Health
Ivanka Trump's jiu-jitsu practice benefits whole family, celebrity trainers reveal
First daughter Ivanka Trump has gone public with her practice of jiu-jitsu.
In a recent Instagram post by martial artists The Valente Brothers, Trump showed off her mastered maneuvers with trainer Gui Valente.
Trump recently shared that her daughter, Arabella, first started taking classes before the entire family joined.
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Supermodel Gisele Bündchen, who has also trained with the Valente brothers and is the mother of Joaquim Valente’s child, has publicly called out the benefits of her own jiu-jitsu practice.
“I feel stronger, more confident and empowered since I started practicing self-defense,” she said in a previous Instagram post. “I feel it’s an important skill for all, but especially for us women.”
In an on-camera interview with Fox News Digital, the three Valente brothers — Pedro, Gui and Joaquim, who are based in Miami, Florida — shared why a self-defense practice like jiu-jitsu is a great physical and mental workout for the whole family.
“We have students starting as young as 3 years old and as old as 87 continuing their training,” Joaquim Valente said. “It creates an opportunity for everyone to engage.”
For kids facing bullying, the practice helps them develop the physical confidence to protect themselves and parents wind up tagging along, according to Joaquim.
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“Saturday, we call it family day here at Valente Brothers,” he said. “We have so many families that come together, and they train with their kids.”
The art of jiu-jitsu
The martial art, which originated from samurai warriors in medieval Japan, started to become popular in the U.S. during the 20th century, when then-President Teddy Roosevelt practiced it in the White House.
For the last 30 years, the Valente brothers, whose family is originally from Brazil and trained with world-renowned Brazilian martial artist Helio Gracie, have specialized in teaching jiu-jitsu as both a self-defense tool and a path to wellness.
The Valente brothers, (left to right) Gui, Pedro and Joaquim, operate several jiu-jitsu facilities in the U.S. At right, Ivanka Trump is shown training in jiu-jitsu with the Valente brothers. (Valente Brothers; Instagram/@valentebrothers)
The brothers focus on a “7-5-3 code” philosophy, which is intended to create “spiritual, mental and physical wellness.”
Joaquim Valente shared that their instruction focuses on empowering people for various situations, like being put in a headlock or preparing for a punch.
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Gui Valente added that jiu-jitsu can also provide health benefits, noting that their predecessors were doctors — including their father, Grand Master Pedro Valente Sr., who was a plastic surgeon.
“He often talked about how what he learned on the mat helped tremendously with his career,” Gui said. “All the fundamentals of jiu-jitsu, the philosophical aspect of jiu-jitsu, can be beneficial on and off the mat.”
Pedro Valente, pictured, also trains members of the U.S. military. (Valente Brothers)
“Self-defense is a human necessity,” Pedro Valente added. “Our style of jiu-jitsu gives students this opportunity even if they’re very busy with their lives – with business and work and family – they still can come in and learn a very powerful system of self-defense but in a very safe way.”
Jiu-jitsu is an “exercise of the mind,” the brothers described, which makes it a great mindfulness practice amid the stresses of daily life.
Maneuvers to master
The brothers repeated that their 7-5-3 philosophy – which represents the seven virtues of a warrior, five keys to health and three states of mind – is lesson No. 1 in learning self-defense.
Simple techniques — like learning how to release control if someone grabs you by the wrist and pulls, or if someone places two hands around your neck with the intention to choke — are a basic necessity, Joaquim Valente noted.
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Another essential technique of jiu-jitsu is learning how to fall without being injured.
But the best self-defense technique, according to the trainers, is avoiding confrontation altogether.
“We want to think about self-defense even before the fight happens,” Gui Valente said. “When we talk about situational awareness, we also talk about teaching students risk management.”
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Pedro Valente also discussed the importance of emotional balance and developing a “sense of poise” when approached with danger.
“When you are in a state of panic, the frontal lobe of your brain is not functioning well, you’re not going to be able to rationally decide what’s the best escape route,” he told Fox News Digital.
“The best self-defense is always avoidance. If you get into a physical fight, you’re already a step behind.”
Pedro added that having emotional balance also helps to avoid “petty arguments, bickering, that many times will lead to a fight.”
