Jiu Jitsu is bad for your body.

At 46 I started again after a 10 year. After a year of 4 - 6 times a week, I just took like 3 months of slow/off, groin, rotater cuff, swollen discs in the neck and I needed a tune up. It pissed me off and now getting slowly back into it but yeah it only makes sense to heal.
 
Welcome to f12! Great first post! Lots of good info in here; Particularly revamping your game when necessary. My game has transformed more than once over the years.


I only just signed up to comment on this thread

47 yo black belt 1 stripe, been at it for 17 years since starting at 30. The significant injuries are a complete ACL tear a few years ago and C4-C7 herniations that cause some numbness that's mostly been manageable. The grip tendonitis is there sometimes, and I've effed up my thumbs jamming them pretty hard at various times over the years. But a lot of these injuries...could have been any sport. I coulda blown an ACL playing basketball or tennis or something.

The thing I learnt from BJJ is the decline of the body during the 30s. I was paying attention to what my body was telling me. At 32, you think you are young forever. At 34, you start having pains that last longer than the night and you think ah I must have gone too hard or whatever else and you can tend to ignore it. At 36, it becomes undeniable what's happening- age. At 38, if you don't change your game, you will enter a state of semi-permanent injury. At 40, your cardio suddenly goes. I've seen students and teammates go through this, many didn't listen, I guess they thought they were immortal or something.

One of the things that helped me most in BJJ was just not doing it as much. I was a 2-3x/week guy ever tops. Every other day kind of schedule and this helped me get time to recover. I always had enough talent to be able to make progress on that type of schedule. And I never did it on vacation...everyone would ask me oh you went to brazil, how was the bjj and I would say that I didn't do any at all, ever. People thought I guess it should be more of an obsession and I should spar on vacation but I like to relax on vacation, not get beat up. Don't wreck yourself for the love of this, treat it as it is, something that benefits you, not masochism.

Flexibility was always my best asset and kept me away from a lot of injuries but also recognizing what was changing in my body and changing my game. Learning lower-risk guards and being able to keep people's weight off. Not getting tangled up, staying in shape, don't gain weight. As a smaller guy I could never succumb to the use of strength bc I was at a relative disadvantage on that. I used to power armbars from guard on men that outweighed me by more than 100lbs and were 10 years younger. At late 30s, that use of strength started to hurt me. At purple I started to really focus on sweeps, being on top, the traditional, sweep, pass, tap, position before submission approach. That really helped. It's harder to get hurt on top. And don't power through stuff.

And this is something that as an instructor I always try to emphasize- as you age, your own strength will cause you injuries if you apply it injudiciously. You've got to abandon the parts of your game that depend on huge power. If I force an armbar on someone now, I mess my lower back up. Have to start using better technique at some point in your evolution.

The other thing is learn good submission defense- by that I do not mean grab your belt harder to fight kimuras but rather recognize when a submission is a threat and learn to use posture and position and stay a step ahead of it. Don't get surprised by stuff, be hard to tap but not because you're willing to take risks, but because people can't get you locked down. Give ground when you need to and don't fight reality. Learn when you're in danger and take appropriate posture and positional steps immediately to get away from it. If someone is going for a kimura, I can't remember the last time I had to grab anything to fight it...I immediately yank my elbow down and recover it to the floor before they can solidify the position. So what if they get side control? Give ground and concede position where it keeps you safer from the submission.

I've also never been a footlock fan and don't really teach them much...I steer people clear of guillotines and also some stuff that I've had a couple students recently suffer identical collateral ligament injuries from, such as lasso guards. My advice to a lot of guys I've read through this whole thread is listen to your body better and train less.
 
I injured 2 toes, one on each foot, one of which isn't healing and may require surgery.

This, along with my annual membership expiring next month really make me contemplate quitting.

I just dont have the heart for it anymore after 6 yrs of training. I stopped watching videos when I'm off the mats, could care less about competing or watching competitions, and dont even think about BJJ when I'm off the mats.

Crazy part is, my jiu jitsu is better than ever. I've even developed this killer bottom half guard game where I'm doing things that I never imagined I could pull off like inverted triangles. Yet, when I'm off the mats, I dont have a fire for BJJ and wanna quit.
 
I take at least a good 15-20 minutes after each class to stretch and do mobility drills. It doesn't take much effort or discipline, and it's actually quite fun. And... I'm always the only one to do it, even when there are 30+ people in the class. Training to prevent injuries is somehow inconceivable to most people*.

