The Shintaro Higashi Show - Fitness for Grappling

Episode Date: April 19, 2021

Fitness and grappling go hand in hand. Being fit will make you a better grappler, and being a better grappler will make you fit. In this episode, Shintaro discusses some of his philosophies and routines he has about fitness for grappling with Peter. Please support us on Patreon if you can: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

Hey guys, how are you doing? My name is Shintaro Higashi and you guys are listening to the Shintaro Higashi Show with Peter Yu. Today we're going to talk a little bit about different training methodologies for martial arts. Right, specifically around fitness. Fitness, yeah. Fitness is huge. Fitness is for everybody. Judo, jiu-jitsu, boxing, kickboxing, that stuff is not for everybody, right? We know this already. A lot of this stuff is marketed as for everybody, but we all know right not everybody can do right certain martial arts because it's very taxing on the body right injuries this and that all those things matter but this is for everybody right so then also it really helps with your

grappling in general right being it's not just about techniques you need a basic fitness yeah so this idea of like the smaller less athletic person can always beat a bigger stronger athlete if they know the martial art there's a little bit of truth to that but there's a little bit of false to that too right because there's certain abilities that can overcome size and strength but right technique and size and strength all these different things are different variables that matter overall. Right. So why not become more fit and stronger, right? Well, yeah, yeah.

Why not become fitter and stronger? And the example that I always, always circle back to is I've done martial arts my entire life, every martial art, right? Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, everything and anything I've done. Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, Aikido, Kar anything i've done my japanese jiu-jitsu aikido karate everything but if i went against the gorilla i wouldn't beat the gorilla right two limbs neck legs very strong gorilla i'm gonna go out there

and try to grip fight or avoid the thing and shooting on the legs that world is gonna grab my wrist and just break it and crush it right No, seriously, right? So it's like there's limits to this stuff. But if you're fighting in the same weight class and you're stronger than the other person, all things equal, those things can help. Sometimes you're in a bad position. Someone has mount or pinning you,

Kameshi Ogatame, you have to be able to bridge and push off. Which requires strength. which requires strength yeah which requires flexibility exactly and you know there was a famous grappler that you know a wrestler right i think it was dan gable says fatigue makes cowards out of all of us oh right so it's like four minutes in five minutes into a match and you're exhausted right and you can't breathe and you can't stand like forget what what technique are you going to be able to use right that is yeah that is dan gables always with like these snippets of wisdom wisdom so catch me on a day where i'm doing uphill sprints and i'm eight sprints and nine sprints

in my legs are shaking and my lungs are burning and you know have somebody with zero experience trying to mug me i don't know if i could protect myself yeah right can you right no anybody you know yeah that's when you can beat ono shohei after his wind sprints up down the mountains and whatnot yeah wind sprints broken arm blindfolded right yeah so okay so maybe we'll start with uh just running like that everyone wants to do how yeah how do you well how do you approach running do you run a lot or you know man i i uh there was a time when i tore my pec and labrum and i couldn't bench i couldn't i couldn't even do sprints because i couldn't bring my arm forward fast enough oh right i decided to run a half

marathon oh nice oh you haven't told me about this oh yeah no no so i ran a half marathon holy cow how yeah how was that did you like train for it or just you know what this is the thing not really like kind of not really like i had never been into long distance running i've hated a long distance run in my whole life i'm not a long distance runner i'm a short burst sprinter right fast touch 2A fibers. I'm very good at that. I'm very naturally gifted in that sense. But I have horrible long-term endurance. So one mile, two miles, I used to suffer through those.

Very embarrassing stuff. People would be like, I ran five miles today. It's like, how could you run five miles? So I decided to train for this thing because I couldn't do anything else. I couldn't really do that much judo. couldn't sprint i couldn't bench so the only thing i could do is go for long slow jogs so i started doing that i think i got up to like six or seven miles and i was like all right this is not so hard and then i decided to run a half marathon and i applied for the lottery the new york city half marathon lottery and I got it for some crazy chance, right?

Because you could either do the lottery or you could qualify by running 11 roadrunner races and volunteering. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a whole thing. I applied for the lottery, just put my name in it. I got selected. Yeah, it was a crazy thing by chance.

And then I didn't really train for it. I never even ran more than six or seven miles and I went into it. And half marathon is how long? 13.1, oh yeah yeah okay geez and man that was brutal how long did it take you it took me a very long time it took me like three and a half hours four hours something crazy i was really really slow man i gotta tell you like i walked a lot of it you know this is the problem i have no experience running this stuff right right you didn't know how to pace yourself and everything i did not pace myself and this is what happened first and foremost lots of excuses here right i was like i gotta remain

hydrated that's what i read online so i took a gallon of water and i started chugging it and drinking tons of water so the race starts boom go right i immediately need to use the restroom i stopped by the first restroom i jog use the restroom i stopped by the first restroom i jog a little bit i stopped by the second restroom jog a little bit stopped by the third restroom right like it was just like the word that you had to use all the restroom stops in the beginning right huge mistake that's an hour right there that's it burned so much time burned so much time and now it's like i'm like going behind behind behind and now you're stuck in this wave of people with the heads bobbing up and down up and down right and then i'm like all right i got to

get through this and i started kind of taking off a little bit trying to like weave in and out and through right right and then i burnt myself out right yeah it was horrible yeah i burnt myself out i got tired so i started walking uh yeah really embarrassing man it was like a failure in every way but let me tell you it was a crazy cool experience because like you're doing this thing i like remember running through central park and then coming down on like sixth avenue or fifth avenue or something like seventh avenue and you're like running towards times square you know oh they're oh that's a different route than the four yeah you know it was like super cool man i tell you. And then I kind of hit a stride.

And then. You got the high? The runner's high? Maybe. I was like listening to music, you know. And I remember I was way in the back. Like I told you, I'm a sprinter. Everyone, I'm a sprinter.

