Muscle memory is a wonderful thing.
Training MMA into middle age?
- Thread starter vancitybb
- Start date
Absolutely! Whenever I'd throw a punch, my off hand just snapped into place to protect my chin, without even thinking about it. That was something they really drilled into me when I was training years ago. Nice to see that experience didn't go to waste.
I decided to get some kobudo (Okinawan weapons) back into my weapons and picked up my tonfa for the first time in nearly thirty years; the technique was still there. I am a little more careful than I was when I was younger.
For the ones that practice martial arts and are older, what kind of training are you doing at the gym?
Are you lifting for strength, high reps, hyperthrophy, mobility based?
I’m planning to go back to bjj which I have done lots as a kid and failed to get back to it throughout my life due to injuries, poor recovery and digestion issues.
All my issues are somehow resolved so it’s time. I’m gonna start once a week and when the time comes, increase to 2/ week.
The goal here is have no injuries and not stop.
I just put one about 15lbs and I lost some mobility, so I’m giving myself 2 months to improve mobility and cardio, any suggestions?
Thank you.
Are you lifting for strength, high reps, hyperthrophy, mobility based?
I’m planning to go back to bjj which I have done lots as a kid and failed to get back to it throughout my life due to injuries, poor recovery and digestion issues.
All my issues are somehow resolved so it’s time. I’m gonna start once a week and when the time comes, increase to 2/ week.
The goal here is have no injuries and not stop.
I just put one about 15lbs and I lost some mobility, so I’m giving myself 2 months to improve mobility and cardio, any suggestions?
Thank you.
I lift three days a week in addition to jiu-jitsu. I’m 54. I tend to do upper lower but from time to time I’ll switch to push pull legs. I know there’s a lot of talk about training muscles twice a week better than one, but the actual research shows that it’s only slightly better.
With lifting. I do it for hypertrophy, strength, and mostly balance. Jujutsu is very repetitive on certain muscles such as back so lifting helps balance it all out. I like upper splits as in a given session you don’t do too much volume for one muscle group. If I do too much volume for a muscle, I tend to get tweaks at jiu-jitsu.
Doing lifting and jiu-jitsu at older ages you are burning the candle at both ends, so I am starting to find that every seven weeks. I have to do a deload now.
With lifting. I do it for hypertrophy, strength, and mostly balance. Jujutsu is very repetitive on certain muscles such as back so lifting helps balance it all out. I like upper splits as in a given session you don’t do too much volume for one muscle group. If I do too much volume for a muscle, I tend to get tweaks at jiu-jitsu.
Doing lifting and jiu-jitsu at older ages you are burning the candle at both ends, so I am starting to find that every seven weeks. I have to do a deload now.
So less volume and mix more muscle groups in a workout from what I understood. That is very helpful.
I already de load every 5 to 6 weeks and take a week off every 3 months which is very helpful after certain age.
Thanks for the advice.
I love what you can do with jiu-jitsu but I only practice holds, and refuse to get into joint manipulation other than making sure you can still do it. IE: someone is stupid enough to grab your shirt or shoulder, trap their hand with your armpit, and with 1 arm go around the arm and grab their shirt to put pressure on their elbow and shoulder - either just stop them or dislocate their elbow or shoulder. We do this at boxing but never push someone to tap anymore. It is simply too much when training with weights. I do something similar to @Oldguyjiujitsu, who could turn me into a pretzel on the ground. I do a 4 day weight split and it is a combo of hypertrophy and strength. I do a push/pull/legs which is mainly based on endurance and hypertrophy, but I do a forth day to work on nothing but forearms/hands/and stability muscles (core/muscles that protect your spine and help keep it aligned (no weights) - just floor exercises for spine stability. Strong hands in boxing, Judo, Jui-Jitsu is extremely beneficial. If you do security work - being able to grab two people, even if it means getting hit, they can't get away if you have very strong hands, and the person you are assigned to protect can easily get away. The forearm day is a lot of squeezing balls, farmers walk (no straps) for overall body strength and grip strength, reverse and normal wrist curls, and an exercise few do, but I love. Take a safety bar and hold it at the end and keep your arm straight down and just curl it up and down with your hand. When your done you will be amazed at the pump your forearms get and the vascularity in your arms/hands.