*It's not specific to BJJ, I work with other physed teachers and they all behave the same.

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Same! It was recommended to me to add that in by a physical therapist to help with all the muscle knots and tension I started to develop. Sometimes wear and tear on the joints is caused by muscle tension pulling on them, so it definitely helps to stretch and do a proper cooldown, I think.
 
We are coming up on the 1st anniversary of this thread. I've reread this thread many times since then, yet the questions and concerns from this thread are still as relevant as ever (at least for me).

I'm curious how the people who originally posted are doing - what changes they made, either mentally or physically, to mitigate the destructive effects of bjj on the body. Perhaps your opinion on the matter has changed altogether. I would like to know.
 
We are coming up on the 1st anniversary of this thread. I've reread this thread many times since then, yet the questions and concerns from this thread are still as relevant as ever (at least for me).

I'm curious how the people who originally posted are doing - what changes they made, either mentally or physically, to mitigate the destructive effects of bjj on the body. Perhaps your opinion on the matter has changed altogether. I would like to know.

Not an original poster on this, but I turned 40 this year. I've been purple for about a year, train 2-4 times a week d.o. work. I've taken off probably 2 injury months in total the last year or so. A week here, three weeks once. All knee stuff. I've just accepted it lol. Other than that I feel great and I like the way I look.

I plan to train forever a la Helio. I've worked out a plan to allow me to do so. Basically I have a floor workout I do that stretches everything I use in jiujitsu.

Whenever I show it to people they swear by it and a couple people have told me to make YouTube videos so who knows lol maybe I will.
 
I'm curious how the people who originally posted are doing - what changes they made, either mentally or physically, to mitigate the destructive effects of bjj on the body.

I had to stop training and now basically can't do anything athletic due to accumulated knee damage. Limited to walking and swimming. Can't even ride a bike.
 
I had to stop training and now basically can't do anything athletic due to accumulated knee damage. Limited to walking and swimming. Can't even ride a bike.

Damn dude. I'm so sorry to hear that - you are a long time r/bjj veteran. If you dont mind can you go into more detail?
 
Damn dude. I'm so sorry to hear that - you are a long time r/bjj veteran. If you dont mind can you go into more detail?

Quoting myself for simplicity:

8 surgeries:
  • 6x lateral meniscus tears, 3 on each knee. 1 repair, 2 menisectomies on each knee.
  • 2x torn hip labrum, 1 each. 1 labral repair each.
  • Bilateral hip arthritis. Right hip - reshaping of the femoral neck and microfracture repair in the acetabulum.

Non-surgical:
  • MCL tear, left knee.
  • Herniated discs in lumbar and thoracic spine.
  • Sternoclavicular sprain
  • Torn ulnar ligament, left elbow.
  • Torn unlar & radial collateral ligaments, both wrists
  • Ruptured inferior extensor retinaculum, both ankles
  • Pulled groin
  • Dislocated big toe.
  • Uncountable finger sprains.
  • 2-3 cuts requiring stitches
  • Staph, ringworm.

Not all of this is from BJJ. I've been doing martial arts since 1999. I often seriously question my sanity in continuing.

The lateral meniscus in my right knee has a deep, large, complex tear, stemming from when it exploded applying a triangle from closed guard. I've attempted a surgical repair but it didn't take. Right now the tear is sort of contained by the surgical anchors installed a 18 months ago. It hurts daily and I'm basically limited to bodyweight movements and sub-90 degree flexion. To put that in perspective, I have to think consciously about my weight distribution when getting up from a chair or else I can stress the anchors in a painful way.

The alternatives for me right now are to have it removed entirely and either attempt an implant (pretty shitty success rates) or just go with no cartilage in my knee. Either way, the expected prognosis is a knee replacement in ~10 years. I would only be 50 at that point, so I'd be looking at a revision of the prosthesis at 65-70 and if I lived much past 80 life would suck quite a lot. All my grandparents lived into their 90's, so that's a real possibility. While it's occasionally unpleasant, the current situation directly extends my time to joint replacement.

For the moment, I'm putting the energy I previously applied to BJJ into my career, non-athletic hobbies (woodworking), and arguing on the internet. It's livable like this, so I'll hold out for a while and keep my fingers crossed that some Korean doctors figure out how to regrow knee cartilage from stem cells. I'll be back on the mats and working towards my black belt six months after that.
 