Okay. I'm fast at sprinting. I'm not a long distance runner. I've never. I kind of did this on a whim. I didn't really train. And then I'm stuck next to this crazy overweight woman. Uh-huh. You know?

She's like, has like a leg limp. So she's running sideways. She's like overweight. She's probably like 200 pounds, like running sideways. Wow. Respect. I respect, man. Yeah.

And then I was competing against her. Right? And then there was an old guy. He must have been like 80. Oh, respect. Man. Yeah. And this guy was like chugging along chugging

along and you can tell he's suffering and i'm like suffering but not really i'm like kind of like all right get back into my pace right and then uh you know my goal was to beat those two and i did beat those two so i'm very proud of myself at last you know surprisingly right uh because i had the mishap of having to use the restroom every, you know, five stops or something like that. And then I had to walk because I burned myself out. And then by the time I was, like, getting into my 10th mile, 11th mile, like, I was feeling good. So then I, like, kind of, like, really ran the last bit. And I blew those two away.

And I was very proud of myself. Nice. That's my little half marathon experience. Right. Never again. Yeah. So you don't really run now like you don't i do run i do run oh you do i just don't like long distance running yeah truthfully and i have a lot of ankle mobility issues i have a big discrepancy in the mobility in my both my ankles right because i have a bone fusion in my right ankle

oh because you broke it i don't even know maybe i was born with it maybe i heard it oh yeah so like my right ankle can't really right oh so and then i had knee injuries i had uh articulate cartilage tear in my right left one and i had surgery for that one and i had mcl so it's like and i'm heavy i'm a heavy guy i'm like 205 210 right so it's like between the impact uh my ankle mobility issues and my knee issues and my right me being a heavy guy. I'm like 205, 210. Right. So it's like between the impact, my ankle mobility issues and my knee issues and me being a heavy person, like it's just not comfortable for my knees at all. So I don't really like going for long distance runs. Right.

You know what I mean? And long distance running is not very good for you anyway. I think it's not good for judo, period. Because it's more judo and grappling in general is more sprint oriented i guess like somewhat right so depending on the martial art so this goes back to like knowing what you how you are right and knowing what your goals are yeah if you're doing boxing you need that long distance running that shuffling moving going because you're kind of spending a lot of time bobbing moving bobbing moving and you explode quick shots moving quick shots so it's like

you need that kind of like okay go for a three mile run go for a five mile run go every days to have your wind burning so if you look at these three minute rounds and you do 10 that's 30 minutes you need to be able to keep moving and you know moving around for 30 minutes at a time so you got to go for those 30 minute runs judo the match is four minutes and it's super quick bursts right so if you're a judo player you should be doing a lot more sprints right right right so then you're looking at the anaerobic aerobic sort of ratio if you're looking at brazilian jiu-jitsu it's not as explosive and fast it's a lot more control right restricting movement isometric sort of a thing so different

energy systems are at play all right so if you're doing judo you got to do short fast sprints wrestling short fast sprints right because you need that kind of a thing right and then boxing you got to do a little bit slightly longer running situation brazilian jiu-jitsu and like lots of that nirwaza stuff i think that somewhere it fits in between i see you have to know your sport what you're trying to train for right right and this is the thing if i'm training to lose weight to make a particular weight doing those short sprints are great but the long distance running of where i'm out hitting the pavement for five miles ten miles that's the one that burns the most calories right right it doesn't align with my uh explosive energy systems that i need for judo

right but your goal is different right the goals are different right so a lot of the times if in a perfect world if i had all the time in the world and if i had perfect knees right i would have you know two or three days two days of hard sprinting uphill uphill is a little bit better for me because a little less pressure on the knees right do uphill sprints and i have like a progressive overload program specifically for that and then i'll have you know a running day a long distance running day where i could sort of use to just burn my calories and you know burn as many calories and just for weight management right right i see that would be sort of my approach but if you're a judo player and you have no explosive power like you're just not an explosive athlete you're just naturally a long distance lanky person then you have to develop your judo style for that body type right and if you want

to develop athletic you know boom explosive stuff then you have to do like stadium stairs you know sprints and stuff like that yeah but you know some people just right so you have to know your sport know your goals right right because yeah yeah some athletes like some judo uh judo guys they kind of go for the long grinding style of matches you know like they just yeah tired the other opponent out and then yeah catch them at the end so you have to really think of this way and i've been in training camps and training things and training methodologies where i've had coaches like all right we're just gonna go out there run as hard as we can and then we're gonna do sprints

at the end right and that's good that you can do that you know what I mean but right like it's not the best for you because it's not really designed for what your goals are right it's just for everybody it's like everybody get on the line we're gonna do you know three laps here go boom three laps right all right everyone get on that one do sprints 10 sprints blah blah blah right who's faster who's you know whatever it is like burning your lungs and you know there is merit to that right but i think you know if you're a much more smarter athlete smarter martial artist who wants to be a little bit more efficient in their methods then you have to kind of take a different approach or you have to really question all these different things right yeah this is the thing like if i have knee pain

if i'm doing hard sprints on the pavement right yes doing three sprint three you know three sets of sprints a week is probably good for my lungs and good for my energy system but if i can't barely walk between you know sessions and i can't really do judo, then I'm actually doing more harm than good. Right. Because your primary thing is judo. Yeah. And I did this for years, you know, hard sprints twice a week, like crazy hard where I'm barely walking. Right. And then heavy deadlifts, you know, 500 pound deadlifts and 400 pound squat. And then I'm like, I crippled in my back hurts and I'm going to judo and I can't really get a good workout in. But like, telling me like yeah you gotta push yourself and fatigue yourself and then go into judo and then do judo and you have to train while you're fatigued so

you know you right and then it's like was that really the best thing for me probably not you know that probably did a lot more harm than good it's like little injuries here and there yeah you know and it's like you don't really get quality training that way. And mentally, it's good for you to be able to push through that and be like, I outworked everyone. I'm stronger than everyone. I'm faster than everyone. These guys didn't do what I did.

