Jiu Jitsu is bad for your body.

[Coconutwater]

41 years old here - brown belt. I've been at it for 10 years with time off for injuries here and there. I'm a lifetime martial artist, did a bunch of striking arts and other TMA stuff before BJJ. Our bodies break down, that's a fact of life. If you are young and reading this thinking, "this won't be me", it most defginately will be. All the aging BJJ and MMA greats have spinal issues. It's coming for you.

Here is my list:
-Acl reconstruction and meniscus repair
-broken floating rib
-bulging disc and spinal degeneration at the lumbar spine L3-L4-L5 (At the age of 35 my doc told me I had the lower back of a 50 year old man!)
-bulging disc in the cervical spine at C4-5-6-7, straightening of the cervical spine and stenosis of the both spinal column and the foramen. This is the big one. I get loss of strenght, control and grip strength on the right side. All sorts of arm pain but the hand pain is the worst. Burning fire and stabbing... worse at night too.
-dislocated pinkie finger and broken joint capsules on many of the metatarsals.
-tendonities in various joints
-arthritis of the knees

My current training regimen is low impact. I don't take falls anymore, years of judo killed my body before BJJ ever entered the picture. I can roll 3 rounds in a session - anymore and I pay for it for days. I roll 2 to 3 days a week. I teach 2 classes. Teaching is where my BJJ future is headed. I've come to terms with not training like a savage and rolling non stop against anyone and everyone. I'm picky about my trianing partners and always keep my spine safe. I'll tap to a weird position if it's putting bad pressure on my neck and my game has evolved with my limitations.

It's a must to train smarter and not harder if you want to keep this going.

All the best o the rest of you in the same situation!

OSS

I have the same neck condition. Any rocking motion from running or my head tilted forward for long or slamming the brakes on my car causing my head to flick forward exacerbates the injury so much that I’ve been to the ER twice. I sleep with a special pillow to preserve the natural alignment. Turning my head left and right is painfully slow, so driving or riding a bike is difficult because I can’t turn my head lightening quick like a normal person.

Being guillotined is the worst. It doesn’t happen much to me but when I feel my neck threatened, I tense up.

 

[WarriorMonk7]

No, the Dutch beat the shit out of each other. The Thais go light, but that’s because they fight so much they learn on the job. Dutch KO each other in training

Fair enough.

 

[JagRoss]

41 years old here - brown belt. I've been at it for 10 years with time off for injuries here and there. I'm a lifetime martial artist, did a bunch of striking arts and other TMA stuff before BJJ. Our bodies break down, that's a fact of life. If you are young and reading this thinking, "this won't be me", it most defginately will be. All the aging BJJ and MMA greats have spinal issues. It's coming for you.

Here is my list:
-Acl reconstruction and meniscus repair
-broken floating rib
-bulging disc and spinal degeneration at the lumbar spine L3-L4-L5 (At the age of 35 my doc told me I had the lower back of a 50 year old man!)
-bulging disc in the cervical spine at C4-5-6-7, straightening of the cervical spine and stenosis of the both spinal column and the foramen. This is the big one. I get loss of strenght, control and grip strength on the right side. All sorts of arm pain but the hand pain is the worst. Burning fire and stabbing... worse at night too.
-dislocated pinkie finger and broken joint capsules on many of the metatarsals.
-tendonities in various joints
-arthritis of the knees

My current training regimen is low impact. I don't take falls anymore, years of judo killed my body before BJJ ever entered the picture. I can roll 3 rounds in a session - anymore and I pay for it for days. I roll 2 to 3 days a week. I teach 2 classes. Teaching is where my BJJ future is headed. I've come to terms with not training like a savage and rolling non stop against anyone and everyone. I'm picky about my trianing partners and always keep my spine safe. I'll tap to a weird position if it's putting bad pressure on my neck and my game has evolved with my limitations.

It's a must to train smarter and not harder if you want to keep this going.

All the best o the rest of you in the same situation!

OSS

How did your spinal injuries happen?
That's something that I'm always cautious, and I avoid playing positions that put a lot of stress on the neck back (inverted/fighting from double unders, etc).

 

[sb413197]

I actually wish I did more of the "weight lifting", which is to say I wish I had maintained more muscular tension instead of always loading people on myself and relaxing. Maybe I am misinterpreting you, but I feel like doing so would have taken the strain off my connective tissue, particulately my hips.