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https://www.patreon.com/posts/bjj-is-really-to-18386254 Article by Emily Kwok

From me...
Some people ask me why I take extended periods of limited to no training. Here are some reasons...

1. I like being able to get in my car without using my hands to pull my left leg inside. Multiple groin injuries over the years start adding up.

2. I like being able to put coffee cups on the top shelf. Limited shoulder mobility is a thing.

3. I like hiking without the fear of my knee collapsing. Knee surgery on top of multiple chronic knee issues isn’t my fave.

4. I like being able to hold things in my hands. Let’s face it. Our hands and fingers are wrecked.

5. The whole left side of my body is out of alignment from the asymmetry of my training. I need to rotate the tires regularly.

I plan to train for many years to come. 22 years of training and I’m still going strong most of the time. My coaches know I’ve competed with a torn meniscus, groin pulls, bursitis on my elbow the size of a tennis ball, limited movement in multiple joints. It goes on and on...

Time off lets my body recalibrate. It lets my mind believe that jiu Jitsu isn’t a job and that I have to be there every day all day and accept all challenges from every beast and monster.

Time off clears the way to let me become passionate with other things. I crave learning and reinvention. I don’t want jiu Jitsu to become stale. I am bored with my competition game. I am tired of always bringing my a game.

I take time off because I love the jiu Jitsu lifestyle. I love my teammates and the jiu Jitsu community at large. I don’t want to “be done.”


https://www.patreon.com/posts/bjj-is-really-to-18386254
I don't have the years or experience in any martial art compared to you, but don't forget about the good things it brings to you. It may cause your body to tear down to a degree, but it is also probably keeping your overall health much better than if you hadn't started.
 
Do you people just roll with assholes? I've been training on and off for 10 years, and the most serious thing that's happened to me was I strained all three ligaments in my left shoulder, and that was my fault. I have had some instability in both my knees occasionally, primarilly because of heel hooks causing my knees to pop.
 
Quoting myself for simplicity:

describes my worst nightmare

I've often thought about what I'll do when (not if) my body gets too busted up to grapple any more. I'd probably go into chen tai chi or something. At least it's still grappling.

Given that I have some alarmingly similar experiences (though not progressed to your point), do you feel like you could do modest push hands sparring? Or is even that too risky?
 
This is an interesting thread to a non BJJ guy like myself. I'm 37 now and at 30 a friend of mine was telling me how awesome his BJJ training was and that I should join...he was 32 at the time. I've always wanted to learn martial arts and I was seriously thinking about it.

After reading this thread I'm relieved I never went...I would have loved it I'm sure and went all in but I know I'd be hurting. I played sports up until my early twenties and have lifted weights since I've been 14 and I have a bunch of nagging injuries as it is. My right knee is shot. .constantly bothering. When I hit 35 everything started aching and I had to change my workouts drastically. Golfers elbow, old separated shoulder acting up, lower back pain occasionally.

I can only imagine the shape I'd be in now had I joined considering how injury prone I am.
 
I'm 31 and and a black belt and the number one thing I've learned is that too much of anything is bad for you, especially when it comes to grappling, which has wrecked my body more than anything else I've done. I'm relatively young but I've already had 3 hernia surgeries, a scope for a fully torn meniscus, dealt with bursitis in my hip for years plus a bunch of other shit along the way.

These days, I try to incorporate as much variety as possible. On a weekly basis, I like doing Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, Muay Thai, interval training, longer runs, surfing and lifting. I've realized that most of my past injuries came from overtraining in one area and then developing imbalances as a result. I take lots of breaks from grappling too, because I really think that's what has messed up my joints the most. I'm by far healthier and happier than I've ever been in my life, so I'd say it's working. My skills haven't fallen off either. At any moment, I'm only a solid month or so of training away from being right back on top of my game. I'll take that over being constantly injured but slightly sharper on the mat on a day to day basis.

Of course, that's only what I think makes sense for me now. When I was younger and had no injuries, I had to grind daily to build my skillset. Once you're passed the point of diminishing returns though, you need to start picking and choosing more. I only train with a specific purpose in mind now and I pick my battles. I have zero shame in asking a lower belt for a lighter roll when I'm trying to be more careful. I wish I'd done more of that in the past.
 
Do you people just roll with assholes? I've been training on and off for 10 years, and the most serious thing that's happened to me was I strained all three ligaments in my left shoulder, and that was my fault. I have had some instability in both my knees occasionally, primarilly because of heel hooks causing my knees to pop.
How old are you?
 
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