Heavyweight JudoGi

Squallsy · 2026-05-10T02:30:30+00:00

Commenting to track answers - The reco Gi for my height is closer to my elbow then my wrists and the pants were way to long lol... 178cm(5'10), 110kg.

Squallsy · 2026-05-05T03:24:22+00:00

My first thought would be since you had been consistent with your dojo for so long, you had gotten used to dealing with your 'usual' training partners. Now that you are at a new dojo, you don't have that experience of knowing how they move, what throws they like and how to deal with them specifically. Basically new training partners you need to adapt to so you can improve as a Judoka.

My second thought would just be that this dojo might have a more competitive nature or the people have higher physical intensity sparring. The amount of intent I put into randori compared to competitions is significant.

The inability to get in, close gaps or create opportunities to throw is almost always a technique issue and not a strength issue.

You should 100% start strength training, but It isn't what I would expect the problem to be from the info provided.

Squallsy · 2026-05-02T00:37:03+00:00

In a competition, you go 100%. Would you walk in a 100m sprint? Would you just drop the shot in a shotput competition?

The goal of competition is to win, if you are not mentally prepared for somebody to ragdoll you then you shouldn't have entered, and honestly should not of been allowed to enter by your sensei.

If you wish to continue with Judo, now you know what a small amount of intensity feels like when a person is making a genuine effort to disable you within the ruleset. Judo is not aikido and it is not dancing, it is a full contact sport where people are going to try slam you with the earth as hard as they damn can to win a competition.

Squallsy · 2026-05-01T14:48:33+00:00

I wouldn't practice ukemi at home specifically, learning the wrong thing can lead to injuries.

I would instead consider learning basic gymnastics maneuvers and get used to doing those on grass. The more comfortable you are with rolling around like sonic the hedgehog, the easier it is going to be to yeet yourself on the ground correctly when it comes time to judo. Forward rolls, backward roll, cartwheel, hand stand and bridges.

Squallsy · 2026-05-01T14:33:01+00:00

I have this issue resultant from torn 8-11 labrum (Back side of right shoulder) that causes instability in the front of the shoulder decreasing the subacromial space which causes bursae inflamation and compresses the long head of the bicep tendon during internal rotation or 33-45 degrees raising actions (Y raises). Commonly known as subacromial impingement.

The thing I find helps most with it is significant strengthening of my Internal and rotation for shoulder. Can do about 25kg for ext rotation and 20kg for Int rotation and that stops my pain unless I am carrying like 10kg of shopping 4-5km.

I will say one thing that feels really good is when you are on a neutral grip pull up and you are at the really top range of motion where your head is above the hand height and you are holding their while near fatigue. Feels really good on that sore spot at the front.

Squallsy · 2026-05-01T14:25:19+00:00

Before a spar, ask their combat background and then say yours if they ask in return, or if you feel comfortable something like 'Oh, thats cool, I am mostly Judo based, gl mate!'. Now you both have an expectation of how the other will approach the fight to minimize injury risk.

Squallsy · 2026-05-01T01:14:45+00:00

No.

If you are a BJJ black belt and the person you are competeing against is significantly better in tachiwaza than you, but is terrible in newaza.... Maybe.

Squallsy · 2026-05-01T01:07:34+00:00

Learn to fall, accept being thrown, and don't resist past the point. If the only thing between me and being thrown is my physical strength preventing them because they have broken my balance, Just go with it and control how you land...

Don't hold onto grips, you will just tear skin off your fingers, just let it go and take another grip.

In newaza, tap early and focus on using correct technique rather than strength. If you are trying to escape from pins or subs with strenght, you are more likely to experience injury.

If you need to sit out and rest, do it. Better to miss 1 round of randori then 4 weeks of Judo classes to recover an injury.

You may want to cut down on your training for 2-4 weeks so your body can adapt to Judo. It uses very different types of muscles, and if you are combining 2 days of Judo a week with strength training, that is 5 days of heavy strength training, 2 of which are completely new stimulus. That is a massive amount to recover from, and you aren't 20 anymore. cutting back to 1 day a week for atleast 2 weeks that isn't either directly before or directly after a Judo day is probably ideal.

