Top 3 Conditioning Tools For BJJ

[Gary Peters]

There is only strength (maximum contractile force that can be generated by muscles), speed-strength, strength endurance... there is not judo strength, boxing strength, backgammon strength, Twister strength. People who seem strong in a given sport will have some combination of absolute strength, and superior technique that gives them better leverage, more economy of movement, that sort of thing.

So in this sense it is true that there is no sports-specific strength.

Palhares's style is based on his ground game and his nasty leg locks. Strength is of considerable advantage there. If he had a long range striking game as his "style" he'd need to move down about 3 weight-classes. Lol.

You need to take the game where you are strongest. Not just in term of standing/grappling, but weight division.

A muscled up Edgar wouldn't be a top contender at MW..

I agree with both of these posts. It's not a matter of someone being scared it's knowing which weight class your specific frame fits. At the highest levels reach is far more of an advantage than max strength or muscle mass in the striking game and its the opposite for grappling.

For BJJ competition, rolling often vs larger/heavier training partners is probably the most useful training tool. I am a huge fan of compound lifts and honestly over the years i've found them to transfer amazingly to my training. I think people are confused by the term sport specific training. Fighters who aren't wasting their time or paying an unqualified "trainer" to tell them what to do are generally doing heavy compound lifts. All of this "sport specific" work you see done are protocols to increase the athlete's speed, agility, coordination, etc. I believe the third most important thing you can work on for BJJ would be static strength or isometrics. This can be achieved by hanging from a chin-up bar for extended periods of time, wall sits, planks, etc.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask. I've been involved with BJJ for over 6 years and have had 10 MMA fights so far.

Summary:
1) Rolling often with heavier training partners.
2) Heavy Compound Lifts
3) Isometrics

 

[DrBdan]

Yeah but that dude is not the best example because he is 14-5 and only loses to top contenders. Hector Lombard, Alan Belcher, Nate Marquardt, Dan Henderson...

I don't really see the problem here.

My issue is that there are more factors affecting the weight class you fight in than simply weight. Palhares was just an example of a guy that regularly gives up a height/reach advantage because he carries a lot of muscle. He does well because his strength complements his grappling but I also think he will never be champ at MW because if he can't take a guy down he will almost always lose on his feet.

My problem more than anything is with you calling someone a pussy and assuming they are scared to go up a weight class when there's more to it than that.

 

[DrBdan]

Hey Gary, is this you:

http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Gary-Peters-68945

You really fought Billy Dee Williams??

 

[Gary Peters]

Interesting name right! Sherdog's fighter stats are weird they never have all of them listed. I fought a weight class higher all of my fights so I wouldn't have to cut much weight. That bit me in the ass when my last opponent showed up at 6"4 and about 20 lbs heavier. I'll be cutting weight for my next one in February.

 

[redaxe]

My issue is that there are more factors affecting the weight class you fight in than simply weight. Palhares was just an example of a guy that regularly gives up a height/reach advantage because he carries a lot of muscle. He does well because his strength complements his grappling but I also think he will never be champ at MW because if he can't take a guy down he will almost always lose on his feet.

My problem more than anything is with you calling someone a pussy and assuming they are scared to go up a weight class when there's more to it than that.

I didn't call any specific person a pussy. I said that if you are small and weak and you are afraid to get bigger and stronger because it means fighting bigger opponents, you are probably a pussy.

And I was also talking about BJJ, because this thread is about BJJ. Not sure how Palhares's striking reach came into the discussion.

But yes, your training should complement your game. Palhares's game is based on being a brick shithouse. His nickname means "tree stump" for a reason. When he loses, it just means he wasn't able to impose his game on his opponent. It doesn't mean he should go down a weight class and change his game.

On the other hand if your game is based on being a tall, lanky, long distance striker, and that's working for you, maybe you shouldn't put on muscle and go up in weight, especially if your wrestling skill sucks. But it should be because you're winning at your current weight, not because you're scared of fighting bigger guys.

