The Shintaro Higashi Show - Training Equipments

Episode Date: September 13, 2022

Rubber bands, jump ropes, dummies, etc... There are a myriad of training equipments for Judo and BJJ, almost too many! Do they really work, or are they just gimmicks? In this episode, Shintaro and Peter talk about their thoughts on these training equipments and their experiences using them. 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 today we're going to talk about alternative training methods and what i think about them there's a lot of them alternative training methods yeah specifically training equipments equipments yeah like bands geese sleeves that you put onto a pulley yeah training dummies and i talked a little bit about this before but yeah i want to kind of go in depth a little bit. Yeah. And this was a suggestion from one of our patrons, Gary. He was actually curious about the pros and cons about training dummies. But we're just going to open it up a little to cover other equipments too. So I think we can start with the rubber band.

Yeah, I like the rubber band. I like it because it's a way of training like sometimes you're not you don't always have access to a training partner sometimes you want to do some movements at your home or something like that and i didn't notice like a lot of russian guys use it as sort of a warm-up means right so they'll do like these movements with the hands with the really quick fast hands fast this way fast pulling turn to the right turn to the left and then like things like that you know and i think it's a good cardio workout you know will it replace doing uchikomi with the partner or doing actual rondo with a partner no it will never and i think

that's the most important takeaway from this is like people kind of go hey what training equipment should i buy what training equipment should i get and a lot of it a lot of times man the the best thing for judo is judo you know yeah people, hey, I'm going to go lift weights and get strong before I start judo. No, start judo and then you'll get in shape as you do judo. Because it's kind of a different type of exercise system. It's more like you do judo and then you can supplement this with a rubber band and stuff. stuff right like it and i actually uh bought a rubber band over during the pandemic because i just wanted to you know keep up with my uchikomis and you know get some cardio and it's it's been working out well actually yeah you know i i do a set of all these different throws and obviously

it is a little different from doing it with a partner like you said yeah do you do yourself do uh use rubber bands like rubber band exercises regularly not really man i'm like a very much so like a free weights and like a resistance training guy right i'll use rubber bands and such to like supplement workouts like for instance like if i'm trying to do my adductors, right? Right. Or abduction exercise. What's that? When you like put the bands around your ankles and you like step out and stuff like that. Ah, okay, okay. Yeah.

Well, like if I'm doing like heavy pull-ups or something like this and then I get tired and I want to add some, I don't know, not partial reps but like some assisted repetitions. Yeah. I put the resistance bands and like put it on my legs so I can get some assisted pull-ups a little bit at a lighter body weight or something like that or if i'm going through like elbow pain or something if i want to rehab it i'll make the load like as opposed to doing regular chin-ups i'm a 220 pound person so i'll it'll lighten the load a little bit i see i'll use like resistance bands in that way but like in order for me to get better at judo i don't i don't usually use any of these tools right right i like kind of rubber bands and stuff like that because you could use it to do

judo specific movements and you could also use it for sort of general training methods you know for instance like shoulder dislocation exercises for shoulder mobility and stuff like that you could use it for that too right so it's like a multi-purpose exercise equipment that you could do yeah i see right so i've i've seen when i was doing judo in korea a lot of people actually did rubber band workouts uh with really tough like inner tubes actually yeah uh do they did you see any of that in japan when you're training do you do they do that in japan sometimes yeah they'll do like they'll mix it up you know but yeah best thing for judo is judo judo i see you know grappling to jujitsu also you know boxing as well you know uh i know tons of guys who are

you know if you box you jump rope right that's the thing you know footwork timing speed rhythm all this stuff but like will doing jump rope only make you a better boxer no you take one of these like instagram influencers like you know johnny jumps or something like that and you take like i just made him up but like you know he's great at jump roping throw him in the ring is he gonna be able to box no he's gotta do boxing he's gotta learn the skill of boxing if he wants to be good at it same thing with judo you know same thing with grappling we can't uh so we can talk a little bit about jump ropes you recently posted a video of you doing jump ropes yeah i was able to jump rope before like just just you know let the thing come over and jump it and then there

was this woman at the gym who was like you you know, doing jump rope and all these tricks. And I was like, oh, shoot, that's pretty cool. And then she's like, you know, she's a trainer at the gym. Yeah. And then she made a joke. She's like, what do you, you know, I don't know, working on arms today or something. I was doing curls or something. I can't remember.

