Inverted Gear Blog
Tag: Fitness and Mobility
3 Panda-Certified Hip-Openers
Jiu-jitsu hips can lead to big physical challenges later. Shawna has some yoga tips to help.
Four of Nelson’s Favorite Mobility Movements
Check out Nelson's mobility routine for healthy hips, knees, ankles, and maybe going Super Saiyan.
The Yoga Solution to BJJ Shoulders
Shoulders are a bummer, so Shawna is back with a yoga perspective on opening this problem joint.
5 Death Grips & Wrist Lock Defenses
Grip and wrist health are critical to jiu-jitsu. In this new blog, Shawna Rodgers shares a yoga perspective on staying in peak form.
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Two Poses for Happier Hamstrings
When you think of places that hurt after a long day of training, hamstrings aren’t always the first to come to mind, but you should be aware of how tight hamstrings can affect the rest of your body. Having tight hamstrings can greatly contribute to knee and lower back pain as well as limit hip mobility, which can lead to discomfort and an increased risk of injury. Visualize your hamstrings as rubber bands that run between the hip and the knee, which end up pulling and putting tension on the knees, hips, back, and rest of your body when they are overly tight. When you work to loosen the hamstrings, the effects can be felt widespread throughout the body and...
What to Do When Your Knees Don’t Feel Good
Samantha Faulhaber, FRCms, FRAs, is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and mobility specialist certified by Functional Anatomy Seminars. See a professional for recommendations that are specific to you and your needs. These recommendations are not meant to replace the advice of a medical professional. Do all movements outside of any pain and seek help to make sure your knees are healthy enough to try any of these movements. Do your knees feel good? A healthy knee can do all of these things without pain: Bend (flex) Straighten (extend) Has a mobile kneecap (also known as your patella) Rotation (via tibial rotation) Let’s break down each movement and a few strategies to follow if you find any issues. Start in a...
Acroyoga for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
A few months ago my friend Stephen Goyne was at a camp in Chicago we were teaching at. After one of our training sessions, he started showing us acroyoga poses, emphasizing three he recommended for post-training recovery. We lucked out because in addition to being a BJJ black belt, Stephan is also an experienced acroyoga instructor.I had seen videos of acroyoga floating around the internet, and it always look interesting, but I never had the chance to try it. After some instruction from Stephen, we started doing acroyoga at the end of our training sessions. My hamstrings have never been more flexible, and it has helped Hillary's back and shoulder issues.The main poses we worked on are here are folded...
The Art of Sideline BJJ
I’ve often heard the advice that in the event of an injury, you should keep going to class anyway. The thinking goes that staying in the routine of regularly attending class is important, and even if you can’t drill or roll, you can still learn from the instruction. It’s nothing like actually training, but it must count for something.That advice never worked for me.When I’m injured, going anywhere near a jiu-jitsu mat is intensely emotionally painful. And even when I try to avoid it while I heal up, I still end up on or near the mat out of respect for my instructors. For example, I was once asked to referee a jiu-jitsu a week after a knee surgery while...
The Bright Side of Injury is Innovation
Injuries big and small have been a consistent theme in my jiu-jitsu writing because for some reason I am a lot like Samuel L. Jackson’s character in Unbreakable—minus the acts of mass terrorism (spoiler alert). As frustrating and as depressing injuries can be, they can also benefit your training. Granted, these benefits probably are not as good as the benefits of just staying healthy in the first place, but there are a few upsides that might make you feel just a wee little bit better about that injury. An injury can force you to do two primary things: Get your jiu-jitsu game up to speed after a layoff and adapt your game to work around a vulnerable body part....