 

[DrBdan]

I didn't call any specific person a pussy. I said that if you are small and weak and you are afraid to get bigger and stronger because it means fighting bigger opponents, you are probably a pussy.

And I was also talking about BJJ, because this thread is about BJJ. Not sure how Palhares's striking reach came into the discussion.

But yes, your training should complement your game. Palhares's game is based on being a brick shithouse. His nickname means "tree stump" for a reason. When he loses, it just means he wasn't able to impose his game on his opponent. It doesn't mean he should go down a weight class and change his game.

On the other hand if your game is based on being a tall, lanky, long distance striker, and that's working for you, maybe you shouldn't put on muscle and go up in weight, especially if your wrestling skill sucks. But it should be because you're winning at your current weight, not because you're scared of fighting bigger guys.

True, I was thinking of MMA but this thread is indeed about BJJ.

 

[tekkno]

I believe the third most important thing you can work on for BJJ would be static strength or isometrics. This can be achieved by hanging from a chin-up bar for extended periods of time, wall sits, planks, etc.

I guess that hanging from a chin-up bar will increase grip strength. But how someone can benefit in his bjj game from doing wall sits and planks?

 

[seamus1979]

i found for my bjj the most effective conditioning tool was continuous rolling (as in only fighting for position, not submission). also i had a bjj teacher who would put you in the middle and have three or four fresh opponents go at you one after the other till your throwing up in the corner.
i came to bjj from a strongman/powerlifting background and there was two things i found i needed to work on.
i found for gi work the grip was totally different as opposed to say gripping a bar. i remedied this with lots of towel pull ups.
i also found i was weak in planes of motion with my arms, i was strong pressing but i lacked strength in my arms in awkward positions. lots of clubbell work helped this.

 

[Gary Peters]

I guess that hanging from a chin-up bar will increase grip strength. But how someone can benefit in his bjj game from doing wall sits and planks?

Most of your time in guard requires you to hold/pull your opponent close to you in static positions to avoid allowing your opponent to gain his posture back. Same can be said for side control but to a much lesser extent since you have gravity working for you.

 

[selfcritical]

Or you may start spreading yourself a little thin. Which most BJJ guys tend to do. What TS doesn't understand, and what like 99% of the BJJ community doesn't understand, is that power lifting is the absolute best GPP for BJJ. Build strength and work capacity. Conditioning happens on the mat.

Unless the weak point in your conditioning is something specific, in which case targeted energy system work will produce quicker results. I'm all for trying to keep the program as simple as possible, but there is no cookie cutter. If you want to improve something, you build stimulus toward that particular thing, particularly if you aren't able to fit more CNS-intensive volume and keep up the quality of your sport practice. When i'm in shape(which unfortunately due to work I don't consider myself to be at the moment) I have a greater than 2x bodyweight squat...is the volume needed to add 30lbs to that squat total going to be a wiser investment than tempo runs, grip endurance or cardiac output work of core sport movements(shrimp/bridge, getup, 4 corners drill etc), while doing enough minimum volume on 5/3/1 or the equivalent to not lose strength?

 

[selfcritical]

Sport specific strength for jiujitsu, IMO, should be accomplished on the mat. At least, that's how I train, it works pretty good. For example, if I go deadlift on Friday and then roll saturday and have to pick a dude up to turn him over, I get better at flipping guys over by flipping guys over. I get stronger by deadlifting and squatting and benching. The strength makes it easier for me to flip guys over, so I can flip more guys over, so I get better at flipping guys over. Same as my soei-nage issue-I solved that by squatting. It took away the effort I expended to lift a guy on my back with my knees bent, so it let me do a whole bunch of soei-nage throws without getting tired, so I got better at soei-nage. I guess you could call that "sport specific" strength, but as far as jumping around on a medicine ball or whatever, no, that's wasting my time.

Oh, wait, I do do kroc rows to help with grip strength. I guess that could be called "sport specific" too.

