The Shintaro Higashi Show - Judo Fit

Episode Date: July 11, 2022

What does it mean to be "fit" in Judo? Can you become fit just by doing Judo, or do you need to be fit to do Judo? In this episode, Shintaro and Peter delve into the idea of "Judo fit" and the relationship between fitness and Judo. Please support us on Patreon if you can: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

Hello everyone, welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi Show with Peter Yu. We're going to talk this idea of judo fit. Fitness and judo, we've done a grappling, fitness, judo sort of situation before. But this one's going to be kind of unique because I get this question all the time. I want to get in shape, that's why I'm going to do judo. Or should I get in shape first and then start judo? Yeah, I was about to ask that, yeah. People have this question to me all the time, get that all the time right yeah so judo fit is uh it's not about like how how good you look in

your gi it is a little bit so it's not like i guess it's about understanding fitness first because people come in and say hey i want to look yoked up i want to look like this and then a lot of the times it's like doing judo is not going to make you look like that notice the big biceps notice the low body fat percentage just straight up doing judo is not going to help you get that physique right so people really ask you that like say hey i want to look like a great god can i do that by doing i got i got honestly i got a dm and instagram like literally three days ago like hey guy uh you know i'm 165 pounds like six foot tall i want to build muscle i want to look like this guy in the judo thing i think he was like iliadis or something

he's like how can i can i look like i've been you know like what is the nutrition program or like what is the weightlifting program and you know usually i don't really go into it so much with these people right right right so i get questions like that all the time because at the end of the day people associate these martial arts with being in shape i mean it's not that it's not gonna get you in shape but it might not make you yoked up like that yeah yoked up and then you know people have this mentality of like if i go to judo and do hard judo five nights a week i'm gonna burn a ton of calories but really though you know right yes you'll burn calories but it's like compensatory what is the word compensatory where you compensate and eat.

And you got to eat to – Well, because this is what happens. Like you have this high-intensity interval training type workout where you're sprinting over and over and over and over. So now all of a sudden it triggers a hunger response and then you eat more. Majority of the time, because of the nature of the timing of judo practice, usually later in the evening, 7 to 9, there are certain people that do that kind of a workout and they're like, oh man, I feel nauseous afterwards. I can't even eat. I'll drink a protein shake and I'll call it and go to bed. That person will get lean from judo if they go five days a week. Right.

But I'm not really like that. I'm not either. I got to eat. But I'm not really like that. I'm not either. I got to eat. If I expend 800 calories in a two-hour judo workout, dude, I am going and eating 3,000 calories.

That's just how I am. Obviously, depending on whether I have to make weight, all these different things matter. But you have to kind of know your body. So let's kind of dig deep into that question of if I do judo, would I become fit and look better or whatever? It will help. It will help. But it's only like 30%, 40% of it.

Because there's a big portion of it that how you're going to look is what you eat. That's a big percentage of it. You can't just do judo and get in shape. You can't just lift weights and be in phenomenal shape. You can't just eat perfectly and then be jacked. It's all a thing that works together. It's like a homeostasis of eating properly, sleeping properly, and working out. And all your workouts in line with how you want to look that's sort of the key you know so if you want if you want to look like iliadis i mean he

does more than just judo right he he does a lot of weight training he eats right i mean yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so i see how about the other question uh i i see this a lot even on reddit like they'll say oh i'm i'm i'm this tall like five nine but i'm i'm like overweight um can i do bjj should i try to work out more before coming into judo like try to lose weight get into shape and people just kind of reply to those questions by saying oh you just go in go in and do it you know you you're never gonna otherwise you're never gonna do it but i feel like yes that is the right attitude but they kind of miss it's it's missing a lot of context and nuance missing tons of context because

if you're not healthy enough to do it, and you do it, and you get hurt, you're going to be in a worse place. But this is the thing. Someone's like, my goal is to reduce body fat percentage, which has the most immediate impact

on how someone looks aesthetically. I know how I look carrying 10 extra pounds of fat versus me not carrying 10 extra pounds of fat. I know the drastic difference in how like my face looks and how my entire overall, I look as a human being, you know? Yeah. So if someone's like, hey, my goal is to lose fat, jiu-jitsu is great. But don't be the spastic white belt that just goes crazy hard and intense because you feel

like you're burning calories, but that's not the right type of cardio that you want to be doing. If you can, slow roll, flow roll, just constant movement for two hours. That's the most amount of way you burn the most amount of calories, the best possible method to burn the most calories. So that would be a much more advisable methodology. And then if that's your goal,

to burn as much fat as possible, and you're going to use jujitsu as a tool or judo as a tool to do it, going into a combative Vandori situation where you could potentially get hurt and you can't do it the next day, that's actually going to hurt you. Right.

