Extended Wide Squat. Source: Louisa Larson Photography

The most important part of a fighter’s body is his or her core. Strengthening your hips, abs, back and lower back is the best way to get in shape for Jiu-Jitsu. As a result of frequent training and physical preparation, your muscles tend to tighten up, making you stiffer in your practice sessions. Thus, while you want to build strength, you should also strive to become more flexible. In particular, opening up your hips will improve your technique and mobility on the mat.

Click here to learn 8 exercises from PopSugar Fitness to increase flexibility and loosen up tight hips.

GRACIEMAG 187 is chock full of teachings for improving your Jiu-Jitsu and life, and it’s already available at better bookstores around the world. In the cover story, your favorite Jiu-Jitsu magazine shines a spotlight on the subject of bullying, listing the eight main reasons why Jiu-Jitsu is the best medicine there is when it comes to combating mistreatment in everyday life. However, we didn’t stop at the painless antidote for bullying.

Below you’ll find 5 lessons to relish from the magazine for gentle-art practitioners of all ages, from 7 to 70 years of age or more.

1. Naïve is he who thinks he can evolve alone

The coolest thing about Jiu-Jitsu is how in training we always “create the snake that’s going to try and bite us.” In one of this month’s exclusive articles, GRACIEMAG teaches how to constantly flee your comfort zone—a task for the body and especially for the mind. “If you start tapping out a training partner with certain ease you have two options: to teach him to defend against the move or to stop evolving. When we feel too comfortable in a determined situation, it’s time to scramble the board to move the pieces out of place,” teaches Jiu-Jitsu professor Halisson Santos.

2. What can you learn from BJ Penn?

This month, we serve up 12 lessons derived from the career of the UFC’s beast from Hawaii. What’s one of them? “To this day, no one has managed to tell that a given method of training is the right one, the only one.”

3. “Steal with your eyes” at the academy

In this month’s White Page, Professor Federico Tisi addresses the importance of stretching before and after Jiu-Jitsu training, not neglecting self-defense and knowing your roots; as well as teaches us to steal with our eyes when training at the academy.

4. The nitty-gritty of the overhead sweep

GRACIEMAG # 187 features Professor José Henrique Leão Teixeira teaching the ins and outs and variations involved in successfully executing one of the most eyeful sweeps in the Jiu-Jitsu playbook. “Zé Beleza prefers grabbing the enemy gi at the elbows. He also prefers not to use the sole of his feet against the enemy hips,” says a certain snippet from TRAINING PROGRAM.

5. Coffee, herbal teas and the Gracie Diet

Grandmaster Helio Gracie recommended substituting sugary coffee with caffeine-free teas. Now that coffee has been linked to glaucoma and other illnessses, it shows that the original Jiu-Jitsu professor was at the very least on the right track. Read more about Helio Gracie and his behavior and diet tips, through lessons recounted by Grandmaster Francisco Mansur.

Want more? Then rush to your nearest bookstore and get your copy now!

And to subscribe to the most complete Jiu-Jitsu magazine on the planet, click here.

Check out the five different ways of warming up your muscles and ligaments. Whether practicing positions, simulating rugby on the mat or doing a bridging exercise, the name of the game is to stretch and warm up. Check the warmup videos out, and comment on whether you like them below.

Odd warmup at 2012 Pan / Photo: Ivan Trindade / GRACIEMAG

1. Patrick and positional warmups

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz_OKpQYGZg

2. Warm up with Marcio Meloni

3. Warmup at Sumaré Jiu-Jitsu

4. Warmup Refúgio Jiu-Jitsu team

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNYnThQWnpE

5. Garcia Combat Club and natural movements

The warmup may in itself be the difference between a glorious performance and frustration, as GRACIEMAG never ceases to reiterate. Photo: Roger Gracie by Ray Santana/GRACIEMAG.

Although it’s often forgotten or neglected, the warmup is an important part of Jiu-Jitsu class. Warmed up and stretched out, athletes avoid injuries, pick up the pace and see improved performances—in training and in competition. So on that note, we dug up five ways for you to improve your warmup.

These tips come from many-time world champion Saulo Ribeiro to former UFC star Ricardo Cachorrão, and on to brown belt Trevor Newton, a student of our GMA in Texas João Crus.

WARM UP REINFORCING BASIC JIU-JITSU

In the lessons, you learn some moves, like shrimping get-up techniques and, in closing, stretches using a Jiu-Jitsu belt. The important part is that all the exercises apply one of the main Jiu-Jitsu commandments: minimum force, maximum efficiency.

Study the subject in the following videos and comment below: What’s your warmup trick? If you’d rather, record your innovative warmup at the academy and send it in to us.

1. Warm up with Ricardo Cachorrão Almeida

2. Saulo Ribeiro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqmxrBdtcr0

3. Trevor Newton

4. Russo

5. Academia Serrinha/Nova União

6. Patrick and Jiu-Jitsu exercises to do on your own