And psychologically, it makes you, I think, tougher. But it has to be a balance of both. Right. You know what I mean? Those are some of the you know i i think back to those days and it's like wow that's beautiful right get up in the morning and doing you know going for a five mile run and then finishing with 10 hard sprints day doing a morning judo session and then training and working on the technical side

take a nap then go to the gym and deadlift 500 pounds 565 was my max you know yeah those of you who wonder if anybody's keeping track yeah i'm definitely not doing that now but like deadlifting super heavy weight right right getting on the bench 315 pushing that up and then like going to judo at night and throwing down for two hours and at the end of the night you're like man no one you're spent no one i'm just like the king right yeah i'm gonna be the best. Nice. And then the next day, you can't barely move. Yeah. For me, I hate running. I'm kind of like you where I've always been better at sprinting.

Yeah. So I hate long distance running. So I just play soccer on off days. Yeah. That's good. That's great that's great that's another way like if you just try to play another sport that involves running if you want to work on that i guess yeah man you had a great soccer's great because it's the mix of both right you're sprinting you're jogging you're sprinting you're jogging it's like this interval training it's kind of ideal yeah keeps your weight down you know that's a great thing you know as long

as you don't tear your achilles heel yeah exactly i actually i actually got worse injuries playing soccer than judo i it's you tore your achilles heel yeah i tore my achilles tendon i i broke my tooth. It's crazy. And I recently picked up rollerblading because, you know, I couldn't play soccer here. Yeah. I'll probably, hopefully, I'll be back. If you're doing anything to stay fit,

stay fit is good. I think that's the, doing anything is better than doing nothing. So whatever, you know, yeah. The most overlooked exercise ever in all of grappling all of martial arts period is just straight up walking walking oh walking's great because it checks off the list of the weight management side right because it's a weight class sport you know unless you're fighting super heavyweight and you're 350 pounds but even then

right you have an optimal weight everyone has an optimal weight so in order to get to that optimal weight you have to do some form of exercise right and calorie expenditure right and walking is great because you could go super long distance you could burn super so many calories right right burn 500 calories walking an hour oh with zero impact on the body i didn't know that it uses up so much energy yeah man okay yeah great maybe i'm wrong about the 500 calories maybe it's like 300 but depends on the body type depends on the person all this stuff how what the pace you're walking at right but this is the most interesting thing about the walking is that it doesn't trigger a hunger response so if you go out there and do 20 sprints 10 sprints whatever is, now you're just like you burn a ton of calories. You're burning more throughout the day.

Right. Right. Because it just raises your metabolism, but it also raises your appetite. So if you're running with the means of weight management for a specific sport that requires you to be at an optimal weight, right? Now, all of a sudden you're doing sprints, but you're also hungry. So you have to kind of fight that psychologically too. Right. And I always lose that battle. i'm throwing back ice cream pizza it's

like all the best i love that stuff yeah so walking is like really one of the most overlooked because it's easy on the joints man it's easy on the joints to put yourself at a caloric deficit it takes you know i mean it does take a little bit longer than general but like the other exercises but anyone can do it right that other exercises but anyone can do it right that's the thing anyone can do it low impact it doesn't you know you can walk two miles and go to judo and still be good yeah yeah be fresh right yeah so walking is like that's a good point yeah yeah walking is huge that should be a part you know now with these pretty sophisticated trackers on your phone and stuff right 10 000 steps a day that's like five miles

right so it's like that 10 000 steps do you know about that the 10 000 steps is a marketing ploy by a japanese pedometer company yeah but my grandpa had that pedometer from japan yeah he was like yeah 10 000 steps to be healthy was this whole marketing ploy, like 10,000 steps, 10,000 steps. And there's some truth to it. Right. And that's a good sort of metric to see. And, you know, sometimes if you're a sedentary person, like when I have a sedentary day, it's like, oh, man, 2,000 steps. You know, it's like a sedentary day for me.

But, you know, when I have an active day, like if I take the dog out, I take my kid to the park and I'm like, you know, walking here, walking there. And then I parked the car a little bit farther away from the dojo or something, you know, I hit, you know, seven, 8,000 steps. But if I actively try to get over 10,000, I can, you know, with relatively little effort, right. And it's good for my weight and I'm burning mostly fat during that time. Right. So it's like one of the most overlooked things. That should be definitely a part. So if you're really looking to use this sort of cardio-based situation, walking, long-distance running, sprinting, those are sort of the three.

And you don't have to just do one. You kind of have to mix it up based on where you are in your training cycle. But walking every day, that's an easy one. I guess it guess it's yeah i think that's a good point you make i think the the fact like kind of like having an active lifestyle like it was easier for me honestly in new york city because i will take the subway and i'll walk everywhere right yeah you know but i realized that when i moved to michigan you tend to drive more yes yeah that's a huge one yeah i think so now yeah i try to i try not to drive if i could walk and you know like now you roll a blade or roll a blade yeah i mean that's more fun than just walking but yeah i

think yeah they try to do a little crop top yeah exactly with a little yeah and a bandana exactly bandana knee pads and elbow pads oh my god yeah so yeah having a just i guess the baseline has to be raised up a little right like at the last you know try to have more active lifestyle maybe don't take the elevator or you know yeah yeah that's up yeah that's up you know i know this guy like he was really lean and always lean and it's like man what are you what are you doing he always attributed to fast metabolism genetics right and it's like i spent a lot of time with this kid he was a great d1 wrestler yeah he's just so active man he's like never really sitting he's like a restless guy he's like walking back and forth pacing back and forth every time he gets on the phone he's like you know right right

right he's like hey man it's like i'm like i'm gonna go to the store you know you want something he's like kind of like always like that it's like okay he's burning tons of calories right right and that stuff really adds up right right so throw those in you know your training methodologies and you know if you want to hear a little bit about actual hard sprinting and stuff, there's science behind that too. You have to do high-intensity interval training if you're doing judo. Jiu-jitsu, I think it's a little bit different of energy system. So something like soccer might even be more ideal.

