Jiu Jitsu after 35

[NelsonLucca]

First off, thank you guys for all the support. I know I've been away for a while but life hits hard sometimes. It's good to be back. I'm looking for some advice from the older guys here. I'll be 36 in a few weeks and I feel like I have a second wind but recovery is taking 4 times as long. What routines do you guys have for staying young?

[Chris Herzog]

Yoga, core strength and flexibility training along with a super strict diet!

[David Rosado]

trt?

[David Rosado]

Yoga, core strength and flexibility training along with a super strict diet!

Seriously though, besides yoga, what other resources do you recommend for core strength and flexibility?

Oh yeah, what's your wife's website again? I'm guessing some of her product would also be beneficial, right?

[NelsonLucca]

Yoga, core strength and flexibility training along with a super strict diet!

Diet is the hard part coach. I'm small but I like to eat junk. I'll get back on the yoga and core. I'll try harder to eat better.

[Blake Coston]

I'm 32 so not that much younger. My main suggestion is listen to your body. If your beat up and aching, don't push it. Also stay away from young roided out white belts that psycho out. Pick good training partners. Stay away from guys that are significantly bigger than you (I've learned this the hard way a few times). Sometimes their weight coming down on you alone can pop a rib or break something. My plan is to stay on the mat for a long time. I don't have anything to prove to anyone.

You could add some fish oil and Osteo Bi-flex or some other joint supplement. A good multi goes a long ways.

[Tony Diep]

Congrats on training. I just joined 10th Planet CM/BP and at 38 fatter than I have ever been in my life. I am now eating clean(er) and taking classes real slow. Even though I looked like I gained weight, I have lost 14lbs. Your journey is different from mine but I think eating cleaner changes everything. I imagine the energy and healing properties of food is accelerated when you eat clean
Good luck my friend!

[Mikael Chay]

Besides what's already been mentioned, I would add that recovery definitively becomes a major issue as you get older.
Depending on how physically active you were during your time away from grappling, you may need to get back to it progressively.
For example, you may need to train only twice a week at first, with a couple of days between each training session, until your body gets used to it and you feel relatively fresh before every training session.
You can then add another training session in your weekly schedule, and train three times a week with at least a day between each training session. And so on and so forth...
In any case, get plenty of rest and sleep.

[Mikael Chay]

And by "resting", I also mean resting actively (visualisation/mental reps, stretching) not just sitting/lying down watching TV.

[NameLikeNoOther]

I am 37, and here are my thoughts. Respect your recovery time first and foremost. When I was in my twenties I could go 12-15 rounds of heavy sparring (kick-boxing) and do it all over again first thing in the morning the next day, now it takes 2-3 days before I can do that intensity again. I find the same applies to Jiu-Jitsu. If your body needs a recovery time take it, don't avoid practice just focus on technique and skill when you are there. I have focused a lot on posture and body balance when lifting weights or exercising. Also, in my goal to walk on my hands I have begun researching and adding gymnastics programming elements to my work-outs, which seems to have a lot of Yoga type movements as well. The other thing I do and have done for a while now is 'no-hands' treading water (hands clasped on head, egg-beater(slow set) or flutter-kick(fast set)) for the lengths of rounds and duration of fights, rest time is the only time you can use hands to scull. If that gets too easy, add a diving weight belt. As well, after the last Portland seminar Geo has motivated me to find some scrap linoleum, get out my sony blaster and do some coffee-grinders and windmills 1984 style.