But like we had a conversation going and I was like, oh, show me some of those jump rope things that you do. You know, I'm kind of interested to do like a cardio workout. So she like kind of gave me an hour where we like just did jump ropes and we did like all these different tricks yeah yeah it's on my instagram if you guys find my instagram judo shintaro yc but it's a great workout and you know what it's good for my knees because i can't do hard sprints anymore i just can't do it my knees are messed up oh you think you think you'll keep doing it then yeah i think so you know because I've been really trying to focus on getting my calves stronger, you know, to help my knees and all this stuff. And I never really focused on calves and, you know, doing some heavy calf work in the gym on my leg days and then doing jump rope. I think it's very good for me.

You know, I need that, right? Maybe I should go. We do have some jump ropes at home. Maybe I should start doing them too. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. So it's more like a supplementary cardio workout and then more some minor leg muscles like calves. Yeah.

I mean it's an overall good thing for central nervous system and just like good hard cardio. For me, I like it because you could kind of delve into it and try tricks and there's a fun factor to it. And there's like a skill acquisition portion of it that makes it interesting for me. So it's not like I'm just jumping and then just counting the reps and it's like, oh, I got to do this or this many reps of that. It's like, oh, let me try this thing. And then let me try this thing with this. Let me do a double jump and a crisscross and then like whatever it is and a side swipe. I'm like, that's fun. I see. I see. see so like if it's fun i'm more likely to do it yeah yeah you know it's like outside of the four times a week that i lift weights

i want to add one or two cardio sessions because i'm kind of getting a little bit heavy and my gap yeah i'm gaining more muscle but like i'm losing more wind i see so i was like i gotta up the cardio and you know i do a lot of like walking cardio for fat burn just for like to stay leaner but i was like all right you know i gotta do a little bit more i gotta do at least once a week of like hard cardio like intensity cardio right just kind of like yeah just because i feel like my wind is going i see yeah so that uh so jump ropes things like that like you know uh i guess you could even throw in the you know treadmills there too it's more you can supplement use it use those to supplement your cardiovascular fitness yeah and then so how about we move on to something that's seemingly more uh closer to grappling like the

dummies like gary asked yeah practice dummies have you used them yeah we have one at the dojo that's like a 90 pound massive dummy that one of our students bought and then he was like oh we're gonna move can you you want this and he gave us a present. Yeah, Joe. Yeah. And it's like, yeah, it's good. You know, it's there. I used it for a day. Now I don't use it anymore. How did you use it? I was, like, doing lat drops on it and stuff.

So I've seen, yeah, like you said, I've seen it being used for, like, practicing suplexes. Yeah. But this is the thing with these equipments like you need someone to teach you how to use it well you know like i know some exercises but like the average person you know is there going to be an extensive guide on youtube like you know 20 different exercises with grappling dummy maybe and maybe someone made it but maybe you should make one maybe but it's only as good you know and this is the thing like a lot of the throwing stuff that you do with the crash dummy you can't really do it at home yeah that's a yeah

you can't just keep that at home no you know a lot of space i mean you could keep it and you could do like knee on belly to north south and spinning and jumping and going here and going there and pretending to pass you could do all that stuff yes yeah but like to throw you can't throw the dummy in your house or apartment you're gonna make holes in the wall there's just too much impact on the floor the night dummies 90 pounds you can get hurt you need a matted space yeah and you can't even if you wanna if you're drilling passing guards or like all this neon valley stuff on a dummy, I guess you can't even – you don't even really need a dummy per se.