Bjj is like the most inefficient way to lift weights as people are trying to constantly misalign you or make you lift with a relatively weak part of your body. If I'm smart my frame supports their weight but that weight is bound to fall entirely on my tendons/ligaments if I am not diligent about supporting them with the surrounding muscle.

I wish I had been better about lifting weights from the beginning from a defensive perspective. I dont like feeling my insides when someone is crushing me.

Yeah I'm not advocating being a wet noodle - I know guys like that too. I'm basically trying to explain not spazzing and relaxing while rolling - even after 8 years of training I found that I was still pretty tense. My new gym and its larger rolling amounts forced me to re evaluate how I trained - and interestingly being more relaxed seemed to result in less strains and sprains.

Sadly I just ruptured my achilles tendon (not BJJ related - trying to push a stopped car). So I'm out of training for 6-12 months. This thread makes me sad now.

 

[dmwalking]

I'm sure it's already been said, but while BJJ is tough on the body over the years (or grappling for that matter), it's great for the mind. Ever since going back to training consistently, my mental health has been doing much better.

 

[mataleaos]

Yeah I'm not advocating being a wet noodle - I know guys like that too. I'm basically trying to explain not spazzing and relaxing while rolling - even after 8 years of training I found that I was still pretty tense. My new gym and its larger rolling amounts forced me to re evaluate how I trained - and interestingly being more relaxed seemed to result in less strains and sprains.

Sadly I just ruptured my achilles tendon (not BJJ related - trying to push a stopped car). So I'm out of training for 6-12 months. This thread makes me sad now.

Fucking ouch at the ruptured achilles. My buddy blew his playing racket ball not long ago and it was hard but he's back rolling again and feeling good. Rest easy!

I think relaxation is crucial. Even if it's not always the best choice there's almost no instance where relaxing is the wrong choice. As I get older I am careful to not relax too much while inverted and also carrying weight. One thing I've noticed watching guys like Rafa, Miyaos Bros, and Keenan is when they do all their berimbolo or dragon kiss inversions, they tend to get the opponent's weight off of them before inverting. Or if they are inverted and carrying weight, they are carrying it through their feet and legs and maintaining some tension so they don't get squashed.

Other than that I think having a relaxed body will prevent many injuries in the long run.

 

[WarriorMonk7]

Yeah I'm not advocating being a wet noodle - I know guys like that too. I'm basically trying to explain not spazzing and relaxing while rolling - even after 8 years of training I found that I was still pretty tense. My new gym and its larger rolling amounts forced me to re evaluate how I trained - and interestingly being more relaxed seemed to result in less strains and sprains.

Sadly I just ruptured my achilles tendon (not BJJ related - trying to push a stopped car). So I'm out of training for 6-12 months. This thread makes me sad now.

Did you take fluoroquinolone antibiotics such as Cipro before your Achilles tendon ruptured? Like for a sinus infection or prostatitis?

 

[Coconutwater]

I'm sure it's already been said, but while BJJ is tough on the body over the years (or grappling for that matter), it's great for the mind. Ever since going back to training consistently, my mental health has been doing much better.

But wouldn’t any exercise you actually enjoy do that?

 

[Solidus Snake]

But wouldn’t any exercise you actually enjoy do that?

Personally I did a lot of other sports, but none so far had the effect of pushing away bad toughts/days like a good Bjj/Grappling session (was especially an avid amateur soccer player for years.. loads of fun, but never had the same results)

 

[spacetime]

Why do you write jiu jitsu as a sweeping category? Do you mean to tell me that Japanese Jiujitsu with those 80s SD joint locks and little to no ground work is equally bad for the body as Judo and BJJ???

 

[Aesopian]

So I'm not going to claim I'm a wizened old timer because any time someone in their 30's complains about being chronically sore and injured, someone else in their 40's calls them a child, then the 50 and up crowd tells all the kids to get off their lawn... But...

