Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, known as BJJ or just simply Jiu Jitsu or JJ in the martial arts community, is undoubtedly one of the fastest rising martial arts in the world. Unlike other martial arts, BJJ primarily focuses on ground fighting. A lot of your practice will involve learning how to escape unfavourable positions, advance your positions, pass someone’s guard, and submit someone. Compared to other traditional martial arts, you put your skill into practice starting day one. This also means higher rates of injuries during practice as you also put into practice new moves. Learn how to take care of your body with these amazing BJJ rehab exercises.
BJJ Common Injuries
If you are an enthusiast, you will most likely dive head first into BJJ as a keener beginner. Even if you are a seasoned athlete, you are also likely to get injuries from time to time.
Compared to Muay Thai or karate, which gives you time to move around, BJJ is highly involved. From the moment you are on the ground, you are looking to advance your position or submit your opponent. This involves some scrambling and most often, a lot of static and isometric contractions of your muscles.
While rapid movements like snap kicks and power hooks may seem just as bad, you are following your body’s cues. However, in BJJ, you are always putting your body under load. In other words, your muscles are constantly working against the other person’s body weight. In addition, since the objective is to put the opponent’s body parts out of alignment, your body is constantly forced into anatomically poor positions.
Here are some areas where injuries can occur involve the following:
- Neck: twisted in the wrong way or under load
- Shoulder: having to carry load while framing hips, shoulder, neck
- Back: awkward bottom side positions involving weird trunk rotation
- Hamstrings: butterfly hooks, trying to sweep a heavier person
You thought you were strong? BJJ will really test your body.
BJJ Rehab Exercises
Neck
If there is one thing you should do, it is to work out your NECK. If you have ever wondered why all BJJ guys have thick neck, it really does saves lives. At least, yours while you are rolling, training, or competing.
Many moves require framing against someone’s neck, putting their neck out of alignment, or choking them. If you have weak neck muscles, your chances of injuries skyrocket. Here are a few rehab exercises post injuries or to strengthen your neck:
- Neck sit ups
- Neck flexion and extension
- Tilting your neck side to side
Shoulder/Scapula
A common area of injuries include your shoulder or scapula. Sometimes shoulder injuries happen when someone tries to do moves like Americana or Kimura or any shoulder lock. As for scapular injuries, that could be from just about anything since you engage your scapular muscles often. Another reason is that scapular and parascapular muscles are often underdeveloped compared to larger muscles.
Try these exercises:
- Scapular push ups
- Wall angel
- Scarecrows
- T and Y raises
Back
Weak or tight back muscles are very common. Tough activities like BJJ will expose any weaknesses you may have in the worst way. Usually we work our superficial muscles whenever we hit the gym without even realizing that we are neglecting deep postural muscles. If you think that you are too young to get back pain, BJJ will prove you wrong. Consider incorporating these into your routine:
- Glute bridges
- Bird dog exercises
- Good morning
- Side Planks
- Alternating superman back extensions
- Cat-cow stretch
For more info on how to relieve back pain, check out this article.
Hamstrings
Another body part that undoubtedly gets used the most is the hamstrings. From sweeps to guard passing to butterfly hooks, your hamstrings really help you do everything. Sadly, BJJ often involves putting your hamstrings into long isometric contractions. If you think about how often your hamstrings do this in every life, it is very low. Chances are that your hamstrings are weak isometrically. So, to fix this issue, here are some exercises to try:
- Hamstring glide, walk out, curl*
- Dead lifts
- Squats
*These exercises are great for hamstrings rehab!
Final Thoughts on BJJ Rehab Exercises
BJJ is a very tough activity that will test your strength and flexibility. Make sure that you are strengthening and maintaining your body constantly. The biggest mistake is only training in class and do nothing outside class time. Stretch, strengthen, train, and rehab each week. Lastly, remember to allow your body rest days. Having enough rest days allows you to perform better the next time you show up in class or competition.