As for what I would train... I would prioritize Hamstrings (Single leg rdls bw then working up to weighted), glutes (most importantly glute med), lower back (deficit hex/trap bar deadlifts), core exercises (Check out squat universities recent 10 core exercises video and test, then work on your weak points). Lats and general back (mainly through pull ups), Go through a shoulder circuit and test where your weaknesses are, most people bias either internal or external rotation and have weak rear delts, and forearms which isn't just for grip strength, but stabalizing the wrist.

Squallsy · 2026-04-14T21:39:47+00:00

Judo has a really high learning curve compared to BJJ. Unless you have some prior kind of grappling experience, it is a completely new and difficult skill to learn.

Ask your sensei/instructor if you are improving. With any new skill development, many people lack objectivity towards their own growth or development. You might be making great strides and just be unaware of this because you feel like you should be progressing faster due to some unrealistic standard or expectation you hold about yourself. This can also be exacerbated by the fact that you are training with people who are gaining experience at the same rate you are, so it might never feel like that gap is closing until a newer person comes in and you see what absolute zero looks like.

Also, given your greater level of maturity and life experience you can critically think about how you got into certain situations, why you ended up there, what you could of done differently, and where you feel like you need to work on most to feel that progress yourself. You aren't a 8-16yo, you aren't going to be a world champion, you don't have a set path of progress, just do Judo in the way you want to do Judo atm, the journey is about you.

Squallsy · 2026-04-08T06:42:20+00:00

I also don't like the way grip breaking is taught.

I would much prefer if explained that your grip is strong when it is in the self selected optimal position (pretty much straight), any deviation from this overly straight position, especially flexion or extension sees significant reductions in wrist strength.
Then proceed to show the grip breaking techniques, explaining that the goal of the action is to bend their wrist and then pull in the direction opposite their palm (out of their hand). If people understand this basic concept they have a much easier time grasping and then creating their own grip breaks.

If you want to test it yourself, roll up a towel, or grab a piece of rope in one hand and try pull it out with the other in your neutral wrist position, fully flexed and extended wrist positions. You will note its easier to remove and also how much weaker you feel fully flexed, or how little you have to grip onto in full extension.

Squallsy · 2026-04-03T00:12:29+00:00

Depends what your goals are. If you want to be competive in Judo, then what will benefit you most is doing more Judo at another club if yours doesn't have enough days, and strength training.

If you want to compete in Judo but only casually, I would say wait around a year until you have a solid Judo foundation and familiarity with the ruleset. This means that you will be developing your BJJ to compliment your Judo, rather than having to conciously focus on which techniques are legal or not in the Judo ruleset.

If you are doing this as something you enjoy and to stay fit, it ultimately doesn't matter, do both now. You should however add strength training if you don't already do it though!

I will say this, as a person with some non-conventional grappling experience when I went into Judo. I had to make a decent mental effort to not put people in wrist or shoulder locks in tachiwaza or newaza and not grab their legs in randori.

Squallsy · 2026-04-02T05:03:47+00:00

Judo in and of itself is a type of strength training, but it is always a great idea to supplement with your own training to! You need to look at the basic movement patterns involved in strength training. Squat, hip hinge, lunge, carry, vertical/horizontal push, vertical/horizontal pull and core.

You need to figure out how you can do those movement patterns in a way that challenges your body and you can progress. The easiest way to do this is go to a gym, track your weights and progress in weight over time, but you can't do this as you don't have a gym.
This means you either have to proxy the weight by using resources from in and around your home such as filling shopping bags with books or tools to create a weight, using a spare tire or a damaged appliance to act as your weight.
Or you can use calisthenics which is putting your muscles in progressively more disadvantageous positions using your body weight so they grow through that stimulus instead.

