Can You Prevent BJJ Injuries?

In our beloved sport, injuries happen. But, have you ever wondered Can You Prevent BJJ Injuries .

The sport at times, doesn’t love us as much as we love it.

We are at one point or another going to get hurt, and 100% injury prevention is not a thing.

By taking care of your body, we can dramatically reduce injuries, the severity of them and speed up recovery when they do occur.

Can You Prevent BJJ Injuries?

I think you can at least reduce them, so prevention may be a bad term. Here are 4 areas I think, if you get them right. You can get hurt less and if you do get banged up, you’ll recover much faster

Strength training

Adding stress to your tissues, ligaments, and bones will cause them to get stronger and more resilient.

There is a balance to this because you can overdo strength training or just do it awfully.

When adding additional workouts to your schedule, you have to understand, that you need to balance all the stresses. I’ll talk more about that in the recovery section.

To become more resilient to injury, focus on the basics of strength training

Good movement, with a great focus on lowering the portion of the lift and a pause at the bottoms for a second or two.

Focus on the primary movement patterns

• squat
• hinge
• Single leg
• upper push
• upper pull

These should make up the bulk of your workouts. You want to pick a variation, that feels good on your joints. They shouldn’t beat you up. Soreness will happen but joint pain after lift is an indicator something is off.

Focus on reps between 6-12 for 2-3 working sets. We are not bodybuilding, we don’t need a ton of sets. Unless we have muscle-building goals, in which we might focus on more volume.

But, we are talking about injury prevention.

Give proper rest in between sets, so we can recover well enough, to make each set intense.

For most BJJ guys, hitting the weight room 2-3x a week is going to work well. By getting strong you can Prevent BJJ Injuries.

Mobility

If you’re very tight and have a limited range of motion. You are putting yourself in a bad spot.

We often get injured, when we are exposed to ranges of motion, where we have little to no control of or strength. By having better mobility and strength through a large range of motion. This is going to save us from lots of pain.

Think like you’re doing a triangle, but your hips are very tight and it will torque on your knee.

I hate working on mobility, spending extra time to foam roll and stretch out, is not my strong suit.

Here are the 2 ways I work on mobility for myself

Dynamic warm up

Following a legit warm-up is going to be a great way to address mobility issues and keep us healthy.

I follow this simple warm-up flow

Foam roll and stretch what is tight. This is often your pecs, lats, hips, hamstrings, and calves.

Then incorporate some t-spine rotations(upper back) and core drills like planks or bird dogs.

Next, pump up the glutes and upper back, usually, I do bridges and banded face pulls.

Finally, I do some light movements with a full range of motion: things like bodyweight squats, good mornings, side lunges, push ups etc

This only takes about 10-12 minutes, before each strength session and does wonders to keep you healthy. Plus, you have more productive workouts too.

Full range of motion strength training

I make sure we use a full range of motion when we lift. Which is a form of mobility work, things like elevated split squats, deep squats, rdls, rows and push-ups. Can be used to build strength, and muscles as well as increase your mobility in that joint complex.

Note-If you like this article, then you’ll probably love my daily BJJ content here.

Recovery

Recovery is important for many reasons in BJJ. But, if you are constantly under recovered.

This is a recipe for an injury waiting to happen. Do you have the basics of recovery down?

Let’s start with the most important one of all sleep.

Sleep is the single most powerful habit, you can develop to improve almost any fitness goals you may have.

But, is often overlooked.

But, if you want to become resilient to injuries, you’ll do this.

Deeper sleep and duration is the best recipe for better recovery from sleep.

Try to be sleeping by 10PM or earlier and see if you can get 7-9 hours of sleep per night. Consistency matters. Go to bed and wake up around the same time, each day.

If you struggle with sleep, try this sleep tips

• Get sunlight early in the day.
• Shut off caffeine after 12 PM.
• Get off all screens an hour or so after bed.
• Take a magnesium supplement before bed.
• Consume carbs with dinner.
• Keep your room cool.
• Consider using meditation or breathing exercises to relax before bed.
• If you’re a worrier, journal your to-dos.

The next thing you should consider is giving your body all the resources it needs to recover.

4 things to think about

Calories- When you’re not eating enough, you’re always going to underrecover. You have to eat enough to fuel for performance and recovery. Neglecting so will cause your performance to plummet and underrecover.

Protein-protein is the building block of all tissue in your body. As a BJJ athlete you need sufficient protein to recover and limit injuries. Aim for .7-1 of protein per pound of body weight. I like to try to spread this through 4 meals/feedings. Focus on including protein-dense foods with each meal.

Fruits and veggies– Providing your body with enough vitamins and minerals to thrive is a smart idea to be at your best. I like to follow the 5 combination rules. Which is getting 5 total fruits and veggies each day. Eat what you like, no need to force veggies you hate.

Hydration-Even a little hydration can plummet your performance and leave you vulnerable. Try drinking 16-20 oz of water right, when you get up. Overall hit half your body weight in ounces. If you train multiple sessions per day, increasing your salt intake can help with performance and hydration. I love the supplement LMNT for this.

If you like more nutrition information go here

Conditioning

Having solid conditioning can help you stay healthy in 2 ways.

#1 If you have an aerobic base, you’ll recover faster and you’ll be less likely to accumulate the type of fatigue. That can make you vulnerable to injuries.

If your morning heart rate is in the high 60+, then doing more zone 2 work is going, to help you stay healthy.

For details on this style of training, check out

#2 If you are constantly gassed out when you roll. You will tend to make more mistakes and get away from good technique. In these times, you might do something that puts you in harm or injury. Being in shape will not only improve your BJJ performance but also make your rolls safer.

To wrap this article up. Remember, you can never prevent injuries 100% but by taking care of your body, you can put more chips in your favor.

If you want to take your BJJ to the next level and stay healthy. Join my coaching program below