Mikey Musumeci Teaches His Arm Bar | Brett Fights | Men's Health Muscle
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00:00All I have to do is lift up, keep his thumb up, and I break his arm right here.
00:04Are you okay? Depends on your definition of okay, man.
00:09We're here in the Men's Health Fitness Hub, and I'm about to be joined by Mikey Musumechi,
00:14who is the one championship flyweight submission grappling champion, and widely regarded as
00:21possibly the best American Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner ever. He's a five-time BJJ world
00:28champion, and in one championship, he's undefeated with a 7-0 record and five submissions. He's
00:34trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu all over, including with Mark Zuckerberg, of all people.
00:39Darth Rigatoni, as he's known, is soft-spoken, but I've seen him do some gnarly things on the mat,
00:46so I'm a little bit concerned about getting down with him and learning one of his signature
00:52submissions. Hey guys, I'm Brett Williams, Men's Health Fitness Editor. Like many other former
00:59college and pro football players, I turned to mixed martial arts and combat sports to stay in
01:04shape after I was done playing. Now, after a few years of training, I'm not the caliber of fighter
01:09I'd like to be. I've decided to use some of my Men's Health connections to meet the world's
01:14best fighters and learn the moves that make them great.
01:21I'm joined here by Mikey Musumachi. He is the one-championship flyweight champion for submission
01:30grappling. Now, Mikey, you're going to show me a move, and I'm a little bit intimidated by it.
01:37You say it is a closed guard arm bar. Yes. What's going to happen when we get into this
01:44position and you show me this particular submission? Well, basically, I'm going to
01:49take your arm off. Okay. I do like my arms, but I am willing to give this a try. You gotta sacrifice
01:57your arm right now. I will sacrifice my arms because, again, I do want to learn these maneuvers
02:03from the best in the fight game. So, let's give it a try. Let's do it.
02:10What position do we have to be in for this submission? Yeah. So, we're going to be in
02:15closed guard on bottom, right? Okay. And closed guard on bottom is a great position. You'll see
02:20even in MMA because I can protect myself from getting striked. You can't just stand up and
02:24punch me, right? So, I'm going to close my legs around you. So, watch. Okay. We're going to be
02:28here, and you're going to be in this position here. I'm going to lock my legs, right? Because
02:31if I don't have my legs locked, you can literally back up and you can start punching me now, right?
02:36So, when I go here and I lock my legs, I can now frame your biceps. Now, throw punches at me. See,
02:41I can grab your triceps. Now, I'm able to avoid any strikes here, right? And now, you try to
02:46posture up. I can pull you down like this, right? Boom. So, now, I'm able to avoid all contact of
02:52strikes, right? So, what am I going to do here? What I'm going to do is I'm going to shake your
02:56hand. How are you doing? All right. And I'm going to grab your elbow like this. Okay. Now,
03:00when I grab your elbow and hand like this, I'm going to place your elbow right in my lap like
03:04this, right? So, now, your hand, elbow, and shoulder all in alignment. Now, I'm going to
03:09place my foot on top of your shoulder, and watch how your elbow slightly goes in even more. Now,
03:14I'm just going to lock my feet again, just like before, but now with your elbow trapped in this
03:19position. Okay. Now, from here, all I have to do is move to the side, throw my leg over your head,
03:26pinch my knees, and place my feet down like so. Now, I can clamp down, try to posture up.
03:33It's very difficult. And now, look how his elbow, all I have to do is lift up, keep his thumb up,
03:38and I break his arm right here. And if he doesn't tap, his arm will break. So, all I have to do is
03:42press down, up, and bridge. Are you okay? It depends on your definition of okay, man.
03:50It just felt your arm pops. I'm sorry. Let's do the rest.
03:59All right, Mikey, we have two mad balls here. I know that that's not something that I would
04:04typically expect to see on a mat with people rolling. How are we going to use this in our
04:10drill? Okay. So, you know in Happy Gilmore where it's all in the hips? Okay. All in the hips.
04:17When you do the arm bar, it's the same thing. It's all in your hips. So, this drill we're going
04:21to do now is going to teach you how to use your hips for jiu-jitsu. And it's also very painful
04:27and hard. You're going to be squeezing the ball as hard as you can with your legs, which is going
04:30to teach you how to clamp somebody. Because you see how important that is to be able to lock your
04:34legs? Yes. If you can't, the person could stand up and punch you. Okay. So, the clamp is very
04:38important for the arm bar and also using your hips. Okay. So, we're going to go straight to
04:44Happy Gilmore and we're just going to follow that. All in the hips and that just shows even
04:48though we're concentrating on an arm, the lower body is still very important. Yeah. So, in jiu-jitsu,
04:54you're using your whole body at once. It's a whole body exercise, you know. So, I think that
04:59it's so important that you learn how to use your body in synchrony. Gotcha. All right. Let's see
05:03it. Let's do it. All I'm going to do is I'm going to take the medicine ball and I'm going to lock
05:07my feet and I'm going to squeeze the ball as hard as I can. So, I'm activating my hips on the side
05:11of me, right? And this is already going to be challenging because it's flexing my legs and I'm
05:16flexing my core at the same time. Now, all I'm going to do is squeeze. I'm going to move my body
05:20like this. Rocking back and forth. Rocking back and forth. Rocking back and forth while squeezing
05:28all around. Okay. And that pressure is just continuing. Your adductors are really putting
05:34it to work. It's flexing the whole time. Okay. And I want you to do this for 30 seconds. It's
05:39going to be very challenging, but at the end of it, you're going to know how to use your hips.
05:44That's for sure. All right. Let's see. Okay.
05:49It's all right. Get a timer. Yes. And now go.
