Hi ! Bobby here.. Today I’m going to go over the idea of a Weight Loss & Muscle Building Meal Plan

I’ve been a trainer for 15 years but into fitness for 20 years.

In this time diet and nutrition have gone through fad after fad.

• Paleo
• Keto
• Low carbs
• Low fat
• Fasting
• Carnivore

I’m not trying to crap on these because they do work. But, they are also can be incredibly restrictive for some.

Now if you are cool with that, good for you.

But, if you want a more balanced lifestyle and don’t want to give up carbs or some of your favorite foods.

Then this article is for you.

I’ve done a handful of these things, and they worked. But, they are hard to do when life is stressful and crazy.

For most people, that is an all-the-time occurrence.

I have 3 things, I strive to do all the time.

The great thing about these things is they work in the frame work of most diets I, talked about earlier.

But, they also don’t have to.

It is simple enough to do all year, without much stress or willpower.

They are foundational for almost any goals

• Fat loss or weight loss
• Muscle Building
• Performance
• Better recovery
• More energy and vitality

Weight Loss & Muscle Building Meal Plan

The 3 Core habits for a solid Weight Loss & Muscle Building Meal Plan

Keep in mind, these are super simple. I’m sure you’ve heard them before.

Simple doesn’t mean easy, but if you commit to these.

This can drastically change your health and body.

Eat protein (20-40g of protein) 3-4 x a day

The basic recommendation is .7-1g per pound of body weight. But, a simpler way to think of it, is to hit at least 20-40g with each meal and consume 3-4 meals.

Or maybe 2-3 meals and 2 shakes per day.

If you are a female shoot for the 20-30g range and guys should shoot 30-40g of protein.

Consuming protein 4x day will be better for muscle-building.

Focus on protein sources you like to consume.

Here is a basic list of high protein sources

• Chicken
• Fish
• Lean Beef
• Pork
• Greek yogurt
• Cottage Cheese
• Protein Shake

Eating a higher protein diet can help you:

• Controls hunger
• Build Muscle and Strength
• Improved Recovery from your workouts and life

Drink Water or 0-calorie beverages

Another simple one. But, you might be surprised how much walking around under hydrated affects your food choices and performance in the gym.

Not to mention, if you are someone who drinks their calories. This can be a big culprit of gaining weight.

Lack of hydration can also make muscles tighter, so if you are stiff. Drinking more water can help you get those, muscles to relax.

At a minimum everyone should shoot for 60 oz of water or 0 calorie beverages, most guys would be better off with around 100 oz.

But, 60 is better than no water.

When I say 0 calories beverages, you can have a hydration effect from other liquids. So, if you want to mix in things like

• seltzer water
• Diet soda or drinks
• Flavored your water with low to 0 calorie sweetners

That works

Stay hydrated my friends.

Fruits and vegetables

I know you have heard this forever.

But, by adding some fruits and veggies into your diet.

• Will improve your health by providing your body, with the vitamins and minerals your body needs to thrive.
• Increase your fiber intake to control your hunger and cravings
• Improve digestion

A rule I like to follow , is to try to hit 5 servings per day total.

It doesn’t matter what combination of fruits and veggies. Just, get them in.

A serving size of fruit is 1 cup or a medium piece of fruit

A serving of veggies is 1 cup .

Things that have helped my clients get these, are big salads and/or smoothies. You can bang out 2-3 servings of them in one sitting.

Let’s, be honest sometimes these, don’t taste the best.

Don’t force-feed anything you hate, but try a wide variety and see what you like.

Regarding veggies, experiment with preparation methods like raw, roasted, saute, steamed or air fryer.

See what you like best.

Add them to your meal, and they easily be tolerated. For example, I don’t love peppers. But, throwing them in a burrito or rice bowl. They are easier for me to consume.

Here are some of my favorites to get you started

• Vegetables
• asparagus
• Cauliflower
• Spinach
• Green beans
• Butternut squash

Fruits

• Frozen mixed berries
• Watermelon
• Pears
• Banana
• Mangoes
• Peaches

Adjusting for your particular goals

If you can pull off those three 90% of the time, you are in an amazing spot.

You’re to be getting healthier, and stronger and probably burn fat, as well improve your performance and energy in your life.

If you don’t quite feel as good as you want or you are looking to lose weight.

All there is to do, is a little fine-tuning.

More energy, performance and Muscle

If you want better performance and/or looking to build muscle, we need to fine-tune in the way of eating more.

For performance, it makes the most sense, to bump up your carbohydrate intake. I would bump them up around your training sessions and at night. To improve performance and recovery.

We are trying to bump our calories here, for those goals. I would start with 250-500 cal boost per day and then give it two weeks and re asses.

If you haven’t tracked calories, I would track them for 2 weeks but, not change much. Then add from there.

Want to lose weight or fat

We want to reduce our calories. We don’t want to lower our protein, but we are going to cut calories from carbs, fat or both.

This means smaller portions of carbs and fats in your meals. If you have some treats, you may want to reduce those.

You would want to reduce enough to drop about 250-500 calories per day.

If you are not tracking calories, I would track for 2 weeks to see where your average calories are. If you still haven’t lost weight or seen progress. Then cut those calories.

For females I would go with a smaller cut of 250 and guys you can go as high 500.

This is due to the fact girls are usually working with fewer calories overall and 500 cal drop is very big.

All to nothing

Before I leave you, I want to talk about something very important.

If you don’t address this, nothing you ever do, will work.

This is all or nothing. This can be thought of as a person who

• Does a very restrictive diet or they eat what ever they want. There is no in between.
• Eats great during the week but goes off the rails on the weekends
• Who messes up once and throws the whole day away or week away.

