Balancing Jiu-Jitsu training with Strength training

[AcesUp22]

I have been doing BJJ for about 3 months now. I am doing a pretty good job of grasping techniques and concepts. I go to about 4-5 two hour classes a week.
A good friend of mine is a personal trainer, and has offered to train me for free. (In exchange for wearing an advertisement on my Gi) My question is: How much time should I spend on the mat, learning technique and concepts as well as getting a decent workout Vs. doing strength and explosive training that will allow me to be a better athlete. I work a normal 8-5, 40 hours a week schedule and have few other responsibilities outside of work.

 

[pliftkl]

You should wander over to the S&C forum, read the FAQ, and then ask the question there.

 

[Goat Meal]

It depends on your goals. I lift and do BJJ as well but as of now I'm sort of in "off-season" mode. I do BJJ between 1-4 times a week and try to lift weights twice a week as well. It really just depends on how I feel and the weather.

If you want to be a top shelf competitor you have to lift for strength and condition your body with GPP. I know a lot of people believe it's about technique over strength which is true but in competitions a lot of guys are pretty close to equal in skill level. What you possess in terms of fitness level will certainly help separate you from the pack.

 

[halfG**]

These threads keep popping up "HOW MUCH LIFTING DO I HAVE TO DO TO MAKE ME BE ABLE TO FINISH SUBS LIKE FRANK MIR!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111"

Dude if you have been training for 3 months just fucking focus on technique and sparring, develop your functional strength through sparring and doing body weight drills such as press ups.

Loads of my training partners started lifting and would then come to me and say "Why do I get so much lactic acid burn after 2 minutes of a roll?" because they lifted like massive douchebags for regular training.

 

[redaxe]

Lift weights for an hour 2-3 times a week. Preferably powerlifts (bench, DL, squat), and then a little bodyweight stuff like pullups/chinups and dips, and abs. That's all the strength training you would ever need for BJJ.

 

[MMA junkie]

Lift weights for an hour 2-3 times a week. Preferably powerlifts (bench, DL, squat), and then a little bodyweight stuff like pullups/chinups and dips, and abs. That's all the strength training you would ever need for BJJ.

Disagree. More could be beneficial. It's all about time management though.

I lift for an hour to hour and a half 3-4 times a week. I want to incorporate a more intense program and more cardio but time is an issue for me.

 

[redaxe]

Disagree. More could be beneficial. It's all about time management though.

I lift for an hour to hour and a half 3-4 times a week. I want to incorporate a more intense program and more cardio but time is an issue for me.

More could be beneficial IF you don't also have a full-time job, a family to feed, and other commitments besides BJJ and weightlifting.

With his schedule, more than an hour 2-3 days per week plus BJJ will probably put him in the "overtraining" zone, he will get fatigued and it will limit his gains.

 

[BJJ in Chicago]

operating under the assumption that your friend is a good trainer and not a total tool, shouldnt he have already answered this for you?

i roll 2-3 times per week and do strength or conditioning work 2-3 times per week as well.

 

[Rod1]

Lift weights for an hour 2-3 times a week. Preferably powerlifts (bench, DL, squat), and then a little bodyweight stuff like pullups/chinups and dips, and abs. That's all the strength training you would ever need for BJJ.

He disagrees

 

[mtruitt76]

More could be beneficial IF you don't also have a full-time job, a family to feed, and other commitments besides BJJ and weightlifting.

With his schedule, more than an hour 2-3 days per week plus BJJ will probably put him in the "overtraining" zone, he will get fatigued and it will limit his gains.

It wouldn't put him in the overtraining zone, I do more than that in a week, but more than 3-4 one hour strength sessions a week are not necessary. If you have more time than that available for conditioning, then devoting that time to cardio and conditioning would be more beneficial for BJJ.

 

[dat1978]

I'm gonna start a 2x a week Strong Lifts + 3-4 days of bjj and kb next week. You should take a look at the strong lifts program. It starts out very light so it will be easier to build up your work output without overdoing it right away.

 

[justinnnn]

More could be beneficial IF you don't also have a full-time job, a family to feed, and other commitments besides BJJ and weightlifting.

With his schedule, more than an hour 2-3 days per week plus BJJ will probably put him in the "overtraining" zone, he will get fatigued and it will limit his gains.

Not if he eats and sleeps well.

 

[redaxe]

Not if he eats and sleeps well.

Like the TS, I'm single and I work 8-5.

I do 4-6 two-hour sessions of BJJ per week.

I sleep 7 hours a night and eat three full meals a day.

