Grip Strength - BJJ

I am sure a bunch of the grappling forum guys saw this, but doubt much of f13 would have, so I figured I'd post it. Jordon Schultz (BJJ competitor) put this out as a sample grip strength workout (specific to BJJ).

Personally, I do find gi-specific grip work to help significantly (and I don't do nearly enough of it).

 

Hand, finger and wrist strength is under-rated.

 

Especially in regards to crushing another puny humans hand.

 

Ftfy

 

or you could just roll more, tha tcould make your grip better

 

Or, you could do things outside of class times in order to supplement your rolling. You know, because you can do more than one thing for training.

EDIT: While I agree that actually doing your sport is the most important part of training, I often feel that the "rolling is all you need" attitude that is common in BJJ is counterproductive at times, as much as the old-school anti-weight training attitude of some boxing coaches.

 

sure, but youd be killing to birds with 1 stone by rolling.

 

I haven't really needed to do any BJJ-specific grip strength exercises since I started deadlifting heavy. If you can hold onto a barbell with several hundred lbs on it, you can hold onto a gi.

I built it up by using double overhand grip for my sets until I couldn't anymore, doing touch-and-go reps with medium weight, and holding the bar at lockout on the last rep as long as I could. And definitely use chalk.

Chinups are great too of course.

Several people I've rolled with since I started deadlifting have commented that they can feel how much my grip strength has improved.

 

I just ordered Fat Gripz, I'll let you know how they work...

 

Or you could do grip work AND roll, and kill that bird in a much more effective manner with 2 stones.

 

aka overtraining. you dont need to workout your grips that much

 

This is the attitude that I was talking about. It's hard to overreach on grip strength, let alone actually overtrain.

 

In not anti weight training. In fact i love weight training and do it myself. Its just hard to simulate the right kind of grip training for bjj. Not only is the opponent resistingvthe grip, but theyre moving too which requires you to stabilize. There is really no artificial simulation for this. I really think rolling is the best way to train your grips for bjj.

 

I notice a big difference rolling with guys have strong grips vs. guys that don't. Rolling with guys that have grips that are hard to break is no fun. Stronger hands are better.

So if you feel like you need to strengthen your hands, then doing extra grip work is probably a good idea.

If you feel like you need to lose some weight, probably wouldn't hurt to eat less. Or maybe rolling is all you need....

 

Nobody said otherwise, I think an argument could be made otherwise, though. Doing separate grip work, choosing from all possible grip exercises, in appropriate rep ranges will create a stronger overall grip than simply rolling. The question then becomes what is better for BJJ: A stronger overall grip, or a more sport specific grip? I do not care to answer this question, since there is no way to prove one way or the other.

Assuming your point is correct, this still does not mean supplemental work can not, or should not, be done.

 

Poor analogy

 

Point is, isolating grip training for bjj is overrated. Id go as far as saying seperate s&c is overrated when you look at guys like caio terra. I lift weights, but not dpecific for bjj. More for my own personal reasons

 

Care to offer up some evidence to prove your point?

 

Caio Terra competes at 126 lbs with the gi on, and same day weigh-ins.

If you're competing at 126 lbs, it's not even that you don't need to lift weights, it's that you can't lift weights, or else you will not be in that weight class anymore.

For non-roosterweights, Caio's advice on strength training is worse than worthless.

 

Thats ridiculous. He wont gain weight from grip training. Also he fights guys much bigger than him and wins openweight titles. The guys he beats weight train while he doesnt. He admitted he dislikes training outside of bjj.

Caio terra and marcelo garcia, 2 world champions and some of the best p4p conpetitirs in bjj today dont strength train or condition outside of their jiu jitsu training and have admitted they find it unnecessary