agree roll lightly for ten seconds before surprising them by attacking with 100% speed and power. This will definitely impress anyone watching.

*credit to a Josh Hinger rant for inspiring this one.

Self Defence: Is Your Martial Art Up To It?

April 17, 2018

One of the most common reasons for starting a martial art is the desire to learn some self defence.

This initial reason often gives way after a short amount of time training to motivations more suitable to maintaining the discipline of long term training. These reasons range from love of the art, to love of the community and even all the way to love of the way you look when you train regularly.

But the desire to learn to defend yourself is still what caused you to buy into martial arts training in the first place and the sad fact is that not all martial arts that claim to teach self defence skills are capable of living up to the marketing.

So what makes a martial art suitable for developing realistic self defence skills?

Studying a functional martial art – that is, a martial art whose training regularly involves live & realistic sparring in which an opponent is actively challenging you – is a great foundation. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Wrestling, Judo, Boxing and Muay Thai are all excellent examples of a functional martial art.

These martial arts have the advantage of also being combat sports. Training for a sport, whether or not you end up competing, means becoming an athlete. Athletes become used to facing and overcoming adversity; Athletes become used to pushing, striving and driving towards a goal; Athletes are used to getting up when the chips are down.

That said, it’s still important to understand that sparring or competing – however unrestricted the rule set – is different from a self defence scenario.

There are a number of factors which are unique to self defence but none of them involve the use of techniques that are “too dangerous” to apply in training or competition. Eye gouging, fish hooking and groin shots aren’t the silver bullets that turn the ineffective fighter into a capable martial artist. Yes, they are illegal techniques in the majority of combat sports but this is because there is a significant difference between someone who has completed a two hour self defence workshop trying to stick their fingers in your eyes and a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu purple belt holding you down and deciding to blind you.

To misquote Watchmen – The rules aren’t there to protect me from you, they’re there to protect you from me.

The differences are more to do with the uncertainty, the unpredictability and the chaos of a “real fight”.

When sparring or competing there is a defined start and end to a fight – there is no uncertainty to when, how long or even if you should fight.

When sparring or competing it is predetermined where, who with and under what rules a fight takes place – there is nothing unpredictable about the environment.

When sparring or competing your opponent is likely to behave in a way that prioritises their own health and safety and attack with an effective, efficient style – there is none of the chaos of an emotional assailant.

Self defence situations feature many of the same skillsets developed by sparring but behave in a manner that is radically different.

The plus side is that these differences are easy to train for once they have been identified. Situational awareness, pre-fight scenarios, disengagement strategies, chaotic movements, weapons, multiple opponents are all things you can train to deal with in a safe and realistic fashion so if it is of interest to you, you can easily integrate it into your training.

Just don’t do it too often – it makes you weird.

Seriously.

There’s a line that separates caution from paranoia and regular, specific self defence training is a real easy way to leap head first over that line.

Fundamentally, when it comes to self defence, mindset trumps technique. Someone who is determined, who can push through pain and chase a goal is the most likely to successfully navigate a self defence situation.

The Six Practices of Being an Athlete

March 12, 2018

See to it that you temper yourself with one thousand days of practice, and refine yourself with ten thousand days of training.
– Miyamoto Musashi

Athletic Practice

Your sport or art should obviously be the primary component of these six practices. The key here is to understand that your athletic practice is the most important aspect of all your training. If you are interested in being a legitimate athlete then focus is genuinely required.

To quote coach extraordinaire, Dan John, “The goal is to keep the goal, the goal.”

If you have an element of your training or lifestyle that is interfering with your ability to train or perform your sport or art you have to decide what your focus is going to be.

You should be training or performing in your athletic practice 4 to 6 days a week.

Strength and Power Practice

The poor implementation of a strength and power practice is by far the largest and most common impediment in an athletes development.

Too many people consider the barbell a test of mettle rather than as a tool of training.