I prefer boxing and they have a heavy bag, pads, and MMA room at the gym. I do it at least 2 days a week and have a BOB at home so if shit really ever hit the fan - it is almost identical to a person and you can practice throat punches, turn your hand into a dagger and take out an eye. Not that I would ever want to do any of this, but if you are a doorman and have to walk alone to your car - often 3-5 guys may wait for you and jump you. Hence the benefits of steel shot (SAP) gloves, a cup, and if needed know that one quick open handed V punch to the throat and that person is incapacitated.
I am more into the weights and my boxing and other MMA techniques are often just 20 minute sessions. In an attempt to keep sharp and make sure your technique is correct using your hips, and torso for all the punching power. All the same - do this as you age and without a little help - it is hard to recover properly or prevent injuries. The only time I could do weights and then hit the bag, or grapple after with friends was when I was taking 3IU of Serostim script HGH a day. Don't take this as a tough guy post as many/many guys could mop the floor with me, but staying on top of these items will result or should result even if you are older, in handling most people. I have torn my knucles open more than once and built a Makiwara board and use it once a week to strengthen my hands/knuckles/bones, etc. Just lifting weights will do this, but add in punching exercises to prevent breaking your hands and it is unlikely you will ever break your hands or rip them apart again. If one of the members was online and is a professional martial artist, has huge mitts and puches rocks and the rocks have the imprints of his knuckles. His knuckles are covered with massive callouses and I doubt if he hit you, no matter who you are, you would be standing. Doesn't hurt he is 250 lbs plus, and his hands are huge.
Just my take - if you want to lift weights, one has to take priority as you age unless you enhanced.
I think the biggest challenge here as oldguy jiujitsu mentioned, is recovery. My goal is to find a way to do both and recover. I’m starting with jiu jitsu once a week because i am my worst enemy. I’m like an irresponsible kid when it comes to it.
When I first started BJJ many years ago, I quit lifting for awhile - Had to. I was addicted to rolling and loved it. Rolling mostly in GI with only one class of no-gi per week in the beginning, I quickly started to have joint pain issues in all my fingers and my ears were getting destroyed. Had the right one drained three times. I saw higher belts rolling without these issues and quickly realized I needed to change my game and I did.
I'm a firm believer that, "You cannot serve two masters." What I mean by this is after years now of rolling and lifting, you need to decide which takes priority. If BJJ is top priority, I can't allow myself to get upset if I'm not progressing in the gym.
I'm 56 and still love to roll but concentrate on lifting for now..... Therefore, doing about two days rolling per week.
I'm a firm believer that, "You cannot serve two masters." What I mean by this is after years now of rolling and lifting, you need to decide which takes priority. If BJJ is top priority, I can't allow myself to get upset if I'm not progressing in the gym.
I'm 56 and still love to roll but concentrate on lifting for now..... Therefore, doing about two days rolling per week.
I agree, jiu jitsu will be background for fun and mobility. I’m older and cannot practice like when I was young and did 2 jiu sessions a day 5 days a week, but I wish I still could.
"The fox that chases two rabbits catches neither."
Some guy a lot smarter than I.
Pfttt I wish. Almost 40 years later I was sparing with my grandson (who was like 10 at the time), I had zero timing and couldn’t see a punch coming if the gloves were bright pink, lol.
It actually was quite shocking to me. I felt kinda pitiful.
I loved to box and kick box, did it for almost a decade, stopped at 16.
My movement and counter punching was my best things. Shit I even won two amateur fights at 15. That is so long gone.
Thought about taking it up again, but I’m not sure if I’ll enjoy getting punched in the head anymore. Using a bag, shadow boxing and such cannot replace real sparing.
Plus I’d need the time. I’m just lucky I’m at the age in my life where fights don’t really happen.