You can't even do it with, like, a huge pillow or something. You could do it on your girlfriend. Yes, yeah. Exactly. Honey, just lie there with your knees to your chest. Yeah, dude, you can do it with your partner at home. They will love that but yeah yeah so i so you're not a huge fan of dummies yes i'm not a huge fan of most of these

gimmick training stuff i bought a million of them a lot of them you know even with like the tip trainer that you know knees over toes guy was like raving about. I bought that. I have like a slanted angle. You train your tibialis muscles, like the reverse side of the calf, like the front side of your calf. Oh. Tip trainer. I've done like the Nordic hamstring curl machine.

I bought it all, man. I'm telling you. And 99% of the time, I just sit in my basement collecting dust. At the end of the day. At least you did your market research. Yeah, man. At the end of the day,

like, you know know a set of dumbbells that goes from i don't know 15 to like 50 like i'll use that uh-huh i'll use it so that um so it's interesting you brought up dumbbells and what about like other weightlifting equipment such as kettlebells when like there are other things now to know like I don't know those weird deadlift bars

I guess you can't really keep them at home and then if you're using with purpose and then if you use it in an intelligent way then yeah you're gonna that's great it's not gonna magically make you into a world champion judo. It's not really going to make you a great grappler. People I hear this all the time, like a beginner grappler say like,

I just started CrossFit. My game is going to change. No, man. Your game is going to stay the same. You're going to be in slightly better shape. Yeah. You'll probably have more tendonitis from your elbows. Yeah.

And then eventually, yeah, after a very long time you get in phenomenal shape and now you have the skills that you've acquired through grappling and then you know they integrate and they have a synergistic thing that happens yeah that's going to help you down the line you know but like for instance like those grip trainers like the ghi sleeve that you hook onto a pulley and then you pull strengthen your hands i get that could work too you know but if you're doing tons of judo tons of jiu-jitsu tons of grappling right you're already taxing the hands so much right right you really want to add an extra two days you know using gi sleeves on a pulley to pull it's like why don't you actually use straps to preserve your hands?

Straps. Uh-huh. Right? So it takes the focus off actually holding, but then it doesn't stress your hands and your forearms. But then you could really focus a load on the bicep or the back, which are working. For instance, if I'm doing heavy rows, right, like bent over barbell rows, my hands are going to go first. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah so that's the weakest in the chain right that's the what is it weakest link right yeah yeah we can slink in

the chain yeah and some people say like oh you shouldn't you know you you're supposed to strengthen your hands my hands are strong enough okay that's not usually the issue you know oh hold it on to the barbell you know it's good it'll make your hand strong for judo no because holding the gi and judo jiu-jitsu there's a skill to it and you're not squeezing the whole time right you're holding it you're hooking the fingers and when they're going for certain things then you might squeeze or right there's lots of little wrist and hand nuances that you use your thumb all this stuff right the pad of your hand you know what i mean the way your pinky hooks onto the gi or even like pulling the gi taut so that there's not that much space between the fabric and the person's arm yeah like stuff like that it's all technical stuff yeah it has

nothing to do with your ability to hold on to a heavy barbell you know what i mean so if i'm in the gym right i'm not going to focus on my hands there i'm going to focus on building my back and bicep and just arm stronger right so i'm going to use assistance where i don't have to use my hands as much like straps i see so i've never actually used straps before so i didn't really get that because you're so manly peter no i it's just it's because i'm so weak that i don't really need them. I don't lift that heavy. I see. Oh, so I didn't know actually that if you use straps, you're not really holding on to the bar.

You're holding on to the bar, but they give extra friction. Oh, I see. They give extra friction. There's many different types, right? The one I use, it attaches around the ribs and attaches around the bar. And then you hold on to it with the strap. So there's a lot of less strain on the hands. Okay.