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“Anticipation is key — and the only way to anticipate is to be present,” he said, emphasizing the importance of being connected to one’s surroundings.
“Presence is something that can really enhance our mental state and, at the same time, allow us to anticipate a problem that might be happening around us.”
Self-defense in schools
The three brothers, who are all fathers to young children who train, shared their goal for jiu-jitsu to be taught more widely in schools as physical education.
The brothers have been leading this movement in the Miami area, where a few instructors have been teaching in some schools.
“We consider it to be the best form of PE,” Gui Valente said. “It really complements the academics … and what develops into physical confidence, improves children’s self-esteem.”
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Pedro Valente echoed that this education is a “powerful combination of intellectual and physical confidence.”
“Jiu-jitsu — and this is something that we work on with psychologists and therapists — is one of the key ways to address these common problems that every kid faces,” Gui Valente added.
Gui Valente holds baby Arthur, the son of Joaquim Valente and model Gisele Bundchen, in his first kimono. (Valente Brothers)
The brothers also emphasized that jiu-jitsu has helped students of all ages with weight loss due to the physical elements of the sport, as well as nutritional awareness.
“Self-defense is a human necessity.”
“You work every single muscle in your body and in different ways,” Gui Valente said. “You have to be able to develop great stamina, because when you spar, you have to last for sometimes 20 to 30 minutes, or even longer than that.”
“You have to learn how to use strength efficiently, which is truly important in pretty much any exercise you choose to practice, as well as flexibility and mobility.”
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Journalist Katie Couric is sharing a scary medical episode that she experienced on June 27.
In a post on Substack titled “The Day I’ll Never Remember,” she detailed a sudden episode that left her unable to recall the current month, year and president.
“I thought it was 2024. And I believed Joe Biden was president,” she wrote.
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The event occurred while Couric was attending the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, during which she participated in two public panels — one on AI and one on journalism — both of which she cannot remember at all.
“I have no idea what we talked about, or of what occurred when the panels ended,” she said.
Journalist Katie Couric is sharing a scary medical episode that she experienced on June 27. (Getty Images)
John Molner — Couric’s husband, who was in attendance at the festival and the two panels — also shared his account.
After the event, someone told Molner that Katie wasn’t feeling well. When he reached her, an EMT and a doctor were tending to her. “I could tell something was off,” he wrote. “It could have been altitude sickness, but Katie was definitely not all there.”
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At the hospital, when Couric struggled to recall the year, the president and her grandchildren’s names, doctors began checking for a stroke.
An MRI revealed no signs of stroke, which was a relief, but “Katie’s ‘fog’ became a lot more apparent,” Molner wrote.
John Molner, Couric’s husband, who was in attendance at the festival and the two panels, also shared his account. (Getty Images)
“She repeatedly asked me the same questions: ‘What was I doing before we got to the hospital?’ ‘Why am I at the hospital?’”
Couric was ultimately diagnosed with transient global amnesia, a sudden, temporary episode of memory loss that prevents a person from forming new memories and may also erase some recent memories, according to Mayo Clinic.
“The cause seems to be as mysterious as the brain itself.”
It is not caused by a stroke, seizure or head injury, and it usually resolves completely within 24 hours.
“[It’s] just a very weird neural episode that’s pretty uncommon and, at least in most cases, is a ‘one and done’ experience,” Molner said.
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Couric said she finally began feeling “like herself” again around 9 p.m. and went to sleep at 2 a.m.
As TGA leaves a “permanent gap in memory” for the duration of the episode and for hours beforehand, Couric said that from around noon on that day until at least 7 p.m. will remain a “big, black hole.”
As TGA leaves a “permanent gap in memory” for the duration of the episode and for hours beforehand, Couric said that from around noon on that day until at least 7 p.m. will remain a “big, black hole.” (Getty Images)
Data shows that approximately three to eight people per 100,000 will have an episode of transient global amnesia, with people 50 years of age and older at higher risk.
The specific cause of TGA is not known, but some experts believe it stems from a “temporary dysfunction in the brain’s hippocampus — the area responsible for creating new memories,” Couric shared.
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“Doctors believe this is driven by brief interruptions in blood or oxygen flow, or microscopic spasm in the blood vessels.”
