Injury prevention, basic strength and mobility for BJJ

[Brandon Mifsud]

Hi everyone, I've been reading through these forums for a little while now but thought I'd post as my question/situation is kind of nuanced.

 

I'm a former karate/judoka now studying gracie jiu jitsu and am looking for exercise methods to maintain joint integrity and the basic level of strength I've developed from a few years on and off weight training. I have a posterior labral tear in my left shoulder which is now stable and have recently recovered from an L5s1 bulge in my lower back, not sure of the extent of the bulge now but the fact that i can comfortably do BJJ is a massive improvement.

 

I've tried yoga as some legendary BJJ athletes are into it (is said to have benefits for BJJ other than mobility such as breath control) but all that downward dog type stuff seems to really aggrevate my shoulder. I'm not really set on any one training modality, training at home (with or without equipment) would be a plus though.

 

PS. I'd also like to ask for some insight on developing the posterior chain with GST and how it compares to deadlifting/other weighted methods. It was my understanding based on pavel's advice at the end of the naked warrior and just from experience that you can't really develop pulling strength off the floor without actually pulling weights, but then coach went and blew my mind with the 3xBW on first time deadlifting stories he has

 

Thanks everyone!

[Jason Dupree]

The foundation series has some great exercises for joint integrity, but the secret it consistency, patience, and slowly building over time. Connective tissue heals much slower than muscle, so it's trained accordingly.

For the high deadlift numbers, I would be surprised if a minimum of 2xBW deadlift was out of reach for someone who has mastered the single leg squat, arch body holds, and Jefferson curls. Jefferson Curls is cheating a bit cause it is weighted up to 1xBW. But even the first two gave me a huge increase in deadlift strength. With the rest of the strength built with the whole program, and factoring in the tumbling which puts 10-14x BW forces on the body, 3xBW deadlift out of the gate doesn't seem so crazy.