Every once in a while I’m reminded that although I’m often rolling with teammates who are twenty years younger than I am, my body just can’t operate at the same physical intensity as it did when I was in my twenties. I can tell when I’m pushing it too far by one of several symptoms. I sometimes am more prone to injury, fatigue, or even illness. I’ve developed a few ways to prevent these symptoms in order to allow me to train as regularly as possible as one of the few members of my team who train BJJ over 40.

Don’t Over-train
This may seem obvious, but it’s often difficult to resist the temptation to attend class every day. Those of you who practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu know just how addictive it can be. It’s taken a while, but I’ve found three to four times per week to be the sweet spot. Any more than that and I begin to feel fatigue, and sometimes even begin to feel sick. I also get sloppy on the mat, which can sometimes result in injury or more aches and pains due to pulled muscles. I also am careful about balancing the rolling classes with drilling classes. If I want to train an extra class, I’ll take a class that focuses more on drilling so that I can at least go through the movements on the mat.

Sleep
Even though we’re not all UFC fighters who can sleep ten hours per night to properly recover during their training camps, it’s still absolutely essential to get enough rest to allow our bodies to fully recover from our training. This is especially true for those of us who train BJJ over 40. Any other combat sport takes a much bigger toll on the body than playing a round of golf. This is also an important for one’s safety and it’s important to be fully alert when doing any combat sport. We need to know when to tap, and to have quick reflexes to respond to our opponent’s tap. And of course there’s the issue special awareness, performing techniques properly and safely, etc. Personally, I need my seven to eight hours of sleep per night if I’m training regularly.

Nutrition
Again, this may seem obvious, but there are other aspects to it as well. I’ve found myself trying to count calories and have discovered that if I’m training regularly, I’ll sometimes not eat enough calories or hit the right nutrition macros to properly fuel my body. First of all, there’s that whole hydration thing. When I’m training regularly, I drink water constantly, and most especially following class in order to assist with the recuperation process. Second, whenever possible, I try to make sure that the food I’m eating is high in nutritional content. Also, following workouts I’ll often eat a banana to make sure I’m getting enough potassium, and I generally try to avoid those heavily sugared sports drinks that try to pass themselves off as being healthy.

Strength and Conditioning
I know some younger practitioners at my Jiu Jitsu academy who claim that to get better at BJJ, you just need to do BJJ and that extra strength and conditioning aren’t so important. For those of us in the 40 plus age bracket, that’s not so much the case. We need to make sure our bodies are in good shape for the stress that BJJ places on them. I find it’s necessary to perform some assistance exercises about once or twice per week. I’ve experimented quite a bit and here’s what I’ve found works for me.

Simple & Sinister: This workout plan by the kettlebell guru Pavel Tsatsouline is pretty darn effective. You do 5 Turkish Getups per side and 100 kettlebell swings. That’s it. It’s simple enough that it doesn’t interfere with your BJJ training, yet sinister enough to give the body a good workout. The getups and the swings both address strength through compound exercises, and the swings also give a good conditioning workout.

Basic Compound Workout: This my favorite and in my opinion, the most effective. This workout routine consists of three compound exercises that each address different types of movement. You need a pull, a push, and a hip hinge. All three are useful and quite necessary in both BJJ and life in general. Here are some examples:

Pull: Pullups, barbell rows, or rowing machine

Push: Pushups, overhead kettlebell presses, or barbell military press

Hip Hinge: Deadlifts, kettlebell swings, or barbell squats

Travel: When I travel, it’s very easy for my workout routine to become unhinged. I’ve recently begun traveling with a TRX GO Suspension Training Kit so that I can complete a full body workout in any hotel room.

I’ll sometimes add a few sets of kettlebell swings or snatches as a finisher. And of course, it’s extremely important to stretch. I find the older I get the more important the stretching part is.

Summary
All of this may seem fairly obvious, but when life happens, we get busy, and we get very eager to roll with our teammates, it can be very easy to forget about proper rest, nutrition, and assistance exercises. There’s no need to go over the top with any of these things. It’s just important to be mindful and aware. A few nights of poor sleep isn’t the end of the world, and a few chocolate chip cookies every once in a while won’t destroy our training. Also, there’s no need to strength train as if we’re preparing for a powerlifting competition. The most important thing is using good form and using enough resistance to maintain and hopefully build some extra strength. We want to save our energy for our BJJ training. The important things is to incorporate as much of these concepts into our daily routine as possible so that we can continue our BJJ training over 40as healthy and injury free as possible.