You don’t need to spend a ton of time getting all of your physical preparation needs for jiu-jitsu.
In fact, if you spent time segmenting each aspect of your BJJ needs like strength, mobility, corrective exercise, power, prehab, etc, you would have no time or energy left for training.
Plus, you’d quickly lose motivation to make time for each separate modality.
It’s easy to get caught up in your “off the mat” work, with the seemingly endless options and distractions that flood social media.
When you’re training for jiu-jitsu performance and resilience it’s important to keep the focus on the mat. To get good at jiu-jitsu you need to spending time doing jiu-jitsu.
What you do off the mat shouldn’t steal time from what you do on the mat.
The problem is that you need to develop qualities off the mat that you can’t get while training BJJ.
And frequently, you need to make time to sure up your weaknesses so that they don’t become a problem while grappling, which could set you up for injury and pain.
So, how do you get everything you need without losing mat time and motivation?
After training for 13 years, countless hours of research, dozens of certifications, and enduring a lot of pain, I have found the best tools and methods that deliver exactly what you need for BJJ without demanding a bunch of your time.
Before we get into them, let’s look at what you need as a grappler, with a focus on someone over 35 working for BJJ longevity.
The Physical Needs Of A Grappler
You will get a lot of what you need for jiu-jitsu by doing jiu-jitsu. Strength endurance, isometric strength, cardio conditioning, and endurance are the main things you get from time spent grappling.
However, what you need is strength, power, mobility, stability, and movement in multiple planes of motion. You also need to develop resilience and undo the negative effects of grappling through corrective exercise.
Now, if you spent time on each one of these individually you’d have a very demanding training routine that would be hard to sustain.
Instead, I prefer to put my time into tools and methods that deliver multiple qualities that directly translate to BJJ performance and resilience.
To me, the best use of your time is on things that deliver strength, mobility, resilience, and injury prevention all in one.
Here are those things.
The Turkish Get Up
If you’re a grappler and not using the TGU by now you are doing yourself a disservice. This one move packs so many benefits into one complete package that it’s a crime to leave out.
Aside from the fact that it can be used as an assessment, a warm-up, and a strength move, it also provides stability, mobility, movement in multiple planes, corrective exercise, and resilience.
It can be done anywhere, with or without equipment, and before BJJ, as part of a workout, or on its own.
Do Get Ups every day.
Clubbells
Clubs provide a unique stimulus to the body that is often neglected in many training routines. It is by far the best way to develop circular strength, or rotational ability.
Clubs improve your ability to produce and handle force at odd angles, a lot like you do in jiu-jitsu. They make you resilient from all directions.
Clubs also develop strength and power, while concurrently improving hip, shoulder, and thoracic mobility.
You will get much of your corrective and prehab needs while simultaneously improving qualities for BJJ performance all in one.
Loaded Mobility
Having full range of motion of your joints is vitally important for combat sports. Lacking mobility will decrease your performance potential and could lead to injury.
But, having mobility is just one part of the equation. You also need to have strength in the end range.
That’s why my mobility sessions are focused on loaded mobility.
When you use a weight in combination with mobility exercises you not only increase your range of motion, you are building strength and resilience in those ranges.
When done properly, loaded mobility builds strength, stability, and mobility while also providing prehab, correctives, and movement in multiple planes.
Get more bang for your buck with loaded mobility.
Landmine Training
Strength is one of the most important qualities in life and in sport. Some call it the foundational quality that all others are built on. But, for me, traditional barbell strength training always left me beat down and a lot of times injured. My joints and spine just do not handle compressive loads well.
A lot of times after heavy barbell training, I’d need a day or two just to recover, which stole from my mat time.
Luckily, I discovered a way to develop strength and power with heavy loads without the compression.
It was Landmine Training.
The Landmine takes the load off of your axis and put it in front of you. This leads to less compression, as well as developing forward intent. Humans were built to move forward.
The Landmine also allows for multiple planes of motion. The traditional barbell lifts lock you into the sagittal plane.
In my opinion, the Landmine yields strength and power much more relevant to grappling and sport, while reducing your risk or pain and injury, and without robbing your longevity.
Most of my raw strength and power now comes from Landmine Training.
Bodyweight
The ultimate minimalist method is bodyweight training. It can be done anytime, anywhere, without any equipment and for a variety of goals.
Bodyweight training can yield strength, power, mobility, resilience, correctives, training in multiple planes, and more.
I use Foundation Training every morning and before every training as a warmup and to develop isometric strength. It’s also my corrective exercise and improves posture.
Additionally, movements like the Cossack Squat, Hindu Push Up and Hindu Squat give me strength, mobility, and injury prevention all in one.
You can never go wrong with investing time in bodyweight training.
Final Thoughts
The truth is, you will have to dedicate some time to off-the-mat training. But I believe there are better uses of your time, and more efficient ways to get what you need for jiu-jitsu.
If I had to pick just one of the methods above it would be the Turkish Get Up. So, if you’re extremely limited on time, just do that.
But, if you can dedicate even just 2 hours a week to your physical prep, then combine some of these methods to get the most from your time and effort.
I usually combine the Turkish Get Up with Landmine training, and clubbells with loaded mobility.
I use bodyweight every morning, as a warmup, and when Im on the go.
Most of my training sessions are 30 minutes, 3-4x a week.
Ultimately, it’s about training smarter.
