Dubai-based black-belt on staying battle-ready during lockdown

Bruno is a professional BJJ athlete with several gold medals in the IBJJF and UAEJJF circuits

Dubai, in the United Emirates, is going strong in the war against the new coronavirus with the restrictions imposed by the World Health Organization. Quarantined since February, Brazilians residing in the country have been following the rules to have access to essential services. Going to the grocery store or pharmacy, for example, can only be done between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Bruno Oliveira, who has been living in Dubai for the past 6 years, recently talked and offered a glimpse from the inside.

“The sheikh and his subordinates said they would support everybody in this pandemic, including us immigrants,” said Bruno, a black-belt of ten years. “The support is being done very well, and we don’t lack anything — we’re safe. We athletes miss our routine of physical activity and our BJJ training. But we’re facing everything positively so that this can go away soon. Here there have also been decrees that fine people up to R$ 2,000 for skipping quarantine. We are on lockdown and have set times to go out. All precautions are being observed.”

The GFTeam athlete was all set to compete at the World Pro, Pan and Worlds — all cancelled now — and had to dial back his training. Now, unable to compete, he has been taking care of his physical side. Last week Bruno joined the Electrum Performance team, a company in the field of performance management led by Alex Bryce. Bruno will be getting professional guidance for his next competitions.

“For an athlete, it’s key to have training sessions planned by professionals,” he said. “My physical coach, Alex, assembles my entire spreadsheet of training and goals to be met. My training is based on getting stronger and faster — all things we need to fight at a high level. And for now, due to the quarantine, my training is at a low intensity. I just keep taking good care of my nutrition, with no restrictions, for now.”

A specialist in strength training and conditioning, Alex Sterner spoke about his method of remote training with Bruno. “The main objective of the strength training is to load the tissues of the body, which are the muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones. And makes these tissues stronger and more resistant for the practice of BJJ. Whether we’ll have equipment available or not around this time, the focus is always on the variations of the basic patterns of the body, like, for example, squatting and pushups. The exercises can be performed with more reps while the weights aren’t available. We’ll prioritize Bruno’s body weight for the type of work we’re doing, for now. We’ll also promote and develop his resilience, another goal of our training.”

Bruno is a professional BJJ athlete with several gold medals in the IBJJF and UAEJJF circuits.

See how his training works right here: