Pavel teaches Power Breathing during strength exercises like presses and deadlifts but you can use it for almost anything including BJJ submissions.

Below, BJJ Brown belt and nerd (I mean that is a good way) Josh Vogel show’s how you how to paint that mat the color pain using power breathing during your submissions.

Please try it out and report back.

Quick Note: Make sure you watch the very last technique…it’s the most effective and very dangerous so please pay attention to the details.

These are my top 4 Conditioning Secrets Every BJJ player Should Know that I gathered from my years of being a book work and from my years of experience working with BJJ players.

I started training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in 1997 and since then I have helped hundreds of BJJ players get the most out of their training on AND off the mat.

1.Your program should be Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Relevant but athlete specific. I first heard this tip from Vern Gambetta and it was like a huge light bulb went off in my head.

For years all we heard about was sport-specific conditioning, BJJ specific conditioning etc…But we never really heard anything about making the program specific to you, the athlete.

One thing that I gathered from working with so many BJJ players is that it attracts some very unique individuals. Some with a ton of training history and no job and some with absolutely none. some had all day to train and others only had 15 minutes per day due to work and family obligations. To give these athletes the same program simply wouldn’t make sense or work.

And this isn’t even addressing injuries past and present.

So although your conditioning plan should revolve around your BJJ needs and goals it should be specific to you and your training history, your injury profile, your time commitments etc…

2. “Although 2 athletes are playing the same sport, they can me playing dramatically different games…” This is another gem from Vern Gambetta.

This point goes hand-in-hand with #1. Your conditioning needs reflect your BJJ game and your style of play, your favorite positions and submissions.

If you’re a rubber guard specialist your flexibility requirements are much different than someone that passes the guard and stays in side-control the entire match.

There are times when GPP or General Physical Preparation is the most important aspect of your conditioning and many athletes will be doing the same exercises but that does not dismiss your need to work on your game’s unique positions and tactics.

3. Strength and Conditioning really boils down to creating ” Movement Potential.” I got this from Pavel Tsatsouline. A successful program only has two goals…creating movement potential and realizing that movement potential.

You create the potential in your training on and off the mat and then you realize that potential in your actual matches.

Get strong in the gym and do some crazy Russian pick-ups on the mat. No better feeling in the world.

4. “If something is important do it everyday, if its not, don’t do it at all.” I’m stealing this directly from the god-like Dan Gable. This not only applies to your BJJ conditioning but your life in general. If flexibility is important than do some stretching every day. Enough said. Now STFU and Train.

When I’m trying to lose a few extra pounds, by far my favorite type of exercise is just plain old rolling (aka training) in BJJ or any kind of grappling (including judo). It’s fun, so I can do it for a long time, and that’s the key to any good cardio program. It has to be fun. That’s why I love kettlebell training for BJJ as well. They are so much more fun than regular weights!

However, if I want to get to that 170-180 bpm heart rate that’s an indication that you are truly working hard, I can always count on the treadmill. The nice thing about the treadmill is that it does all the “intellectual” work for you. All you have to do is run fast enough not to fall off.

So my favorite program is run at 12 mph for a minute and then jog at 4-6 mph for a minute. Do that back and forth for 15 to 20 sets until I have to puke or I’m so thoroughly soaked in sweat that the people running on treadmills next to me start to look concerned.

Here’s a video a friend of mine shot today of me running at 12 mph. This is the first time I’ve ever seen myself run, and 12 mph looks a lot slower and a lot easier than it feels.

I love this quote from BJJ Blackbelt Mario Roberto as it sums up the importance of grip training for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, Sambo and all grappling arts quite well.

These are just some of the tools we use. Our newest edition is the Grenade Balls which lowered my pull-up numbers more than I care to admit.

P.S. I mention a secret word when discussing one of the tools. Can you guess what it is? I actually do not condone this little secret.