Or if you go too hard on Monday and you can't work out on Tuesday because you're too sore, you lose a day. So it's almost better to reduce the intensity and reduce the risk and then kind of do this slow, lots of uchikomi, lots of movement, lots of slow cardio kind of situation. You're doing two hours or an hour and a half or whatever it is. Your hunger response is not triggered.

You can recover from that pretty easily. And then you can do it five days a week now you're getting somewhere but no one who's teaching martial arts you know kind of has this mentality because when you're teaching martial arts the goal is to learn martial arts right the majority of the people talk like hey you know am i going to get in shape doing martial arts the answer is yes you will you know what i mean but it's like i don't really know like how the training has to be differentiated in order for someone to reap the main benefits of what they actually want to do yeah i guess that this what you just said reminds me of um like boxing and fitness boxing yeah dude you dude. Fitness boxing is the best.

Cardio kickboxing, the best. Look at it this way. That's why boxers are usually shredded. They have low body fat percentage because, first of all, it's a weight-restricted category. You have to make weight, so you have to bring your weight down. What do you do first thing you go?

You go for road work. You do running in the morning. They don't do sprints. Some of them do, but the majority of them don't do sprints. They do long, slow cardio to keep the weight down. Like the movie Rocky. way they don't do sprints some of them do but majority of them don't do sprints long slow cardio to keep the weight down like the movie rocky you know around the city kind of thing yeah maybe he runs up a thing of stairs and you know but that's like weight management majority of the

time weight management mindset stuff you know that kind of a thing and then you get into a boxing gym it's like all right warm up what do you do three rounds of jump rope three rounds of shadow boxing you know three rounds of mitts three rounds of hitting the bag it's all like slow steady state cardio you know it's not like and then even the even when they spar they don't go all out right they just more like yeah they're not swinging for the fences for 10 minutes straight yeah you know they're not right right they're not like in a locked up thing where you're like they're sprinting and scrambling for 20 minutes they don't do that it's like a little short burst moving here adjusting here moving away

lots of like slow steady cardio I'm not saying that's better boxing is better for your fitness than judo or wrestling or grappling I'm not saying that but for the general public I'm saying but this is the thing yeah

I was going to say I saw an interesting discussion about this on Reddit like you said fitness boxing is good for the general public you get to work out and get a taste of what boxing is without having to put yourself out there can we

can we do that in BJJ or Judo and also you have to uh see like because bjj and judo are what you call what you call show me martial art there's a tendency to look down upon this i don't even i mean it doesn't really exist but like fitness judo fitness bjj yeah you know but do we really is it isn't it time for us to kind of it's time i did it for a little while i had a section when i was like 7 to 8 p.m yeah no randori if you're a beginner you're not doing any randori you're not doing any live yeah oh i'm you know strong i could do it i don't give a shit you suck you don't know what you're talking about you're not doing it because it's dangerous you're gonna get hurt right everybody

has to do this it's technical training it's to get in shape it's technical judo that's it eight o'clock onwards you have to be invited to do live rounds that's how it was when i was in new york it was now i'm like kind of softening i didn't notice that i'm softening up a little bit and people are like let me do on dory i'm like yeah sure go ahead and then the injury rates are kind of like a little by little creeping up a little bit people are getting a little bit more banged up you know and it's not i do need to shift it back you know i do need to shift it back but so many people are super eager to do it right and uh you know especially if they have jujitsu training.

We get those guys that have done jujitsu for six months and then I say, you're not ready to roll live at all. Right, right. Then they're like, what is this shit?

What am I, what? You know? And they get kind of upset, you know, which I don't really care. But, you know, you know what I mean?

It's put me and them in sort of a situation in a conflict right off the bat, where it's a little bit almost easier to be like, yeah, go ahead, try it. And then it gets pummeled by someone half the size. It's almost even better, you know, in a way.

So I don't have to deal with this thing again, because then when they go, I want to compete, and when I say, you're not ready, they're going to be like, oh. But they know now, because they've already had that experience right right look i told you so before yeah right but i think there's a place for judo fit you know i'm a big believer in this right if you're a dojo owner you're listening or if you're somebody that does judo it's a very very high impact sport how many people come in and how many people quit why are they coming

in in the first place i want to learn to defend myself i want to learn to stay in shape those are the two only reasons most of the people come into washington no one's like hey i saw shintaro competing once and it was amazing so like i wanted to learn it no one does that that's that's the thing and i think i'm not sure why there's a discrepancy like this. So for boxing, people don't think, oh, that boxing gym is like a Mac dojo because they don't do sparring. It's all a bunch of fitness people trying to just punch in the back. No one says that.

