Aaron Benzrihem had a painful journey to BJJ black belt, but he never quit jiu jitsu.
Introduction
Injuries are a part of every sport. Especially in combat sports, any type of injury can have a debilitating effect on the athlete. Injuries are unavoidable, no matter how careful you are, if something is bound to happen, it will. That said, it does not mean the athlete should be reckless with his body. All athletes should strive for longevity and find smarter ways to train.
Today we are going to talk about Aaron Benzrihem, a black belt BJJ athlete under Bernardo Faria. He was the first black belt that Bernardo Faria ranked at a young age of only 27. Aaron is a multiple-time IBJJF medalist and has competed and won in several BJJ tournaments. He Is not only a BJJ Black Belt but an Instructor at Bernardo Farias academy, a YouTuber, and an ambitious entrepreneur with multiple businesses. A jack of all trades.
Aaron’s Journey
In the Forever White Belt podcast by Adolfo Foronda, Aaron shares his 11-year journey towards becoming a black belt. The podcast begins with Aaron discussing his initial days of training BJJ.
Image from the video - Catch Upper Belts With This FOOT LOCK click here to view>>
Throughout the podcast, Aaron and Adolfo discuss the physical toll that an athlete’s body takes while training BJJ. From the outsider’s perspective, BJJ seems like a harmless sport but only the practitioners truly understand what it takes to train and reach a high skill level in this sport. For Aaron, the path to becoming a black belt was full of injuries and hardships. Like every hot-headed young guy, he also used to push through the pain and ignore what his body was trying to tell him. In his initial days, Aaron explained how he would roll with the bigger guys, just because of his pride. That’s relatable to every man, we’ve all been there. But being a featherweight at 140 pounds and rolling with guys that are 40 pounds heavier than you is grueling. Being smothered underneath a bigger opponent is not a pleasant feeling. The only way to win against a bigger guy is to be more technical, more skilled, and more agile.
“I’m just consistently trying to utilize the strength that I have which is speed, timing, technique”, says Benzrihem.
“Injuries are par for the course, but I’ll take em”. Aaron Benzrihem has had his share of injuries on the road to Jiu Jitsu Blackbelt.
Training with opponents bigger than you is a huge problem for lighter athletes. During his days at brown belt, Aaron competed in an open weight BJJ tournament and suffered a lot of injuries competing with bigger opponents. Initially, he won against three opponents and reached the finals. He faced an opponent who was weighing in at 220 pounds and he popped Aaron’s MCL causing a type 2 tear. That injury put him on his back for almost 8 weeks. Aaron took his time to recover from that injury and started training for the Boston open. Unluckily he popped his foot three different times before actually competing in the Boston open.
With a broken foot and a partially working knee, he still managed to reach the finals in the Boston open. He fought with Edwin “Junny” Ocasio who put a foot lock on him and broke it again. Aaron’s foot was completely destroyed at this point and he had to take a long time off after that.
With a plethora of injuries dogging him down, Aaron thought about quitting. It was a discouraging chapter in his career which made him reevaluate his choices.
“Maybe I’m not cut out for this, maybe I’m just a hobbyist, maybe I don’t want to do this as hard as I think I do” he said.
This is something that has crossed every guy’s mind who is at a high level of any sport. To push through this exact feeling is something that separates the champions and the quitters.
“Even if it’s your hardest belt or your easiest, on your bad days just keep pushing through” he said.
That is the message Aaron is giving to everybody out there, just keep pushing through. Make baby steps, as long as you’re not stagnant, it is all good. Little progress is always better than no progress. Even if you have to go out and watch other people train, just do it.
Every time you doubt yourself and your ability, remind yourself what it took to get there. This mentality led Aaron to rediscover his passion for BJJ. “Injuries are par for the course but I’ll take ‘em”, he mentions. The journey does not end here, Aaron explains how he had more than just a broken foot and a torn MCL. In his days being a purple belt, Aaron got his nose broken too. This led to a severely deviated septum which further led to chronic sinusitis and chronic chest congestion. On the doctor’s advice, he got an x-ray done which showed that his cartilage was broken completely.
