Losing weight for jiu-jitsu

veganrun

I might have mentioned on the main bjj thread but I'm currently overweight (male, 41, 5ft 10 and about 106kg).

I started bjj last year but have only been to a handful of classes in that time. I went back last Friday night and while I didn't struggle cardio wise, I felt very inflexible and could really feel my weight holding me back. Part of me feels like taking a break and coming back when I'm thinner. I've heard the phrase that bjj will get you into bjj shape which is all well and good but I'm carrying probably 30-35kg of flab at the moment which is making training hard. We were doing getups last week and I couldn't really do them and I get embarrassed and frustrated. My arms don't seem to support my weight that well and I am not flexible. I also tweaked my knee slightly doing a getup which I feel is a direct result of the weight etc.

Anyone here been in the same boat?

Chairman Meow

Doing BJJ will get you in BJJ shape. Its as simple as that really.
However if i were in your shoes, id start doing HIIT and bodyweight exercises when youre not training. If you said it felt like your arms couldnt support you that sounds like youre lacking strength. HIIT (or just doing BJJ as its basically HIIT) will burn fat, bodyweight exercises will build strength.

Mellor

Exercise and activity has an impact on weight loss, but its tiny compared to diet. The energy burned during hour of BJJ is not a massive amount and would be easily wiped out by a bad diet.

veganrun

Yeah I need to work on my diet and eating. Sometimes I wonder if I should avoid bjj until I've lost some weight and do something easier on the joints. For example my knees are still slightly sore after my class last Friday and that's 6 days ago. Not really bad but they are slightly sore in places to the touch.

Black Sheep

veganrun wrote: »

Yeah I need to work on my diet and eating. Sometimes I wonder if I should avoid bjj until I've lost some weight and do something easier on the joints. For example my knees are still slightly sore after my class last Friday and that's 6 days ago. Not really bad but they are slightly sore in places to the touch.

Only you can really decide the above, to be honest.

Without being in your body it's impossible to tell what is the 'normal' discomfort that comes with BJJ and what is something untoward to do with the added strain of your weight on your joints. I have persistent aches and pains too, and I'm not overweight, that's the nature of the sport to an extent. Now it might be because I'm getting old but that's another story :pac:. Even highly active guys training all the time experience this and in my experience they're probably even more likely to be carrying injuries while training than the rest of us.

You're right that your diet is probably far and away going to be the biggest factor in terms of losing weight, not how hard you train in the gym (although that's going to become more relevant down the line as you get closer to your target weight). If you're serious about it and it's not something you are having success with in tackling yourself, then find a trainer or a dietician that you can work with.

I get the impression that you don't really enjoy your BJJ, to be honest, based on a lot of the posts you make. I can't help but wonder if an element is that you haven't pushed past the hump that is sometimes there at the beginner stage. There's a steep learning curve and I wonder if you could train more would something 'click' and you'd find yourself enjoying it more. If you haven't done that many classes then frankly I am not surprised you're struggling a bit, why wouldn't you? For me personally, when I came back after a lay off of several years, the first couple of weeks back were not pleasant. I felt claustrophobic, over-graded etc. and it was only after a couple of months that I suddenly got back into the groove and it became fun again. Beginners have the same thing, that's why the drop out rate is so high.

If you do decide to take a break and come back after you've lost weight then... Assuming that actually happens... Just be aware that it'll still be hard, and some of the guys who are your peers now will be smashing you in six months. You might be better hanging in there.

veganrun

You are right about the enjoyment part. I don't love it but I don't hate it either. I find some of the stuff very difficult which is to be expected I guess at the start. Each time I go to the class I'm walking in thinking "what on earth have I let myself in for this time" and am I going to have to do some sort of impossible and awkward and painful move. I think I've been to maybe 5 or 6 classes in about a year (embarrassed) but it's not at the point where I want to give up. I think I'd be disappointed in myself if I packed it in. I'd feel like a quitter and I'm not at the point where I'm thinking "This isn't for me, time to quit".

eeloe

veganrun wrote: »

Yeah I need to work on my diet and eating. Sometimes I wonder if I should avoid bjj until I've lost some weight and do something easier on the joints. For example my knees are still slightly sore after my class last Friday and that's 6 days ago. Not really bad but they are slightly sore in places to the touch.

