Rickson Gracie against jiujitsu's greatest enemy: the couch

In practically every stage of the life of a jiujitsu student, whether they're a novice who can barely hold their pants up or a master with multiple red stripes, there's one persistent enemy, enormously powerful, who's constantly lurking. 

I'm talking about that comfortable couch you have at home. It's precisely there, in the comfort of this fluffy monster, that many samurai and black-belts are eliminated before they can prosper. There's the TV, there's the wish to stay home with family, but what's worse are the multiple thoughts that the couch feeds and multiplies in the brain of anyone who practices physical activities. Examples include:

"Stop that. Go train tomorrow..."

"Going out with this weather? Jesus..."

"Today you're all lazy, buddy; you'll be easy prey for that dude with the big ears... If I were you..."

Etc., etc...

When the practitioner has pain and physical limitations, especially, the couch always pops up as a bigger threat than Godzilla herself. That's why it's always good to recall the wise words by Master Rickson Gracie on this subject. As a great champion, he knew like few others how to ignore the couch and its dubious comfort, which drag us into inertia and sedentariness, and charge a big price later. 

He once told a group of students, "Pains and injuries are a limiter, but not an excuse for staying on the couch. Spare the injured area, but exercise other parts of the body, even if it's your pinky finger."

So ignore the excuses, act prudently and intelligently, and live happier and more active. In the following video, Rickson sums up how he has always dealt, in the course of his vast career as athlete and teacher, with injuries and aches. Watch it and train on.