CJJ Training

Question: What do these world renowned martial artists all have in common?
-Rickson Gracie
-Royler Gracie
-Vitor Belfort
-BJ Penn

Answer: They all practice or practiced yoga to enhance their martial arts training.

Capital Jiu-Jitsu Yoga classes occur weekly in our Loudoun County/Dulles 606 martial arts academy. You don’t have to be a practicing martial artist to take advantage of yoga’s healing and wellness power. The Capital Jiu-Jitsu Yoga program is open to anyone interested in increased flexibility, core strength and mind/body well-being. Enjoy the relaxed, clean atmosphere of Capital Jiu-Jitsu while getting in shape and taking a break from life’s stresses. After a Yoga class with CJJ, you’ll feel refreshed and encouraged — you’ll notice that you’ve made strides both physically and mentally.

Our academy offers parents the unique chance to experience the rejuvenating effects of yoga and introduce their children to healthy living, physical fitness, self-defense and conflict resolution skills that are taught in our Capital Cubs and Kids Jiu-Jitsu & MMA. Capital Jiu-Jitsu is about more than just martial arts: we want to bring confidence and healthy living to all of our students. If you’re in the Northern Virginia area and want to experience the benefits of Yoga and/or martial arts and self-defense, become part of our vision.

Our Loudoun County School brings Yoga Classes to residents of South Riding, Sterling, Chantilly, Brambleton, Ashburn, Arcola, Burke, Centreville, Stoneridge, Middleburg, Herndon, Reston, Springfield, Merrifield, Annandale, Clifton and everywhere else in the Northern VA area. We currently offer Yoga classes in several styles, including Flow, Ashtanga, Anusara, Kundalini and Hatha.

by Sean Croushorn     

Muay Thai is one of the most devastating striking art’s to have ever been developed.  Indigenous to Thailand and South East Asia, Muay Thai incorporates every limb of the human body to serve as a weapon for both offense and defense.  Training Muay Thai teaches a person to effectively use their hand’s, knee’s, feet, and elbow’s to strike against an opponent while standing.  The Muay Thai low kick   is an effective tool to keep your opponent at bay and a great way to break their spirit by inflicting sheer pain.  Applying an effective Muay Thai low kick takes a lot of practice to accurately and consistently hit your target.  The low kick is specifically targeting either the inside or outside of your opponents legs just above the knee.  This portion of the leg has the least amount of muscle tissue and can only withstand so many devastating blows.  If the opponent does not block/check correctly, the leg can be either broken or develop painful blood clots eliminating the ability to stand on the leg.  If your opponent can not stand on or use the leg, then they can no longer fight.      The most important thing to remember when training the low kick is to open your hips and keep your chin protected.  From a righty perspective, A person who is right handed will be using their right leg for the standard Muay Thai low kick.  First and most important, with a short quick step, step on the ball of your left foot pointing your knee out to the side far as possible.  This enables you to completely open up your hips and pivot on your left foot when applying the force of the kick.  Your left heel should be facing up inside toward the right knee for a mental picture while in proper stance.  The next step is to effectively throw the Muay Thai low kick while keeping our chin protected.  After we have taken our step  with our left foot (right hand stance) opening up our hips, the next thing we need to do is keep our chin tucked behind the right shoulder.  Now the tricky part, while stepping with the left foot we want to take our right hand with closed fist and swing it straight down just above & outside the right hip with the thumb facing down.  Throwing the arm down enables the hips to generate more force creating more power on impact.  With the chin tucked behind the shoulder our face is protected decreasing the chance of being knocked out while following through the range of motion.    Now that we have effectively combined all of these steps together we need to focus on the range of motion and completion of the Muay Thai low kick.  After we have opened up our hips, swung our right arm down with a  tucked chin we need to bring our right leg up and swing it towards our opponent in a downward chopping motion.  When throwing a Muay Thai low kick you want to make contact with your shin, not the foot.  Imagine a lumberjack swinging an axe down at the base of a tree, with a deliberate and consistent downward chopping motion with a sharp edge, the tree will fall.  The same will happen to your opponent after sustaining multiple kicks to a their legs.  Finally the last part of the Muay thai low kick is returning back to stance after delivering the kick.  After you have made contact with your shin on the desired target you will use the same leg and contact point to push off of off enabling you to quickly and efficiently return back to stance.  Imagine you are on video and the rewind button is pushed causing you to go backwards.  This is how you want to return back to the appropriate stance after delivering the blow. I think I have covered the basic fundamentals of the Muay Thai low kick, if you have on any suggestions or comments please feel free.  Remember, at Capital we always practice in a fun and safe environment and never want anyone to get hurt or injured.  When practicing Muay Thai always practice in a safe controlled manner and always be aware of your surroundings.  Always practice nice and relaxed and remember the most important thing when training, just have fun.  Thank you for taking the time to read this letter, until next time! Sean 

