In the previous articles we covered all of the aspects that make up the strength training portion of the training program. We looked at an overview of the conjugate method and how I use it for the jiu-jitsu athletes I work with and took an in-depth look at the max effort, dynamic effort, and repeated effort methods. To round out the training we also need to address conditioning and extra workouts.
Conditioning brings up a lot of debate. There are some in the jiu-jitsu world who think all the conditioning you need comes from training jiu-jitsu and there are some that feel you need to do extensive amounts of cardio to develop your "gas tank" for the sport. I fall in the middle. Obviously training jiu-jitsu is essential for building your skill, but as you become more skilled, you also become more efficient. Greater efficiency leads to far less energy expenditure. As we become more skilled, our sparring sessions often become more technical and less physical. While our training sessions certainly count toward conditioning work, it is important that we include some dedicated aerobic and anaerobic training sessions off the mats as well.
Aerobic training is low to moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise where we can maintain a certain level of output for longer durations relying on oxygen to meet our energy demands. This is going to be roughly zone 2 to 3 type training that allows us to condition the aerobic energy system. Shooting for 2 to 3 sessions per week for 20-45 minutes is a great place to start. This exercise can be anything that allows us to maintain the appropriate heart rate ranges. Any cardiovascular machine, walking, rucking, cycling, jogging, swimming, etc. is all fair game provided we are staying in the heart rate range that allows us to condition the aerobic energy system.
Anaerobic training is higher intensity training where we switch from the aerobic to the anaerobic energy system and stop using oxygen to glycogen to meet our energy demands. Anaerobic training involves shorter duration, higher intensity bouts of exercise. Many forms of exercise fall into this category such as strength training, plyometrics, and sprinting. We tend to favor exercises like pushing and pulling heavy sleds and hill sprints when conditioning the anaerobic energy system. Initially you may not need to perform any anaerobic training as our "spazzy white belt" sparring sessions will often have our cardiovascular systems red lining! As you become more skilled, performing 1 to 2 anaerobic training sessions per week will be beneficial.
Muscular endurance is an often overlooked aspect of conditioning. While cardiovascular exercise can certainly give us a "bigger gas tank" and improve our ability to recover, we need to implement exercises to improve muscular endurance. Some favorites of ours are performing exercises for very high repetitions, or using static contractions, for specific muscles that need greater endurance capacity in jiu-jitsu.
In addition to the strength and conditioning work, you may find adding extra workouts to be beneficial. Extra workouts are short duration sessions that are very easy to recovery from. These sessions should not affect our strength and conditioning or jiu-jitsu training in a negative way. Extra workouts can be used to perform exercises for weak areas, to strengthen joints, and to address flexibility and mobility. These workouts can be looked at as helping to bullet-proof the body for jiu-jitsu. Some of my favorites are doing high rep single joint exercises with light weight or bands for areas susceptible to injury such as the neck, elbows, knees, and ankles. A full body joint mobility practice is a great idea, as well as implementing stretching exercises for areas that become tight due to the specific demands of jiu-jitsu such as the abdominals, hips, hamstrings, quads, and shoulders.
Remember, our goal with strength and conditioning is to tailor our program to our specific needs, or the needs of our athletes, with the goal of becoming stronger, better conditioned, and more resilient to injury. This program needs to be implemented in a way that ensures we are able to recover between sessions. We can only train that which we can recover from. If you are training a lot of jiu-jitsu, say 5 to 6 days per week, you may only be able to get away with 1 or 2 strength and conditioning sessions plus some low intensity aerobic work per week. If you are training less jiu-jitsu, say 2 to 4 days per week, you can devote a little more of your time to your strength and conditioning.
I hope you enjoyed this article series and if you have any specific questions about strength training for jiu-jitsu or would like to take it a step further and enroll in my online or in-person coaching program email me at scott@eptsgym.com or reach out through my social media pages.