You don't have to hold on with your fingers. If I'm deadlifting 400 pounds, if I go double overhands, the bar rolls and it's very difficult to hold on to. So I'll use straps. But majority of times i use alternating grips like this yeah yeah yeah i've done that yeah but if i have chalk there's enough friction where i could hold on to it without straps if i want to go double over i need straps straps i see i see yeah because if on the contrary if go 315, my lower back and my legs won't get tired, but my hands will give out first. Right.

So I see, you know, these kinds of tools will help because now and this is the thing. You don't need to be deadlifting four or five hundred pounds to be good at judo. Right. We talked about this in the weightlifting episode. Yeah. Yeah. You don't need to. So do you need any of these supplemental training

things in the gym no there's plenty of stuff to do in the gym in a commercial gym right that you're gonna yield great results then like tinkering around with arrangements and such right so i used to like really buy into like oh this is cool this is gonna help me you know like even like the finger stuff like training equipment was it was sort of my guilty pleasure you know i would wouldn't think twice about buying it have you have you ever gotten into kettlebell though like because what i heard when kettlebells were getting popular in like 2010 like early 2010s or to late 2000s i remember hearing that the russian wrestling team uses it all the time then that's why they're so good at wrestling no they're good at wrestling six hours a day

you know what i mean but that's why i remember that's when i picked up kettlebells because i wanted to get good at wrestling it's this man it's like when they interview the rock and it's like hey rock how are you so jacked and it's like that's just hard work and training day and night eating right get up at four and outworking everybody it's like but what about you know all the testosterone that you clean eat clean work hard and never give up yeah that's right but what about all the supplemental pharmacological uh you know things that you do like those things matter you know it's like yeah the russian secret is can it help working out yeah if you know how to use it well with purpose intelligently yeah it'll definitely help you know what i mean oh i want stronger

shoulders okay you know kettlebell presses you know cardio and glute you know extension movements okay kettlebell swings you know you have a hundred pound kettlebell you do it 50 times like that'll definitely help yeah because it'll make you stronger in that movement you know and then there's like rotational stuff that you could do with the kettlebell you could do front squats you could do a circuit you could do like shoulder rotations and all that stuff yeah it'll definitely help but you know what i want to know what's best for judo? Doing judo. Speaking of all those things, how about doing BJJ for judo?

Will it help my judo? It'll help it more than going to the park and playing basketball. What if I... Will doing judo help my BJJ? I see that question all the time too. Yes, because there's a crossover. Because if you do a lot of jiu-jitsu, there is a lot of similar

elements on the ground in judo. Judo, yeah. If you're doing judo, there's also nirwaza. And if you belong to a gym that does a lot of judo nirwaza, when you go to a jiu-jitsu school, you'll be like, oh shoot, I've done this before. Yeah. Not to the same depth, but you have some experience.

Right. You know what I mean? You're not going to be just like a white belt who hasn't – Dude, same thing with wrestling. If you wrestle your whole life, you walk into a no-gi jiu-jitsu school, you're going to be able to fare pretty well from standing position. You just got to make some adjustments. You can't just dive in for a shot because you get guiltied. Yeah.

Right? But same idea. If you wrestle Greco and you come into a judo school you're going to be pretty good at it you know and i believe in these kinds of cross training methods yeah so in that same sense if you use the requirements right uh to to assist you in certain movements that might be applicable to judo and jiu-jitsu whatever it'll help but heavy weights being in the gym doing resistance training i'm a big huge believer in this because you have to be strong yeah yeah right and then when you're in the gym doing workouts you could progressive overload your system into getting stronger like it's measurable you know what i mean so that's good and then you know you train this way you gain mass you gain size you get stronger you lose body fat and then you become a little bit more of an optimal athlete right right right and then you could

