Archived Forum Advice, Vol. 571

By Steve Maxwell

Recovered by Dave Wardman

Dear Conner,

I personally know Proffessor Alvaro Romano,the creator of Ginastica Natural,a yoga based calesthenic program that is very popular in Brazil.
Proffessor Romano is a physical education instructor at a major university in Sao Paulo,Brazil. His classes are extremely popular with mostly women students there.As a conditioning system for Bjj, it has limited application (I am a black belt under the Gracies) and I don't know of any top Brazilian players that use this system,(Munez and Wallid are not in the top 100 or even 200 for that matter )simply because there are much better ways to train for grappling.This is not to say it may not be of some value as a supplement to other types of training.I would say save your money on the Wallid and Munez tapes and if you want the true Ginastica Natural,buy Proff.Romano's tape.

If you are interested in how the top BJJ champs train,I would be happy to help you out.I am currently being retained as conditioning coach for Saulo Ribeiro(5x world BJJ champ,1x world runnerup,Abudabi champ and argueably the best Gi and no Gi grappler on the planet),his brother Alexandre Ribeiro(BJJ Pan Am champ 2002),Regis Lebre(BJJ Brazilian national champ)and Fred Alves(world silver medalist).Thess men are proffessional jiujitsu fighters and cannot afford to waste time on anything that does not produce maximal results.Please understand that I have the highest regard for Proff.Romano,but it is my opinion that there are much more effective ways to train for grappling.

Steve Maxwell