The goal of this practice is to become strong and powerful for the kind of athlete that you are and not in some kind of general or absolute sense. This means that roller derby skaters need to be strong compared to other skaters but not necessarily when compared to powerlifters or gymnasts.

The bottom line is that what you do in this practice should support – not hamper – what you do on the mat, field, track or ring.

Ideally your strength and power practice should be overseen by a knowledgeable and experienced strength coach. If a personal coach is not an option for you I recommend researching Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program or Pavel Tsatsouline’s Power to the People program.

You should be implementing your strength and power practice 2 to 5 days a week.

Nutrition Practice

People often act like proper nutrition is some kind of complicated black magic or quantum level science but unless you have a severe or rare metabolic disease nutrition can be boiled down to two simple rules.

1. Eat like a fucking adult.
2. Don’t kid yourself.

If you can do this you are already out performing 90% of the population.

Eat like a fucking adult.
Eat food.
Eat real food.

Real food doesn’t come out of a can, or a box or a bag. Real food goes off.

No one over the age of 12 really thinks that nutri grain is ironman food or that diet coke is a healthy choice.

Eat vegetables for health.
Eat meat for strength.
Eat carbs for recovery.

Don’t kid yourself.
You know that pizza and beer aren’t getting you closer to your goals.

And the problem is not that you should *never* consume pizza and beer. The problem is that you pretend that because you ordered a gluten free base and low carb beer that you are somehow still eating well when what you actually did was fuck up a perfectly good meal.

Movement Practice

Repeated movement patterns take a toll and the more specific and intense your athletic practice the more specific and intense stress is placed upon your body.

If longevity in your sport and maintaining a pain free day to day life are among your goals (and they should be) then these issues should be addressed by maintaining a movement practice as a part of your schedule.

Stretch what is too tight, open what is too closed and stabilise what is too loose. This can be as simple as going through a mobility routine – like DeFranco’s Agile 8 – three or four times a week or beginning a full blown yoga practice.

Meditation Practice

A meditation practice is an incredibly powerful tool for improving all areas of your life especially your athletic performance.

We’ve all had those experiences of getting into the “zone” or hitting our “flow”. Matches or performances where time seems to slow down and our ability to think, move and react seems limitless. We recognise the advantage of this state but hardly anyone actually trains to deliberately enter into it.

As athletes we are obsessed with training our bodies but so few of us put the effort in to train our minds.

The “zone” is really nothing more than consistent mindfulness. The ability to remain in and focus on the present moment without distraction.

Regular meditative practices cause actual structural changes in the brain. Just ten minutes a day can improve your will power and decision making capabilities; increase your focus and decrease your stress.

Ten minutes a day, everyday.

Developing a meditation practice doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll end up sitting in the lotus position, wearing flowers and talking in the breathy, hushed tones of someone who just finished a three day yoga instructor course.

To get started try the Headspace app, google ‘daily journaling’ or click here.

Lifestyle Practice

Your lifestyle practice is primarily about making sure you stay physically, mentally and emotionally healthy. By necessity training environments tend to be fairly insular and it’s easy to fall into the pattern of eat, sleep, train, repeat. While this makes for some neat tee shirts the reality is that it’s an expressway to injury and burnout.

The specifics of a happy and healthy lifestyle are unique to each person but there are few general principles that will always apply.

Get enough good quality sleep.
Have interests outside your athletic practice.
Spend time with people.
Spend time by yourself.
Spend time simply playing.

The Best Supplements for Training

October 9, 2017

A while back I republished a new and updated version of the popular article “The Best Supplements for General Health” where I focussed on discussing which supplements were useful in building a foundation of good overall health. They were simple vitamins, minerals and fats that help with immunity, energy levels and general well being.

This time around I want to look at some supplements that will help you get the most out of your training without breaking any laws or taking any undue health risks – nothing here will land you in jail or the hospital if you use them as described.

As always – It is important to note that I am not a doctor, and I don’t pretend to be one on the internet. If you are pregnant, have a chronic condition or are taking medication, you should consult a physician before commencing any supplementation regime.

Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs)

Branch Chain Amino Acids are made up Valine, Leucine and Iso-Leucine and can help promote muscle protein synthesis, increase muscle growth, regulate blood sugar levels and prevent muscle catabolism.

BCAAs are also an excellent way of managing appetite during weight cuts as your liver can convert 8g – 12g of BCAAs into just enough blood glucose to alleviate cravings without slowing fat loss.

Some people also experience a reduction in fatigue while supplementing with BCAAs but the jury is still out on whether this is a placebo or a genuine physiological effect. At the time of writing most journals and text books refer to this as a reduction in “perceived fatigue”.

While research does seem to indicate that Leucine is the most beneficial of the three, clinical trials have found no advantage to either isolating or increasing the ratio of the acid in the supplement so you are probably best off consuming a balanced ratio.

A dose of 10g to 30g depending on your size and activity levels is pretty standard. Branch Chain Amino Acids are best consumed before or during training and quantities larger than 10g should be split into two or three doses for maximum effect.

Creatine

Creatine helps regenerate a molecule called Adenosine Tri-Phosphate (ATP) which is what your body uses for energy in practically every physical process from muscle contraction to cellular regeneration. Basically, whenever an ATP molecule is ‘used’ it loses a phosphate becoming Adenosine Di-Phosphate (ADP) which cannot be used as a fuel source unless it is converted back into ATP. This is where Creatine comes to the rescue – by donating its phosphate group to the ADP, Creatine reforms it back into ATP refilling your body’s energy stores. Supplementing your body’s own Creatine allows this process to go on for longer that it would otherwise enabling you to train longer and harder.

Also, as Creatine itself is also a fuel source for short duration, high intensity anaerobic activities (like weightlifting and sprinting) supplementation can result in performance increases.

If potential weight gain is not a concern for you I would recommend taking 5g in the morning before any training and 5g in the evening before you go to sleep. If you participate in a sport where weight has to be factored into the equation just take the 5g in the morning.

At this dose Creatine must be taken daily for two to four weeks before it is likely that you will see the full benefit. You can speed up this process by starting with a loading phase where you ingest 20g daily for five days before dialling back to the recommended daily dose of 10g but this can cause gastro intestinal distress in some people.

Finally, I would recommend cycling off Creatine for one week every six weeks or so and for one full month every year. Supplementing Creatine will increase your body’s natural stores for a short period but after a while your body will get used to receiving this extra Creatine and down regulate its own production as a result. Regularly cycling off Creatine for short periods of time will help mitigate this effect.

Protein Powder

These days more and more people are over fed but under nourished and the thing missing from the majority of athletes’ diets is sufficient protein. While bodybuilding magazines tend to recommend a daily protein intake somewhere in the vicinity of 2.5g per kilo of bodyweight, studies and experience indicate somewhere between 1.2g and 1.7g is probably sufficient unless your goal is to put on substantial amounts of mass.

While it’s nearly always better to get your protein from whole foods like meat and eggs the sheer convenience of a protein shake makes it an easy way to ensure you are consuming sufficient protein.

There are a couple of important things to look out for when purchasing protein powder. First, when you are drinking a protein shake you want to be taking in protein and not a bunch of sugar so try to find a brand that has at least 22g of protein and less than 5g of carbohydrate per 30g serving.

Secondly there is the type of protein to consider. While there are a bunch of different types, blends and brands they generally fall into one of three categories.

Whey Protein Isolate or Whey Protein Concentrate: Whey protein is a fast acting protein whose rapid absorption causes the blood’s amino acid levels to rise extremely quickly making it an ideal post training supplement. While there are differences between Isolate and Concentrate if you follow the above recommendation regarding purity they are basically minimised to the point of non-existence.

Casein: Casein protein is slow acting and its effects long lasting making it better suited to being a meal replacement than for post training recovery. During periods of training where significant mass gain is the goal a Casein protein shake before bed can aid in muscle growth and recovery.