After 15+ years of BJJ I have a lot of nagging joint problems, though thankfully none have required surgery (maybe I'm not training hard enough?) The last few years I have really made a point of focusing on my health and not just accepting that BJJ will gradually give me arthritis all over (it has already started in my hips). The most complete system for joint health that I have found is Functional Range Conditioning, and I'm seeing more and more pro athletes and BJJ guys get into it. It's a lot to explain but I wrote about it after going to a certification seminar:

http://aesopian.com/blog/2017/02/28...g-kinstretch-brazilian-jiu-jitsu-perspective/

If you don't do anything else, follow the advice to do basic strength training. Even a simple bodyweight routine with push ups, planks, pull ups, etc. is better than nothing, and likely better than going berserk at CrossFit if longevity is your goal. A few years ago I wrote this round up of all the best advice on prehab/rehab and S&C for long term health (as opposed to immediate :

http://aesopian.com/blog/2016/08/04/jiu-jitsu-will-destroy-let-finally-started-fixing-broken-body/

The last few weeks I've been writing a series for the Inverted Gear blog about mobility training (mostly based on FRC) that I'll continue next week.

https://www.invertedgear.com/blogs/...the-groundwork-for-a-mobility-practice-part-1
https://www.invertedgear.com/blogs/inverted-gear-blog/myth-busting-stretching-part-2

 

[dmwalking]

But wouldn’t any exercise you actually enjoy do that?

Of course. But considering that we're in a grappling sub forum I didn't feel it was necessary to specify. But yes, any exercise you enjoy is good for mental health. BJJ does have a cathartic element, though. For certain temperaments BJJ could be more beneficial. A man may prefer football but benefit more from BJJ. Just my theory. But yeah, for the most part, most exercises are beneficial to mental health.

 

[mattemate]

I'm coming to the conclusion that I'll be transitioning more to gymnastics, calisthenics, yoga, etc as I get older to stay in good shape without getting banged up so much.

My girlfriend is same age as me (39) with background in dance and gymnastics. She's really shown me some movement and posture stuff that I've missed despite starting martial arts at 13. Specifically the feet. Nick Curson talks about stengthening the foot as being so important. My girl has incredibly strong feet and those dancer legs, and has shown me just some basic ballet warmups that WRECK me. She's also pointed out that EVERY knee injury starts with poor strength or posture in your feet.

Anyway, those types of activities will somewhat replace jiu-jitsu, but also keep me going longer and with fewer injuries.

 

[EGDM]

IEVERY knee injury starts with poor strength or posture in your feet.

I'm super paranoid about my knees due to a long and sad history of injury. I'll occasionally have pain while standing after prolonged sitting. Every single time, I look down and it's because my toes are pointing out and my ankle has rolled inwards.

Feet are to your knees as your chin is to your neck. Paying attention to their position ALL. THE. TIME. pays dividends in posture and long-term pain avoidance.

 

[Coconutwater]

Of course. But considering that we're in a grappling sub forum I didn't feel it was necessary to specify. But yes, any exercise you enjoy is good for mental health. BJJ does have a cathartic element, though. For certain temperaments BJJ could be more beneficial. A man may prefer football but benefit more from BJJ. Just my theory. But yeah, for the most part, most exercises are beneficial to mental health.

I'm just saying some people think that jiu-jitsu is completely different from other sporting endeavors and I myself think it has some unique attributes but so does surfing.... the ocean, sun etc....

Lot's of sports have a unique signature with regards to how it benefits the body. BJJ on the other hand really wrecks the body in the long run compared to say... windsurfing.

 

[spacetime]

But wouldn’t any exercise you actually enjoy do that?

Any excercise?? You think boxing is tough on the body/limbs if you know what you're doing?

 

[spacetime]

So I'm not going to claim I'm a wizened old timer because any time someone in their 30's complains about being chronically sore and injured, someone else in their 40's calls them a child, then the 50 and up crowd tells all the kids to get off their lawn... But...

After 15+ years of BJJ I have a lot of nagging joint problems, though thankfully none have required surgery (maybe I'm not training hard enough?) The last few years I have really made a point of focusing on my health and not just accepting that BJJ will gradually give me arthritis all over (it has already started in my hips). The most complete system for joint health that I have found is Functional Range Conditioning, and I'm seeing more and more pro athletes and BJJ guys get into it. It's a lot to explain but I wrote about it after going to a certification seminar:

http://aesopian.com/blog/2017/02/28...g-kinstretch-brazilian-jiu-jitsu-perspective/

If you don't do anything else, follow the advice to do basic strength training. Even a simple bodyweight routine with push ups, planks, pull ups, etc. is better than nothing, and likely better than going berserk at CrossFit if longevity is your goal. A few years ago I wrote this round up of all the best advice on prehab/rehab and S&C for long term health (as opposed to immediate :

http://aesopian.com/blog/2016/08/04/jiu-jitsu-will-destroy-let-finally-started-fixing-broken-body/

The last few weeks I've been writing a series for the Inverted Gear blog about mobility training (mostly based on FRC) that I'll continue next week.

https://www.invertedgear.com/blogs/...the-groundwork-for-a-mobility-practice-part-1
https://www.invertedgear.com/blogs/inverted-gear-blog/myth-busting-stretching-part-2

Did you go hard in sparring?