I was the exact same as you when i started, 109kg weighed in this morning at 92.5....I stuck it out, don't worry about not being able to do the movements, a lot of them we've never ever done before, so it's going to be difficult to do them.

You do lose the weight as you're going, especially when you start rolling and doing a lot of rolls, the weight will fly off you. As the lads said above, diet is a killer, make sure you're eating balanced, and nutritious meals, plenty of protien to aid recovery, have some extra carbs on training days for energy in training.

Before i done my MCL 6 weeks ago i was training 4-6 times per week, so roughly 8-12 hours a week, sometimes even more....once it starts to click and you enjoy it, it becomes incredibly addictive.

veganrun

Was your MCL injury from bjj?

Chairman Meow

veganrun wrote: »

You are right about the enjoyment part. I don't love it but I don't hate it either. I find some of the stuff very difficult which is to be expected I guess at the start. Each time I go to the class I'm walking in thinking "what on earth have I let myself in for this time" and am I going to have to do some sort of impossible and awkward and painful move. I think I've been to maybe 5 or 6 classes in about a year (embarrassed) but it's not at the point where I want to give up. I think I'd be disappointed in myself if I packed it in. I'd feel like a quitter and I'm not at the point where I'm thinking "This isn't for me, time to quit".

to be honest, thats probably not a great attitude to have for BJJ, im not saying you should absolutely love it from the word go and be praising Helio 5 times a day while eating acai bowls and OSS'ing, but its good to have a love of BJJ/Martial arts beforehand to keep you interested (i was jsut fascinated by BJJ from watching so much MMA before i started, and i have a brother in law who trained and fought in cage warriors years ago which is what sparked my interest). BJJ is far too tough a sport to take part in if its something youre only a bit "meh" about. Like i wouldnt go join a boxing gym and get punched in the face if i only had a passing interest in boxing!

Tho having read some of your previous posts i do see a bit of myself in what youre saying. I trained BJJ for about 2 years, and even tho i loved it, i too got the "jesus why am i doing this" before class almost every time just due to extreme nerves and anxiety. A couple of times id literally be at the gym door and jsut turn around and go home it was so bad. It was all anxiety based on getting injured, as a few years ago i really badly messed up my wrist boxing and it took months to heal (its still not 100% even now), so i found BJJ pretty stressful constantly worrying about that ****. All i can say is i never actually got injured in BJJ (aside from the usual bumps and bruises, the worst thing i had was some bad turf toe) i was always glad that i did go to class, and thanks to BJJ my self confidence skyrocketed. So it might never get any easier actually making it to class, but it will always be worth it. I havent done any BJJ since last year due to the financials, and i honestly think about it every day. I even did some Judo in the interim as its more affordable. So i guess what im saying is you probably know yourself wether youre going to keep it up or not, i didnt want to say at first but the OP does seem a bit like youre looking for someone to give you an excuse to not train, but i think if you give it a few solid months of training, youll get hooked.

veganrun

Thanks.

Yeah perhaps my posts come across as meh about it but I don't think I am. In general I'm a very reserved person so I don't get excited and super enthusiastic about things, although part of me wonders if that's because I'm overweight. Was thinking the other day that most people would find it hard to do things if you asked them to carry an unnecessary 30-35kg all the time.

Funny enough I bumped into a guy I know who trains in an MMA gym. Not for competing but for fitness etc. He told me he's giving up bjj as the rolling is killing his back (think he has back issues or an injury from something else) and he seemed to like muay Thai etc better and was going to stick to that. When he said that there was a little voice that said "there's your excuse to give up bjj too" but I didn't really listen to it.