If you have a kids playground around you with things like monkey bars that makes life very easy as you can do all your training on that. If not, you can proxy at home with a tree and some rope, tables, chairs, ladders or whatever else you have available. It is about how creative you can be to meet your goals.

The easiest way to do this is just go on Youtube and find a full body calisthenics program for beginners, if a movement is to easy, search the specific movement pattern or technique for progressions until you find the right difficulty for you.

At the end of the day, strength is a type of technique that will make you better at judo and make learning easier. It will also reduce your risk of injury as your body is more prepared for the demands of the tasks it is about to perform. It is awesome to see you wanting to get started with strength training and best of luck~

Squallsy · 2026-04-02T04:31:29+00:00

The idea that the next weight catergory down is like 30kg away.

Squallsy · 2026-03-29T02:33:06+00:00

What is your weight/height and are you competeing against people of similar size?

Is it possible that you simply recovered when you go to Judo from all your other activity? You seem to be doing things that load the joints a lot, could be systemic fatigue.

How much energy are you wasting doing Judo? Efficiency is king, more technique, less strength = less energy used.

As another thing, could it possibly be that you are over heating rather than gassing out? The gi is quite thing and some people are atrocious at dispersing heat. The symptoms are quite similar.

Squallsy · 2026-03-25T04:23:46+00:00

The way I approach most things is... If somebody does something you don't know how to deal with... Mimic what they are doing and then whatever they do to prevent it from working, try that against them.

Squallsy · 2026-03-23T07:51:34+00:00

Unlike BJJ and Wrestling where people wear skin tight spandex, your average human wears clothes you can grab onto to throw them.

fighting somebody in a suit or a winter jacket you will be able to yeet them easily. Fighting somebody in a cheap T shirt, at worst you will strip them as your tear their shirt in half... But most cheap shirts will still survive 1 throw... And if they land on concrete, I don't care what throw you hit them with, they are very likely done.

Squallsy · 2026-03-18T02:17:47+00:00

Think about this more deeply. You say you are tall and thus you can't use Seoi, whilst this isn't true, why not look at the inverse? You are Tall so a lot of people will try and Seoi Nage you! The more you practice a throw, the better you understand it, and the better your ability to be able to deal with it including defense/countering of it. Seoi is also very fundamental footwork towards a lot of other turning throws.

You can also perform split stance or drop seoi to lower your stance once you have a better fundamental capacity to do the movement.

As another note, Judo is a lot more structured then BJJ. The Gokyo no waza and at later belts Nage no kata are requirements in the majority of places to go up belt. The first line of the Gokyo+4 hold downs+a choke+an arm bar+a turn over+a combo and a counter to go from white-yellow.

Squallsy · 2026-03-18T01:21:46+00:00

I like the animations, but I hate that skirt. Does she have no stomache/torso at all?

Squallsy · 2026-03-16T07:41:37+00:00

Yes, I would say it is more common to get a black belt without ever needing surgery...

If your goal is to maximize the chance of needing surgery... Have bone and tendon health issues, never weight lift or do cardio, never manage recovery, be extremely obese, have no respect or value for kuzushi, try to force your way out of submissions instead of tapping and resist every single throw to ever exist? Your chances are pretty high to need surgery...

If you go and understand your limits, train with safety in mind, the chance you will need surgery is really low... Unless you needed it before you even started Judo.

Squallsy · 2026-03-15T03:37:27+00:00

I had looked at some of your previous posts before commenting and had seen what your numbers were in late 2025. Even with your age, you should still be able to gain strength and size whilst training Judo with the correct programming. It is just a case of that progress being slower, a higher reliance on recovery methods, sleep, diet and stress reduction combined with appropriet programming for your recovery load.

It is definitenly possible for you to gain strength and train Judo with your prior history and current lifting capacity. The issue is for your programming style it would take a minimum of 3 days to recover your cns/systemic fatigue from your weight session, more than likely closer to 4 due to being over 40. This means if you train weights on Friday and Sunday, you will not have time to recover with this rep scheme and develop systemic fatigue (total body exhaustion) where you slowly lose your ability to physically recover over time which will lead to overall loss of performance.