Plant Based: These are best used if you have a dairy intolerance and cannot make use of either of the above options. While there are many, many, many types of plant based protein powders I would recommend finding a blend of rice and pea; it has a fairly neutral taste and two combined covers the shortfall found in just taking either one individually.

******

There you have it. No magic or secret pills with guarantees of “XtremE” gains in a shockingly short amount of time just three simple supplements which, if used correctly, should help you train a little harder, recover a little faster and perform a little better.

The Keys To Progressing In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

November 17, 2016

Recently I was listening to social media entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk talking to an aspiring entrepreneur. He posed the question, “Are you losing belief, or do you just wish it was happening faster?” I instantly applied this question to my own BJJ journey, and the kind of thoughts I know many people who train also have.

BJJ is full of ups and downs, and you often spend a great deal of time thinking, “why am I not progressing?” Or how you can feel good one week about your game, but the next feel much worse.

I think in these situations Gary’s question, “Are you losing belief, or you just wish it was happening faster?” is the perfect question to ask yourself in order to help get over those humps and stay positive. I’m willing to bet that a majority of the time you just wish you were better, and didn’t have to worry about being swept, missing opportunities, getting subbed, and other BJJ woes.

So how do you speed up the process? Its simple, more mat time! Get to the gym more, and spend as much time as you can in that environment. If you’re already living at your gym, then concentrate on smarter training. By this I mean apply yourself in class, and study the techniques the coach is teaching, both inside and outside the gym. Spend time at home watching matches and techniques, going over techniques, moves and sequences in your head.

BJJ is unique in that I don’t think it takes very long for someone to go from just starting and doing one class a week, to then filling out all their spare time with classes and investing a lot of time into improving.

So if you’re doing all this and still feeling frustrated, there’s one other key aspect to focus on, and that’s developing patience.

Stay patient and believe in your training and keep positive. If you put in the time you will see the rewards! Its only a matter of time, and patience.

Don’t get down about it, keep training and doing the best that you can, and everything you want in your BJJ will appear, but you have to keep training. If you slow down in a slump, or take some time off, you’re only going to make it harder on yourself if improving your BJJ is something you truly want.

Things you can say at BJJ, but not to your partner

October 1, 2016

I’d totally tap him.

I love it when they submit.

How much do you weigh?

Can I have a trial session?

I prefer to start standing.

I’m actually going with Simon next, but you and I will go first next time.

Can you do that inverted?

Come here – I just saw this new move on YouTube.

Senior grades get to go first.

I usually try to come twice a day.

BJJ In Canberra: My 14 Year Journey To Black Belt

August 31, 2016

2002 – 2005 – White Belt

I was a 21 year old who had just begun a philosophy degree at university. The local video store had allowed me to see the first five UFC events and, inspired by the exploits of Royce Gracie, my friends and I began ‘training’ in a garage. A few months later, a customer at the shop I was working at alerted me to the existence of a Machado BJJ club in the area, and so I went to have a look. Keen to test my garage sharpened ‘skills’, it was in May of 2002 that I showed up to my first class in my grass stained, low budget judo gi ready to roll.

Needless to say, I was soundly handled by everyone during sparring that night, but the roll that really captured my attention and imagination was the one I had with the instructor. Michael was only a blue belt, and he was a little bigger and stronger than me, but the way he handled me was such that at no time did I feel like anything I did mattered. He could have been a ten year old girl and the result would have been exactly the same. The dude was water. This was what I wanted to do.

The main thing I learned at white belt was to relax. Most of the guys I trained with back then were much bigger than me, as they were mainly guys with professional martial arts or security backgrounds, and so I quickly learned that pushing, pulling, or grabbing harder never really helps, but it does always tire you out and sometimes leads to injury. Once you can get that super-chill breathing going with a super heavyweight sitting on your face, then you can focus your mind on positional maintenance and problem solving in any situation.