  “The old school, military PT style motivation, me standing over you calling you a maggot, telling you that ‘you can do better you piece of shit,’ is not half as effective as putting the names up on the board and saying ‘3-2-1-go!’” - Coach Greg Glassman.  The activities that CrossFitters undertake are not new.  People have been squatting, deadlifting, cleaning, sprinting, rowing, and doing gymnastics, in some form, for all of human history.  Yes, we have mixed them in new ways, but it’s nothing that nature itself could not throw at you.  What, then, about our programming, makes it so potent?  Though the movements we perform are natural, simple movements, and though the idea of combining them into circuits is not unique, the difference is that in implementation CrossFit looks like sport.  The addition of quantitative value, be it time to completion, rounds or reps completed, or load moved, is a highly motivating factor.  Humans are competitive by nature, if not with each other, then with themselves.CrossFit is the sport of fitness; use that to your advantage!  Don’t think of your workout as something tedious and difficult you have to do to stay fit, think of it as a competition, no different than a game of football.  Don’t think of eating well as something you have to do to stay healthy, treat it instead as fueling your body for tonights “game.”  When you train against the clock, against your personal records, against your training partners, you are a competitor in a sport.  This will create a level of intensity that is unrivaled by any other means of motivation. 

by Japheth Brubaker

When your workout exceeds your recovery capacity, you have overtrained. Planed overtraining for tournaments or events does boost your output for a short period of time, but you cannot sustain those output levels. The body is not a machine, it needs well planned rest.

Some symptoms of overtraining:
-increased incidence of injuries
-persistent muscle soreness
-persistent fatigue
-elevated resting heart rate
-irritability and depression
-loss of motivation
-decreased sexual performance
-insomnia

Treatment for overtraining:
-take short time off
-reduce the frequency and/or intensity of your workouts
-analyze your diet to ensure you are getting enough and the right kind of nutrients in your diet (consider the zone diet or other healthy diets)
-massage or chiropractic work are options that work for some (Capital Jiu Jitsu (CJJ) has Dr. Bills as a Chiropractor and CJJ Loudoun has Allure Spa next door)

If you train at Capital Jiu Jitsu, chances are you may display symptoms of overtraining at some point. If you catch these symptoms and treat them early, you will recovery quickly. The longer you ignore what your body needs, the longer it takes to recover.

 learning lessons

  We can not change who we are but we can change our behavior from mistakes made in the past.  No one is perfect, every person has made a mistake in their life that has been a learning experience.  A learning experience can be anything, positive or negative.   What is important is that you take away a lesson from that one single moment to help you in the future,  if it is the right or wrong decision is up to you.  

  I have been training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for two years now and it has changed my life forever.  Like life, learning Jiu Jitsu is about making mistakes and not repeating them.  The mistake has to be made in order to learn, some lessons might be a little more painful then others.  Like life depending on the mistake and the circumstance will determine the outcome of the situation.  Instead of reacting spontaneously,   relax and be patient,  let your opponent make the mistake and capitalize.

  We are all in control of our own lives and destiny, what we do now determines what is to happen later.    Just like every training session, you are the one on the mat and in complete control of what happens.  How you train the first time determines what happens the next session.  If you get arm barred the first practice, try not to get arm barred the second.  If you are ahead in life and suddenly an unexpected inconvenience occurs, relax and analyze the situation.  When the time is right, then make your move.  

  Summer is almost here, trying to lose weight?

  Summertime is right around the corner and I can hardly wait.  I love the summer because my family goes to the beach in Corolla, North Carolina and rents a huge ocean front beach house.  Other members of our family meet with us from Va. beach and we catch up on all the crazy things going on in our lives.   The most consistent topic of discussion is not what grandma has been up too, but, have you seen the commercial for the new diet product that just came out?  Everyone wants to lose weight by taking the easy way out, with a pill or some kind of mix drink.  