Episodes could potentially be triggered by intense physical exertion, emotional distress, extreme temperature changes or migraines, experts say.
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Approximately 15% of patients will have a recurrence 10 years later.
“Why did this happen to me? Was the altitude an issue? Was I dehydrated? Tired? Stressed? The literature doesn’t seem to indicate that these are contributing factors, but the cause seems to be as mysterious as the brain itself,” Couric wrote.
Anyone who experiences sudden memory loss, confusion, difficulty speaking, weakness, numbness, vision changes, severe headache or other stroke-like symptoms should seek immediate medical attention or call 911, doctors advise. (iStock)
“All I know is that those hours will be forever lost. Someone described it as my brain failing to hit the ‘record button.’”
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“While this was a freaky occurrence, it could have been much more serious. So ultimately, I’m relieved — even though several hours of a Saturday in June will always be missing for me.”
Anyone who experiences sudden memory loss, confusion, difficulty speaking, weakness, numbness, vision changes, severe headache or other stroke-like symptoms should seek immediate medical attention or call 911, doctors advise.
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Older adults identified as “super movers” are about half as likely to develop cognitive impairment than their peers.
That’s according to a recent study led by Stony Brook Medicine in New York, which evaluated the cognitive function of 4,000 adults 80 and over who participated in multiple aging and longevity studies over several years.
Among this group, 6% to 10% were classified as super movers, which means they walk at a much faster pace than others of the same age and gender — at speeds comparable to people three decades younger.
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The super movers were found to have about half the risk of cognitive decline compared to seniors with typical gait speed.
The findings were published in the journal Neurology on June 16.
Older adults identified as “super movers” are about half as likely to develop cognitive impairment than their peers. (iStock)
“The study reinforces that mobility and brain health are closely connected,” lead study author Dr. Joe Verghese, MD, neurologist at Stony Brook Medicine, told Fox News Digital. “This suggests that preserving mobility may be an important marker of healthy brain aging and resilience.”
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The most intriguing finding, according to Verghese, was that super movers maintained cognitive function despite having similar dementia-related brain changes as their peers.
In postmortem brain analysis, there was no difference in dementia-related pathologies between the super movers and the slower walkers, the study stated.
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“This suggests they may possess resilience mechanisms that help preserve brain function even in the presence of age-related changes,” he said. “Understanding these resilience factors could lead to new strategies for promoting healthy brain aging.”
As the study was observational, there were some limitations, and it does not prove that walking faster prevents dementia, the researchers noted.
Super movers were found to have about half the risk of cognitive decline compared to seniors with typical gait speed. (iStock)
“Other factors, such as cardiovascular health, physical fitness or genetics, may also contribute to both faster walking and better cognitive outcomes,” Verghese said.
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This study adds to growing evidence that what’s good for the heart and muscles also benefits the brain, he noted, adding that “staying physically active remains one of the most effective, evidence-based ways to support healthy aging.”
“Walking speed is best viewed as a marker of overall health, not a treatment.”
“The broader message is that physical activity is important at any age,” Verghese said. “Walking is an easy step-up point because you don’t need any special equipment. You can do it inside or outdoors, and you can do it on a regular basis. You can walk with a dog, you can walk with a friend.”
Any activity is beneficial if it’s done regularly and with the right intensity, he added.
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Rather than just trying to walk faster, the neurologist recommends that seniors focus on maintaining mobility through regular physical activity, strength training, balance exercises and good cardiovascular health.
“Walking speed is best viewed as a marker of overall health, not a treatment,” Verghese noted.
Major public health guidelines from the CDC and U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week, such as brisk walking.
Major public health guidelines from the CDC and U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week, such as brisk walking. (iStock)
This can be achieved by walking 30 minutes a day, five days a week, or about 20 to 25 minutes most days. Another option is to engage in shorter sessions that add up over the day.
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“You have to do it within your health limitations and medical conditions,” Verghese advised. “So if there are any medical concerns, I would get your physician to clear you before starting exercise.” The good thing about walking, he added, is that you can start at a slow pace and then gradually build up to a brisker pace.
“And then adding on strength and balance training, whatever age you are, I think is also important.”
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