I'm not as strong as Rip but I'm flattered anyway :wink:

Specific variable for non-professional level training schedules, or who work things other than 9-5.

My total time i can train exceeds the total time I have access to trained judo/jiu jitsu athletes.

My total time I can train exceeds time I have access to a squat rack.

 

[selfcritical]

There is only strength (maximum contractile force that can be generated by muscles), speed-strength, strength endurance... there is not judo strength, boxing strength, backgammon strength, Twister strength. People who seem strong in a given sport will have some combination of absolute strength, and superior technique that gives them better leverage, more economy of movement, that sort of thing.

So in this sense it is true that there is no sports-specific strength.

No, but what combination of those qualities translates into performance, and which motions in particular need to have those qualities.

(Limit horizontal pulling strength is probably very weakly correlated with powerlifting success, more strongly correlated with certain style sof judo success, and has probably almost no correlation with boxing performance. Limit strength in general will have almost no correlation with predicting boxing performance, etc etc)

 

[JauntyAngle]

No, but what combination of those qualities translates into performance, and which motions in particular need to have those qualities.

(Limit horizontal pulling strength is probably very weakly correlated with powerlifting success, more strongly correlated with certain style sof judo success, and has probably almost no correlation with boxing performance. Limit strength in general will have almost no correlation with predicting boxing performance, etc etc)

Except, of course, the king of all movements: elbow flexion. This is equal and utmost important to all sports, indeed to all human activities.

 

[selfcritical]

The key to striking is the explosive curl.

 

[JauntyAngle]

The key to striking is the explosive curl.

Exactly.

 

[redaxe]

One of my favorite things is the saying that a certain baseline of strength is key to performance. If you can endure but can't perform, then you are just sucking for a long time.

 

[cms9690]

LOL

What the.. fuck?

 

[Ethan]

Specific variable for non-professional level training schedules, or who work things other than 9-5.

My total time i can train exceeds the total time I have access to trained judo/jiu jitsu athletes.

My total time I can train exceeds time I have access to a squat rack.

Ok...so what does that have to do with anything I said? My point was that what everyone calls "sport specific strength" is really absolute strength combined with good technique.

Also, if you have spare training time where you can't roll/do randori or lift heavy shit, do uchikomi. No one does enough uchikomi

 

[selfcritical]

Ok...so what does that have to do with anything I said? My point was that what everyone calls "sport specific strength" is really absolute strength combined with good technique.

Also, if you have spare training time where you can't roll/do randori or lift heavy shit, do uchikomi. No one does enough uchikomi

Fair enough, the point is that there are things you can do with your spare time that might have more applicability to specific weaknesses than just developing limit strength. There are more variables and possible weak points in your performance than just your absolute strength(but of course any program I'd build for myself or anyone else would have heavy compound lifts in them). Range of motion, rate of force development, specific muscular endurance, speed of recovery, aerobic capacity, anaerobic capacity, starting strength are all things that can be trained, and if one in particular is holding back your sports performance, you should TRAIN THAT. Uchikomi is a tool, but there's a bunch of different ways you can train it to elicit different physiological adaptations.

You could

Do them smoothly at a moderate pace for an extended period of time (cardiac output)

Do them at "match pace" HR for moderate lengths (building up to slightly longer than a match)(lactate threshold training)

You could do them in short, 10-12 second bursts with short(minute ish) recovery, making sure to push the highest pace you can in that timeframe(alactic capacity)

Do them against moderate resistance(bands) in 1-3 rep sets at maximum velocity, waiting for complete recovery between sets(Rate of force development)

The program doesn't need to be complicated, but I do think that once you have a handle on your specific weaknesses, you should train for them. If you are gassing out in practice, of course you're going to have to look at relaxing and what techniques you're wasting energy on from at tatical perspective, but the idea that someone should do roadwork to help with their endurance has been in combat sports for a long time for a reason. This isn't rocket science, this is the basic stuff EZA covered at length in the big-ass sticky at the top of this very forum.