Topic of the week 3

[Ryan]

Flexibility is an extremely important part of BJJ. Here are a list of questions I would like for you to all answer ......

1. How do you remain flexible? If you stretch, do you stretch cold or do you warm up first?

2. Weight training. Heavy training is rumored to make ligaments and tendons less flexible.... how do you weight train to keep everything flexible?

3. Are there any supplements you take to increase or maintain flexiblity?

4. How are your knees and hips? Have you had any injuries and how have you come out of them? Is your flexibility forever hindered or can you bounce back?

[Tallsilkyslim]

Flexibility is an extremely important part of BJJ. Here are a list of questions I would like for you to all answer ......

1. How do you remain flexible? If you stretch, do you stretch cold or do you warm up first?

2. Weight training. Heavy training is rumored to make ligaments and tendons less flexible.... how do you weight train to keep everything flexible?

3. Are there any supplements you take to increase or maintain flexiblity?

4. How are your knees and hips? Have you had any injuries and how have you come out of them? Is your flexibility forever hindered or can you bounce back?

1. I am not the most flexible creature but i think i am better than average. I just always stretch cold while i am watching t.v.

2. I stretch before during and after lifting so i personally haven't noticed a difference since i started lifting more.

3.Glucosamine. I buy little 'soda cans" of it and drink it before class.

4. My left hip right now sucks because one of my training partners threw a 360 degree helicopter heel hook on me and i have been limping ever since.(1 week) Besides that no issues, and i have been drilling a shit load of rubber guard if that makes a difference.

[zaxonortesus]

Nice topic for week 3. I have been working on my flexibility off and on for a while now (2 or 3 years), and have a pretty good system down. If I am cold, I will do dynamic stretches, just to keep the blood flowing and whatnot. Post workout (2 Muay Thai sessions, 2-4 BJJ sessions, 2 regular workout sessions a week now), I have a really nice stretching routine that usually takes about 15-20 min, really concentrating on back and leg flexibility. Since my ankle surgery I have noticed that it has taken my much less time to get back to where I was pre-op, so even injury time off hasn't been THAT big of a hamper to my progress.

I do a little bit of weight training and haven't seen any interference with my flexibility, though I usually do high rep/low weight workouts, working on exploxiding into the reps and really slowly working them back down. My body naturally wants to get big, I was at a 52in chest at one point, and that is when I noticed that I really lost my ability to move. I totally changed my workout up and am now sitting at a 47in chest but am still able to clasp my hands behind my back over/under style.

I was taking glucosamine for a time, but really didn't see any difference, so I stopped taking it, other than that, I am all natural, no suppliments, no protien, no nothing, just a multivitamin since I really hate veggies and need to get my vitamins from something.

Again, good topic, I am curious to see what some others on here have to say.

[LongV]

I like to do lightweight training. I want to put at least some amount of tension in my muscles, but not too much.

[younwha]

[QUOTE=Ryan;54188]Flexibility is an extremely important part of BJJ. Here are a list of questions I would like for you to all answer ......

1. Warm and cold. If I'm just watching TV, or like now just sit in bed doing butterfly stretch with the laptop on my lap.

2. Hmm... I don't really weight train anymore. A lot of pull ups, push ups, abs etc...

3. As my friends like to call it ... 'crack juice' lol long story short some salesman came into the dojo while i was training alone before class, he had an unsealed bottle that looked like a wine bottle. Said hey I have something I want you to try... did some stupid test, and then said drink this it's endorsed by Chuck Norris and 'Conan' the Kickboxer... (chuck norris... if chuck norris endorses it it must be good.. so i drink it).. Yeah anyway he's my dealer of crack juice now. It's called Nutrazol. It tastes horrible but it works wonders on balance and flexibility.

4. I've played soccer and martial arts all my life - so my right hip flexor is pretty screwed up. Apparently the two worst 'sports' on hip flexors are soccer and martial arts... go figure I do both. Still gives me problems.

[jasper_milktoast]

1. depends on if i am just watching t.v. or after working out

2. i lift heavy, i lift light, lift fast, slow, just depends on the day and what i feel like doing. usually stretch after wards as static stretches before hand can lead to injuries during lifting.

3. no supps, all natural.

4. maybe a sore hip flexor, but nothing serious.

[Oneiros]

For my age I am pretty flexible I guess.... considered that I do not stretch except as a warmup before and after training...

I once tore all my tendons in my left knee (ca 5 years ago) but It is okay now...

My hips are good... says my girlfriend :o)

I see that I eat healthy food on a regular basis ....

thats all

[willufc]

1. Stretching is already a warm up for me. I start from light to heavy.

2. I don't do extreme weight training I just do exercise that increase my upper body strenght.

3. Just some supplements that claims to restore torn muscles.

4. Knees and hips are awesome after months of flexibility exercises. Never had any injury. My problem now is my ankle because I twisted it some months ago and it had lump after. After the lump was gone I still feel pain if I move it a further than the center.

[NebS]

Flexibility is an extremely important part of BJJ. Here are a list of questions I would like for you to all answer ......

1. How do you remain flexible? If you stretch, do you stretch cold or do you warm up first?

2. Weight training. Heavy training is rumored to make ligaments and tendons less flexible.... how do you weight train to keep everything flexible?

