The eighth single taken from that album was the song “Attitude” and the video clip featured a MMA-like cage to illustrate the song’s lyrics.

Featured in the video is Royce Gracie and other members of the family, including Rorion Gracie and Grandmaster Helio Gracie himself.

Watch the video and witness this great encounter between two of Brazil’s best exports, Jiu-Jitsu and Sepultura.

Kyra with her girls, Ayra and Kyara.

What is the most valuable gift you can give your children? A gift they can use for their whole lives, of course.

Kyra Gracie, a world champion who is thankful for all she has learned on the mat, wasted no time, and has already begun giving her two daughters — two-year-old Ayra and eight-month-old Kyara — priceless lessons in BJJ.

“At the same time you’re teaching BJJ, you are giving love to your kids,” she says. “At the same time they are in a new situation, they are in contact with me, close to me. All with the confidence of having Mom there.”

You can catch Ayra and Kyara’s training session in this video. And feel free to share your own method of bringing your kids into the gentle art.

Relson Gracie. Daniel Amaral/ Gallerr.com

BJJ Grandmaster Relson Gracie tells the story of the day in Ohio he misplaced one of his shoes. A jiu-jitsu mystery that is still unsolved over seven years later. Watch it now for a good laugh.

Click CC icon to get English subtitles.

Kayron Gracie during a class at Gracie Barra. GRACIEMAG

Gracie Barra instructor Kayron Gracie brings you a technique capable of submitting even that peskiest of opponents. He teaches here his invisible armbar — a trick that entails such movements that it’s next to impossible to prevent what’s coming.

Kayron starts on the open guard with a hand on the collar before placing one foot on spider guard and feinting a triangle. Then he moves for the omoplata, sits and starts the invisible attack.

Between his own legs, he gets his foe’s opposite arm, before taking a step toward him and ending up with an arm already lassoed and helpless.

Watch Kayron walk through the technique in this video.

Renzo Gracie. Graciemag archives

Renzo Gracie shared some of his best techniques at the Camp, an event held in Florianópolis featuring a host of BJJ seminars. One of them was a position he used to have trouble with — an armbar against an opponent on all fours. Starting from the front, the attacker would try for the lever and would sometimes get thrown by the opponent, causing serious injuries. To avoid that couter-attack, Renzo developed, alongside his brother Ryan and another teammate, a transition where he ends up by his foe’s side and with the arm trapped even tighter. You can watch it all in this video.

If you want to learn more from Renzo, don’t forget to check Gallerr’s online course. Over 200 videos at http://gallerr.com/academy

Rolls Gracie. Photo by Ricardo Azoury

Rolls Gracie would be 65 years old if he was still with us in 2016. Victim of a paragliding accident in 1982, the 15th son of Grandmaster Carlos Gracie had only 31 years to leave his mark within the gentle art community. Here are 5 lessons Rolls left us through his accomplishments in life on and off the mats.

1. Don’t be afraid to innovate

Rolls was one of the first ones to tape matches and study it later. He tested himself in other styles like wrestling, sambo and judo. He also included extreme sports in his lifestyle to keep active and unwind the stress of the mats.

2. Don’t let yourself be limited by labels

Rolls was a skinny guy, never weighing more than 155lbs. Even so, when competing, his style was to be on the offensive, shooting for takedowns and playing on top. He was known for pushing the pace and searching for constant evolution in his technique and style of fighting.

Rolls Gracie Photo: Family archives

3. Leadership is earned, not demanded

Rolls had all the characteristics of a true leader. Charismatic, fearless, intelligent and loyal, the Gracie always knew what to say to his students and friends in times of doubt and challenges. His teachings are still passed on to new generations by those who had the luck to learn from him.

4. Always make the best of your time

Rolls had only 31 years to live, but he did more in life than the vast of majority of people do in 80 years. He learned, taught and competed in Jiu-Jitsu, surfed, rode horses, flew paraglides, got married, had two kids, travelled the world, etc. He used his time on earth to the fullest and so should you.

