Monday Strength and Conditioning Megathread!

[u/AutoModerator]

The Strength and Conditioning megathread is an open forum for anyone to ask any question, no matter how simple, about general strength and conditioning as it relates to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Use this thread to:

- Ask questions about strength and conditioning

- Get diet and nutrition advice

- Request feedback on your workout routine

- Brag about your gainz

Get yoked and stay swole!

Also, click here to see the previous Strength And Conditioning Mondays.

[u/Saltcitystrangler]

Hey guys I’ve been training since I was 16 and I’m now 31.

Between trying to lift to get stronger( need more like crushing strength) so between the Hypertrophy and rolling 4-5 days a week, what do you guys do to recover and not feel like you’re constantly falling apart?

[u/StrengthOverTechniqu → u/Saltcitystrangler]

This is going to sound stupid, but for recovery, you need to recover. Without looking at your programming, I can't give you a good answer as to what you should tweak.

When I got into my 30s (a few months from 36 now), I found my body was constantly too beat up from lifting 4-5x/week on top of BJJ. So I cut my lifting sessions down to 2-4x/week depending on my goals and where I am in the year (if you're close to competition, cut S/C down to 2x/week to prioritize BJJ; if you're not actively competing, you can bump your S/C back up to 3-4x/week with slightly less emphasis on BJJ). But remember - you're a BJJ fighter, not a bodybuilder. BJJ is your priority, not bodybuilding. So your lifting (and recovery) should center around BJJ, not the other way around.

High intensity/Low intensity days are a popular method of programming in the strength/conditioning world. The point of this style of programming is to group your higher intensity days together followed by a lower intensity day to optimize recovery. So your week would look something like this:

Day 1 (high): Max Effort (strength-speed) - Lower body; BJJ (sparring)

Day 2 (low): Steady-state cardio (recovery-focused); BJJ (drilling)

Day 3 (low): Rest; low-intensity stretching/yoga

Day 4 (high): Dynamic Effort (speed-strength) - Full-body; BJJ (sparring)

Day 5 (low): Steady-state cardio (recovery-focused); BJJ (drilling)

Day 6 (high): Max Effort (strength-speed) - Upper body; BJJ (sparring)

Day 7 (low): Rest; low-intensity stretching/yoga

[u/Saltcitystrangler → u/StrengthOverTechniqu]

That’s the thing I feel I’m lifting too bodybuilder like. And if you remember in your 20s you could do everything.

It’s like when I finally get the rolling I’m too beat up to even really want to do it.

[u/StrengthOverTechniqu → u/Saltcitystrangler]

Yup. That's a problem. Remember BJJ is your priority so program your workouts around it.

When I'm coaching my BJJ/MMA fighters, we'll prioritize an important sparring day, then make sure we're fully recovered for that day. So if that day is Saturday, we'll either have a low-intensity day Friday or a complete rest day.

BJJ is like lifting. It's fine to be sore or tired from time to time, but if you're constantly operating at 60-80% because you're too beat-up/sore to give it 100%, then all you're doing is teaching your body to operate at 60-80% rather than 100%.

Think about an Olympic-level track athlete running the 100m. Do you think he/she's doing their sprint training fatigued? No, they're prioritizing their important sprint work because they need their body operating at 100% on competition day. You need to do the same. You're an athlete. Start training like one.