 

[JagRoss]

So I'm not going to claim I'm a wizened old timer because any time someone in their 30's complains about being chronically sore and injured, someone else in their 40's calls them a child, then the 50 and up crowd tells all the kids to get off their lawn... But...

After 15+ years of BJJ I have a lot of nagging joint problems, though thankfully none have required surgery (maybe I'm not training hard enough?) The last few years I have really made a point of focusing on my health and not just accepting that BJJ will gradually give me arthritis all over (it has already started in my hips). The most complete system for joint health that I have found is Functional Range Conditioning, and I'm seeing more and more pro athletes and BJJ guys get into it. It's a lot to explain but I wrote about it after going to a certification seminar:

http://aesopian.com/blog/2017/02/28...g-kinstretch-brazilian-jiu-jitsu-perspective/

If you don't do anything else, follow the advice to do basic strength training. Even a simple bodyweight routine with push ups, planks, pull ups, etc. is better than nothing, and likely better than going berserk at CrossFit if longevity is your goal. A few years ago I wrote this round up of all the best advice on prehab/rehab and S&C for long term health (as opposed to immediate :

http://aesopian.com/blog/2016/08/04/jiu-jitsu-will-destroy-let-finally-started-fixing-broken-body/

The last few weeks I've been writing a series for the Inverted Gear blog about mobility training (mostly based on FRC) that I'll continue next week.

https://www.invertedgear.com/blogs/...the-groundwork-for-a-mobility-practice-part-1
https://www.invertedgear.com/blogs/inverted-gear-blog/myth-busting-stretching-part-2

This a fantastic resource.
Thank you for compiling it.

Also, I just realised that I also have snapping hip syndrome.

 

[JagRoss]

So I'm not going to claim I'm a wizened old timer because any time someone in their 30's complains about being chronically sore and injured, someone else in their 40's calls them a child, then the 50 and up crowd tells all the kids to get off their lawn... But...

After 15+ years of BJJ I have a lot of nagging joint problems, though thankfully none have required surgery (maybe I'm not training hard enough?) The last few years I have really made a point of focusing on my health and not just accepting that BJJ will gradually give me arthritis all over (it has already started in my hips). The most complete system for joint health that I have found is Functional Range Conditioning, and I'm seeing more and more pro athletes and BJJ guys get into it. It's a lot to explain but I wrote about it after going to a certification seminar:

http://aesopian.com/blog/2017/02/28...g-kinstretch-brazilian-jiu-jitsu-perspective/

If you don't do anything else, follow the advice to do basic strength training. Even a simple bodyweight routine with push ups, planks, pull ups, etc. is better than nothing, and likely better than going berserk at CrossFit if longevity is your goal. A few years ago I wrote this round up of all the best advice on prehab/rehab and S&C for long term health (as opposed to immediate :

http://aesopian.com/blog/2016/08/04/jiu-jitsu-will-destroy-let-finally-started-fixing-broken-body/

The last few weeks I've been writing a series for the Inverted Gear blog about mobility training (mostly based on FRC) that I'll continue next week.

https://www.invertedgear.com/blogs/...the-groundwork-for-a-mobility-practice-part-1
https://www.invertedgear.com/blogs/inverted-gear-blog/myth-busting-stretching-part-2

Also I noticed in your first article that you said neck bridges are bad for your neck.
Is that the case?

I've always felt like it was a positive thing (increase mobility/strength).

 

[dmwalking]

I'm just saying some people think that jiu-jitsu is completely different from other sporting endeavors and I myself think it has some unique attributes but so does surfing.... the ocean, sun etc....

Lot's of sports have a unique signature with regards to how it benefits the body. BJJ on the other hand really wrecks the body in the long run compared to say... windsurfing.

This made me lol. It's so true. I've actually considered taking up kite surfing. But for me personally, there's just nothing like BJJ. It's physical, it's challenging, it's mentally stimulating, and it's cathartic. I thinking that's why so many of us do it. Sucks that it wrecks your body. But that's the trade off.