No one disrespects. They kind of do, but the boxing gyms, like you got Mendes boxing in the city. Right. If you want to become a boxer, right. Yeah, but even in that community, what is the percentage of the people that are actually sparring here? Right, right. Three to five percent. Everybody else comes at six in the morning, before work, after work.

They don't want to get punched in the face. They don't spar. Right. If you're sparring there, they were like, you know a very small percentage of people that are right and they don't care about the cardio kickboxing gym down the street because it's completely demographic different demographic right we should normalize that judo fit for people who want to stay in shape and get in shape so why why why do you think it's normalized in boxing but not in judo and bjj is it simply because of this show me culture like a lot of people look down upon gyms that have

don't let beginners roll or compete or yeah like i see a lot of that even especially online they like to shit on those gyms. Absolutely. But you know, it's sort of a survivor bias too. The people who make it in the sport are the guys who are saying and making these criticisms. Right. People who are already purple belts,

people who are already blue belts. Right. People who did this for their whole life and who are already running successful schools. Right. They don't think about the people who we've lost along the way, who tried it, who gave up. And we always like to think we made it because we're tough. They didn't make it because they were

soft and weak. It's very easy to do. What is this? A fundamental attribution error or something like this? Yeah. Is it attribution error? Or something, right? You want to feel like I made it because I'm special. They didn't make it because they're not special. And they have this mentality of like, oh, if they're not. And they're not willing to compromise and then have something for these people who could potentially be in it much longer, who could potentially get to your level if they're nurtured in a different way. So, like, for example, for jud judo fit you could run a practice like i'm imagining

like uh some basic warm-up uchikomi move jibbing uchikomi yeah uh nagakomi's i screwed up and when i let the beginners when i let the randori start slowly dripping into the seven to eight now it's hard to take it away because now they're expecting that level of thrill, that level of risk, that level of like, I'm going to freaking take this guy down. I wonder if I can do it. So it's like now they're kind of addicted to that high, that adrenaline for me to just take it away and be like, nope, seven to eight. Sorry.

You can't, you know, no Dory again. It's kind of put me in a tricky spot. And I know some people are going to be like, hey, 7 to 8, sorry. You can't, you know, no Vandori again. It's kind of put me in a tricky spot. And I know some people are going to be like, hey, introduce another basic class, introduce another beginner class. I don't have time for that. So how do you think, what do you think about,

how do you think you're going to introduce it back? Because you said you wanted to. I don't really need to do anything now because, you know, we have a good, you know, number of people at the gym where it's like I don't have to do anything really different. Right, right. But I think it's crucial for people who want to get to the critical mass. Critical mass, not for the gym, but for the time slot, I'm saying.

Could I add more noon classes? Could I add more day classes? The majority of the time, the gym sits empty because I don't have time to be in there 24-7. And nor do I want to hire someone to just be there 24 7 either it's not that kind of a gym majority of my adult program people come to work out with me and be with me right so it's kind of a different model you know right right but boy do i think i we you know the world needs that you know judo fit and then that would require judo instructors to all be in shape. You know, it's a tough house too, right? Because the more you do judo, the better you get at it, the more you become in a leadership role, the less renour you actually end up doing.

You just don't have time when your body's getting banged up yeah if you're teaching the whole time if you're you know running classes if you're doing the back end stuff

because you own the gym you're not working out anymore yeah that's the biggest misconception people are like hey I love judo I'm gonna teach judo

I could do judo all day it's like when you open your gym you're gonna be doing mostly 90% of the time is doing administrative tasks right right

and then managing employees. You know? That's the nature of everything. Kevin quit on me while you were here, remember? Yeah. It's two weeks notice. Yeah.

Yeah. He's like, hey man, I brought you some cookies. I'm like, oh, what's the occasion? He's like, I quit. It's my two week notice. I was like, Jesus, man notice i was like jesus man i was like oh man all right

you know and then usually like yeah dude i told you man i'm going on vacation like you freaking hold off until i come back yeah he's like i brought you guys some cookies it's like man what the hell is this well we still love you kevin yeah we still love kevin we're kind about it i told him you know yeah if he wants it if he wants to come back yeah but yeah stuff like that yeah yeah but uh what was i going judo fit yeah so yeah low intensity steady state you know what you call me you could get a lot of skill acquisition during that time here you don't have to do rin dory in the, you could get a lot of skill acquisition during that time period. You don't have to do Rundori in the beginning. You could learn the theory, learn the movements, do the movements,

