Today we warmed up with stretching to increase our flexibility and get ourselves warmed up for the technical portion of our Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Class. While being flexible isn’t a requirement for learning jiu-jitsu improving our flexibility is an essential portion of any exercise routine. So many people spend their days sitting in offices or repeating the same movements over and over again. Sitting along with repetitive movements creates imbalance in our muscles and our bodies which lead to discomfort and injuries over time. By stretching or muscles we an undo this wear and tear on our bodies and ensure that we will be active into our later years.
The warm up also consisted or practicing our break-falls. By understanding how to fall correctly we can prevent ourselves from getting injured if we happen to fall during a self defense situation, but also just if we fall during daily life. Living in New England we are no strangers to snow and ice, and falling incorrectly on ice can lead it shoulder, knee and hip injuries that can take months if not years to heal correctly. By falling in the right position we can spread the impact of the fall over the entire area of our body prevent injuries.
Once we started the technical portion of our Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Class we continued working Elbow escapes. The elbow escape lets us move from the bottom position where we are in danger to a position where we can use our legs to control an attacker. The legs are the strongest part of our body and most people don’t even realize that your legs can be used both as tools to submit your opponents but also as tools to control your attacker and prevent them from causing us harm. This is why Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is one of the worlds most effective self defense martial arts on the planet because we learn to use our entire body to control our opponent and keep ourselves safe. Using our whole body means that we don’t fatigue any one one muscle group which means we can protect ourselves for longer periods of time and make our opponent tired. Once your opponents gets tired you have the advantage.
If you would like to try a free Brazilian Jiu-jitsu class and are in the New London, Groton Connecticut area then stop by Crossroads BJJ and experience for yourself how our Proven Curriculum makes learning jiu-jitsu easy!
Dustin Rhodes
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt
Head Instructor at Crossroads Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
316 Boston Post Road
Waterford, CT
[email protected]
www.CrossroadsBJJ.com
Kano Jigoro->Mitsuyo Maeda->Carlos Gracie Sr.-> Carlos Gracie Jr. -> Carlos Machado -> Tim Burrill -> Dustin Rhodes