Related post on BJJ Grip training:

Grapple Grip Training
Leverage Presses for BJJ

I love stepping off the beaten path from time to time and don’t always consider it a waste of time but I’m going to make four assumptions about your workouts for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu:

*You want to get the most out of your body.

*You want to get the most out of your training on AND off the mat.

*You want your workouts to compliment your BJJ training and NOT take away from it in any way.

*You want the greatest impact from your training when you actually have the time to train and…

With those 4 assumptions in mind I’d like to highlight some of the most common mistakes that I see BJJ players make in their conditioning plans. In no particular order by the way, as these may manifest differently for you and from athlete to athlete.

1. Devoting too much time to strength & conditioning: I know this is a weird one coming from a strength and conditioning coach but here me out. I truly believe that if you want to succeed at a sport then you must spend most of your time actually training that sport, upwards of 70-80% of your time should be spent on that mat mastering the basics and working on the technical skills you need for your BJJ game.

The other 20% of your time could be devoted to strength & conditioning and corrective exercises, injury prevention and reduction etc…

So, in case you’re not good with percentages, if you had 10 hours per week to train, 8 of those should consist of actual BJJ training, technical and tactical. 2 hours of your week would be supplemental strength & conditioning work. And that can further divided into shorter sessions over the course of the week etc…15 minutes before work, 15 minutes during a lunch hour. Your supplemental work does not need to be done all in one session.

Quick note: If you’re a re-creational BJJ player those percentages can completely change and disappear all-together. I know many people that use their time on the mats as their only workout and have no desire for additional training. There’s not one thing wrong with this unless (and it’s very probable) that imbalances occur. At that point they seek out some additional training but only enough to help correct the imbalance and speed recovery.

2. Getting too sport specific: I learned this term from Vern Gambetta “Athlete Specific- Sport Relevant. “ and I love it. Your athletic development program should be specific to you and relevant to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Unless you’re nearing a competition there’s no need to have your work and rest ratios to mimic a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu match. There’s no need to continuously stress the same movement patterns as in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. You’re getting enough of that on the mat. Save that stuff for when you’re in the top 3% of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitors.

3. Choosing the wrong exercises: This one is closely related to my last point. Since you’re only devoted around 20% of your training to strength and conditioning you better be choosing exercises that have the greatest impact on the physical attribute you’re trying to develop.

As in BJJ, the basics work best, deadlifts, squats, presses, rows and pull-ups. If you bore easily you can apply the “Same but Different” principle. Instead of pull-ups use gi pull-ups or mixed grip chin-ups. Instead of bench presses hit some incline dumbbell presses…you get the point.

4. Always working your strengths: Don’t be that guy that bench press 600lb but can’t wipe his pooper. You are not a powerlifter and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is one sport that requires several physical attributes to have fun and be successful…agility, mobility, flexibility, endurance etc…

If you know you’re lacking big-time in one area spend some time bringing it up to acceptable levels.

5. Not having fun: This one is hard for me to understand. It’s 2012, you have more options than ever before to get in-shape. Don’t suffer through some class that you absolutely hate. There’s no need to. Find something that makes you come to life and go for it. Don’t like yoga? There are other ways to get flexible. Don’t like weight training? I know some beast that do nothing but bodyweight training. Cool? Cool.

Think of anything else? Let me know below!

The answer depends on may factors actually:

• Your weight ?
• How active you are during the actual session ? (it’s hard to believe I know, but a lot of people spend a huge amount of time talking BS)
• How long is the session ?
• Are you performing mostly ground technique or standing techniques ?

Those are just some of that factors. So….this morning I decided to use my HR monitor to see how many calories I actually burned.

Here are the details:

Trained with Josh Vogel. He went then I went. His techniques were not the same as mine.

Weight = 220lb

90 minute session made up of standing and ground techniques, I’m going to use Judo terms for the standing techniques:

• Hiza Guruma- 40R/40L
• O Goshi- 40R/40L
• Hiza Guruma & O soto gari combo- 20R/20L
• O goshi & tani o toshi combo-20R/20L
• Pendulum sweep & Armlock combo 30R/30L
• X-Guard Pass 30R
• 933 total calories burned
• Max HR 160
• AVG HR 116

In upcoming sessions I’ll keep more detailed notes and Josh will start recording his numbers as well.

