Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Conditioning

[Teharesudar]

Looking foir some general advice on BJJ conditioning. As a newbee, my most daunting task was keeping my oxygen during rolls. Stength is good or above-average as I weitght-lifted for some time. Sp far, that is what has kept me competititve so far.

Where I suffer is:

1. Oxygen (see above).

2. Explosive/Speed bursts.

3. Fluid movement, flexiblity, particularly hip, hip-flexor.

4. Sport specific traing methods.

Any help is appreciated.

[blitz]

1. Running/cardio
2. Pushups/situps/weight lifting
3. Stretching..
4. ..... Practice makes perfect ;o

[bambam]

Try chewing gum when you roll. When you first start working on the ground, the tendency is to hold your breath, particularly when you are using a lot of strength. Chewing gum will force you to breathe.

[DJColdfusion]

Just roll all you can.

So much of being able to last, keeping your wind, in BJJ is understanding when to relax and when you can "explode". The only way to learn that is to roll.

You'll also find that the more you perform the technique the more you will begin to rely on leverage and momentum as opposed to pure strength. When you reach that level (purple or for some schools a high/experienced purple) you should see an incredible shift in how long you are able to roll.

Jiu-Jitsu is not a quick fix art. It takes time so just roll as much as you can and enjoy the hell out of the process.

[LoneHusky]

I don't think chewing gum while you roll is smart. Maybe put in a mouthguard that limits breathing.

[SamuraiGuy]

Well, along the lines of chewing gum, why not just breath.

Breathing is half your conditioning, so just breath while you roll, big deep breaths.

Thats not gonna do it all for you, so just roll every chance you get, and soon you will outlast everyone. Just breath, and roll, thats the best thing you can do as far as I'm concerned.

Stop while your fighitng and think, am I breathing in through the nose out through the mouth?

If your not doing it, start. Especially when your on the bottom.

[aseepish]

http://www.grapplearts.com/Beginning-Grappling.htm

There is a wealth of information on this website in the articles and grappling tips sections. Also go here: http://royharris.com (you have to register to read the articles, but it's free).

Chewing gum (or having anything in your mouth other than a mouth-guard) whilst rolling sounds like an unnecessary choking hazard.

Something that Murilo Bustamante told me at a seminar: Do yoga for flexibility, breath control, and mental relaxation.

[Teharesudar]

Thanks for the tips guys (and gals?). I am in total agreement with all the advice (except the chewing gum..I almost swallowed it once already). Here is my self prescribed plan:

WEAKEST POINTS:
1. Aerobic/Anerobic endurance: I have not doen any cardio since last October. Thus, before I start a HIIT routine (which is far more applicable), I believe it is best to build a base.

2. Flexibility: As far as my flexibility ( a very weak point), I plan to start a daily program by doing some research on dynamic, passive, and static stretching and try to build a program that way.

Strong Point:

1. Strength Training: Before joining BJJ, I had been weighlifting rather consistently for the past 2 years. I generally periodized my lifts incorporating routines such as Frankie's 5x5 routine for strength to German Volume Training for hypertrophy (it also build anerobic endurance as you do 10 sets of 10 reps with little rest between sets).

Maybe I am on the wrong path, but with BJJ in the picture, I plan to continue to weight lift, although on a much lower volume, focusing on pushing and pulling exercises that seem compatible to BJJ such as dips and close grip bench presses (escaping the mount), barbell and cable rows, and overall strength basics such as squats and deadlifts. This is not an all exhaustive list, just some exercises I see necessary.

As far as second phase of weight lifting, I plan to add some olympic lifts to develop speed/explosive power incorporating exercises such as hangs, cleans, etc.. starting off at a lighter weight on a quasi-circuit basis.

So here is the quandry. How to schedule the supplemental with the BJJ classes. BJJ classes I can always make are MWF nights, and Sat morns. I can do a cardio/aerobic session in home on any day. And I can make the gym on nay evening, sometimes days.

As I need to 'ROLL", it allows few non-workout or rest days.