He kept procrastinating in getting surgery until he became a brown belt. At that point, the condition was so bad that he had no choice but to get surgery. This surely taught him an invaluable lesson to take care of himself and to not ignore the messages that his body is giving. The journey was full of ups and downs with discouraging and painful moments. Even as COVID-19 hit the world and gyms all over the country were closed Aaron still managed to get his black belt. The credit for this determination and perseverance would go to the sport of BJJ. It not only gives you the self-esteem and self-respect to push through but the mental toughness to endure pain as well.
Injuries and Recovery
Going deep, Aaron and Adolfo discuss how lighter guys are more prone to injury rolling with bigger guys. If a heavyweight is in the mount, it takes a toll on the lighter athlete’s body. “Jiu-Jitsu is unique in the sense that you’re going to consistently try to put up weight that you have no business attempting”, says Aaron. It also goes to show that if you have the knowledge and the skill, you will be able to handle a bigger opponent, that is the essence of Jiu-Jitsu. Although, body type and weight matter, that is why we have weight classes in every tournament. It’s just physics, the bigger and stronger guy is going to have the advantage of strength.
This makes a lot of athletes vulnerable to injuries. In a 2018 study at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Researchers took a test group of 108 BJJ athletes. Both novice and advanced athletes were tested for injuries and the statistics showed that 66.1% of advanced level athletes would get injuries in a competition. The statistics also showed that during training 54.5% of novice athletes would get major and minor injuries.
This includes MCL sprains, MCL tears, dislocated fingers, dislocated elbows, hip contusion, turf toe, fractures, and whatnot. A lot of times injuries like these can be avoidable if only fighters’ egos are kept in check. Sparring is all about learning, not dominating your partner. Aaron has had a long-term nagging injury which he caught at the age of 15. His lower back was injured and that developed into sciatica pain. The disc bulge in his lower spine caused sciatica and he did not opt for surgery to fix it. He uses basic yoga and stretching to help with the inflammation. But if he does not do the basics and follow the regimen, he will have crippling flare-ups which will cause him to take two or three days off. Not being able to walk for two-three days at this age is not healthy, don’t you agree?
Other than these injuries Aaron also suffers from a partial UCL tear on his elbow and two partial tears on his MCL. That MCL tear caused him to take a total of 12 weeks off from training. The most debilitating injury that Aaron suffered was the broken nose that caused the deviated septum which exacerbated his internal problems with infections, sinuses, and congestion.
The most debilitating injury that Aaron suffered was the broken nose that caused the deviated septum which exacerbated his internal problems with infections, sinuses, and congestion.
Conclusion - from an Jiu Jitsu insurance agency point of view:
If only Aaron knew about our Jiu-Jitsu insurance plans when he started his Jiu Jiitsu journey it would’ve saved him a lot of money on the costs of his medical treatments and recovery treatments. If BJJ injuries are really par for the course then picking up a $25 insurance policy to cover those bills seems like something all practitioners should consider if they train BJJ. Having a policy might not have changed the pain Aaron endured on his way to the top but maybe he would of got treated quicker? Normal health insurance does not always cover all the costs from accidental injuries which leaves the athlete with bill(s) to pay. However if an athlete buys a Jiu-Jitsu insurance policy (or two policies), the insurance company will pay benefits directly to you which “lightens the blow” financially while you recover from your injury.
“Jiu-Jitsu is unique in the sense that you’re going to consistently try to put up weight that you have no business attempting”, says Aaron.
A Jiu Jitsu insurance plan only costs about $25 per month. Athletes and coaches can even buy multiple insurance plans because they know for sure that these programs will pay out eventually. At the end of the day, an injury is inevitable, just like in Aaron’s journey, if he had a BJJ insurance plan before his competitions and during training, he would be able to immediately cover the cost of his surgeries and medical checkups. These things cost a lot of time and money, so it's better to go full out on your training with the ease of mind that your body, your gym, and your medical bills will be taken care while you are hurt.
To find out more about Aaron here are a few references:
You can pick up The Half Butterfly Guard by Aaron Benzrihem instructional by clicking here >>>.
You can also check out his YouTube Channel by clicking here >>>.