2005 – 2008 – Blue Belt

Still at uni. One of only a handful of blue belts in a sea of white belts.

Cocky. The move collector. The cutting edge, half guard/hooks guard phenom.

You know JJ Machado? I roll like him.

“Stupid purple belt instructor is living in the past, man. Saulo Ribeiro and Marcelo Garcia are changing the game and this dope has us doing closed guard sweeps? Bleh. I’m off to the corner to do my own stuff with the other cool blue belts.“ – Me ‘07

Anyway, I was pretty deluded as a blue belt. Don’t get me wrong, the stuff we were doing on the side was good stuff, but my attitude towards moves I ‘already knew’ was misled. At that time, I thought the key to the game was simply to know more moves than your opponent, and that knowing a move was a simple matter of getting to the point that you could demonstrate it.

However, as I got closer to purple belt I started to understand that the new school stuff I had been doing was only particularly effective for me because of how much work I had invested into learning how to use it. This reality check made me see all of the techniques I had previously learned in a different light, and I started to move my training focus away from the acquisition of new techniques, and towards the sharpening of existing ones.

2008 – 2011 – Purple Belt

Public Servant. Instructing the no gi Saturday class.

“To be the man, you gotta beat the man.” – Ric Flair

More than half the rolling I did as a purple belt was against one brown belt. He was about my weight and one of the best brown belts in the country, and so I had made it my mission to get to the level needed to credibly compete against him. I adopted Saulo Ribeiro as my surrogate instructor by watching his three instructionals to the point that I sounded like Saulo, and then used these teachings to sharpen my defensive postures and escapes to the point that I was eventually able to give ‘the man’ a run for his money through sheer defensive capability.

When ‘the man’ got his black belt from Anthony Perosh, he gave me my brown.

So what did I learn as a purple belt? Teaching is a good way to figure out that you don’t know shit about a move. White belts will ask perfectly valid questions about your favourite move and you will not have an answer, and begin to question whether you yourself actually do the move correctly. However, hopefully this will lead you to find the answers to these questions, which will then further your understanding of the move. At purple belt I learned that furthering your ability to teach a move is the final process of developing your own mastery of it.

2011 – 2016 – Brown Belt

Tried to be a real estate agent in 2012. No training for 18 months. Came back out of shape in 2014.

“Wtf just happened? The little kid is a beast.” Me ‘14

Before my 18 month hiatus, I had shared many rolls with one particular teenage blue belt, and had always had an easy time beating him. I once subbed him sixteen times in a minute during a grading roll. Anyway, while I was away, not only had he grown from a blue belt boy into a purple belt man, but he had also made two six week trips to AOJ in San Diego, where he had trained six days a week.

I came back, and the kid destroyed me. He took vengeance for that sixteen sub exhibition I had laid on him back in the day, and it wasn’t pretty. Not only that, but he was using techniques that I was largely ignorant of. As I previously noted, I had stopped collecting moves back when I was a purple belt, but as a result I had not kept up with the newer tactics as I had always thought that my ‘brown belt fundamentals’ would see me through. Convinced that it must be the new moves that were allowing an inferior grappler to defeat me, I scrambled to learn about every berimbolo, single X, curu curu, fifty fifty, whateverty doo-dah I could find, only to arrive at a far scarier realisation.

It wasn’t the moves. The kid had just been training way harder than me, and was now a better grappler than me.

The colour of my belt together with all my additional years of experience didn’t change the fact that I threw everything I had at this kid over and over and never came close to getting an attacking position. I had been resting on my laurels, and now the student had become the master.

So I started training harder, and seeking more knowledge with clearer goals in mind, and slowly I began to close the gap. The kid’s a freak so I don’t think I’ll ever have the edge on him again, but at 36 I’m happy just as long as I can give the top guys a good competitive match. It seems dumb to learn it so late, but at brown belt I really learned that goal-focussed mat time is what leads to improvement in BJJ, i.e. train as often as you can, know what you are there to work on, and work on it.