Right, right. Right? I see. So now that's the cardio side. I see. So now that's the cardio side. And I know you just mentioned how much you could deadlift. That's impressive. So you lift a lot. You even lift, bro. Dude, man, I was into lifting since I was like 15 years old, man. Oh, wow.

15 years old. Yeah. Always been into lifting. Love lifting. And this is the thing. They're not mutually exclusive, exclusive right you don't have to just do cardio or lift weights yeah you know you could use weights as a means to do cardio like circuit training right we see this thing style like all those like yeah yeah crossfit is like the whole thing is like kind of essentially cardio right right you know so that's a very interesting thing you know and, it definitely should be part of someone's routine. But I've also heard the theory, like this philosophy of like, if you're doing judo, the best training is judo. Right. And I've heard people do that. So when you're talking about like lifting, running, body weight stuff, training, mobility stuff, all this this stuff this is supplemental to your sport

right right right so if you're a wrestler you should be wrestling most first and foremost right and yes you can supplement your conditioning by doing these sprints but it's a supplement at best right first right so you have to wrestle if you're gonna be good at wrestling and i've heard people be like hey you know i wrestle and that's all I do. I develop the strength that I need through wrestling. I don't need to go to the gym. I don't have to go to the gym. I won't go to the gym. But then there's these like philosophies too.

It's like, oh, it's injury prevention. Right. It's working on mobility stuff to where I am strong at the end range of emotion. Because if I ever get put in that situation where my arm is extended and if i try to apply force my shoulder gonna go right right so there's different ideas behind this and also like wrestling and judo and then i guess even vjj like you tend to prefer one side so your body could be a little unbalanced in a way right yeah yeah so you can supplement that with weight lifting yes absolutely because the imbalances always cause injuries right they i you know my cousin

eugene you know him is a physical therapist and he always says two things can lead to injuries right going too hard too fast right right it's one right and then having imbalances right right right imbalance whether it's like my right side stronger than the left, or you favor this or that. Imbalance to where like, oh, the end of the range of the motion is not strong. We're having limited mobility. All these different things, right? Right, right.

You get bunched in that group. So there's a lot of truth to that, you know? Right. You have to really watch out for that. So how do you lift? Do you just lift heavy with us? You know, there are a lot of different styles do you how do you lift do you uh do you just lift heavy with us you know there are a lot of different styles right like you lift yeah a lot of different training styles and a lot of different ideas right you know and i've done the bodybuilder split where

it's like oh chest on mondays you know you're right you're doing 16 sets per body part you know per workout right and then uh chest on monday you back on tuesday you know legs per workout, right? And then chest on Monday, back on Tuesday, you know, legs on Wednesday, take a break, arms. You know, I've done that, bodybuilder split. And there's something to that. You know, you get jacked. Right, right. And even now research says that's actually not the best way for bodybuilding.

Oh, really? Yeah. What do they say? Now say you want to do, you want to get a certain number of sets per body part, right, per week so that's the way they look at it now so as opposed to doing all your 16 sets on monday for your chest right you want to do eight sets on monday eight sets on thursday and get 16 sets for the whole week i see just have to get the the amount like it's almost like the yeah macro whatever yes yes

that's the kind of idea so it's like a push-pull legs split is very popular now right so if i do pushing exercises maybe like bench press and then shoulder presses or whatever it is on monday pull okay like rows and dumbbell rows whatever it is on tuesday and then wednesday i do heavy squats right take a day off and then the next cycle again push-pull legs i go back into that sort of situation where i'm back doing pushes and then you know you could do like incline this time and now i'm doing dips instead of flat bench stuff like this as long as i get 16 sets per body part right like that's another way that sort of you know it's popular much more popular now i have a heart about it

yeah yeah weightlifting i see you know body world. But we're not bodybuilders. Right. Yeah. Right. So hypertrophy training, repetitions 8 to 12. Right. That's not really the most optimal thing if you're trying to gain just raw strength. Right.

Oh. Yeah. So what should we do? That's correct. So that really depends on you, your body type. Right. Weight management, optimal body thing if you think about for instance like pull-ups right right if you think about pull-ups and if

you're doing a pull-up and you're holding the at the top of the motion and you're squeezing right like that's an isometric contraction that's very good for judo think about it right right right i mean that's a portion of it right so like grabbing like for in brazilian jiu-jitsu there's more of this because you're have someone in closed guard you're pulling their head down you're holding tight you're squeezing your lat that's an isometric contraction right so there's more of that in brazilian jiu-jitsu less of that in judo right now all of a sudden if you want to think lifting for judo right okay we got to do the deadlift but what is the most explosive exercise that you can kind of think of? Okay, cleans and snatch.

So, oh, you want to progressively overload that. And then people naturally tend to think, the more I can clean, the more I can snatch, the better I'm going to be, the more explosive I'm going to be, the faster I'm going to be for judo. That's sort of like kind of the mentality. And some people think, oh, that's what I should be doing. And I've had tons of trainers be like, oh, judo is an explosive sport oh judo is an explosive sport cleans snatch go right right but this is the thing i don't have the mobility to be able to do those exercises oh especially like what's the other call snatch snatch yeah that's really hard on your shoulder very very technique heavy these lifts right yeah so i've had you know oh you have to do hand cleans i mean those are olympic

sports by them like yes they're all yeah you know and in fact coaches tell me this and i'm like okay and i'm in the gym freaking ripping you know hand cleans and things like that when i didn't have the proper album mobility my lat is so tight so i can't get in proper rack position and i'm just throwing weight up and it's like oh man you know you know, like I can go a little bit heavier. Now I'm loading onto this structure that's in balance with improper form. And yeah, I'm getting weight up there, but it's not really good for me because it's adding to the level of stress to my body, uh, on top of this, like sort of faulty foundation. Right. And it's really not doing me any good. I i see right so you have to know your body you have to know your limits all right you have to have specific goals and then if you're

