Avoiding injuries through stretching
This one is for all the BJJ addicts out there as well as the hobbyists that can’t seem to avoid the wonderful aches and pains that come with this beloved art. Tired of having to take pain killers every night just so you can get up from bed the next day and follow the same routine that caused you to take them in the first place? Well a lot of people are, and if you’re like a lot of those people you also love BJJ so much that you just don’t care, you will do anything just to get in another session. Well here’s a news flash, you can only do that for so long before your body cannot hold up anymore. If you want to be able to practice your passion/hobby for a long time, you might want to adopt this new habit.
Getting your body ready for training
Don’t be that person that conveniently shows up to class late just so they can miss warm ups, you know who you are. A proper warm up before your training session can literally avoid an injury that you might have gotten had you not limbered yourself up before going into drilling or rolling. If you’re one of those people who would like to make it to BJJ class on time but isn’t able to due to your schedule, still don’t skip out on a warm up, make sure you take a few minutes to do some dynamic stretches and make sure you loosen up all your joints, this includes wrists, ankles and fingers. Warm ups don’t necessarily have to make you sweat, doing this along with a few very simple exercises such as planks, squats, jumping jacks can make sure your body is both loose and engaged to avoid those little annoying injuries. Another big thing that people don’t do is warm up for their entire day. A 10-15 minute light full body stretch upon waking up from bed can be incredibly beneficial on so many levels. In fact, whenever you spend more than 30 minutes in a certain position such as sitting it is very beneficial to relieve any stiffness your body has taking 2-3 minutes for a quick stretch.
Post Training
A good post-training regimen is equally as important as before your workout. You don’t want to get through a hard training session, or even a light one and let your body just cool down without properly stretching out. Now, this is a good time to do your longer static stretches. Before training, your body is stiff and cold, holding long stretches might not be the best thing for your muscles in that state. Immediately after training however, your body is very warm so take advantage and get in a solid stretch, everything from your quads, hamstrings, shoulders, whatever you can get to, especially the hip flexors and the glutes for those out there with lower back pain.
These little things can make all the difference and if you are accustomed to just jumping into training whether you’re just doing a fundamentals class or full on rolling, making slight adjustments like this can make your Jiu Jitsu journey much more enjoyable and keep you on the mats longer.