5. Challenge yourself

Rolls loved to go after new challenges, be it a sambo competition, a karate tournament or a wrestling championship. He was down for anything, like he himself liked to say. For those who knew him, that was one of the main reasons he was so ahead of his time. “Persistence made a phenomenon of him,” once said Carlson Gracie.

Renzo Gracie is the perfect definition of a living legend.

Jiu-Jitsu black belt, fighter, academy owner, father, husband, trainer, menthor and all around nice guy, it’s hard to find someone who does not like him.

Renzo is also one of the best interviews around and GRACIEMAG never missed an opportunity to talk with him.

Here are seven great quotes by him and also some of the greatest moments in his career.

“Jiu-Jitsu is not only the way to make a living, but to be equal to everyone else. When you’re in there, there’s no color, race, religion.”

“I fight to stimulate my boys. It’s not even the pleasure of brawling, but the pleasure of reaching a higher level of knowledge and make my sport more well known.”

“Fighters have to have blood in their eye. Whenever things get rough, it’s time to find your way out.”

“Brother, my claws are sharp since the day I was born. I was born naked, hungry, kicking and screaming. I’m way ahead in the game and that’s why I still have the same disposition I had when i was a kid.”

“Fighting MMA is a form of evolving. It’s the hallowed ground where you are going to try your resources and find out what works and what doesn’t work and also find a way to make things work better.”

“Jiu-Jitsu is all about finishing your opponent and in order to do that you need imagination. I think the secret is to let your imagination flow and allow Jiu-Jitsu to be everything and everything to be Jiu-Jitsu.”

“Despite the result, it was the most fun fight I had in my life.”

They are cousins, they were professor and pupil and they were friends.

Even so, they were the best of their time.

Here’s what Rigan Machado remembers of the day he had to compete against Rickson Gracie.

Grandmaster Carlson Gracie left us on February 1, 2006.

We celebrate his memory and his legacy 10 years after his passing and remember one of the greatest moments of his career.

The man responsible for training some of the most accomplished MMA and Jiu-Jitsu fighters of all times was a beast himself.

He retired still undefeated in a time where vale-tudo fights were not much different from street fights.

His most famous performances were against Valdemar Santana, a former pupil of his uncle Helio.

There were four of them, in 1955 (video above), 1956, 1957 and 1959.

The first one under Jiu-Jitsu rules ended in a draw, but Carlson won in ’56 and then again in ’57.

The fight in 1959, the third under vale-tudo (MMA) rules, was the closest of the four and also ended in a draw.

About all those matches, Carlson had a timeless quote: “If I had lost to Valdemar, the Gracie family would have ended right there.”

But he didn’t lose and his triumphs added to the family legend and helped build the stepping stone from which Jiu-Jitsu took over the world.

What could be better than to have 10 drops of wisdom from the founding fathers of Jiu-Jitsu.

We selected five phrases from Carlos and five phrases from Helio to inspire you to have a great year of 2016 on and off the mats.

Enjoy!

Helio Gracie: “Never stop improving yourself. I am 92 years old and it is hard to find a mind that works as fast as mine. I have never had so much good sense in my life.”

Carlos Gracie: “Promise yourself you will be too great to feel disquiet, too noble to feel cholera, too strong to feel fear and too happy to feel contradictions.”

Helio: “No tough guy can resist a choke. My favorite move always was the the “sleep”. No tough guy can resist a choke. He either goes to sleep or taps.”

Carlos: “With Jiu-Jitsu I learned, above all, the great lesson, which was to get to know myself profoundly.”

Helio: “Be active and you won’t feel alone. Loneliness is when the person does not like himself. Loneliness is not having a mental activity. There’s no reason to be lonely. Loneliness is not having what to do, what to think about.”

Carlos: “Never fight against the person, but against his/her movements.”

Helio: “Why fear death? I need nothing, I have nothing, I want nothing. I find it silly to fear death. We should be afraid of being born.”

Carlos: “Spend the greatest amount of time perfecting yourself, and no time criticizing others”

Helio: “I like to say that no one gets what they don’t deserve, be it a punishment or a gift. Did a brick fall on your head? Thank God because you owed something that was paid with the hit to your head.”

Carlos: “The Jiu-Jitsu adept should, above all else, bring prestige to, love and defend the great sport we practice”

Royce Gracie is getting ready to fight once again.