lifting with this idea of okay i want this goals that goals you have to have like a progressive overload system to where you're little by little right and you have to like plan in rest days to be able to recover so by the way i'm not an expert everyone i'm not a physical therapist i'm not a personal trainer this is all just like me as a hobbyist and enthusiast you know i'm a huge advocate for lifting running and all this stuff but i have no like formal you know real formal training i've spoken a lot of experts a lot of experts so i think i know what i'm talking about but you know correct me if i'm wrong right yeah which it will we'll have eugene on at some point to talk about this yeah you can probably correct me actually shantara

research shows you know he lifts a lot too and he's very into all the mobility stuff and he's a he's got a doctorate in physical therapy so yeah yeah the lifting is you know it's nice and i've heard people say these isms of like right i'm benching in the gym heavy and then you know it's nice and i've heard people say these isms of like right i'm benching in the gym heavy and then you know i heard people tell me like why would you ever barbell bench in judo you always always push with one arm or the other so you should only use dumbbells when you're benching it's like i've heard that stuff before and it's like is that really true probably not you know i actually i kind of did that because i remember when we used to go to the gym together i only did dumbbell benches yeah

because i thought that the idea was that you know you have to use more small muscles to like balance things and i thought there's a little bit of truth for that you know what i mean but you know if you really try to develop pushing power and yeah you know, if you want to gain mass first and lift heavy weight and then start working those ancillary pieces in, right? So it's like there's both sides of the coin on that, right? There's no right answer to this. So you really have to know yourself and then do that fits your body type. Yeah, you got to fits your body type yeah you gotta fit your body type yeah right so like i used to love doing heavy bench and then you know repping out with dumbbells

afterwards like a superset sort of a situation right right you know and even if you're like getting you know a little bit more technical on the lifting side like let's looking at the bench it's like okay you know you could focus on the negatives right so that's a little bit different like you could right concentric versus eccentric contractions right right slowing the person down versus like exploding into the person right it's similar idea right and you don't want to create too many imbalances by just benching and then it affects your posture judo's already an internally rotated sport right you know and there's all these things that can potentially confuse you people say things like judo is a pulling sport why would you work on your pushing movement it's like when you're trying to cut someone's hand off

your gi we're trying to create distance you're gonna push right i've heard coaches tell me that it's like why are you benching you don't push judo it's like you don't push in judo it's the same ism in boxing is like don't punch with your arms punch with your legs don't punch don't use your arms to punch you ever heard of this one i i always i i mean i've heard that you you gotta like you know switch kind of twist your leg and then from your head i get it yeah they're talking about like the kinetic chain you have to push off your feet you don't want to just punch like this using your arms right right it's like don't use your arms it's like that's just the dumbest thing i've ever heard i mean yeah you have to be stronger and it ends the yeah right that's the end of the kinetic chain like that's the one thing that makes contact

you can't not punch your hand so all right so i'm gonna try to simplify it for everybody in terms of yeah i'm already confused with all the things i'm just confusing everything this whole episode is all confusing it's right there's a lot out there yeah so what's your like condensed like yeah condensed versions obviously compound movements are key. Compound movements. What are compound movements? So it's like not just using one joint, right? So you can isolate a muscle like a bicep curl.

It's just one joint here, the elbow joint here, and you're just using your bicep. That takes forever. Work the bicep. Work just this pec. Right. Work just this quad, right? So you want your body to work together in these compound movements. So like squats, bench, pull-ups, deadlifts, right? And then really focus on mobility. Mobility is key,

right? Some people are just naturally inflexible, right? Or not mobile. So you have to work on mobility. And then I say, yeah, stick with the staples you know uh squat bench deadlift pull-ups right then that gets easy do weighted pull-ups things of that nature focus on the negatives right slow down high up fast stop slow down fast up right i see yeah all these different methodologies and you know you can start slow you can start with bodyweight exercises right doing squats doing pull-ups doing push-ups right that alone covers majority of your muscles right so the compound movement yeah so because we want like whatever what they call like functional strength right yeah yeah and then

although you're moving on these planes right right you're doing a lot of these exercises like even now okay let's just say squat you're a little bit more advanced beater let's do plyometrics jumps onto the box like now you're exploding off right yeah that's great and all but you're never really moving on just one front when you're grappling you're twisting you're turning yeah yeah or right stabilizing right and you're always turning one side a little bit more and all these different things so you kind of have to train those movements too you know so the best way to train those things is actually doing the sport right yeah you're right an increase in the range of motion is important to being strong at the end range of the motion is important right i'm just keeping confusing everybody well let me let me try to paraphrase

so that you know uh make sure i understand and hopefully i can put it more simply. So you focus on the big, like, compound movements. Don't try to do all those, like, isolated things too much because that's really for bodybuilders who want to really work on specific muscles to make them look good, right? Yeah, but, you know, if it feels good, you do it. Right. I always do bicep curls. I love it.

Oh, yeah. Mental for me. You want that. Mental for me. I it feels good, you do it. Right. I always do bicep curls. I love it. Oh, yeah. Mental for me. You want... Mental for me. You're like that. I want big arms, man. Yeah. I want big arms.

I know it has zero carry over to judo. Right. But it makes me feel good when I have big arms. You like that pump, like Arnie Schwartz. I do. Arnie Schwartz, like I said. Yeah, and having a pump in my bicep yeah it feels better than having a pump anywhere else no it's just it's very mental for me right you know so it's like

so you say you so focus on those and if you make it makes you feel better you know just do work those know yourself is my my first and foremost know yourself know your goals know yourself know your goals they go into the gym and then having someone write out a plan and then you know doing a push pull leg split right and this many sets and counting in progressive overload and that that might not help you you might not be a very regimented person right then you're never gonna stick to that thing right so you have to know yourself first and foremost that's kind of what happened to me i like you know when i first started lifting in like high school or sports they always told me oh i think a lot of these people got the idea from bodybuilding which makes sense they're like the experts in lifting yeah and then they're like yeah push

pull days and whatever but as the as i got older i like, I don't have time to go to the gym every day of the week. And a lot of times I would miss pull days and push days. So I just started doing everything in one day. All body. I'll just do. Yeah, you can do that. Yeah. I'll do bench, squat, pull-ups, and a little bit bit deadlift if i have time and that'll be it

yeah yeah it's one of our so here's another split upper lower split upper body day lower body day right so you don't have to go every day you can do an upper body day and then during the upper body day you're trying to do right and then also rep range is important right right so if you want to do get stronger right you want to do lower rep ranges, hypertrophy, higher muscular endurance, 12 to 20 reps. Right. Right. So that's kind of a thing.

