10/20/BJJ

By Will Kuenzel/Lowcountry Strength

Strength training isn’t the be all and end all.  I’ll pause while there is a collective gasp in the fitness industry at that statement.  I’m a strength guy.  I’m a powerlifter.  Do I think strength training is helpful?  Damn right!  I don’t, however, think it is the cure-all.  Implementing it into a structured training cycle can definitely help though.

Never lose sight of the fact that technique is king. I’ve seen a little 160lb black belt make a 290lb man tap twice in 5 minutes. Strength helps, but might not always be the deciding factor. That being said, in terms of a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament where you’re classified by both weight and belt, strength can give a definitive edge.

Both strength and BJJ technique are skills that need to be practiced. Don’t be overly reliant on any one aspect. It’s not always easy to distinguish between an athlete’s need for development.  The other difficulty comes in creating a balance of all the things necessary to excel at one’s chosen sport.  In this case, BJJ.  The hard part is deciding where to focus your attention.  Are you a relatively strong athlete? If you are, more focus needs to go towards technique.  If you’re already a fairly technical competitor, spend a bit more time on the strength aspect.  The saying is that you can be a jack of all trades, or a master of none.  Here’s the counter point to that, I don’t have my BJJ competitors training to compete in powerlifting.  Their lifting is geared towards their technical mastery.  Lifting for a BJJ athlete is only general physical preparedness (GPP).  Lifting is not sport specific.  It can have some carry over, but will not and should not be their primary focus.

In the 10/20/Life philosophy we talk about taking time in the off season to concentrate on fixing weaknesses.  Constant evaluation of an athlete’s performance is paramount for continued improvement.  Don’t just hammer strengths.  Learn what your weaknesses are and attack them.  For athletes that have more requirements than just lifting heavy weight, this can encompass several different areas.  We’re looking at aerobic capacity, mobility, agility, strength, technique, etc.  Lots of different areas need to be scrutinized and taken into consideration.

For the simplicity of this article, we’ll look at combining strength training with an already hectic training schedule.

A couple quick assumptions:

  • No prior injuries, nor currently dealing with any
  • Solid training base to handle these upcoming loads
  • Just finished a tournament without any complications, heading into off season
  • Gym has access to both BJJ and weight training equipment
  • Aerobic capacity is adequate
  • No limiting mobility, or agility issues

After competition, take some time off.  Let the body and mind reset.  Minimum of a week, maximum of 2 weeks.  From there it’s time to get back at it.  Going forward from here is only an example of a what I might recommend for a competitor looking to compete again in 20 weeks, or so.  Time constraints, prior commitments, other outstanding weakness, etc., could all have effect on what this schedule might look like.

The offseason will be primarily geared towards strength rather than technique.  This particular competitor will still be doing BJJ training 3 to 4 days a week for at least an hour.  Strength training will be limited to 3 days per week.  There are options for more, but not everybody has time to do 8-10 training sessions a week.  There is still an emphasis placed on cardio so we can’t neglect that.

Looking at a 10 week off season program broken out into 3 days:

Day 1 – Push:

  • Bench and overhead press are the main lifts for the day with one tricep assistance movement, with 3-4 accessory movements.
  • I do recommend one of these be a type of rear delt movement (i.e. face pulls, pull a-parts, rear delt flyes, etc).
  • I suggest leaving the RPE a little lighter on the shoulder pressing. I include it because the shoulders need to be strong for many of the movements and positions that you could potentially find yourself in, but leave it light to avoid injury due to overuse.  It’s a fine line to walk so err on the side of caution.

Day 2 – Squat/Deadlift Combo Day:

  • I don’t recommend a straight bar for most squatting. Also, deadlifting is usually a variation. I like to see the safety squat bar, or cambered bar used for squatting and either block pulls, or trap bar utilized for deadlifts.
  • I am a big fan of using low box squat with chains as an assistance movement on this day. Working on getting in the right position deep on the box helps with hip strength in some of the odd positions that BJJ competitors can find themselves in.  The chains deload off the bottom ensuring that the weight stays light enough at the most compromised position, but heavy enough to give some stimulation at the top.  Not to mention some of the other benefits of accommodating resistance.
  • Additionally, I will recommend another 2, or 3 single leg accessory movements, but keep them extremely light and with substantial volume.

Day 3 – Back and Grip Work:

  • I can’t heavily recommend McGill pull ups enough to these folks. Use a gi instead of traditional pull up bar.  Use fat grips.  Do extended bottom end holds.
  • I suggest avoiding straps for the first couple exercises here. I will recommend straps for some of the heavier pulling/back movements since we are targeting the lats and not the grip.  However, as we get towards the end of the work out I will reduce strap usage to simulate late match grip fatigue along with lighter, but higher rep sets for some of the easier back movements.

One additional tip here is to concentrate on the hand extensors are well.  With all the grip work, you need to make sure that you’re training the hand equally.  This helps to prevent tendonitis, or other overuse injuries that may occur if not accounted for. 

