How to prevent and avoid injuries in Grappling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?

As soon as you start Grappling or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, you quickly realize two things:

1) on the one hand the importance of having suitable physical conditioning ,

2) and on the other hand, the need to have a body resistant to injuries.

This means developing more strength, more mobility, more flexibility, more coordination.

In short, you need to improve your athletic skills greatly, just to be able to drill (repeat) techniques and last several rounds without being out of breath or completely broken after a few weeks of training.

Rodolfo Vieira, UFC fighter, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Grappler

The Importance of Movement and Mobility

We were able to observe with Conor McGregor and movement coach Ido Portal , the importance of improving one's mobility and the impact that movement training could have on athletic performance in MMA .

If you're just starting your Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) training, you might not know this yet, but Conor McGregor isn't the first MMA fighter to complement his martial arts training with a more holistic, generalist approach based on longevity and good movement.

Rickson Gracie's Training: Natural Gymnastica, Mobility, Breathing (Choke, 1999)

In the 1999 documentary Choke , Rickon Gracie is seen using various natural movement and breathing techniques to keep his body flexible for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA.

It uses Ginastica Natural (Natural Gymnastics) movements for its warm-up on the beach, cervical strengthening exercises, mediation, Breath of Fire breathing, dynamic stretching (mobility) inspired by Yoga .

If you haven't seen it, I recommend watching the full video available on YouTube.

And yes, one of the greatest figures of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu did Yoga, Meditation and trained his joint mobility and the quality of his movements with natural gymnastics.

It is often a shock for all young Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners who are still in the ego and the fight and who have not yet reached sufficient wisdom to approach martial practice as a gateway to discovery and self-improvement.

If you are interested in this topic of martial practice as a vector of spiritual elevation, don't hesitate to listen to the discussion with Staiv Gentis, martial artist and stuntman, in episode 1 of the MOUVERS Podcast which addresses this topic in depth.

In this article, we'll take a closer look at how movement and mobility can help keep your body healthy, free from injury and pain .

Why do we get injured when doing martial arts?

There's no secret, combat sports are dangerous.

Whether it's impact sports like boxing, Muay Thai, kickboxing, karate, or grip sports like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, or Grappling...

There is a risk of significant injury.

Knee injury from submission in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament

Aside from the risk of injury inherent in the combat scenario, i.e. injuries inflicted by an opponent or sparring partner,

Most injuries will happen during your training .

Whether you're a competitor or not, you've probably experienced injuries or pain in your wrists, knees, elbows, hip strains, neck pain... simply because of the different positions you put your body in on the ground.

It is often these movement limitations that prevent you from performing as you wish.

By bypassing your mobility or flexibility deficiencies , and your inability to put your body in positions with ease, in rubber-guard for example, doing shrimps or keeping an opponent in your guard...

You cause two things:

1) Additional stress on your nervous system .

Forcing the body to move into a position it cannot easily reach weakens your neural connection to the joints involved in that movement.

Sensing danger, your body tries to protect you and therefore, it will become more and more rigid.

2) You compromise the stable position of other joints .

For example, a lack of mobility not addressed in the hip will certainly be reflected in pain in the knees, ankles, or lower back because you will be putting even more strain on them.

It is a simple compensation mechanism .

The other major cause of repetitive injuries is mentality .

Most combat sports practitioners often choose to continue training, or even fighting, with the injuries they already have, instead of taking the time to address them.

It is the eternal return of the ego .

No time to address injuries in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu…

Your big toe hurts and prevents you from putting your body in certain positions on the ground, so you always get around these positions, using compensatory mechanisms.

You say to yourself "who cares, it's just a toe, what could happen?" or "I fight so injuries are something completely normal that you just have to put up with and keep moving forward"...

It is this mentality that prevents problems from being solved.

The less we listen to the signals given by the body, the more we will increase the risk of injury .

The importance of joint integrity and stability

As you can see, the ability to move your joints freely, through their full range of motion and without pain is essential for keeping your body healthy.

The idea is to restore the full, natural function of your joints .

To do this, we use bodyweight training that will address all the basic movements that your joints are supposed to be able to do: flexions, extensions, internal and external rotations, abductions, adductions, etc.

This is the pre-habilitation work that I do with my athletes.

They must pass a number of tests before they can be allowed to safely enjoy themselves on the tatami mats.

For example, for the hips, this involves being able to achieve complete flexion, with a movement like the deep squat.