What do you do? Right now, I'm not really on a program. You know, I'm just getting over the Rona. So I'm not on a program. But just the most recent program that i was on was a upper lower split right and you know i used to have these like grand aspirations of deadlifting 600 you know and squatting 500 and you know benching 400 that was like my aspiration 654 right dang but like that's a lot of a lot of weight yeah but i'm like nowhere near it now like i

kind of given up on it truthfully right you know and heavy squats always kind of screw up my back because i have a big imbalance in my like hip also because of the way my ankles are so the length of my leg is a little bit different so like when i load the weight on my back it's like i think my pelvis is almost tilted you know i see and you can't really notice it and i don't feel it on a day-to-day basis but when you load in your back with 400 pounds and then you're not squatting with perfect form with lots of asymmetries it's gonna freaking start wearing you out right you know and it's gonna cause a lot of issues right and i used to just try to tough it out try to tough it out and then i threw out my back once and then i threw out my back twice and then it's just like this a lot of issues. Right. I used to just try to tough it out, try to tough it out. And then I threw out my back once

and then I threw out my back twice. And then it's just like this never ending cycle of like trying to fix myself, you know? So right now I'm focusing on mobility. I'm doing a little bit more stretching. Yeah. And I do believe like that with the proper training,

with the proper consistency, you can overcome a lot of these issues and still be heavy, lifting heavy and doing all these different things but there are genetic limitations too so unless i like truly focus on it i can't really make these changes and i know this about myself i see i mean and it's not that important for me right to lift 600 pounds it's not anymore right asked me five years ago i was gone ho about it yeah right yeah i remember you're yeah yeah you have lifting real heavy

big into it big into it so like right now i don't really care about it and right now i kind of have different priorities right but if you're training for a sport they really need to be squatting 400 pounds right right not really you know what i mean and and for me, I mean, since the pandemic started, I couldn't go to the gym. And also, you know, I just didn't have enough time. So I just started doing push-ups, all the body weights. Like I've got to pull up by home so that I can just knock it out. Well, you think that's enough? I just do push-ups and then just like air squats and pull-ups.

Yeah, so you know what for, right? Like if you're cooped up in the house and you're working from squats and pull-ups. Yeah. So, you know, what for, right? Like if you're cooped up in the house and you're working from home and you're getting a PhD from home like you, right? All sometimes you just need mentally is to just get your heart rate up. Yeah, yeah. You know, because now all of a sudden your heart rate's up, your endorphins are going, now you feel good, right? It's very human nature to have to exert. We used to have to go out and hunt right right gather our food so we need to expend in order to consume right right right now it's like you can order

seamless and the food is that you know what i mean before it's like oh i need i need a source of calories like this is long long time ago i need to find an apple right right how long are you gonna look for an apple like the expenditure it takes to get this small apple, which is like 100 calories versus you could literally expend zero calories and consume 2,000 calories of pizza instantaneously. It's a different type of a world that we live in.

Right. We're designed to expend. It's part of our human nature. For you to be like, I'm cooped up. I've been studying all day. Let me bang out freaking 20 pull-ups or something, get my heart rate up, do some squats, and then feel good and feel like a human. Yeah, yeah. That's perfect for what that is.

Right. And it's good. It's maintaining, right? Yeah. There are people who just never do pull-ups. You're way ahead of the line for that. Right. for that right but are those skills when you're doing pull-ups here and they're gonna carry over to you throwing someone with tayo throwing someone with a sort of gary you know being able to fly

through people you know at these dojos in patricia like is it gonna carry directly over probably not but it can hurt right it'll right yeah i did also get from fuji yeah the the pool the the uh courts or yeah good bands yeah so i yeah i do like you know solo which comey is here and there too this is such a foundation of mental health right i mean and then you know getting into mental health like i have my ideas about this stuff but like right diet exercise and sleep like those are the three pillars of health right if you don't have that anything outside of that like if you have three pillars of health right if you don't have that anything outside of that is like if you have to have those three together if you're gonna have good mental health first and foremost diet exercise and sleep right you know what i mean and this this

is my issue a lot of times like i don't feel good whatever it is okay are you sleeping well no okay you gotta fix that right oh you know i sleep well and i exercise but i feel horrible right so what's the missing piece of that pillar right once you have all those three together like You got to fix that. Right. Oh, you know, I sleep well and I exercise, but I feel horrible. Right. So what's the missing piece of that pillar? Right. So once you have all those three together, like tight and perfect, and then you can start, okay, maybe something's wrong. Yeah.

You know, but like, that's sort of my idea. And fitness, huge part of it. Everyone should be doing this stuff. Right. Right. So right now, if you're training for something, you have to have different training methodologies. But right now, you're not training for anything.