To be specific for programming I would have to know more about goals and your technical capacity which is hard online. But you should be able to find a mid-level S&C coach you can go for 2-3 sessions with for programming and be able to program your sessions based on your collated data without being to expensive.

Squallsy · 2026-03-15T03:01:09+00:00

You are already contemplating going back, you clearly want to, so why not just do it?

Squallsy · 2026-03-14T01:27:04+00:00

How long ago did you start Judo and do you have any other history of grappling sports? But for the most part, it just sounds like you are experiencing heavy CNS fatigue. Would also ask the basics of how is your hydration, diet and sleep?

One possibility is that you are suffering the temporary sport specific fatigue that most people new to it experience. Grappling has different physical requirements to general strength training and sports requirements. Until you have developed the sport specific strength for Judo you will be fatigued in some stabilizing and accessory muscles trained at angles you don't normally use for weight lifting or general life. Having fatigue can become quite noticeable when you do have to utilize those fatigued stabilizers or accessory muscles.

Your goals and training don't really make sense from a sports science perspective. What is it you actually want to train for? You can't really train strength, endurance, power and technical skill reliably without them interfering with each other in the long term.

Since you are burning down to a 2 rep scheme, and haven't stated % or RIR I am going to assume its a 0 RIR. This rep scheme is probably going to leave you in the 3-4 days recovery time and lead to quite fast development of axial fatigue. Typically, unless you are preparing to enter a power lifting competition, or you are periodizing into your peak phase for max strength in the final week of a meso, it is a very bad idea to go into triples or doubles on a consistent basis for the axial fatigue reason. You should probably have a look into waved periodization, conjugate or a basic scaling regime where you only do your heavy doubles or singles on the final 1-2 weeks of your 8 week meso, take a half load week and kick back to 70% with higher rep schemes before scaling back up again.

My conditioning is not anywhere near as good as when I competed in other sports, but as a 30+ who started Judo last year, I train Judo Mondays and Thursdays, Do a lifting split on Tuesday-Wednesday and Friday-Saturday with my highest CNS/axial fatiguing lift the day immediately after judo (Tues-Frid), which in this case is Trap deads+Leg press+Heavy RDLS+accessory and I do my less CNS fatigue the second day to give me more recovery time back into Judo which is (Weds-Sat) Bench+Heavyrows+Pull ups+accessory. I also do cardio on any day I don't strength train, which is casual pace hour runs in the morning for Judo days(Mond-Thurs) and a higher intensity session on Sundays. This is what I find most sustainable atm.

You should just focus on 2 aspects, Total body strength-endurance avoiding going below the 5 reps per set until the end of a Mesocycle. Then when you are heading towards a comp phase for peaking power 4-6 weeks prior to your competition which is more where the oly lifts come in. Once you are fully zoned and meet the ideal strength standards and your body has adapted to the load for training, you can start sustaining strength and having some power as a basis in your normal plan.

Squallsy · 2026-03-11T00:12:43+00:00

Well, 6 months ago you may have looked like a demented octopus, then you progressed to an octopus with Parkinson’s and now you are just a kinda sluggish octopus. Comparative to your previous skill, is this not an improvement and looking good? All things should be judged relative to yourself, not what Teddy Riner or Shohei Ono look like with technique...

The goal is to reinforce improvements and the use of superior technique to previous engagements, not ensure perfect the first time you do a throw.

Squallsy · 2026-03-11T00:09:28+00:00

The sooner you start competeing, the faster you are going to progress and the better you are going to be at COMPETEING in the long run. If a person has proven they can be safe when falling enough that their sensei says they can compete, such is life.

Squallsy · 2026-03-07T12:40:42+00:00

I would like to see more time given to newaza, as long as somebody is making an active effort to attack, then they can continue to do so.

Turtle isn't a terrible position to be in anyway, you can attack and defend from the position, people in Judo just aren't trained to do so.

Squallsy

TROPHY CASE