In addition to the BJJ training and strength training, I still recommend 20-30 minutes of low intensity steady state cardio for 2 or 3 sessions a week.  When do you do this?  Whenever possible.  Before training, after training, or on a separate day.  It doesn’t matter.  Well, post training is ideal, but it’s better to have done it before than not at all.  Whatever your schedule allows, get the cardio done.  You can be strong and have great technique, but if you’re gassed in a minute on the mat, you won’t last long.  A little cardio will go a long way for a multitude of reasons.  Better conditioning on the mat sure, but you’ll also have quicker workouts since you’ll have better work capacity and recovery.  This transfers to the mat as well.  Working harder for longer means more practice, means more drilling, means better technique.

Weekly progression:

It’s optimal to follow the traditional 10/20/Life loading protocol over the 10 weeks that you’re in off-season.  The deloads are important here as well.  I don’t recommend cutting back the BJJ, but will recommend reducing strength days to 50% singles with just the first two primary exercises.  I’ll cut out the rest of the work and add it back in on the following week when things pick back up.  The idea is to build strength through this time period and maintain the BJJ structure.  At the end of the 10 weeks, if time allows, I’ll suggest a full week off.  Or, at the very least, skip the strength training all together.  We want to ensure adequate recovery before starting the next pre-contest phase.

Pre-contest:

Up to 6 weeks out:

To reiterate the point, strength training is not a BJJ competitor’s sport.  So leading up to their next contest, strength training is reduced to the lowest possible volume to maintain as much strength as possible.  I will recommend competitors increasing mat time and trying to move towards 5-6 BJJ sessions per week.  When this happens, we’ll pull back the strength training to only 2 days.  Maybe 3 if time and recovery allows for it.  I will also increase cardio for the first 4-6 weeks of the pre-contest cycle.

Day 1 – Push/Pull

  • Bench and McGill pull ups are my go to here. At the same time I reduce the ROM for the bench to either a 2 board or rack press around the same height.
  • I still include some shoulder work, but it might be more limited to isolation exercises at reduced weight.
  • The primary goal here is keep back work high with pressing still utilized to keep strength high.

Day 2 – Squat/Deadlift Combo Day

  • Squats and deadlifts are still part of this rotation. I will stick with specialty bars aimed at avoiding trouble areas and attacking weaknesses.  Each bar can have potential benefits, but can bring its own issues depending on how the athlete has progressed during the prior off-season block.
  • Squats will potentially be to a high box (1” above parallel) and deadlifts will be off blocks (3” blocks). Like the bench, I tend to reduce the ROM to minimize the potential for injuries.  As everything else gets ramped up, it’s very important to be listening to your body here.
  • I will drop the low box squats and switch to primarily single leg, or goblet style movements for most of the assistance work.
  • Assistance work is kept to a manageable volume.

Cardio:

  • This is increased up to 4-5 times per week, but kept to a low intensity. It’s important to remember that almost every session on the mats is a high intensity session.  Cardio helps to increase the aerobic base, but can also act as a recovery mechanism.  We do not want to do any more high intensity work than necessary.  There’s just a point where you won’t be able to recover from it.

Last 4 weeks

4 Weeks Out – Lifting is still pushing it.  BJJ sessions should be ramping up to a peak.  Cardio is backed down to only 2 sessions for the week.

3 Weeks Out – Lifting is backed down a little on the main lifts with only 1 to 2 sets of assistance work.  Push the BJJ hard this week.  Lots of technical drilling on the mats.  Only 2 cardio sessions for the week.

2 Weeks Out – Deload lifting, 3-4 BJJ sessions focused primarily on technique with one to 2 of them being high intensity, but I wouldn’t push it.  Cardio is limited to only 2 sessions.

Week of competition – no lifting, 2 BJJ session early in the week and nothing past Wednesday (assuming Saturday competition).

The above is simply one way of looking at it.  I’ve had several different approaches to combining lifting with BJJ.  Everyone will have different time constraints, or lifting limitations.  Lifting is fit in around BJJ.  It is meant to improve performance on the mat.  It is not meant to take away from the technical aspect of it.  If lifting starts to interfere with improvement of the sport, then it might be time to back off it.  Regardless of strength, understanding the technical aspects of BJJ is far more important.  Strength helps, and should be added as a supplement to your time already spent on the mat.  It is not a replacement.

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Low Country Strength

Will Kuenzel is the owner of Lowcountry Strength (www.LowcountryStrength.com) in Charleston, SC. Will started his athletic endeavors as a pole vault; finishing up his collegiate career with a best vault of 16’9” at a whopping 160lbs. He the track and field world to pursue bodybuilding, his first show in 2005, he won 1st place in Men’s Novice as a middle weight. One year later he took 2nd as a Men’s Junior heavy weight. Since 2007 he has been a competitive powerlifter and totaling elite as a 220lber. His best lifts in multiply equipment are a 710lbs squat, a 605lbs bench press, a 615lbs deadlift and a 1930 total. In 2008 Will started Lowcountry Strength out of his garage. Since then it has moved into a 16,000 sq/ft facility and shares space with a mixed martial arts studio. With all disciplines of powerlifting, strongman, MMA, jiu jitsu and other sports in the Charleston area getting trained under one roof, Will heads up the strength and conditioning for a wide variety of athletes and clients.
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