Right now, you're living a relatively sedentary life. You're not walking everywhere like you did in New York. You're not playing soccer Tuesdays, Thursdays. You're not coming to my dojo Monday, Wednesdays, Fridays. But you have to do something to keep your mind sane. You know what I mean? And then when you exercise you could sleep better yeah i i that's so true i get you get restless i guess that the energy hasn't been spent so i guess you're yeah yeah and you know there's a very very strong link between like i said everyone i'm not a scientist yeah but there's a very very strong link between

sleep and diet right so if you don't sleep you're much likely to crave sugar and high energy foods to get that to make up for that lack of energy right i see right so it's like okay i didn't sleep well uh you know and then your willpower is kind of depleted i'm craving sugar to make up for that day i'm gonna eat this ice cream and i don't really feel good now i'm not gonna go work out i didn't work out so i can't sleep now you have going through this vicious cycle right right you do that for three months and you wonder man i don't really feel good right you know right it's like why don't you feel good right you're not doing anything that you're supposed to be doing as a human as an animal right now we're animals first and foremost right yeah yeah and and you're saying

you know you don't have to do anything drastic to break out of that cycle maybe you just go for a walk a little start small and then yeah start small that's that's that's the most overlooked thing right walking anyone can do yeah you know what i mean and we kind of do it unnaturally just naturally we just do it you know but yeah we're built like that we're built to walk like that yeah yeah so you know fitness right right uh so yeah yeah to answer your question i think yeah that's great you know bang out some push-ups bang out some pull-ups don't overdo it you know focus on stretching do this do that and you rollerblading that's good yeah you know that's all i'll do i i'm now i'm i think soccer is opening up so i might try to join a like a little league yeah yeah i do miss it you look healthy yeah i i think i i was heaviest during the peak of the pandemic i i and

i really had to i remember i i drank a lot of beer because I had like nothing to do. Yeah. Because, you know, during the pandemic, you know, everyone thought it was going to be over in a few months or something like that. Yeah. It's like, ah, just to this time drinking beer. I think a lot of people did that. Yeah. It tastes good.

But then at the end, like I weighed myself and I was like, holy cow. I had never been over 170 pounds in my life before the pandemic. Yeah. And then I like cleared it very quickly so yeah i cut out beer and that really dropped it really well i mean and then trying to yeah pull up definitely do a diet exercise diet uh episode diet episode two yeah yeah that that's a little bit more you know i got we got to get a dietician in here yeah yeah i remember like i i you know my wife's a doctor so i asked her and then she

said there's no one she just says no one knows what the best way is like it's so complex yeah that's one of my philosophies in life too, man. No one knows anything. Even the experts. Yeah. They're all trying to make educated guesses, I guess. The best guess. Yeah. Doctors too, man. It's like, you know, not to talk bad about doctors, you know, I'm not doing that. But it's like a lot of the times when I have consulted them about, you know, issues about injuries and this and that. It's like, you know, it's not a very full, right?

Physical therapists a lot of the times have better insight into the mechanics of the body. You know, you go to a primary care and he's like, hey, man, I have elbow issues. They're like, okay, let's take an x-ray. Let's see what happens. Oh, yeah. Get an MRI. Go see an orthopedic surgeon. Bye.

Like, they don't really know. You know what I mean? They say, yeah, just don't do judo for a couple weeks. Oh, that's the cure? It has nothing else to do with anything else? You know what I mean? They say, yeah, just don't do judo for a couple weeks. Oh, that's the cure? It has nothing else to do with anything else? You know what I mean? Like, how do I make it better then? It's like, oh, just rest it.

Rest it and let the muscles around it atrophy? Like, what about, you know, you have to load the tendons for it to recover. Like, you know, like, don't even get me started on that. I get so mad about it. You know, it's not like, oh, doctors don't know anything. Of course they know some stuff, right? They had to go through this crazy rigorous training. They study all this stuff.

They know more than me for certain. Yeah. Right? But something specific to injuries. Like, for instance, cauliflower here. You know what I mean? Yeah. You know how many doctors told me some, like, wrong stuff about that?

You know, like, I've had doctors, like, primary care doctors, like, what the hell is is that thing i've never seen that right so what do you mean you've never seen this before you gotta you gotta go to the right experts i think you know dude i had a doctor one time telling me like my my cauliflower you're on the right side right it's a nice little deformed thing he's like yeah oh yeah when the blood drains it'll just go back to normal i'm like really uh really like yeah it's soft it's just blood it'll just go back to normal i'm like that's not true right and i um my my wife's a dermatologist so they actually learn about it a little i think of good because it's skin and i remember i was so happy. I think I sent you guys a photo from her textbook. I was so happy when I saw that.

I don't really have it, but I would love to. Yeah, I don't even know. I think that's another thing. Not all people get it. Some people get it really easily. You have a very pretty one. I have a perfect cauliflower.

I know. That's the ideal it's kind of cauliflower i have it on here but it's this one's kind of annoying because it's more in here oh so you can't really put that that's why my earbud is not in this one oh i see it's a whole thing yeah yeah but i think yeah we our bodies i think the constant theme is our bodies are very complex so you try to know yourself. But at the same time, don't overcomplicate your regimen. Don't overcomplicate it.

The best regimen is the one that you stick with. Yeah. That's really the key. And you can't just talk about fitness and training without talking about diet and sleep. Right. Right. And if your goal is grappling, then you have to do grappling. Right.

And I hear, listen to this one. This is another one I hear. Hey, I'm thinking about getting back into judo, but I got to get in shape first. I'm going to go to the gym every day instead. Oh, I see those posts a lot on Reddit. Dude, it's like, you want to do judo, go freaking do judo. Right. Whatever you're doing in the gym that you think is good for judo is probably not good for judo right just get in the room and go do judo right of course like

there are exceptions if you're morbidly obese and you can't get out of bed then you have to be able to physically be able to come into the dojo first right right but if you want to do judo go do judo you know and then find a good instructor that's going to keep you safe and then tell them about your issues so then they can kind of watch out for you and protect you and finding the right dojo is paramount because if you go to a dojo full of killers and no one cares about you they're going to injure you right right right right so then it goes back to the all the topic we talked about yeah yeah so then so i guess yeah then uh uh before we close let's talk about that side i guess like we've talked a lot about the supplemental training yeah um so but like you say a lot of