This position ensures that your athlete's hip is able to perform all flexion movements without any limitations .

If you want a simple and effective program to become more flexible in the hips and achieve the deep squat quickly, check out my DEEP SQUAT & CHILL training.

Once your joints are healthy, we must address the fact that they will be taken out of their basic positions, sometimes violently, by an opponent or by ourselves, when we want to place a technique like a triangle and finish our opponent.

This is what is meant by joint stability .

This is about allowing your joint to move out of its resting position with the assurance of maintaining its integrity , regardless of the impact or force used to move it out of a stable position.

Here, a well-designed strength training program is essential.

You need to use a lot of strength to perform these powerful movements, which sometimes put your joints in unnatural or unnatural positions.

Here too, there is no need for flexibility; it is still joint mobility that plays this protective role .

The same goes for people who feel “too loose, too flexible”: those who have hyper flexibility .

We see this in many female athletes or some athletes of Asian, African or Arab origin, who have a higher proportion of developing this condition.

Examples of hyper flexibility of joints

When someone says they feel stiff, and their trainer's response is to suggest more static stretching, it can be very dangerous. This is a mistake many trainers make.

Here too, this person does not need more flexibility but more stability. The body will tend to stiffen precisely to counterbalance this hyper-flexibility and protect the joint.

Mobility is essential for joint integrity and stability .

Master the fundamentals of movement

The second crucial point in injury prevention is to develop your movement capacity .

This point is almost never addressed in traditional martial arts halls.

However, it is one of the things which, added to weekly training, would allow the greatest number of people to make a real qualitative leap in their practice , but also in maintaining a healthy body and protected from injuries and pain for the long term .

Overhead shoulder mobility test at CrossFitters in London

Mind you, I'm not talking about what we see most often on social media these days with all these so-called coaches and experts who, after watching two or three videos on YouTube,

decide to add physical therapy-type movements, which they call “corrective exercises,” into their training programs without really understanding the why and how of using them.

Here I'm talking about your ability to move better .

It's something that takes years but is fundamental for martial artists, especially those who spend time on the ground, putting their bodies into complex positions.

How much time per week do you dedicate to perfecting your movement, technique, balance, breathing, coordination, etc.?

Often, people focus on these aspects of their practice only when they are in the middle of a high-intensity exercise or when muscle fatigue is already setting in.

At this point, your nervous system is already very tired , and you can no longer concentrate on performing the right gesture and on the quality of your movements.

This is the gateway to injury.

Don't confuse fatigue with a good workout .

Fatigue is not a guarantee of good training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

So, ideally, you should dedicate several sessions a week to practicing your movements.

This can take the form of 20 minutes of practicing one or two floor routines or a particular entry-exit...

You don't torture yourself and you don't try to push your muscles to the point of fatigue, but rather, you concentrate on the execution of the movement, on your breathing, on your balance...

You approach this session as a craftsman might when working on a new piece: with gentleness, patience, and a love of a job well done.

This will create better connections between your body and your brain, so when the time comes for sparring or fighting,

your body will be able to react correctly without sacrificing too much form and putting unnecessary load on your joints .

Where do you start to protect your body from injury?

As you can see, injury is not inherent to combat sports .

It is most often a lack of attention to important details, a lack of attention to body mechanics and/or a lack of body awareness that causes people to injure themselves during training.

In this article, I'm not talking about all the tips you might find on Google, such as choosing your partner, thinking about relaxing, putting your ego aside... and all those aspects that can sometimes escape your control.

I'm only talking to you about concrete and measurable things that will have a real impact on the quality of your practice and considerably reduce the risk of injury.

Where to start with mobility?

On our site, you'll be able to find a free mobility routine to start unlocking your body, gaining range of motion, and feeling more flexible with a 15-minute routine to do every day.

Otherwise, for those who wish to improve the fluidity of their movements on the ground, you can join the RICKSON GRACIE METHOD training, to learn the champion's routine:

– A hip mobility routine
– Training with Ginastica Natural
– Breathing exercises

Finally, a great resource to start your journey towards greater freedom of movement and a pain-free body is to join my Private Facebook Group LES MOUVERS.

You will be able to exchange and discuss with other enthusiasts of movement, martial arts, mobility and ask questions to coaches and fighters very easily.

With that, a huge thank you for reading this entire article.

If you found this helpful, please feel free to comment and share on social media to help even more Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Grappling practitioners prevent injuries.

Nomad Slim
Founder of MOUVERS