Yoga by the sunset

With over 5,000 years of history, yoga is one of the favorite forms of exercise for active people today. A mix of movement, breathing and meditation, this ancient set of techniques can and will help you with your conditioning for a better performance on the mats. We went after yoga instructor Angela Kent and black-belt Flavio Almeida and they shared the following eight ways yoga can help your BJJ training.

1 – FLEX ACTION — Yoga poses require flexibility. During your first yoga class, you probably won’t be able to touch your toes, but if you stick with it, you’ll notice a gradual loosening, and eventually difficult poses will become possible. Open your hips, lengthen your muscles and get a bigger range of motion in every Jiu-Jitsu position.

2 – STRONG STANCE — Maintaining good posture and creating balance within you helps in many different aspects of Jiu-Jitsu. Yoga will give you good balance when you are trying to take someone down, or while passing the guard if you need to hold a position for a long time, without getting swept.

3 – RELAXED MIND — Keeping a cool and focused mind is so important for fighters. Become present within your body and mind because you are listening to the cues of your breath and staying present with each movement that you make. Holding poses for a long time challenges not only your body, but also mostly your mind. Yoga teaches you to maintain calmness in a stressful situation, which can help you reverse any bad position in Jiu-Jitsu.

4 – OXYGEN FLOW — Learn to manage the flow of oxygen that comes into your body and use breathing to manage stress and recover. Yoga stretches your muscles, moves your organs, and drains your lymph. Cutting circulation off within the body and bringing fresh circulation and oxygen into certain areas helps to heal any kind of damage or scar tissue that’s been developed over time.

Yoga at the park

5 – STRENGTH FIX — Jiu-Jitsu athletes need to be explosive but also need to be able to hold a given position for a long time. Most strength programs deliver the first but not the second. Also, when you build strength through yoga, you balance it with flexibility. If you just went to the gym and lifted weights, you might build strength at the expense of flexibility. Yoga enables you to hold a certain position and endure the pain without losing concentration – and that can help any fighter.

6 – JOINT HEALTH — Each time you practice yoga, you work on your joints taking them through their full range of motion. This keeps your joints calibrated and can help prevent injuries that are so often common in Jiu-Jitsu athletes. Without proper sustenance, neglected areas of cartilage can eventually deteriorate, exposing the underlying bone like worn-out brake pads.

7- SPINAL SUPPLY — Most yoga poses are controlled from the core, therefore delivering great relief for the back. Strengthening your core and abdominal area is essential if you want to keep your back safe during training.

8 – DIET BOOSTER — Yoga lowers cortisol levels. Because it is a stress-relieving activity and a mind and body relaxer, it can help you worry less (especially before competitions), which will control your cortisol levels. High cortisol levels have been linked to what researchers call “food-seeking behavior” (the kind that drives you to eat when you’re upset, angry or stressed). The body takes those extra calories and distributes them as fat in the abdomen, contributing to weight gain.

Bow Pose

Feeling tired or overworked after Jiu-Jitsu?

Try this 4 Yoga poses to relax your body and get a better night of sleep.

Release any tension performing one set of the four moves after training or before going to bed:

Upward-facing dog with lion breath

Technique: Lie face down. Exhale as you press your hands into the floor by your site and straighten your arms. Allow the tops of your tights to lift, keeping your bottom relaxed. Inhale through your nose. Then, exhale through your mouth making a “ha” sound and opening your mouth wide. Inhale and relax your face, then exhale and release back down to the mat. Repeat this sequence of movements as many times as you feel is necessary.

Forward Fold

Technique: Sit on a mat with both legs stretched out in front of you. Inhale and reach your up overhead, lengthening your spine as you do so. Exhale and reach forward folding over your legs and resting your hands on your shins or toes. Breathe deeply and relax for at least a minute in this position.

Half Lord of the Fishes Pose

Technique: Sit on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you. Bend your knees, put your feet on the floor, then slide your left foot under your right leg to the outside of your right hip. Lay the outside of the left leg on the floor. Step the right foot over the left leg and stand it on the floor outside your left hip. The right knee will point directly up at the ceiling. Exhale and twist toward the inside of the right thigh. Press the right hand against the floor just behind your right buttock, and set your left upper arm on the outside of your right thigh near the knee. Pull your front torso and inner right thigh snugly together. Continue the twist of the torso by turning it to the right; or counter the twist of the torso by turning it left and looking over the left shoulder at the right foot. With every inhalation lengthening your spine a little more. Twist a little more with every exhalation. Stay for 30 seconds to 1 minute, then release with an exhalation, return to the starting position, and repeat to the left for the same length of time.

Child’s Pose

Technique: Kneel on the floor. Touch your big toes together and sit on your heels, then separate your knees about as wide as your hips. Exhale and lay your torso down between your thighs. Broaden your sacrum across the back of your pelvis and narrow your hip points toward the navel, so that they nestle down onto the inner thighs. Lengthen your tailbone away from the back of the pelvis while you lift the base of your skull away from the back of your neck. Lay your hands on the floor alongside your torso, palms up, and release the fronts of your shoulders toward the floor. Feel how the weight of the front shoulders pulls the shoulder blades wide across your back. Stay here for a few minutes.

Source:

http://www.yogajournal.com

James Puopolo with his judo professor Andy Hung after his brown belt promotion. Photo: Personal Archive

What most high-level athletes do with their training extends outside of training Jiu-Jitsu. Drilling, conditioning, wrestling, crossfit are all ways in which competitors can raise their skill levels for tournaments and becoming well-rounded martial artists.