people approach martial arts yeah judo bjj boxing whatever uh as a form of fit uh as a way to stay fit or become fit. That's a good question. How would you recommend people approach that, martial arts as a fitness routine? Here we go. People, I said know yourself first and foremost. There's some people that don't like going to the gym. Some people are just not intrinsic and motivated enough to learn any of this stuff and go bench and bench incredibly boring

right right and they just can't do it running terrible i'll listen to a podcast like oh man this is boring yeah right and then some people like the gamification of sports right right and now all of a sudden you're not really thinking about like calorie expenditure and like energy system you're just kind of doing it right the goal is to put this ball into that hoop now i'm like running around trying to do it and in the meantime i'm like jumping running moving things of that nature similarly with martial arts if you join a dojo like a good dojo right there is going to be some portion of the class dedicated to that kind of conditioning not much of it but some of it right and actually learning the skill you're exerting right doing this stuff and trying to

execute the moves against someone that doesn't want to there's resistance therefore you're building on that right right right so that's why a lot of the people are like hey i'm here to get fit i can't go to the gym i don't like running running. I want to get in shape. And then I want to also learn a skill at the same time. Right. Right. And there has to be a class sort of dedicated to that because that's the majority of the people. Right. Right.

Right. If you're running a dojo. So if you're one of those people that wants to get in shape by doing martial arts, God bless you. Go do it. Yeah. Right. Oh, I'm going to start running first and lifting first. No, go do it. Use that as a means to get do it. Right? Oh, I'm going to start running first and lifting first. No.

Go do it. Use that as a means to get in shape. Right. Do you, at KBI, do you have a, how do you structure the class for those people to, just for the audience? I mean, I obviously know how it's run. Yeah. Yeah. So seven to eight is beginner and intermediate.

8 o'clock, the beginners go home. 8 to 9, we do all live. And then that's sort of invite only, right? That's kind of the way we run it. So 7 to 8, first 10 minutes, stretching, exercises, basic push-ups, running, jogging around the dojo. Okay, so now you're already working out. You're putting into account mobility work. A lot of the times I make Eugene do it because he's an expert at this stuff right right break falls going down

right important skill in judo right slightly cardio wish yeah it is it is yeah it is you get winded at the end of that yeah uchikomi yeah also cardio you're exerting yourself you're learning a skill you're trying to reinforce good habits and try to break bad habits obviously right right and then it's sort of ritualistic we learn and now all of a sudden we're doing nagakomi you're doing it fast you're doing it explosively it's almost like plyometric training right similarly nirwaza and now we do grip fighting now there's a little bit more tension a little bit more resistance right we do live portion of the class that's just you know nirwaza mostly for the beginners and intermediates and then at the end we do some sort of conditioning exercise okay one minute on the clock burpees

that's sort of my favorite go-to right because that's a nice one because if you're exhausted already you could kind of dog that you could go at your own pace and that's what it's for i'm not there to like be a drill sergeant and make everybody ah you gotta do this you gotta spread because that causes injuries right that causes injuries and then that causes people to overexert themselves and not be able to train the next day the day after and they can't get fit then yeah yeah because that's the worst thing right pushing yourself too hard too soon now all of a sudden i'm not talking like a-level athletes here i'm talking about like just an average general population right gen pop i like the right so the burpees are good and then sometimes we'll do two sets.

Sometimes we'll do three sets. One of my favorite things to do is four-minute push-up challenge that Martin Rooney came up with. You have four minutes to do as many push-ups as you can. I like that one. Yeah, it's a great one. So you kind of know, and you take breaks whenever you feel like taking a break, and you see how many you can do, and you have a baseline. Of course, you don't want to jump right into it because then if you've never done push-ups before you're gonna

be incredibly sore right right but it's also kind of go at your own pace design your own situation so i like to tell the beginners your job is to get here and then right as long as you get here you will burn you will exert you will train you will be fit right and then i'm not gonna kill you because a lot of it is go at your own pace right do what you can you feel good you do more you don't feel good you do a little less but you still did the uchikami you still do the stretching you still did the cardio you're still doing some sort of push-ups or whatever right strength-based thing so that's like an overall one hour almost fitness class but you're learning a technique because you're learning from me right the best and that's good because once they you know beginners start coming and they get

more fit and more fit yeah and they'll probably want to you know push themselves a little more and more yeah that's that's the and it's a good litmus test for me yeah with the one minute burpees at the end yeah because now i'm one i'm not doing it you know yeah i'm watching to see who's pushing themselves right who wants to do it so the people who i see day in and day out they're dogging it yeah and then they're coming to me and saying i want to compete i'm gonna say i'm thinking yeah no you're not right right right because you're not working hard and then i could see sort of the psychological profile this person thinks they're working hard but i'm watching them and they're always dogging the burpees there's a discrepancy there yeah yeah how they actually are

and how they think they are right right right that person is that kind of person yeah do i address it do i tell them do i try to coach them to be better maybe maybe not depends depends on person how invested i am right right what does this person want what is it there for do i care about them is this person worth me putting that time in versus you know the peters and the heeans and the clappers and all the other people who i'm already invested in who all already care about right right right so it's a great litmus test that something like that i think is huge you know all that stuff is uh yeah that's that's that's my approach in the dojo for getting in shape and having sort of that fitness thing i see yeah yeah that's a good structure so yeah then

yeah i think that that was a good overview um on how to you know weave in fitness into your grappling uh so keep it simple just try to be more active yeah you know don't exert yourself too much that's yeah all and then do grappling i guess at the end of the day yeah yeah grapple man right you have to grab that's what we're all here for right yeah exactly we're just naturally grapplers so um any uh any closing words for the audience no thank everyone for listening you could always reach out to me and peter through instagram and such follow us subscribe to us please share this podcast if you like it and uh yeah that's it oh i i do want to mention uh i don't know if i mentioned it earlier but we did hit 10 000 downloads yeah thanks for your support yeah thank you so when that that get keeps us

going and hopefully for the next 10 000 yep yeah all right thanks for listening and stay tuned for the next episode