Also, I have read alot of stuff about adding burpees, hindu push ups, hindu squats, sandbag and kettlebell work, etc..etc..etc.. Whether they are a key necessary component, I do not know yet. The research has not convinced me so the jury is still out. MAybe I am biased towards barbells.

Bottom line. There are only so may hours in the day, week, month. Overtraining should always be a concern, especially when one is a 45 year old male with diminished T production and recovery capability.

Your thoughts, opinions, and advice are welcome and appreciated.

Hoist Gracefully

[OmaPlata]

Looking foir some general advice on BJJ conditioning. As a newbee, my most daunting task was keeping my oxygen during rolls. Stength is good or above-average as I weitght-lifted for some time. Sp far, that is what has kept me competititve so far.

Where I suffer is:

1. Oxygen (see above).

2. Explosive/Speed bursts.

3. Fluid movement, flexiblity, particularly hip, hip-flexor.

4. Sport specific traing methods.

Any help is appreciated.

If you want to have better endurance, run or jog. Even if you just jog a couple miles nice and easy on the tread mill a few times a week, usually the morning times if you have class at night, you will make HUGE gains on your endurance. You wont even get winded during warm ups, and we all know how brutal that can be

[Tant01]

Try to relax! I know this may seem stupid but new guys always seem to fight EVERYTHING. When you do that you just kill yourself. Wait for the moments you need to use your strength.

The more you roll the sooner you will start feeling the right moments to apply your strength.

[SweepEm]

There are many aspects to approach BJJ.

Having great cardio is one of them.

Up until I had my surgery, I was doing crossfit.
I only trained it one hour a week and just that one hour or specifically a half hour of work out was tremendous towards my cardio.
Now this was one of the toughest work outs I ever did.

check it out

https://www.crossfit.com

they are in many cities around the US.

I trained at the Santa Monica gym with Becca aka Ring Girl.
If you're in LA, Sunday classes are at 11 and Noon.
One hour will make a difference in your training.
One hour a week.

We would do 15 minutes of warm up, 15 minutes of stretching, then 30 minutes of some hard ass work outs.

I read a recent article about Crossfit in the LA Times newspaper 80% of first timers never make it to their second class....

Last time I was there, a new guy lasted 5 minutes into the work out, after the warm up and stretching...just quit and walked out .

This is not a workout for wusses and wimps

[treelizard]

Crossfit is AWESOME!!!

I've been crossfitting for just a few months and have never been in better shape. My BFP went down tremendously and I'm not even doing all the WODs!

You can also get scaled-down versions of the workouts if you're just starting out at brandxmartialarts.com

[SamuraiGuy]

Hehe I get neg reps for the actual useful posts. You guys are such jerks! hahaha.. what knobs.

Oh and TreeLizard, isnt CrossFit the program... okay... is that the one where they have you do half assed pullups. I saw this video, where they had two guys and two girls, and they did alot of pullups for a long time, but they were all like throwing their bodies into it, and doing it really fast, and not going to full extension, etc....

It was horrible form as far as I'm concerned, (I'm all about the dead hang, and letting the arms/back do the work, either slowly and controlled, or explosive up and slow down, but always arms and back).

Were they doing it like this for a reason, or what, this confused the hell out of me because most of their other stuff looked good, but this.. was .. shocking.

[yenhoi]

Technique/form is like the #2 fundamental Crossfit Principle, maybe #1, up there with the Workout Variety.

All the workouts are supposeto be scaleable to any fitness level, the focus being Form and Variety.

[AshleyGH]

The fluid hip movement comes with time and repetition of moves. When you strike/kick/grab/roll (whatever) breath out. Boxers breath out with every punch and it helps not to gas out or run out of air. Also, relax because if you get in a position and start to panic everything is going to go out the window. With the lifting, a guy on my team used to be a power lifter and when he started doing bjj he lost a lot of weight. When you lift focus on the motion, not all kinds of different weight lifting things. For example:
vertical push: military press
vertical pull: chin ups
horizontal push: bench press
horizontal pull: bent over rows
quat dominant: squats
hip dominant: deadlifts