Getting fit and healthy for Jitsu and why it’s important

There are many obvious reasons to be fit and healthy, apart from it being very important for your mental health and wellbeing. Being fit and healthy for Jitsu is really important as it helps to reduce the number of injuries we have on the mat. If you are injured your recovery rate is normally shorted by being fit and Healthy. so let look at some of the ways we can be safer on the mat buy improving our overall fitness.

Cardio

Cardio training is important in your Jitsu training as you progress up the grades the intensity of throws and the number of attackers increase you need your lungs to be in great shape keep you going.

Getting your lungs fitter is never a bad thing, so we can start with everyone’s favorite Aerobic exercise running.

Running

Getting out in the fresh air and going for a run is one of the best and easiest exercises we can do, as long as you have a pair of reasonable trainers going for at least 20 min run every other day will improve your stress levels help you sleep better and more importantly open up your lungs and improve your cardio. But if running is not your thing don’t worry we have a few alternatives.

Swimming

you can get all of the benefits of an aerobic workout without any damaging impact on joints, and it can be done by both the very old and the very young.

It’s a great way to stay strong and keep fit when recovering from injury, and there is no fancy equipment needed—just you and a pool or the sea if you’re brave enough.

Getting on your Bike

Going cycling is also a great way to open up your lungs and get the blood pumping. Just remember to wear a helmet.

Other aerobic exercises

There are MANY videos of workouts that you can do in your own home on youtube that will get you sweating and help improve your lung capacity.

Strengthing and Conditioning

Conditioning

People tend to think that conditioning in martial arts means doing the splits between two chairs or kicking a tree (ouch) like Van Dame in a martial arts movie. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

For us, it’s about focusing on the quality of movement to improve performance. So looking at all the movements we use in Jitsu from footwork drills to simply getting up from the ground quickly and safely.

Strengthing

Strength training doesn’t just increase the strength of our muscles. In fact, there are numerous articles and research papers into the benefits of strength training improving bone density. Aging we’re not looking for you to be able to do hundreds of press-ups at a time we just want you to have a good core strength to be able to move and throw with control.

Core Strength

The core is a group of muscles that help us to stabilizes and controls the pelvis and spine influencing the legs and upper body. Core strength is less about power and more about the subtleties of being able to maintain the body in ideal postures letting us unload the stress on joints and promote ease of movement. 

Nutrition and Hydration

[check out https://www.nutrition.org.uk/healthyliving/basics.html for information on nutrition and why its important]