  If we could burn off excessive body fat with the help of a pill then there would not be any overweight people in the world.  Unfortunately, that is not the case and millions of people die from heart disease each year directly related to being over weight.  A great way to lose weight and keep the weight off is exercise regularly and pay attention to the nutrients and fats you are putting into your body.  Eat lean meat  like chicken and fish to help get your protein intake to feed your muscles.  Eat lot’s of fruits and vegetables to help your immune system and the over all production of efficient energy.  But the tricky part is finding out what range you fall into so you don’t intake too much nutrients that will be stored away as fat.

  While you are first getting started keep track of your nutrition intake example: calories, carbs, protein, fats both good and bad.  Write down what time you ate during the day and all the elements of the food  taken in.  This will enable you to see exactly what you are putting into your body and the numbers they are adding up too on a daily basis, people are shocked when they see for the first time why they are not losing weight.  This might seem like a major pain at first, but once you start to get a better understanding of your body and lose weight, it will be worth it.

by Japheth Brubaker

Find something you are consistently having problems with and work on it. This will round out your game and reduce or eliminate any gaps in your skills. You can find out what your weaknesses are in drilling, sparring, or in tournaments. You can work on your weaknesses on your own, during drilling/sparring, or with private lessons.

I found my weakness is working from the bottom: especially guard. That is because I am almost always in side-mount or on top because I have a larger body type. In a recent tournament, I faced an olympic caliber wrestler and pro-MMA fighter in the intermediate division (I am in intermediate and he was in advanced but there was no advanced level in this tourney so they dropped him into intermediate). I was forced to play a game I never play: jumping guard. I did well with this strategy considering the skill gap, but in the process discovered how relatively weak my bottom game is from my top game. I am grateful for this experience, as it allowed me to see my weaknesses and gave me a target to work towards. As a result, I am dedicating the rest of this year to improving my bottom game.

You are only as strong as your weakest link, so remember to work your weaknesses as well as your strengths!

Everyone who knows me well knows that I don’t believe in shortcuts, but I do believe in training - and learning - smart. Here are some tips to keep you on the right track!

First, understand the vision your school has adopted. The vision at Capital Jiu-Jitsu is simple:

Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is a complex martial art requiring leverage and skill to overcome brute force. The art is complete, with basic strikes, throws and takedowns, ground grappling and self-defense. It is also a sport, providing practitioners with venues for throwing and grappling with the gi, takedowns and grappling without the gi, and no-holds-barred fighting. Capital Jiu-Jitsu teaches the complete art of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, but has additional programs in takedowns, throwing, striking, flexibility, breathing and fitness, to further enhance a practitioner’s ability to compete (though for some these programs are an end in and of themselves). While competition is valued at Capital Jiu-Jitsu, it is not pushed. All practitioners, regardless of their motives, are welcome. Some may train for self-defense, for fitness, for flexibility, for community or for fun. All these reasons, and more, are supported by both fellow students and staff! Finally, Capital Jiu-Jitsu looks for the BEST in grappling, takedowns, throwing, striking, flexibility, breathing and fitness programs. Compromise on this is not an option, including for the reason of making the company more profitable.

Second, train as often as your time will allow.

Third, find a support group at your school. Email them, call them, post on their MySpace and facebook pages.

Fourth, get a notebook and take notes. Just simple key words to help you remember the techniques, with a section for questions. Most questions you will answer on your own, but for the ones you cannot, take a private class.

Fifth, adopt the following Jiu-Jitsu maxim: Position Before Submission.

Sixth, adopt the following guidelines for priorities in your learning:

High Priority = Learn to escape from inferior positions.
Middle Priority = Learn to keep superior positions.
Low Priority = Learn submissions from superior positions.

Seventh, recognize when you are using technique over strength, and praise yourself. Recognize when you are using strength over technique and correct yourself.

Eighth, research! Look at video footage, read books, ask questions.

Ninth, wear the gi.

Tenth, love the art! And this is the most important Best Bet of all!

by Japheth Brubaker

I lost 20 pounds in three months on the zone diet. I went from 245 in January to 225 in March. My power, endurance, tone, and performance has gone through the roof while losing the weight. I use the zone diet as part of my tournament training.

You never go hungry on the zone diet. You eat as much as you need, you just have to balance protein, carbs, and fats. And yes, you get to eat fats, but just the good kind like nuts, avocado, and olive oil. The balance of protein, carbs, and fats, is what regulates your body to maximize output and energy levels and decrease bad weight.

I am not an expert on the zone diet principles but I have applied it and gotten great results. I am extremely excited that Capital Jiu Jitsu CrossFit trainers teach the zone diet principles to students and staff who are interested in participating in it.

Take advantage of the zone diet with Capital Jiu Jitsu – ask your CrossFit trainers about it!