Strength & Conditioning for BJJ Part II

[Leo M]

Leo - liking your openness to discussion. Thanks for sharing what you are learning and posting to help us understand the details of what you are talking about.

I have a follow up question (that you may intend to cover later already) - I'd like your opinion on "rest and recovery." What I see with many BJJ athletes wanting to take it to the next level is to essentially "hit the mats and roll hard until you can't roll anymore."

This approach works on technique and endurance and the skills that are harder to train/teach in any other format (such as timing and pressure). But I see a lot of injuries and burnout - and I can't help but think there must be some protocols that can maximize our mat time and training time in total (as most of the athletes at this stage have other life commitments and BJJ has to come on top of that).

Thanks for the kind words, Zen. Whenever I go see my Physical Therapist for one of my many injuries, we always laugh. Truly, I think BJJ is terrible for your body. Of course it has some positive outcomes, but I think it forces the body into a lot of less than ideal postures and puts a lot of strain on your joints. Of course, collisions in football or hockey are not ideal, either. And I've read that, post-marathon, you can find evidence of necrosis in an athlete's calf muscle a full month later. We do this because we like competition, whether it's against a formal opponent, or against ourselves. But let's start with the assumption that there is a difference between what we are doing, and training for health.

I don't plan to formally cover rest and recovery, but I can give some brief thoughts. First is proper nutrition. People can be very passionate about nutrition plans, so let's just say here, make sure you are consuming enough calories to meet your goals. Most of those calories should also be as nutrient dense as possible. Frankly, you can't eat enough vegetables. Period. We can debate carbs, protein and fat protocols, but right now start hammering your veggie intake.

In regards to physical modalities, here are some suggestions:

1. Foam roll and stretch after every workout, preferable every day, preferably two times per day if you can. Don't go crazy with it, but hitting your T-spine, quads and glutes 2x per day for 60s each will do wonders for most people. Using the "Stick", "tiger tail" or some other self myo-fascial release tool is encouraged, as well.
2. If you an afford it, find a qualified ART practitioner. ART, Graston, or even normal deep tissue massage is also criminally underrated. Getting a massage isn't about relaxing, it's about breaking up scar tissue and restoring proper health and length to soft tissue. Chiro's, Physical Therapists and Massage Therapists may all be able to help in this regard.
3. Make sure you sleep adequately. I can't nap to save my life, but if you can, and have the opportunity, power naps can be very helpful.
4. Ice baths and contrast showers can help, but honestly, they just aren't that comfortable for most people to do them consistently. But a 5 minute ice bath will reduce inflammation considerably.
5. Get some active recovery. A good dynamic warmup can be done in office clothing, and will help sore joints and muscles. Getting some brisk walking in during the day will also do the same.

Regarding supplements, 5-10g of epa/dha from fish oil will help with inflammation. As will the herbs turmeric and ginger. I personally love creatine, and highly recommend it. Some have reported water issue with it though, making it tricky for a sport that uses weight classes. If you don't get 30-40g of fiber per day, sugar free Metamucil can be used to keep your GI tract working optimally.

Sorry for the stream-of-consciousness style, I'm just throwing out lots of ideas here to see if you can bite on one.

Leo

 

[netbjjer420]

Great article Leo, I've already started to incorporate some of the stuff into my S&C routine, particularly your strength template.

Question, though, is there a reason you recommend 6-8 reps for the 4a and 4b exercises in the template, aren't those reps touching they hypertrophy rep range?

 

[Leo M]

Great article Leo, I've already started to incorporate some of the stuff into my S&C routine, particularly your strength template.

Question, though, is there a reason you recommend 6-8 reps for the 4a and 4b exercises in the template, aren't those reps touching they hypertrophy rep range?

Thank you for the feedback, my friend.

I didn't write this in the article, but the tempo I recommend is generally as fast as possible for the concentric, and a controlled eccentric. At that tempo, even an 8 rep set is only going to last 20 seconds at the most. I personally think hypertrophy is more a function of time under tension (TUT), and rep ranges only loosely correlate with it based on tempo. Charles Poliquin reports that about 30-70 seconds is a good TUT for Hypertrophy goals.

Because 4a&b is where a lot of people will insert unilateral exercises, I like the rep range a touch higher than with the heavy compound movements.

Thanks again for the question and comments.

Leo

 

[netbjjer420]

Thank you for the feedback, my friend.

I didn't write this in the article, but the tempo I recommend is generally as fast as possible for the concentric, and a controlled eccentric. At that tempo, even an 8 rep set is only going to last 20 seconds at the most. I personally think hypertrophy is more a function of time under tension (TUT), and rep ranges only loosely correlate with it based on tempo. Charles Poliquin reports that about 30-70 seconds is a good TUT for Hypertrophy goals.

Because 4a&b is where a lot of people will insert unilateral exercises, I like the rep range a touch higher than with the heavy compound movements.

Thanks again for the question and comments.

Leo

Hi Leo, thanks for the response. I don't really understand what you mean by concentric and controlled eccentric, perhaps you could clarify for the uneducated?

Are you saying that the exercises in 4a and 4b should be performed as fast and explosive as possible, stuff like the Bulgarian Split Squats, deadlifts etc. So you don't want to use the heaviest weight possible at that rep range but rather go lighter so you can do it faster?

Thanks

 

[THeels934]

Hi Leo, thanks for the response. I don't really understand what you mean by concentric and controlled eccentric, perhaps you could clarify for the uneducated?

Are you saying that the exercises in 4a and 4b should be performed as fast and explosive as possible, stuff like the Bulgarian Split Squats, deadlifts etc. So you don't want to use the heaviest weight possible at that rep range but rather go lighter so you can do it faster?

Thanks

The concentric phase of a lift is when the force you apply is greater than the resistance. The eccentric phase is the opposite, in which the resistance is greater than the force you are apply (the lowering phase...or, gravity is winning). So what Leo is recommending is that, let's use the DL as an example, you "explode" up as fast as possible and then lower the weight back to the floor in a controlled (slower) manner.

And it's not about using lighter weight so you artificially move it faster through the ROM, but move the heavier weight as fast as you possibly can through the concentric phase...this is how you will get stronger. It might not look fast, but you're still moving it as fast and as you can. Furthermore, some strength coaches advocate supersetting a power-based movement with a strength-based movement (ex: supine med ball chest pass right after a heavy set of chest press). Hope that helps.