Part of the reason I'm doing bjj is for confidence etc. I nearly walked away last week too. I was going there thinking "what am I doing?". Apart from tweaking my leg/knee from getting up awkwardly, I didn't regret going. I too have worries about injuries but as long as it's only bumps and bruises at most I could probably tolerate it.

Black Sheep

I don't really feel nervous going into the gym these days but I would say I still have an element of that visiting somewhere new to roll, or on the rare occasions I've competed. That said, I remember exactly that feeling as a beginner on a regular basis, it's normal.

There are long time black belts who do speak publicly about grappling with anxiety / depression... Or others who don't have a clinical diagnosis that talk about still having that feeling of sitting in the car before training thinking "why do I do this, maybe I'd rather be at home". So I guess for some people the feelings never go away, for whatever reason. The question is whether or not they enjoy it when they're in there, and I guess they do, or they would have stopped.

As far as the weight thing goes, I have no doubt it makes it hard for you. But I'd be wary of giving yourself too much of a pass on that. There are lots of overweight people who bust their asses in training and love it.

The other side of it is that you could ask the very lightweight new guys who end up crushed underneath really heavy newbies, in side control or moutnt, who they think is having the toughest time... Maybe if you were a very small, light beginner, you might be complaining that you feel you are getting smashed on bottom all the time. In fact, this is how a lot of small female beginners feel. You could say the same about people who begin training later in life... Or who work 80 hours plus per week... There is usually something we can say about why we are the ones who have it harder than others.

If you really feel that the extra weight is such a problem then at least it's something you can address with a bit of effort.

eeloe

veganrun wrote: »

Was your MCL injury from bjj?

Yes unfortunately

veganrun

That's a bummer. I've done something to my knee as well about a week ago. Went to do a getup and went back on my leg funny.

Nichololas

veganrun wrote: »

I find some of the stuff very difficult which is to be expected I guess at the start.  Each time I go to the class I'm walking in thinking "what on earth have I let myself in for this time" and am I going to have to do some sort of impossible and awkward and painful move.

Some of the movements are difficult, regardless of weight. If you practice consistently you will get better at them though ..

veganrun wrote: »

I think I've been to maybe 5 or 6 classes in about a year (embarrassed) but it's not at the point where I want to give up.  I think I'd be disappointed in myself if I packed it in.  I'd feel like a quitter and I'm not at the point where I'm thinking "This isn't for me, time to quit".

- Losing weight is never fun.
- It is made mildly more tolerable by losing weight doing something you enjoy.
- Most physical activities that cause you to lose weight are easier once you have lost the weight.

If you like running, you will enjoy running to lose weight, and then enjoy running more once you've lost it. Same for BJJ, yoga, and badminton.

You should probably figure out if you actually like doing BJJ irrespective of the additional weight you feel hampers your enjoyment of it.  If the only reason you're still going to any classes is because you don't want to tell yourself you're a quitter, rather than actual enjoyment of the classes then that seems to indicate that it's probably not for you, no? There's really nothing wrong with that.

veganrun

Thanks for the reply. There's more to it than not quitting as I don't want to call myself a quitter. I still think it's something I'd like to be somewhat proficient at and I suppose I feel like perhaps I haven't given it a fair chance yet when I attended so sporadically. I know my coach told me to come along twice a week for the a month at least then look to maybe increase that.

eeloe

for what it's worth, even with some light training this week, and my usual lifting sessions in the gym.

I still managed to knock off another few KG, weighed in at 89.5 yesterday morning. The weight WILL come off, the more you train, just try to be consistent, just imagine every hour you're on the mat, you're one hour closer to your next belt, your next competition, one hour of practice closer to tapping that one prick in the gym that you can never tap.

Knee's and elbow can be funny things, strong when you need them to be, but the slightest movement in the wrong way and you're out for a while, just be careful with them.