and then do a little bit of conditioning, sports-specific, like sports-related conditioning at the end. And you could get a full workout. One hour. You know, and I had this idea, like, from, like, taking dance class, ballet class. Like, they have an unbelievable warm-up. You're moving the whole time. You're burning tons of calories. burning tons of calories a 90 minute class a lot of these ballet classes you know what i mean right and it's like yeah walking for 90 minutes burns an x amount of calories right right right walking it's kind of like the intensity is walking you're

constantly moving so it's like it's really the best thing for burning fat you know who would have thought what's the best fat burning workout so you can do ballet ballet why can't we adopt a similar model in judo right i mean you know all this exercise across the floor right like we can we can still do that and there was this great because you have more people doing it at once the problem with randori a lot of times you go short bursts for three to five minutes and then you stand on the side when you you're not doing Rondori, you get cold. Yeah, think about it. How many rounds do you do an evening? You do five rounds,

three minutes apiece. That's 15 minutes of activity. That's it. It's only 15 minutes. Yes, you're like, and the better you get, the more efficient you are in your movement. Yeah. In the beginning, you're moving a lot, like you're putting your unnecessary

tension so you're burning a lot more, but you're also exposing yourself to a lot more risk. You know? And also, there's some social aspect, too. If you are advanced, you know more people, and you get to go more rounds. Yeah. And when you're

starting out, or if you're starting out or and you're just or you if you're there just to you know for fitness you you don't know as many people you're not as good at it so you may just not get as many rounds and i know dojos that are like all right let's get a 10 minute warm-up in by yourself yeah 10 minute break fall whatever great and then it's like we'll do 40 minutes of Rondori. And then the beginners are just standing on the sidelines. Yeah. And then they do one or two rounds and they get hurt and they sit outside like,

and that guy wants to get in shape. Let me tell you something. He's not getting in shape. Yeah. And after class, he's going to go out with the guys, grab burgers and beers, and he's going to get fatter.

Cause he's consuming more than he's burning. Yeah. In that evening on a Monday evening, he's consuming more than he's burning yeah in that evening on a monday evening he's consuming more than he's burning and he thinks he's doing good because he's going to judo and he's like yeah i want to judo i'm gonna lose weight i'm gonna be shred i'm gonna look like iliatis no no so you have to like kind of design your judo methods and your training practices you know for like long-term longevity, just like time in the gym, less risk. And the diet has to follow along too, you know?

Yeah, so those were some of my thoughts on judo fit. Judo fit. You got a trademark then? I should trademark it, yeah. Maybe that's like going to be the next soul cycle. Guys, judofit.com. We should do like a uh infomercial hey have you ever wanted to get in shape but never could do you like oreos uh but do you want

to be shredded i got you judofit let me tell you like i've been to some of the soul cycle classes and they're fun they're fun yeah they do a good job with that stuff man i mean music and there you do like if you if it's your birthday you get to do you get to run the class like and in the front of every of you know like where the instructor sits yeah it's awesome stuff like that the problem with martial arts experts they're not a lot of the times they're not fitness experts they're martial arts experts if you're lucky. Some of them aren't experts at all. Some of them are just a guy that likes martial arts that decided to freaking teach martial arts.

You never know, right? But if you're a martial arts expert, generally you're not a fitness expert. You're good at martial arts. You did a lot of it. And the byproduct of you doing it is being fit. Yeah. But not everyone can follow that same trajectory. Right.

A fitness expert is like, all right, this is what you got to do. And then, you know. You get fit. Yeah. And then the big piece of it is nutrition, which is not, you know, who talks about nutrition? What sensei talks about nutrition? But they do in those fitness classes, fitness gyms. Yeah, they do because they know.

So I think we need a more fitness based mentality when it comes to these gyms you know and a lot of the times you know people were going to make this argument like oh everyone in my jiu-jitsu school is in shape it's like it already attracts people who are already tend to be active you know so it's not you know it's not a fair comparison you know yes if you look across the board in my dojo everyone's in good shape majority it's not because

they're doing judo it's because they're already sort of living this active lifestyle that they seek it out judo in the first place you know

right so and then the people who want to get in shape come in they look around they're like oh everyone in here

is in shape that's this is the answer to me getting in shape no it's you know you walk into work or you're not walking to work maybe yeah you know french fries burgers yeah exactly burgers not even that bad burgers macros are right on burgers i like burgers yeah i love burgers too yeah do those uh it's just the it's the desserts man the cookies and the ice creams

and you can have that stuff too man as long as you stay within a certain yeah well if you keep yeah if you count your macros right macros you gotta count your calories all that stuff but you know that's a whole thing yeah that's my whole brand thank you guys for listening yeah he's probably you should marinate on. Marinate the idea a little and maybe something will come out. With your business degree. Yeah, so I hope this was kind of a different perspective on training. And I hope you guys liked it. And stay tuned for the next episode.

Yep, thank you guys.