It’s no secret that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is hard on the body and even the most sensible of practitioners will eventually get caught out with injuries. This is because if you train regularly, you’re bound to fall badly, displace a muscle or get your tendons stretched by an opponent at some point.
As many long-term practitioners will attest, very few people make it to black belt without some kind of surgery or injury, and very few continue beyond black belt without further injuries. Whether it’s something major such as an ACL tear or just general wear and tear on your shoulders, sadly when it comes to BJJ you can’t run away from time and at some point you will get hurt.
However, there are a few ways to nullify injuries and the problems they present. For example, the likes of weight training will improve your strength, rest and recovery, diet, and tapping early will all help avoid or lessen the impact of injuries. In saying this, this particular article will not focus on these enhancements and it is instead solely devoted to the benefits of Yoga.
Arguably the best tool in defending your body against injuries – Yoga has been around for thousands of years and is scientifically proven to improve your body. Used commonly in mainstream sports such as soccer and NBA, the benefits of Yoga are clear for all to see. Not only this but due to the physically challenging nature that is associated with BJJ, you could argue that Yoga is even more important than ever if training Jiu Jitsu. Below we shall discuss how and why you should cross train with Yoga.
Table of Contents
Yoga minimizes injuries and muscle tears
Imagine you’re caught in a Banana Split submission. Whilst this isn’t a massively common BJJ submission, it does happen at times and is popular within 10th Planet circles. In brief, this submission operates by stretching the opponent’s groin area and forces them into the splits. It is also sometimes called the Crotch Ripper. Anyway, for those with tight groin muscles and a lack of flexibility in the region, this can be a painful submission.
Whilst it may not break bones, if someone didn’t tap yet should have, then they could seriously pull their muscles and be injured for months as a result. Often people think of month-long injuries like broken bones when often it’s due to pulled or torn muscles.
Now, imagine this same practitioner had done Yoga daily for several years. Now, the Banana Split wouldn’t tap them and they could hold the position indefinitely. The point of this example is to show just how much flexibility can improve your body when fighting against injuries.
It should be noted that the Banana Split is an extreme example, but this often applies to most submissions that attack the bone. For instance, if you had severely tight shoulders then a Kimura could hurt with little bend. However, if you used Yoga to severely loosen your shoulder muscles then you would buy a few more centimeters of time and movement. It may not sound much but over years of training, it certainly adds up and helps defend against getting injured.
The good thing about training Yoga is that you can specifically target your less flexible body parts. For instance, if your hips are tight then you can use Yoga to open and loosen your hips up. Yoga poses such as the Pidgeon and Butterfly pose are commonly used to improve hip flexibility. In short, Yoga can be used to add flexibility to any BJJ practitioner.
Often we think of strong people as strong yet stiff, but that doesn’t have to be the case. By training Yoga for just 10 minutes each day, you can successfully stretch your muscles and improve your flexibility little by little. To add to the simplicity of this, Yoga can also be practiced on a Yoga mat for as little as $8.
Yoga makes faster recovery and greater muscle memory
Going back to the original Banana Split example, imagine your flexibility isn’t perfect and you still don’t tap. This would result in some kind of injury at some point. Whether this is due to your own stubbornness or just an aggressive training partner – the result is that you would get injured. The point isn’t that Yoga will always remove the possibility of injuries, but it is that Yoga can instead lessen the intensity of being injured. For instance, you may get injured and face 2 weeks off to heal your muscles.
This isn’t ideal but is still far better than getting injured and out of training for say 4 weeks. Because of this, lack of injuries is also an important aspect of training for full-time BJJ practitioners. Although injuries are annoying for all, they are especially bad for those who rely on daily training and rely on competing as their main income. With this in mind, there is no reason for anyone to avoid training Yoga alongside BJJ. Whether you’re young old, a professional, or a hobbyist – Yoga offers many benefits for all.
However, this is not the only benefit of training Yoga. Like weight training, Yoga also has benefits based on retaining muscle memory. With weights, muscle memory is based on the idea of your muscles getting trained to pick up certain movements.
This means if you lift heavy for a year and then stop if you return then your muscles will still understand some of the movements which makes it easier to get back to your peak. This differs from someone who lacks muscle memory. Instead of making quicker gains, the weight lifter without previous training would have to start from the beginning.
This idea is also applicable with Yoga. Basically, the idea is that if you practice Yoga and then quit, if you pick Yoga back up again at some point then your muscles will remember how to be flexible again. Of course, this may take time but overall it will make training easier than without any experience. Why is this relevant to BJJ?
It means that even if you quit BJJ entirely, that Yoga can still be continued through to old age. If you’ve trained BJJ for several years, then there’s a good chance that you will carry some kind of injury into the future. This is where Yoga comes into play, as it enables your body to slowly recover and reduce the pain that years of training BJJ may have put onto your body.
Yoga means improved flexibility and guard enhancement
This is somewhat of a bonus mention, but away from injury training, Yoga is also great at helping your guard. For instance, whilst inverting isn’t always necessary, there are also times where it certainly helps you from getting your guard passed. Imagine if you completely lacked any flexibility. In theory, someone could literally just put your legs over your head and the pass would be all but complete.
Now, imagine getting stacked whilst being massively flexible. The result would be that your guard would be much harder to pass. Elite grapplers such as Lachlan Giles have spoken about how flexibility will improve your guard beyond anything else.
Another example that is more subtle is improving your inner hips for Butterfly guard. Imagine lacking any flexibility in the groin area. The result would be a poor Butterfly guard as your knees wouldn’t be able to move very far towards the ground. This means you would be able to get passed far easier than if you had extra flexibility. The idea isn’t that flexibility should be your starting point when playing guard.
Instead, it should be that you can rely on it to effectively add another layer of protection to your guard. Even if it’s only used as a plan B, flexibility is certainly better than having nothing, even if you rarely use it. Arguably, if your guard gets passed less, you’re less likely to get injured too. Often injuries come from getting crushed or submissions getting applied too quickly.
By having an improved guard, these two issues are less likely to occur. In recent times, sites such as Yoga for BJJ have cropped up to help with the growing demand for Yoga in BJJ. This particular site is specifically tailored to cater to those who train BJJ yet want to improve their flexibility.
Summary
In conclusion, Yoga is the perfect supplement when training BJJ. The reason for this is that it helps prevent injury and also lessen the impact of an injury. The result of this is that you will be able to train for years longer than if you chose to avoid using Yoga. Ask any older practitioner at your gym and you will often hear them speak in length about how beneficial Yoga has been for longevity.
Interestingly, Yoga can be seen as the Yin to BJJ’s Yang. Whilst both have similarities in terms of mindfulness and improving your inner health, Yoga is ideal in fixing your outer-body after BJJ has harmed it. Because of this, Yoga for BJJ is an ideal solution for those looking to improve their life on the mats. Even if it’s for 5 minutes after a hard training session, if you start doing bits of Yoga then you will undoubtedly see improvements over time and lessen your amount of injuries too.
