It takes a courageous person to be open to a novel idea and eventually champion it. Anyone can follow the path that has already been laid, but not everyone has the bravery necessary to be a pioneer. Take Christopher Columbus for example. When everyone else said he and his boat would fall off the edge of the earth, he took the risk and proved everyone wrong. Imagine how we would all think today if he didn’t have the nerve to stick to what his instincts told him was right.
Where would you be right now if Gastão Gracie’s sons had refused to accept the martial arts information delivered to them by Mitsuyo Maeda. Not only would there probably be a big hole in your life, you wouldn’t even have this magazine in your hands to ask such a question! In both of the above examples, the authority of common thought was questioned, an evaluation took place, and the people added their own ideals to it and grew themselves and their legacy. How often, however, do you just blindly go with the flow and believe what someone else told you just because that is the way things have always been done? I would like to say that I never do this, but the following example showed me again that Ralph Waldo Emerson was right: “Every man in some way is your superior.”
Every week after working on my standup in judo, I would always be one of the last athletes to leave. I would finish training hard, lie on the floor and then change to get ready to leave. When I would be heading out, I would see a past nationally ranked judoka named Barry Friedberg doing stretches on a funny block in silence in the back corner of the dojo.
After over a year and a half of training and getting to know Barry, I finally asked him what he was doing each week while everyone else had left. He stated that when he was young, he heard Muhammad Ali state that stretching after every workout was a key to his longevity. Barry took this to heart and concocted a routine to perform after every judo session. I asked to watch him and perform it with him, and he obliged. After I finished, I was more relaxed and felt looser. It was then that I was shocked to be told by Barry, “Welcome to yoga.”
“Yoga? I don’t do yoga!” Instantly I had thoughts of women stretching themselves into horrific positions, men performing crazy breathing activities and a room full of weirdoes chanting “Om”! At first, I rejected the thought that I was doing yoga. After challenging myself to find out more about it before I jumped to any other conclusions, I found not only would this research changed how I thought, it would help me to grow my training.
Yoga is a practice that is said to have existed anywhere from 2500 to 5000 years. Today, with the popularization of yoga, there are many different styles, but on deeper study, I found that they are founded in the same poses and concepts. Yoga, to the practitioner is not just stretching out for a workout or after exercise, it is the connection of the mind and body through exercise, meditation and breathing techniques. I thought that yoga was only for the flexible or the weak, but I have found neither to be true.
I used to think that the workout was over after the training was done. Now if I were in a spelling bee, I might spell the word recovery wrong because I now believe it has many more than 2 R’s in it. To me the 5 R’s are Review, Relax, Realign, Rehydrate and Replentish. With the use of the modified yoga vinyasa (sequence of postures) above, you can achieve most of the R’s above (hydrating and getting proper nutrients can be performed quickly before the sequence to hit them all).
My version is similar to the Sun Salutation or Surya Namaskara with some exercises omitted and others added. The key is to perform the drills with the following 5 rules:
1 Monitor your breathing to reoxygenate your system. Inhale with deep breathing to a full pause, and then exhale smoothly to a full pause. Learning to control your breathing is a key concept in yoga called Pranayama.
2 Each posture or asana below should be performed for 3-5 full breaths.
3 Follow the poses in order below and perform each to the best of your ability, but never into a range of pain. Perform equally on each side. The key is to relax and slowly build up your flexibility.
4 Focus your mind on the position and how it is helping your body to realign the tightened tissues that have been affected by the previous training session.
5 Use this time to mentally review the previous training session and what new movements you have learned and what progress or lack thereof you have made.
The warrior sequence
I took the following 8 poses that I felt would best counteract the tightening that takes place with combat arts like Jiu-Jitsu, judo, wrestling, and boxing. Since the head, chest, forearms, abdominals and hips are constantly flexed during training, I chose the following exercises to rebalance the body. Follow the pictures above, with Vinicius Draculino, and you should be able to complete the poses. There are other yoga positions that work other areas as well as more challenging exercises for balance and strength. Although I did not include them here, they could be something else for you to pioneer your own path.
As I said in the introduction of this article, a pioneer courageously takes information, evaluates it and adapts it to fit his or her own needs. I hope you take this information, evaluate it, absorb what is useful and blaze your own path toward what you think is right. You may not be proving something like the earth is not flat, but you will be taking your game to the next level. It may be hard at first to stay disciplined, but remember, there is never a traffic jam on the extra mile. Now get to work!
* Martin Rooney is director of the Parisi Speed School and conditioning coach for Team Renzo Gracie. He has trained fighters for the ADCC, UFC, and Pride. His “Training for Warriors” book and DVD are at www.parisischool.com . Also check out the Training for warriors website.
Carolyn Larocque - cdlarocque@comcast.net | April 20th, 2008 Stretching & Yoga for Fighters - I have always used stretching as a way to maintain my full range of motion and re-oxygenate my muscles after training in any sport or activity. But when I began training in Brazilian Jiu JItsu 2 and a half years ago, I realized I needed something more, so I started practicing Yoga. I believe that yoga and stretching have allowed me to continue training hard and live free of pain and major injuries. I am 43 years old and have posted a few articles on this topic at the www.BJJZONE.com website, under the *THE ZONE section.
RECENT COMMENTS:
sean - seannuzzo@aol.com | January 29th, 2008 a must - I have been an athelete my whole life and have neglected stretching like most people. I have been having back pain lately and saw a dctr for it. It was attributed to lack of stretching. This is a good basic routine. Id recommend yoga to everyone. There is a reason the greatest of all.....Rickson Gracie does it!!!!!
RECENT COMMENTS:
Eric - Ez-mc@hotmail.com | October 9th, 2007 Yoga - this is great
It takes a courageous person to be open to a novel idea and eventually champion it. Anyone can follow the path that has already been laid, but not everyone has the bravery necessary to be a pioneer. Take Christopher Columbus for example. When everyone else said he and his boat would fall off the edge of the earth, he took the risk and proved everyone wrong. Imagine how we would all think today if he didn’t have the nerve to stick to what his instincts told him was right.
