Caio Terra routinely submitted opponents many times his size. But behind the medals and world championship titles is a body that has paid a significant price. In a recent appearance on The Ageless Warrior Lab podcast with host Dave Meyer, Terra spoke openly about the physical toll decades of high level BJJ training has taken on him.
The most striking admission came when Terra described what his shoulders can no longer do in daily life.
“My shoulders are really bad, both of them. And today I can’t do things like brushing my teeth or fixing my hair for long because my shoulders are already hurting. And that’s something that messes with my life.”
Terra connected this deterioration directly to the years he spent refusing to supplement his training with any form of strength or joint conditioning work, a decision rooted in his philosophy that technique should always come before physical attributes.
“What I didn’t realize is that maybe as a professional athlete, I should do rehab on my joints because now they’re so weak because I never did it. I think that I did get better because I was weaker and it forced me to learn jiu-jitsu. But at the same time, I think that my body suf fers now because of that.”
He also spoke about the broader physical decline that comes with aging in the sport, particularly the loss of joint mobility.
“I was never the most flexible and I always thought, ‘Oh, man. The good thing is that I don’t use flexibility. I don’t use strength.’ So when I get older, it’s going to be the same thing. No, it’s not. You get even weaker. And your mobility, it’s zero. You go to much worse than you had before.”
When the subject of pain came up, Terra was blunt.
“Don’t forget the pain. Pain all the time.”
He expressed regret over the volume of training he committed to during his competitive years, though he acknowledged the complexity of walking that back.
“I wish that I trained a little bit less, maybe 70% of what I trained because I think that would still be a good amount of hours on the mat for me to continue to evolve.”
Terra has not been passive about addressing the damage. He described an extensive list of interventions he has pursued, none of which have fully resolved the problem.
“I don’t just do PT. I have done multiple times stem cells, BPC, massage, and wave therapy. I have tried basically everything. There’s a new thing for you to try? I’ll try, because I’m desperate. But it’s something that is chronic.”
Part of the difficulty, he admitted, is that he continues to train.
“I think because I keep on trying to train, it keeps…”
The sentence trailed off, but the point was clear. For Terra, jiu-jitsu and the damage it causes are inseparable parts of the same life.