I still get fatigued and need at least 1-2 rest days off from BJJ a week. This is all without doing any weight training (I used to lift a lot, but I haven't had a gym membership for about six months now). I don't know how you train BJJ but I stay and roll until I'm wiped out every time I train.

I know that I could lift for an hour twice a week on top of this, and that would be about my limit while working full time. If you do 3-4 hour long weightlifting sessions per week on top of that, your BJJ is going to suffer, and you are probably going to get injured. Lifting two days a week is enough.

Not to mention, if you want to have a social life...

 

[Jagcorps_esq]

I'm married, have two children (4 and 5 1/2), one exchange student, and three jobs (law practice, college professor and alpaca farmer).

I don't have time for that shit.

My BJJ is my weight training, but I do some body weight exercises to get more focused work on certain muscles.

 

[Zam Zam]

Lift weights for an hour 2-3 times a week. Preferably powerlifts (bench, DL, squat), and then a little bodyweight stuff like pullups/chinups and dips, and abs. That's all the strength training you would ever need for BJJ.

That's exactly what I do.

 

[Dr Boondigga]

I'm married, have two children (4 and 5 1/2), one exchange student, and three jobs (law practice, college professor and alpaca farmer).

I don't have time for that shit.

My BJJ is my weight training, but I do some body weight exercises to get more focused work on certain muscles.

That shit? Sounds like u mad that you can't manage your time well enough to fit in something that could greatly improve your health, jiu jitsu and life.

 

[whoisdisjosh]

I would say that it really depends on your strength training background, goals, and the type of training you implement.

If you have no strength training background I would suggest you start with a basic barbell program like starting strength of strong lifts. They both suggest you start with just the bar to learn the movements and slowly add weight; 5-10 pounds per workout in each lift 2-3 times a week. This will probably give you about 4-8 weeks, depending on you initial strength, to reach a decent training tonnage, and also give you time to let you body adjust to the additional workouts.

But there are ways to strength train several times a week without "overtraining". (I cringe when I hear that word because I believe it is grossly overused)

Look into the things Christian Thibaudeau says about eccentric-less training and you can get a better understanding about what I am talking about.

If you friend is a worth while personal trainer, he should know these concepts, be able to explain them to you, and design a program to fit you needs.

If not, do the research yourself and design your own program.

 

[Graunie]

I'm married, have two children (4 and 5 1/2), one exchange student, and three jobs (law practice, college professor and alpaca farmer).

I don't have time for that shit.

My BJJ is my weight training, but I do some body weight exercises to get more focused work on certain muscles.

Aren't you a big strong dude? Correct me if I'm wrong.

To the TS...

You are going to need to listen to your body as you ramp up training. You will adapt, but over time you will start to understand what is too much.

Thinking about weightlifting in terms of time (like 1 hour or 3 hours) is not a good representation of stress. You should probably look at it in terms of volume and intensity.

In my experience stick to the basic lifts as mentioned and don't over tax your body with needless accessory work, you aren't a bodybuilder. As far as the trainer idea, trainers typically just want to make you abs sore by working your "core". This is bullshit and will not help you much. Learn your basic lifts and that is pretty darned good for a guy with a full time job + the amount of jiu-jitsu your are training.

If I were your coach though I would say give the bjj training some time before you invest too much in strength training. Just focus on your technique and getting better for a year then worry about getting stronger.

 

[eastNYgoon138]

If you want to keep it simple, push/pull horizontally and vertically. Standing over head press, bench press, weighted pullups and rows. If recovery is an issue do this once a week but use very heavy weights and low reps(I tain BJJ and lift this way with great results)

Squatting or deadlifting will tax your CNS much more than those other lifts and you will need more recovery time. These lifts are the most important for overall strength though

Check out the S&C for more detail

 

[KILL KILL]

These threads keep popping up "HOW MUCH LIFTING DO I HAVE TO DO TO MAKE ME BE ABLE TO FINISH SUBS LIKE FRANK MIR!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111"

Dude if you have been training for 3 months just fucking focus on technique and sparring, develop your functional strength through sparring and doing body weight drills such as press ups.

Loads of my training partners started lifting and would then come to me and say "Why do I get so much lactic acid burn after 2 minutes of a roll?" because they lifted like massive douchebags for regular training.

so you think lifting weights will hurt a persons jiu jitsu game? newsflash for you, "functional" strength is not real. Strength is strength. pick up heavy shit and move it, rest, repeat. that will help. conditioning is a whole other entity of itself and should be trained seperately from strength training.