It was in 2015 as a brown belt that I accepted a coaching position at the new Atos club in Canberra.

2016 – Black Belt

Here’s me in 2016

I’m still coaching at Atos Canberra as the women’s instructor and assistant instructor to the main class. I am enjoying my BJJ training as much as ever, and I am looking forward to continuing my BJJ learning long into the future.

So, that’s my BJJ journey so far. Thanks for reading, and good luck with your training.

Here’s a video of me getting promoted to black belt by Professors JT Torres, Antonio Mota, and Ben Langford at Atos Canberra.

Uchikomi

August 3, 2016

Most judo clubs practice uchikomi. In an ideal world, it looks like this.

Uchikomi is repetition training for judo throws. The person practicing a throw goes through all motions of the throw up until the point where the person being thrown would lose their balance. It serves as a warm up, a method of teaching and correcting technique, and a conditioning exercise. Unsurprisingly, it also allows judoka to start decades-long fights on the internet about its utility. Evidence does not usually play a part in these fights.

To start with, nobody seems capable of translating it from the Japanese. Brief internet research shows that it can mean “to beat against”, “to go in”, “invasion” and, most memorably, “hitting with nothing less than the totality of one’s being”.

Please do not hit anyone with the totality of your being; it sounds metaphysically disgusting. Instead, it might be better to accept that uchikomi is a word that doesn’t really need to be translated. Repetition training will do.

Intuitively, the benefits of uchikomi seem obvious. The trainee can practice without the distraction of someone else trying their very best to stop them. You can isolate individual elements of the throw to practice technique while in motion. Moving against slight resistance will help with conditioning in a way that is specific to judo techniques. Finally, your partner can provide good feedback on form. These are all good things. Here, learn from Koga.

On the other hand, it also sets up habitual movement patterns. This can have the effect of cementing bad habits and mechanically inefficient methods, particularly where the trainee does not receive the feedback of actually throwing somebody.

More importantly, uchikomi is nothing like a judo match; the chance of transferring a skill from uchikomi to a match may not be high. Unfortunately, designing a study where someone is able to compare judo skills with and without having learned uchikomi appears to be almost impossible, so we are unlikely to get any evidence about the efficacy of uchikomi for skills practice any time soon.

Thankfully, there is one aspect of uchikomi that can be measured: conditioning benefits. Even more thankfully, Emerson Franchini is willing to do study after study after study to do so.

Roughly summarised, two sessions of high intensity interval training per week, using uchikomi, resulted in increased upper and lower body power production test results. The authors suggest that the interaction of judo training and the high-intensity uchikomi additional training resulted in an optimal combination to improve upper-body high-intensity intermittent performance. They also note that high intensity interval training adaptations are mostly muscle specific.

Put another way, it’s not clear if uchikomi is good for technique. It’s not clear if uchikomi helps performance in a match. But if you want to get fit for judo, then consider some uchikomi.

Here are some ideas.

Image credit: Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games

Why I Never Say ‘Cardio’- Thinking About The Language Of Fitness

January 19, 2016

Specialised language and jargon isn’t just fun, it can be incredibly useful. The words we use define the way that we think about topics, and so it’s worth it to carefully refine the words we use.

Here’s an example that illustrates how obsessive I am about this stuff- the use of the word ‘pull’ when talking about the deadlift. ‘How much do you pull?’ is a common way to ask someone how much weight they can do in this most storied exercise. The very concept of ‘pulling’ evokes the sort of arm-focused back-straining effort that any good deadlifter should be working to avoid. My clients (most of whom have never deadlifted before they start with me) never hear the word ‘pull’ in relation to the deadlift, but they do hear the word ‘stand’ a lot. I judge that this conditions them to think about the lift as a lower-body-driven, body-unfolding-evenly process, as they should.