3. Are there any supplements you take to increase or maintain flexiblity?

4. How are your knees and hips? Have you had any injuries and how have you come out of them? Is your flexibility forever hindered or can you bounce back?

1. I almost always do my stretching cold, mainly because I'm lazy and don't feel like warming up first.

2. If I ever do weight training I stretch the used muscles afterwards (usually), so it doesn't really change anything.

3. No supps man, just patience!

4. My left hip flexor seems kinda screwy at times, and I got this cherry sized pump that's kinda inside my knee, beside my patella. It hurts whenever I run over 1/2 a mile, and I can't go to the floor on my butterfly stretch with it anymore. I don't think it is a result of martial arts though, just a wierd body :p

:D :cool:

[outlawz]

I generally stretch in front of the TV cold... on JJ days I'll do a quick 20 minute cardio warmup and then stretch seriously warm before rolling....

I was lucky since I came from a TKD background and my limbs stayed pretty flexible, hence the easy transition to about 90% of what the RG has to offer...

weight training-I have reduced the massive loads I was trying to lift before and have now concentrated on muscle endurance...trying to lift lighter amounts for much more reps.... Before I was doing 10 sets of 225 for 3 reps. now I do 135 for sets of 18.... Like 3-4 sets.... and stretch after lifting as well...

no supplements now other than protein.... and a healthy dose of darce chokes from superior grapplers.. LOL

[AJ]

1. I only stretch cold on off days.. like everyone else, usually when I'm bored sitting in front of a TV or hanging out with my kids. Otherwise I do light stretching before my jits session and then continue to stretch at periodic breaks during the session (1 minute water breaks or redundant instruction). After free rolling I end with another stretch session, this one tends to have the best yields since my muscles are already fully stretched and warm.

2. I don't weight train.

3. No supplements.

4. I've had several ankle injuries from skateboarding so my left ankle is always tender. Currently, from pulling rubber guard my left knee is a bit tender on the sides... going to switch legs for RG for awhile and really work on stretching my hips more to accommodate it.

[johnnyP]

1. I stretch whenever I think to, I stretch cold and have always been flexible (think of a 260lb d-lineman doing the splits before a game :P )

2. Heavy lifting should only mess with your flexibility if you don't stretch as well, combine the two and you'll be fine

3. I take Animal Flex (I get it cheap), which has glucosamin/chondroitin/msm/bunch of other crap that helps w/ my arthritis and whatnot.

4. Hips are fine, knees are a mess of scar tissue from years of football + arthritis :P
To take care of the knees I do Eddie's "A Crazy Knee Stretch" from MtRG and that has seemed to loosen them up considerably!
As far as forever hindered or bouncing back, it's a matter of time really, you can overcome (almost) anything w/ enough time and doing things right.

[Tagg1080]

Flexibility is an extremely important part of BJJ. Here are a list of questions I would like for you to all answer ......

1. How do you remain flexible? If you stretch, do you stretch cold or do you warm up first?

2. Weight training. Heavy training is rumored to make ligaments and tendons less flexible.... how do you weight train to keep everything flexible?

3. Are there any supplements you take to increase or maintain flexiblity?

4. How are your knees and hips? Have you had any injuries and how have you come out of them? Is your flexibility forever hindered or can you bounce back?

1. I warm up, then stretch every class, but when i am at home i do some cold stretching while doing whatever.

2. I only use myself as a weight, push ups, sit ups, etc... and i believe this keeps our bodies in a healthy zone, of strength and flexibility.

3. I stay away from suppliments, if i needed those chemicals, my body would make them!

4. My knees and hips are fine, from a stretching sense. I have a bad knee, but that does not effect the stretching, or the performance after stretching.

[dialupking]

1. How do you remain flexible? If you stretch, do you stretch cold or do you warm up first?

2. Weight training. Heavy training is rumored to make ligaments and tendons less flexible.... how do you weight train to keep everything flexible?

3. Are there any supplements you take to increase or maintain flexiblity?

4. How are your knees and hips? Have you had any injuries and how have you come out of them? Is your flexibility forever hindered or can you bounce back?

1. I stretch cold while sitting in class, watching t.v. or even typing my blog. I warm up though by doing some jogging before lifting or training.

2. Currently I am not weight training. However in the past I have done the basic Core lifts (Bench Press, Squats, Deadlift, and Power Cleans). Recently I've just done light weights to build muscular endurance. I always stretch out before lifting, and after I shower.

3. Glucosamine is supposed to work, but I don't take any supplements except for a daily multivitamin.

4. I dislocated my patella (floating knee bone) in May of 08. When i dislocated it, I broke off a part of my femur (big bone in thigh) about the size of a nickel. I had arthroscopic knee surgery to have the bone chip removed. It took me a while to rebuild the power back in my knee as well as the flexibility. I am proud to say that all the stretching I do has paid off. I am now able to hit Full Lotus Position (something I couldn't do before the dislocation). This is because of the bad ass stretches in the beginning of "Mastering the Rubber Guard".

My hips havn't faced injury. I still can't get my leg behind my head (I'm just a few inches away ;) ). When it comes to obtaining and maintaining flexibility, all I can say is practice practice practice. I stretch at least three times a day. For instance my achilles is aching today, so I'll stretch it out five times today.