Tiago Alves
Tiago Alves is a professional athtlete with dozens of important medals and titles at a black belt level in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, both with and without the Gi. His list of achievements is as long as the Amazon River and includes titles such as the Pan American championship, the Brazilian National championship, the South American Championship and many others. Tiago – who is also a personal trainer with a vast experience training combat sports athletes – has decided to share his wealth of knowledge with the BJJ Heroes audience to help us all improve and progress in Jiu Jitsu for our own benefit and the benefit of the sport.
Tiago Alves: “Becoming an Athlete”
BJJ is a sport that has been rapidly growing all over the world with a force unparalleled in the fighting realm. Much like any other physical activity, the “arte suave” is expressed through movements that capture elements which are present in all other sports as a whole, such as stamina, power, strength and flexibility.
However, today we can appreciate and isolate one aspect that is present in all grappling sports, which can boost up or even make a great champion, this is “durable/resistance power”, and it can combine all of the elements spoken in the above paragraph, bringing a balance amongst all physical potential and providing a much improved performance within the sport.
When we pay attention to a grappling (jiu jitsu, wrestling, judo, mma or submission) we understand that there are several changes involved to the body mechanics throughout a fight, no one pushes, pulls or holds without a purpose. In order to be successful at these actions we spend a tremendous amount of energy, and it is thinking about this thriftlessness that we should separate our physical training from our jiu jitsu training, after all, they are two separate things and a good physical workout will provide the athlete a more resourceful body to make use of his technical ability (sweeps, guard passing, throws or submissions), improving it’s success rate.
For that I would like to give you guys’ one tip. As most athletes go on the mats a good 4 to 5 days a week, you should not exceed 3 lifting sessions (in alternate days), so it does not clash with your performance on BJJ/Grappling class, giving your body the means to recover itself.
An alternative to lifting would be circuit training. Either way, you should always incorporate these guidelines:
- Pushing, Pulling and Squatting movements
- Don’t worry about getting stronger arms, worry about getting a stronger body
- Looking good is not the objective of the practice, sports performance is
- Always think about your full body when performing your movements
- Seek getting tired by the amount of repetitions rather then by the weight of the load
- Resting is also part of the training regime
Hope you guys enjoyed the tips, work on this and soon I will see you becoming great champions!
The athlete Gil Freitas training regime under Tiago’s supervision
Specific exercises applied by one of Tiago’s students
Tiago Alves’s Sponsors are:
JOMARCA – Produtos de qualidade