Am I being over-the-top? All I know is that I want to get better and better at teaching things. It’s no great insight to say that effective communication is at the heart of teaching. Effective use of language comes down to one simple thing- understanding what a word or term means before you use it.

I feel bad picking on a word like ‘cardio’. It’s a word that was useful for a long time. It has a clear and precise meaning (physical exercise of low to high intensity that depends primarily on the aerobic energy-generating process, but of course you knew that). Meanwhile the fitness industry is littered with nightmare words like ‘tone’ and ‘detox’, marketing terms based on fictional premises that lower the common IQ of the fitness community every time they’re uttered or written. Compared to these ‘cardio’ is a fine, worthy term.

That said, modern athletes and trainers talking about ‘cardio’ sessions and ‘cardio’ fitness is a useful illustration of how the finer subtleties of language can limit our approach to our own fitness.

Athletes who start training with me tend to have a basic understanding of Cardio Training vs Strength Training. To most of them ‘cardio’ is the huff-and-puff, lots-of-reps-at-a-time stuff and ‘strength’ is about big scary weights. A cultural aspect to this exists where many athletes think of themselves as either Strength Athletes or Cardio Athletes. This false binary is about as useful as the false binaries prevalent on the political thinkpieces you read on Facebook this morning (ie not useful at all).

If pressed, any person of average intelligence will acknowledge that our muscles AND our lungs are working any time that we exercise. They’ll further acknowledge that a set of five back squats can leave you sucking wind and a long run will make your legs feel like jelly.

Our muscles are devices that we use to move and they are powered by the various substances that fuel our body, which includes oxygen. Our nervous system is as much the generator of strength as our muscles, and these various systems interrelate in subtle and intersectional ways depending on exactly what exercise we’re doing.

Sure sure, I hear you say. That’s all true, but doing cardio still makes you good at cardio and strength makes you good at strength, right?

We had a guy attend our wrestling club several years ago, who had never wrestled before. This guy was a serious athlete, a veteran of triathlons, open water swims and many other punishing endurance events. Despite this, two minutes of wrestling would leave him a melted puddle on the floor. I remember his words at the end of his first class, said with an exasperated laugh- “I thought I was fit!”

This guy thought that he had found an activity that had shown up the limits of his fitness. He was utterly wrong. His fitness was every bit as high -level as he thought it was. It was just the wrong fitness.

This guy wasn’t aware that the body has three energy systems- phosphate, anaerobic and aerobic- and that while all three of them are working every time you exercise, there is always one in primacy. Which energy system you’re using depends on how long and how intense the activity is.

A human body is going to have a different fitness in each system. It’s a pie to be sliced up- to reach an elite level in one requires a trade-off with the other two. You noticed that the third energy system is called aerobic, right? The other term for aerobic is cardiovascular. cardio isn’t part of a binary with strength, it’s part of a ternary with phosphate and anaerobic. (I’ll get a bit deeper into all this in my next column).

Once our trainee wrestler had these simple things explained to him he was much less frustrated. He had clear parameters for what he needed to work on, and a clear sense of reality. If he wanted to perform better at wrestling, he would have to increase his anaerobic fitness and allow his aerobic to be de-emphasized. Getting this right would mostly be a simple matter of adjusting the duration and intensity of his weekly exercise, plus one more important thing.

The more functional strength you have the less effort you need to employ in any individual movement. The less effort the lighter the demands on your energy systems. That means the stronger you are, the fitter you are, at least as far as the conception of fitness that people associate with ‘cardio’ training. There isn’t a physical pursuit on earth that a well-structured strength program won’t heavily assist with.

I aim to turn all of my clients into masters of nerdy fitness jargon. I teach every client about the three energy systems within their first two or three sessions, and work to deepen their understanding of them over time. It’s easy to understand, it helps people understand their own bodies and all truly effective gym training incorporates it. When naming the three systems I use the word ‘aerobic’ instead of ‘cardio’ because it’s relation to the word ‘anaerobic’ makes for clearer explanation. I’m thrilled for you to use the word ‘cardio’ if you still prefer it, but I’d love it of you stopped using it as a catch-all term for any type of huff-and-puff exercise. Consider it a personal favour to me.