deliver to your shortcomings like hey my shortcoming is i'm not as explosive okay let's do work on that right things like that right right i see so i hope this answers some of your questions about equipment i know i on reddit i've i see a lot of questions about what about what do you guys think about buying these and that or doing certain activities and that i mean it's just it's hard to give you a definite answer because it's all nuanced and it really depends and i think it's hard to give you a definite answer because it's all nuanced and it really depends and i think it's been a constant theme at the end of the day whatever you do if you do it with consistency it'll help you in certain way right jump ropes kettlebells grappling suplexing a grappling dummy if you do it consistently in the right way i'll tell you the rubber band is a superior one because first it's very low cost low cost yeah low cost you could do a lot it's

versatile you could work on mobility you could work on flexibility you could do judo movements you could do cardio movements you could there's a lot you could do with the bands so you write anything you recommend bands i start off with that and then if you if it's just sitting there collecting dust i'm looking over there i have yoga blocks there that i never use i have a fumble over there with the little jagged spikes that i rarely use also i used that when i came over yeah and i have like an inversion i have an inversion back thing too you know where you like lock your hamstrings yeah uh-huh you don't use them i put my clean geese on there and you're using it in a certain way yeah the gee like i don't want to my washing

machines downstairs and then i want to wash it dry it and then take it and then bring it upstairs and i have to bring it downstairs to leave the house so i take it out of the washer dryer and then i just hang it on the inversion back thing and then when I'm ready to go to the dojo I walk downstairs grab it and then walk out the door oh that's how you do it okay when there's a gi hanging on it I don't use it

it's like just enough resistance for me to not use it it's not even an exercise machine it's just for like it's just for like. It's a stretching and yeah. Yeah. Just like hanging vertically and decompressing your spine. That's it.

Oh, I see. I see. I'll do it with my back hurts. Well, I have a squat rack in the basement, you know. I see that you don't squat at home though. I don't squat anymore at all because my knees are killing me. Oh, man. What do you do for your legs then?

Do you use like box squats? I'll do trap bar deadlifts. Trap bar deadlifts I could still do. That's the one that goes around you? Hex bar, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's what I was wondering. I like that. I like that.

I could still do that with relatively heavy loads. I see. Yeah I like that. I could still do that, you know, with relatively heavy loads. I see. Yeah. I see. So that's another use case. If you're injured or you can no longer do certain moves, you can pick up these equipments to help you still, you know, train heavy. Yeah. Yeah.

So that's another use. so for those of you who are starting out maybe start with something very easy uh or uh just in terms of accessibility like bands rubber bands and then as you go along you will ask around to see if you have specific needs and that's i guess that's that's it really yep yeah that's it really. Yep. Yeah. That's it. Cool. Easy. Easy, man. Yeah. Done. Anything else?

No, just get started. Go start doing judo, jiu-jitsu. Do that. That's the main thing. That's the main thing, yeah. You could do, oh, how do I get better at home? I get a lot of that question. Yeah.

I think staying mentally engaged while you're home is important and then get and figuring out tools to get you to the dojo is the biggest thing i think because i know that's really one for me too it's like making it easy getting your gi ready the night before you know if you're trying to run in the mornings getting your running shoes and your socks already next to your bed and then or sleeping in like running clothes you know like stuff like that really helps you know i feel like that's much better of a training tool to get you better than like buying these gimmicky things that aren't really gonna they're just gonna freaking collect dust and every time you walk by it it's a reminder that you bought it and gave up on it and that that actually can make you not do it even more because you don't feel

good about it yeah yeah and then when you buy another one you have buyer's remorse and it collects more dust and you feel worse about yourself there's a saying in korean uh about what you just said it's starting as half and you just have to kind of like you say that a lot after a judo practice. Like, hey, you know, just get here. That is half the battle, you know. That's a big part of it, yeah. If you want to go to the gym, just make yourself go there and worry about the rest there. I mean, it's part of it.

Yeah, dude, with grappling, you just got to show up and then someone's trying to choke you. Someone's trying to slam you. Fire, you know fight fight or flight it yeah yeah exactly exactly all right guys i hope uh this episode helped you guys with uh with the with the equipment so you guys might be considering buying um thanks for listening and stay tuned for the next episode