On February 19, he will be fighting Ken Shamrock for the third time on Bellator 149.

“I tried to walk away, but once a fighter always a fighter,” said Royce in a recent interview with GRACIEMAG.

This Saturday, Dec. 12, Royce celebrates his 49th birthday.

Let’s celebrate the date watching a highlight reel with some of the greatest moments of the guy who changed MMA forever.

If you are into Jiu-Jitsu, you have most certainly already heard about the famous Gracie Diet. The nutrition method developed by Grandmaster Carlos Gracie has been passed on through the generations within and outside the Gracie family.

Those who follow its teachings quickly become passionate advocates of the diet, so impressed they get with the results it provides in terms of health and well-being. Every day we get questions regarding the Gracie Diet, so here are 10 facts you need to know before you even think of adopting it.

1. Foods are divided into 6 main groups

It’s basic, but it’s also fundamental. Food in the Gracie Diet is divided into: 1) protein and vegetables; 2) sweet fruits; 3) starches; 4) acidic fruits; 5) milk; 6) milk cream.

2. How you mix the foods in each group is one of the keys to success 

Grandmaster Carlos’s goal was to keep the body in equilibrium. And what better way to do that than by how you consume your food? So he came up with a way to mix the groups and also how to mix the foods within the groups. It can be summed up in these simple rules:

A) Foods in group 1 mix with themselves and also with group 2.

B) Foods in group 2 do not mix with each other.

C) Foods in group 3 combine with each other and with one item of group 2 at a time, as long they are not cooked with fat.

D) Foods in group 4 do not combine with each other or any other group.

E) Milk can be combined with foods in group 2 and a few others.

F) Milk cream can be combined with foods in group 2 and a few others.

3. Cooked meals or fruit-based meals — take your pick

One of the paradigm shifts of the Gracie Diet is that fruits are not a desert or a side dish to the main meal. Those who follow the method have to choose between a cooked meal or a fruit-based meal, meaning that if they go for the fruit, they consume enough of it to be satiated. So, if you are going for some melon for lunch, eat three of them so you don’t have to add a sandwich to the mix.

4. When to eat is as important as what to eat 

Contrary to other popular nutrition methods, the Gracie Diet advocates longer intervals between meals. GM Carlos used to say that 5 hours is the ideal time between meals. The idea is to allow enough time for you body to fully process the previous meal before a new one comes, so the foods don’t mix, ruining the combinations. For example, if you ate rice for lunch and only two hours later you eat some potatoes, you’ll be mixing two starches, which is bad according to the Gracie Diet. If five hours is too long for you, those who follow the diet recommend smaller meals and shorter intervals (but at least 3 hours), so the body has time to process one meal before it’s time for the next one.

5. Know your fruits 

The Gracie Diet divides fruits into two categories — sweet and acidic, — but it’s not that easy to know which fruit belongs to each group. You may think that mango, strawberry and peach are examples of sweet fruits, but they are actually acidic according to GM Carlos. As the goal of the diet is to keep the blood PH from becoming acidic, you cannot mix acidic fruits with other acidic fruits. So, if you feel like some mangoes, eat as many as you need to feel full and not have to add anything else.

6. Water is not just H2O

When preparing some fruit juice, you’ll notice that adding water to the mix makes it watery and tasteless, and thus in need of sugar (and that’s a big “no”). So GM Carlos came up with the concept of different kinds of “waters.” His waters were juices made of sweet juices that will help you to have a tasty meal without adding sugar to it. Centrifuged apple, watermelon or melon juices, and also coconut water and sweet lemon juice make great “waters” to use as the base for your juice. You can mix any one of them with guava, figs, papaya or pears, for example.

7. No tomatoes?

Tomatoes are not really banned, but the thing is they are in the acidic fruit group, so they need to be consumed alone. As you are hardly going to make a whole meal out of tomatoes, it’s better to avoid them. By the way, vinegar, mustard and lime are also not recommended, due to their acidity.

For a thorough Gracie Diet guide, click here. And for our ever-growing list of diet-related material, come here. To help us keep making quality content in English, support us here.