For James Puopolo, a black belt competitor under GMA member Rafael Lovato Jr., judo has been a great addition to his training routine. In fact, he just received his brown belt from Andy Hung at Portland Judo in Portland, OR so we decided to ask about his training.

James recently won double gold at the 2014 IBJJF Houston Open on Feb. 22-23 and will be competing at the Pan American Championship in two weeks. See how he trains and constantly improves his skills:

GRACIEMAG: How long have you been training Judo and why did you seek out that martial art?

JAMES PUOPOLO: I’ve been training judo for about three years. It’s been great supplementary training. Like any of my training my main motivation was to find another way to win. Almost all of the great champions have judo. Saulo, Xande, and Rafael all have great judo.

What other ways do you cross train?

I do a lot of cross training since I’m out here in Oregon. I do a lot of strength and conditioning, tons of yoga/ flexibility training, and I’ve recently added pilates twice a week which has been really helpful.

Does training  judo give you confidence to stay standing with opponents in competition?

At this point I feel like my judo is getting to where I feel confident standing with most guys. I would definitely still consider myself a guard player, but I have seen judo as a long term project that I will use a lot in the future.

Besides stand-up, how does Judo help your Jiu-Jitsu?

Judo has really helped my grips. Once I started training with Lovato I realized I was getting destroyed by his gripping. Also, I think judo helps your base and being able to manipulate your opponent’s weight on sweeps.

What has your training been like for Pan-Ams?

Training for Pan-Ams has been awesome. I just got back from a ten day trip to OKC training with Rafael and Ben Baxter. Houston was a great prep tournament. My nutrition is good right now and I’m feeling strong. Can’t wait to show my progression down in Irvine.

To compete alongside James at the Pan American Championship, go to www.ibjjf.org to register!

Yoga and Jiu-Jitsu

By Carol Gracie

Yoga by definition is known as “a Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation” and it is more than 5.000 years old. However in my opinion Yoga is much more than that. The word “yoga” comes from the Sanskrit root “yuj”, which means “to yoke” or “to unite” the spirit and physical body together.  Since I started to practice it last year I could experience many improvements physically and mentally. It is an overall well being enhancement practice.

The practice of Yoga brings so many benefits to your body and mind that it is actually hard to mention all of them or just pick a few to share here with you. Anyone can do Yoga. It is good for everybody, BJJ practitioners included. Physically, Yoga works on balance, flexibility, strength, endurance, core and breathing which will definitely help you improve your performance on the mats. Considering that Jiu-Jitsu is also a mental game of strategy, logic, intelligence and patience, it is necessary to work on strengthening your mind as well as your own body.

Mentally, the practice of Yoga will help you train your mind for Jiu-Jitsu, opening your head to new ways of thinking and cleaning your thoughts so you can have more focus and easily find the solutions to your questions and problems. You will acquire mental endurance and strength to push forward beyond your limits, and at the same time relaxes your mind to bring you more patience and calmness.

Yoga has evolved so much over thousands of years that today embrace a wide range of styles and disciplines. The Gracie Family members have been combining Yoga and Jiu-Jitsu for many years. Rickson is one of the most feverous adapts of Yoga poses, breathing techniques and meditation, and he is also one of the best Jiu-Jitsu fighters of all times. Grandmaster Carlos Gracie, my grandfather used to meditate, just like my dad does it after him, and like that it runs in the family. Nowadays, many BJJ schools have been offering Yoga classes as a complement to Jiu-Jitsu training.

On this fourth episode of LIFESTYLE with Carol Gracie, I visit a BJJ school to take a Yoga class and talk to the instructor about the benefits of the practice for fighters. Check it out!

Alvaro Romano teaching Ginástica Natural in New York / Photo: Cristian Buitron

A physical conditioning coach to the MMA stars, Jiu-Jitsu black belt and Ginástica Natural expert,  Alvaro Romano has dropped out of Vitor Belfort’s team and will not be training him for his showdown with Wanderlei Silva next June at UFC Brazil.

“I won’t be coaching Vitor anymore. I’m off his team, after having worked with him for his last two fights, two victories. Now I have some offers to work on producing new athletes,” Romano told GRACIEMAG.com. “My idea is to set up and execute a plan alongside professionals from all the areas of training. That’s the right way to do things. That’s how I always did it, and the results have been 100% victorious in the UFC  so far. I want to spearhead the evolution of conditioning for MMA.”

“I LEAVE THE TEAM WITH HIM VICTORIOUS”

A GRACIEMAG columnist, Romano denies any falling out with Belfort, but he does say he is open to work with other MMA stars.

“I want to deal more with the planning, while my son Raphael would work more directly with the UFC and MMA stars in their training camps,” he elucidates.

The Rolls Gracie student remembers how he took up Belfort’s training at a difficult moment, when the two first struck up their partnership.

“Fifteen years ago, I started training him after he lost to Randy Couture at UFC 15, in 1997. After another unfortunate incident, his loss to Anderson Silva in 2011, we started working together again. Now I leave the team with him victorious and at a good point in his career. I have other offers, and I want to devote myself to new plans for Ginástica Natural and training athletes,” Alvaro added.

Check out a bit of what Ginástica Natural is all about, in the following video produced by Alvaro and his son Raphael.