Monthly Archives: August 2014

Sensei Joey Receives Black Belt from BJJ Legend!

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Breaking News! Sensei Joey Receives BJJ Black Belt!

A milestone was reached yesterday in the career of SoCal mma and Kettlejitsu founder Joey Alvarado! Professor Joey was promoted to Black belt by BJJ legend Roger Machado! Here is a personal note from Sensei Joey himself!

“I started training in BJJ back in 94. I was living in South Carolina and I would drive up to Virginia to get privates with Frank Cucci who was a blue belt under Pedro Sauer at the time. I was in awe of him. A year or so later, Romero Jacare Cavalcanti opened Master Bjj in Atlanta. I had the pleasure of doing some training with him as well. Amazing! I moved to L.A. and was poor. So I just trained to box under the tutelage of my father. I started with Rigan Machado and Roger Machado a couple of years later. Then I caught the mma bug and embarked on a 7 year career. I had to stop training with gi, so I wasnt eligible for promotion. throughout those years, i had many people tell me that I should be a black belt and ask me when I was going to get it. I always said, i dont know and I dont care. When my master gives it to me, then it is so. I could have easily switched gyms to get promoted but I refrained because im just loyal like that. I stuck it out and endured what I had to. 16 tournaments as a brown belt, including10 gold medals, 3 silver, 2 bronze medals later it happened. I would like to thank everyone who helped me through this 20 year journery. To my grandmaster Shelton R. Moreland you instilled something in me that I carry to this day. Training with you gave me the discipline to train in other arts and sports. Gamsamnida! I love you. To my team SoCal Mma I could not have done it with out you. To my special friends who have been my training partners for over ten years Albert Rios and Giovanni Vasquez, thank you and i love you both! Rigan Machado Thank you for the inspiration. To my master Roger, obrigando and im honored to represent you! Special shout out to my good friend Alberto Crane and his team for opening his gym for me to train. You guys are a big part of this and im very appreciative of you pushing me and the techniques I have learned from you! Oss! thank you Michael Perez and Rocky Morales two of SoCals finest for showing up to my special day. ! Oss!”1015963_10204243232618886_4217420290211919861_o

3 Minute Total Body Weight Circuit

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When developing workouts for my classes and dvd’s, one of the main concepts I use is what I call the “balance principle.” This basically means, I try to hit all of your major muscle groups evenly. So after a Kettle-Jitsu workout, you should never feel like you just got a leg workout, or just a core workout. By combining as many muscle groups into your workouts, you will get that metabolic effect. I use this principle with both body weight and kettlebell training.

For this particular body weight workout, I combine dynamic exercises that hit multiple muscles simultaneously to give the circuit an anaerobic effect. I call this the Lunge/Touch and kick circuit. This is a 3 minute nonstop circuit in which you change exercises every 30 seconds. There are 4 exercises.  1. The lunge/touch and kick 2. Walk out to a push up 3. Mountain climbers 4. Burpees.  In my classes, before any workout, we start off with joint mobility and some light body weight movements. I cant stress enough how important this is. This prepares your body for rigorous training and helps to prevent injuries. We do an ab pyramid, then break down each movement in the circuit for 30 seconds with a 15 second rest in between. To have a better understanding of this formula, check out my Kettle-Jitsu Revolution dvd.  It follows the same aforementioned format.  After this, you should be ready to start the Lung/Touch and kick circuit!

Instructions:  Set your timers to 3 minutes with 30 second intervals.  We rest for 30 seconds in between rounds. I use a ringside mma timer.  These are great because you can set it to ring every 30 seconds. This lets you know when to change exercises.  To perform the circuit, start with lunge/touch and kick(right leg back, kick w left) for 30 seconds, walkout/push up 30 seconds, lunge/touch kick(left leg back, kick w right) for 30 seconds, walkout/push up 30 seconds, mountain climbers for 30 seconds followed by burpees for the final 30 seconds.  Repeat as many times as you like. At my gym SoCal mma, we do 3 rounds and follow it up with our kettlebell workout.

You will feel this circuit everywhere! Enjoy!

How to train around your injuries

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How to train while injured

  If you train regularly, there is a pretty good chance you may come across an injury or two.  Regardless of what fitness system you practice or martial art you practice, injuries are a common occurrence.  There are disciplines where you will be more susceptible to injuries. For instance Mixed Martial Arts and Brazilian jiu jitsu are both combat arts.  When you practice fighting, bumps, bruises, strains etc… are going to happen sooner or later. I even know women who have twisted their ankles doing Zumba! So does this mean that you should not exercise when injured? Absolutely not! There are ways to train around your injuries.

A perfect example of this is yours truly. I was training for my 16th Bjj tournament as a brown belt recently.  Then I started to feel some discomfort in my shoulder.  Day by day the pain got worse to the point where any pushing or pulling exercises became very difficult to do.  This was extremely frustrating because I could not do any pressing or rowing movements without feeling pain. Same goes for my Jiu Jitsu training.  Bjj involves constant pushing and pulling.  One of my students a Kinesiology major and therapist diagnosed it as tendonitis. She said basically it has to heal itself and that I should limit movement with my left arm. She also worked on it regularly which helped tremendously.

I could not stop training. So little by little I figured out how to work around it.  Push ups hurt. But doing them slowly from my knees were doable.  I could also do stagger push ups and hindu push ups. Kettlebell presses hurt as well. So, instead of doing over head presses, I substituted them for jerks.  Rowing movements were painful as well. But I realized by changes my rows using a kettlebell with my palm facing inward worked.  As far as my Jiu Jitsu goes, I had to adapt my game a bit and use my right arm more than my left. By keeping my elbow tight to my body while training helped tremendously.  Another important aspect of injuries is how to take care of it after your training. Ice packs are a regular thing for me. Its always good to keep a few in the freezer at all time. Massages and stretching are great as well.

So those are a few ideas on how you can train around your injuries! Being injured does not mean you have to stop working out. Just be mindful of your injuries and learn to find the exercises that you can do.  It worked for me and I ended up winning the gold medal in the IBBJF Las Vegas Open! 10431469_10204386064921242_3909085898004984494_n