Resilience is an important quality for any martial artist, but vital for grapplers over 35.
Google defines resilience as the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties. Physical resilience is the ability of your body to do the same – withstand forces placed upon it.
That’s why when I turned 35 my entire training focus shifted from sports performance like strength and speed, to resilience, which can deliver both of those and more.
But the primary focus of my training now focuses on building the four qualities below.
1. Full Access To Joint Range of Motion
When joints cant access their full range of motion, and bones can’t move relatively to each other, muscles will tense and movement becomes restricted.
When movement is restricted, force can’t travel thought the proper lines and it will often go to places that aren’t built to handle it, like your joints. That can mean injury and pain.
By freeing up your joints range of motion, not only will you have better movement, and therefore performance, but better resilience against forces like you’ll experience on the mat.
I use breathing drills to create space within joints like these for better relative motion, then do joint conditioning with drills like this to lubricate the joints.
2. Strength At End Range
It’s one thing to have access to your joints complete range, but it’s another to have strength at the end range.
We can make our joints more resilient by first expand the range of motion, then building strength in that new range.
Joint conditioning drills, isometrics, and strength training can improve strength at the end range, but my favorite way to do it is through loaded mobility exercises.
Loaded mobility exercises use weight to increase a joints range and build strength at the same time.
Typically you start with a lighter weight and use specific exercises to do this.
Examples of loaded mobility exercises are the Shin Box, Hunter Squat, Get Up, Windmill, and Cossack Squat.
These are some of the best exercises to warm up for BJJ training with, and build joint resilience in gym workouts or active mobility sessions.
3. Ability To Generate And Accept Force
Injury often occurs when force placed upon a tissue exceeds its ability to withstand that stress.
Building your capacity to withstand higher forces can be achieved through strength training.
This can be done by resistance training with heavier loads, which also improves the density of your bones and the strength of your tendons, adding to injury resilience.
However, it can also be done with isometric training, which reduces the risks of getting injured from momentum, and removes the mechanical abrasion that can occur in joints from dynamic exercise.
But generating force is only half of the equation for building resilience. Your tissues and joints must also have the ability to receive or yield to force.
An example of receiving force on the mat is when you’re taken down and hit the mat, or an opponent drops dynamically onto your frames when passing.
The ability to receive force can be improved with plyometrics, as well as dynamic weight training like kettlebell and club swinging.
Examples of plyometrics are lunge and squat jumps, lateral hops and bounds, jumping rope, and explosive pushup and pull-ups.
‘“Catching” the weight in the catch position in kettlebell cleans, snatches, and jerks help the body’s ability to receive dynamic load.
Heavy clubs offer a unique ability to receive load in rotation, which is excellent for the dynamic positions of BJJ. Moves like the Mill, Lateral Clean, and Shield Cast improve this.
4. Resilient Tissue Quality
Overall you want your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and fascia to be pliable and unrestricted.
All of the things above will improve your tissue quality including joint mobility work, resistance training, and plyometrics.
But you can also decrease compressed tissue in the body with self-myofascial release, dynamic movement, and breathing drills.
An example routine to improve tissue quality would be:
Warmup: Breathing Drills / Loaded Mobility
Workout: Plyometrics / Strength Training
Cool Down: Breathing Drills / Self-Myofascial Release
Final Thoughts
Resilience is a quality that must be earned, but when you make it a major focus, you will not only fortify your body against injury and pain, you will develop strength, power, and conditioning in the process.
All of my workouts are now focused on building resilience for BJJ longevity, as well as a resilient life.
Ideally you want full access to your joints range of motion with strength at the end range, the ability to generate and receive high levels of force, and pliable, healthy muscles, tendons, and ligaments that can withstand the forces placed upon them.
