Strength and Conditioning

One thing I've been adding to my training repertoire lately has been strength and conditioning.  I had never really done strength and conditioning outside of just training before winter of this year.  I saw many of the higher level belts at the school doing pull ups, sandbag exercises, and other lifts/exercises to help increase their strength for BJJ.

For a long time, I thought that just rolling a lot would help me develop BJJ-applicable strength.  However, most competitors are on some type of regimen.  I don't have access to a gym, so I've been working on developing my own setup without the use of a gym.  I thought about posting all the exercises here, BUT I am not a health/fitness professional and therefore don't feel comfortable posting my regimen in case it isn't the best one you can do.  I have, however, been using a bulgarian bag, which I've found VERY useful.  It makes you utilize your core to stay upright and you can work pretty much any and every muscle in your body using all the exercises.  I received mine as a present and it came with a DVD, so I've been working from that.

If you're interested in starting a strength and conditioning regimen, it's probably best to talk to your coach, as he/she has better knowledge about where to go, especially if he/she was/is a big competitor. I received most of my knowledge from my training partners, and have been satisfied with the results so far.  And as always, be very careful when starting a new exercise regimen, as taking it up too high too fast can cause injuries!

Beast Mode

The past few days have been very busy for me, but I've managed to train on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Yesterday was easily one of my best training days since I've began at Shaolin's. Thursdays I can get about 3 hours of training in, as I can take two advanced classes and jump in on the beginner class. We had seven women on the mats yesterday, which is pretty incredible! There's no women's class at Shaolin's, but he tries to pair all the girls together when he can.

In the first advanced class, I finally found myself being aggressive but not spazzy while rolling. As I've written previously, I used to be very frantic while rolling and then became too calm, so i was glad to finally have balanced the two. Additionally, I was able to block certain techniques I hadn't had much success with in the past. For example, I had been getting choked while trying to pass the guard, but was able to remember to simply push my opponents elbow down to break free. I've also been getting better about thinking one step ahead to avoid being stuck. It's days like this that give me an extra boost of confidence regarding competition. It (almost) made me regret not signing up for NoGi Pan Ams, but I also have a tough time making it to NoGi training consistently because of my work schedule. I will however, be watching my new and old teammates tomorrow at the event. There is a Grapplers Quest on December 10th in New Jersey and I'm thinking about competing. Of course this depends on how work goes and if I can put enough time in on the mat. Plus that's holiday time and I'll need to make weight!

Regardless, the past few days of just pushing myself through work and 2-3 hours of BJJ have really allowed me to challenge myself and progress. Now that I train fewer times per week (I miss college!), I put in that much more effort in while I am on the mat.