This movement, the front kick-through, should make complete sense to you as a BJJ player and athlete.

There are a million ways that you can include animal movements into your BJJ workouts and training. You can use them as a stand-alone workout, as part of your warm-up before class or sparring,  or as a single exercise within a conditioning circuit for BJJ. One of my favorite ways to use animal movements is what Mike calls an “Animal Flow.” You can check out his entire program here as see some more great videos: Animal Flow Workouts.

See below for more animal movements and animal flows for BJJ:

Animal Flow Workout

Monkey Drills for BJJ

More Animal Drills for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Do you even have one?

I’ve been to many BJJ schools that don’t have a warm-up, general or BJJ specific. There’s many that don’t even cover how to roll or fall properly and lack any form of drilling on the basics, even within the kids program. How these schools survive is outside of my understanding.

Marcelo Garcia, one of the worlds best grapplers and BJJ players does a great job of working one the basics of rolling and falling, sprawling and pummeling during his BJJ warm-ups in his NYC academy. He also does a great job of keeping his training fun. You can see how his athletes love training there and the sense of camaraderie and friendly competition.

Check out the 3 videos below of Marcelo Garcia’s BJJ warm-ups:

I do suggest you keep a journal. You don’t have to be fanatical about it and record absolutely every minute detail but gathering general themes and ideas is a great start.

Here’s the BJJ Workouts Training Journal that I’m currently using for my athletes.

You can download it here: BJJ Workouts Training Template

It works well and I wanted to share it with you. It should be pretty straight forward to understand and fill out but if you have any questions please let me in the comments below. Enjoy.

These 2 videos below from the 1980s highlight some of the training that their Greco-Roman wrestlers underwent.

I love this videos and I’ll share with you some highlights to me at least. Please let me know what you like or dislike in the comment section below.

What I love about these videos!

1. Outdoor training for an indoor sport.[ .55 second mark] I love the way they took their training outdoors and built facilities to accommodate such training. These coaches knew the benefits of Vitamin N (nature) and weren’t afraid to get their training of the mats and into the world.

2. Heavy doses of bodyweight training.[ .55 second mark] Watch the video closely and you’ll see very long sets of monkey bars, high ropes for climbing, uneven and uneven bars. For sure these wrestlers learned basic gymnastic exercises as part of their overall general physical preparation plan.

3. Drilling, mat time and partner exercises.[Throughout the entire 1st video] Nothing will get you better on the mat than spending more time on the mat. However, your time on the mat does not need to revolve around live sparring during each training session. Drilling specific skills and positions over and over again are a huge part of wrestling and Judo practice but in BJJ it’s like pulling teeth. Everyone just wants to roll man. Consider your self blessed if you can easily find training partners that are interested in drilling and practice.

And nothing makes you better at moving another human being better than moving another human being. Some of these partner exercises are designed simply for the strength and conditioning benefits and others are designed for skill development but both are extremely beneficial to your grappling game plan.

4. The unique kettlebell exercises and angled barbell work.[ Video 2-.10 second mark.] You know I’m a huge fan of kettlebell training. And I’m a huge fan of thinking outside the box when it comes to kettlebell training for BJJ. I still love the basics but it’s clear that grappling athletes need to produce force over some very unique lines of action. The kettlebell does a great job of allowing grappling athletes to accomplish this. As does the angled barbell work you see in this video as well.

5. How they relate everything to actual grappling skills.[ Throughout each video.] I don’t speak Russian but you can get the picture quite clearly why they chose the exercises they do and which physical attribute each exercise is meant to develop. For example, you’ll see an isometric grip being used in a tie-up, they they will show a static position on a pull-up bar to help develop the isometric strength needed to maintain that specific wrestling hold.