There are fitness terms and slang that are clear, useful and elegant. There are other terms that are so counterproductive that I want to remove them from the language entirely. In the middle are a bunch of terms that are just fine but used lazily, by trainers and athletes that would rather repeat buzzwords than learn the basic facts about exercise and training.

If you’re after an effective way to set yourself above the gym-goers around you (and I know you are) then watching your words is a great place to start.

Five stretches – Part 2

January 15, 2016

Following on from my previous post on stretching for Capoeira, I wanted to share five more stretches that we still use in Capoeira and outside the circle of Capoeira, with some variations thrown in.

Pike:

Standard: Keep your legs together. With your knees locked out, try to compress your body at the hips. And yes, you can point your toes if you like to make it pretty.

The Jefferson Curl:

Steve Maxwell first showed this to me, and then again most recently Coach Sommers, it is a fantastic tool for promoting both strength through the spine and flexibility.

Start by standing tall on a flat surface or an elevated surface and with some kind of weight in your hands. This could be a barbell or kettlebells. You’re not looking for the heaviest weight possible, so start light (for example, 5kg) and progress from there.

When performing the movement, lock out your knees so your legs are straight. Then lean forward slowly, and think about “peeling” each vertebrae one at a time, until your arms are hanging down as low as they can. Try not to let your hands rest on your feet or the floor.

If you can touch the floor, move up onto an elevated surface (for example, a box or weight plate). Ultimately you are looking to have your upper body rest against the front of your legs. To return to the top, contract through the backs of your legs, concentrating on your hamstrings, and roll up one vertebrae at a time.

Pigeon:

Active: This particular version of the pigeon stretch has a slight ‘tweak’ to it I guess, I’m taking this version from Ido Portal and it’s more of an active pigeon stretch. It’s fantastic for opening up your hips.

Start on all fours and slide one leg back. Lean forward to place most of your weight on the front leg. Now play around with letting that front knee fall out to the side. Find your sticky spot and hang there for a while.

Example of this would be 10 reps then a hold for 10 seconds on the last rep.

90/90:

For this one, we start with the lead leg directly in front of you, with the knee bent at 90° lining up with the foot. Then the trail leg out to the side and also bent at 90° inline with the heel.

Lean forward to get the deep stretch through the hip and glute minimus.

For the trail leg, try to square yourself off inline with the knee, if you cannot, you can lean back.

Quadratus lumborum:

Sit on the floor in what I guess you would call a typical hamstring stretch position. Turn your upper body towards the bent knee, grabbing it with the opposite hand and lean your upper body towards the foot of the straight leg. The trick with this one is to hold on tightly and think about guiding your head and shoulders towards and beyond the foot!

Cossack stretch:

This is a very common position to be in when playing Capoeira, as a way of escaping (esquiva) attacks. It’s great position to practice to ‘teach’ your hips how to do the splits.

Straighten one leg (again point your toes if you feel like it). Tuck your other leg up towards your butt, trying to keep your heel and glutes nice and close to each other. With that same leg, try to keep your foot flat on the ground, and your knee and toes pointing in the same direction.

Deltoid capsule stretch:

Lie face down (prone) and feed your left arm underneath your chest. Let your left knee fall out to the side. To add more intensity to it, reach forwards with the non-stretching arm.

Scorpion stretch (pec to bicep):

Lie prone on the floor. Reach forward with one arm, then out about 45° (so either 10:30 or 2:30 on a clock). Keep the non-stretching arm close to the body (like a push up position), and use it to create leverage and push the stretching shoulder into the ground.

Reach the opposite leg to the stretching arm backwards over the body and just hang there.

If you’re keen to learn more or want a tailored program to help you move better, you can get in touch with me via www.simonlecoaching.com