05:58Excellent. Yeah, I'm feeling it. Keep that base.
06:10Another 20 seconds. Okay. Oh, I should not have done legs this morning. Keep that pace.
06:24Only 10 seconds. All right. Should I switch it up? Go a different direction?
06:29If you want to be extra. Okay. Four, three, two, one. Time. Now. Oh boy. Arm bar. Oh, okay.
06:43Wait, wait. Shake my hand. Oh yeah. Stop the punches. Stop the punches. Now shake my hand.
06:47How you doing? Good day. Elbow. Now put your foot here. Lock your feet again. Now it's the drill.
06:52Angle. Rock. No, no. Rock, rock. Now I want this leg. Oh shoot. Okay. It's your legs. Now
06:58throw your leg over. Bridge. Arm bar. Oh, gotcha. Your clamp was so much better now.
07:03I can feel it. I can definitely feel the legs. That's for sure. But you see how it's exactly the
07:07same core and hips as that, that we just did? Exactly. And I even, you know, getting that
07:13movement. It's all in the hips. It's all in the hips. It's all in the hips. Man,
07:17respect to Carl Weathers. Rest in peace. I think I'll do okay. I'm feeling better after the drill,
07:24even though that isometric on the adductors really sucks. I feel like I'm not exhausted
07:31in the way that would really screw me up. So I am thinking that I will be able to pull this one off.
07:35Honestly, I don't think he's going to be able to do this. He doesn't look like he's done jujitsu
07:39a day of his life. And I don't know what's going to happen. I just hope that he could get through
07:46this in one piece. All right, Mikey, I've been dreading this part because now within the series,
07:54we come to the challenge. Yes. Which is where I know that I am going to be put to the test. So
08:01how are you challenging me with the skills that we've learned today?
08:04All right. So now what we're going to do is you're going to do 30 seconds again
08:08of the all in the hips drill. That'll be the name of it, of course. There we go.
08:12And at the end of this drill, we're going to make you do three times the armbar and you have
08:18to get two out of three correct without my instruction. Oh, shoot. If you fail this,
08:22there will be a punishment. A punishment. OK, well, that is how this works. I do sign up for
08:28this, but that's the only way that I will learn and get the skills that I want. Now, before you
08:34begin, I just suggest you see the move I taught you as a cookbook, just basic instructions. One,
08:39two, three, four. If you follow it like a cookbook, you should not get it wrong. OK,
08:45if you try to just wing it and try to like just do it by feeling. Yeah, you will forget steps.
08:49So think of it like a cookbook, how I taught you before and just follow it.
08:53Got to follow the ingredients. Yep. Unfortunately, I never use recipes in real life, but
08:58do it now. All right. All right. So I have on my phone my timer. OK, and we're going to do 30
09:03seconds. I'll tell you when to begin. OK, put the ball in life and make sure you're squeezing. I
09:08don't want to see you cheating with squeezing the ball. I will squeeze. All right. One, two,
09:11three. Go. Yeah, it's burning even more this time. That's it. That is true. You're doing great.
09:26It is 15 seconds in. Halfway done. Keep going. It's a lot of core. That's all core.
09:34Is that how you get that shredded photo that you have from your car? All core. Three, two, one,
09:41time. OK, so now we'll close card. Now, what are you going to do? There we go. No, no, no.
09:52One fail. One fail. Wait, wait. Think. Pause, pause, pause. Now think about the steps I said
09:58to you. What was the first thing I said to you when we're in this position? What do you have to
10:03do? No. Remember when you're looking at me like, look at me, look at me. How are you? Yes. Now
10:08shake your hand. Now go. Good. Yes, that's one. Nice. OK, nice. All right. So for number two,
10:23OK. Don't don't give me hints. Don't kill me, Mikey. How are you doing?
10:32Sorry. You're good. Beautiful. OK. All right. Third time. Now I'm tired, so it makes it even
10:41harder. But that's why you're going to get more technical when you do it when you're tired.
10:45That's right. Under fatigue. Better. And pull. Perfect. Nice. Perfect. All right, Mikey,
10:52I am relieved because I think it's fair to say that was two out of three. Yes, you got two out
10:57of three for sure. Wonderful. But remember, how did I get you to get this to do it right?
11:02Instantly, I gave you a way to memorize it, right? Like I was like, shake my hand. Good
11:05morning. How are you doing? That was the key. And then the second you registered that you
11:09instantly did the right. Yes. So how do we this is what you do is it's just a basic cookbook of
11:15list of steps. Once you follow it, it's still you're able to do it. So following the recipe
11:20is good and helpful. Yep. It's just cooking, just cooking something, something I need to remember.
11:25And as someone whose nickname is Darth Rigatoni. Yep. Seems like you've got that on lock. So it's
11:31just using the recipe and mnemonic devices if you want to call it that and applying that in
11:38practice as long as we've trained the physical attributes as well. Yes. But that's what's so
11:43much fun about Jiu Jitsu. You see how hard of a core workout that just was, right? But you're
11:47thinking about doing this recipe, the steps at the same time. So you're not really paying attention
11:52that you're working out. It's like a cheap way to work out without working out because your brain
11:56is registering just following the list, right? And then after your body's like, holy crap,
12:00my body hurts. But you're not feeling that when you're doing it. You're more just thinking about
12:04following the list, right? Functionality and purpose. Which is why everyone's able to train
12:08Jiu Jitsu. You see kids training, you see elders training Jiu Jitsu. It's just everyone's able to
12:13do it. It's a healthy, good workout. No brain damage. You're safe. I don't know. My arm is a
12:18little sore, but I'll give him that one. So keep drilling, keep following your recipe and give this
12:27a try.