About
My name is David Monserrate and I am an Army Airborne Infantry Vet. I went to Central Connecticut State University and graduated in 2020 with a B.S. in Exercise Science. In addition, I am a certified Strength and Conditioning Coach through the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
I started training Brazilian jiu-jitsu in 2018 and received my black belt under Robson Gracie Jr., Fabiano Teles, and Mike Jaramillo in 2024. I am an ambassador for the We Defy Foundation. I mainly train at Renzo Gracie East Side and occasionally at the Renzo Gracie Academy in NYC. I also teach Gi and No-Gi classes at Renzo Gracie East Side.
Achievements:
- IBJJF Open No-Gi Gold Medalist 🥇
- IBJJF Open Gold Medalist 🥇
- Jiu-Jitsu CON No-Gi Silver Medalist 🥈
- IBJJF Open No-Gi Silver Medalist 🥈
- PANS IBJJF No-Gi Bronze Medalist 🥉
- x2 IBJJF Open No-Gi Bronze Medalist 🥉
- x4 IBJJF Open Bronze Medalist 🥉
Publications:
Fitness
Here you can post different workouts that you do. You can organize the posts however you’d like, but it might be easier to just post workouts that you like to do and explain what they are useful for.
For example, if you go to the gym after class and do some grappling specific workouts, you can make a post about those. You can be breif and do it in a list form and maybe describe some of the workouts if they are nonstandard. You should also include pics/vids to supplement the workouts, esp if they are more niche. You can also make some posts specific to powerlifting or just general fitness. But here you can showcase your knowledge on fitness.
BJJ
Here you can post whatever you want related to bjj. You can post videos of matches from competitions and maybe do some analysis on them. You can post some of your favorite drills. You can post reviews of places you’ve gone to train or where you will be competing next. You can talk about how some of the grappling workouts you write about in the Fitness section relate to moves/drills in actual grappling. You can talk about wrestling here and fundamentals.
You can also talk about strategies for competitions and how to score the most points, or sequences of moves that you like to do.
Nutrition
You might not have a lot to say in this section, but I figured that people who are training hard would probably be interested in this as well. Maybe you could talk about what your body needs if you’re training a lot, like protein, etc.
Rehab
Here you can talk about your recovery routine, like stretching, cryotherapy, isolation tank, etc. You can explain the difference between an epsom salt bath and an ice bath. You can maybe list some stretches or light exercises that help prevent common injuries in bjj. You can maybe outline what to do to recover if you get certain common injuries in bjj.