The biggest issue with this, is you end up doing mostly nothing.

As we get older life is pure chaos.

You have to be good with rolling with punches.

That can mean being ok, messing up for breakfast but then getting back on track for the next meal.

or when you’re going to a holiday party, you still can have some protein and fruit in the morning. Don’t use it as an excuse to eat crappy food all day.

Work on developing a mind set, of always doing something every day instead……

Big or small, make sure you do something positive every day. It’s easier to go from eating 1 healthy meal to 2-3 healthy meals. Then it is from going from 0 to 2-3 healthy meals

Make sure to follow me here for daily strength and conditioning tips

Hi ! Bobby here. I want to talk about the biggest BJJ Strength & Conditioning Mistakes, I have noticed.

As BJJ has grown in popularity, so has the number of coaches specializing in training athletes for BJJ.

Some things I see are great and other things have me scratching my head.

Long before I started training 6 days a week of BJJ. I spent my adult life, training and conditioning my body.

Not for anything specific but for general strength, muscle building, and endurance.

So, when I really got into BJJ, I had some advantages.

• Strong foundation of fitness and I seemed to pick up things rather quickly.
• Great endurance, never needing rounds off, and feeling 100% recovered in between most rounds at the gym.
• Could train 4-6x a week without much soreness.

As I got into it, I wanted to focus my training on BJJ-specific training.. I tried programs more BJJ specific.

But, these qualities, I just spoke off, seemed to get worse for me.

I realized BJJ is just like any other sport football, basketball , baseball etc.

The biggest benefit you will see……

Lies in your GPP (General Physical Preparedness). And if you have a base level, you’re going to perform well.

Actually, going to specific too much, ends up being overkill and may be ruining your performance .

Next, I’m going to talk bout GPP and how we can develop it.

BJJ Strength & Conditioning Mistakes

GPP Base

GPP is about laying the foundation of physical abilities, so you can perform at a high level.

We want to build a solid base of strength, endurance, mobility, and resiliency.

By doing this we can develop athletic ability, better recovery, and become resilient to injuries.

So we can train at a higher level for years to come.

As you see in this triangle, below. It is the foundation.

Without it, developing specific BJJ skills and staying in this sport.

Will be difficult.

It’s important that we start training, where we are and build the base from there.

What is important to work on with GPP are

• Learn or improve movement quality
• Get strong with the foundation movement patterns
• Build core strength
• Build aerobic fitness
• Address any mobility issues, that are detrimental to your ability to move properly

Start with exercises that you can do efficiently and keep the overall volume (sets and reps) low. Then build up from there.

This will help you get the most out of your training.

Next, I’ll talk about how specific drills you see online can be gimmicky and when to actually use specific training for BJJ

Specialty Exercise Gimmicks

Now I don’t want to say all these special exercises you see on places like Instagram and you tube are dumb.

But, a good amount of them might be overkill. And can be your biggest BJJ Strength & Conditioning Mistakes.

The exercises that are good, are advanced, meaning you really have no business doing them unless you have a high-level GPP.

Take a popular one, I have seen:the GI pull-up. Doing chin-ups or pull ups with your gi.

In theory, it seems like a good idea. But, anyone who has done GI for a while.

Knows how much gi training can mess up your fingers. This exercise will make it worse.

Since your finger and grip will get burned out way before your back and biceps do.

It really isn’t a great exercise.

There are certain exercises I see and tend to like.

These aren’t so much exercises mimicking BJJ, but exercises that address weak points.

A good example is Copenhagen side plank, a great specific exercise to strengthen the groin and the core.

Since your groin gets used often in BJJ, groin pulls are common in the sport.

This is a decent one. But, this is an advanced exercise and unless you have a solid base of strength, you’re not going to do it properly.

Again GPP comes first and should make up the bulk of your training

Defining Your Weakness

Strength and conditioning not just for BJJ, but for anything should be about turning your weakness.

Making them a strength, while maintaining the other qualities.

It is not about mimicking your sport in the gym.

First, you have to determine what your sport requires

For BJJ we need

Strength– We need to be strong enough so that are techniques are easier to pull off and we don’t get winded because we are so weak.

We also want to build strength and stability around our weakest joints. The joints that are constantly attacked and get hurt the most like the: shoulders, neck, knee and lower back

Conditioning – We need a mixture of both aerobic cardio(slow and steady ) and anaerobic cardio(explosive and fast but shorter induration). Aerobic is going to have more upsides. Most of BJJ is using a slower methodical pace. This is mostly the aerobic system. Your aerobic system also is in charge of your body’s ability to recover. So, from that standpoint aerobic training should be prioritized first over anaerobic training

Power Build power so you can dominate the scrambles and take down game. As well as be able to react quickly to the opportunities you see

Mobility You need to be able to have decent movements and mobility to pull off certain moves. Without mobility this might narrow the moves you can do. Plus, being too tight is going to make it all too easy to get banged up and hurt on the mats

I hope this helps you know why, it is important to build basic strength and conditioning principles. Doing so will help your performance on the mat as well as your longevity in the sport.

You started Jiu Jitsu and you love it. But, you feel like your fitness is your weakness. Today I will teach you How to Get in Shape for Jiu Jitsu .

There are 4 major qualities you want to develop, so that you can improve your fitness for Jiu Jitsu

• Power
• Strength
• Aerobic Fitness
• Mobility

How to Get in Shape for Jiu Jitsu

Power

The ability to produce force fast is what power is. Although, BJJ relies on great technique and tension-based moves. There are times when we are required to be explosive and have the ability to read a situation and react fast.

We want to develop power both in the upper and lower body.

Power is not about getting tired or fatigued.

But, producing as much force as possible . So, we keep that focus. We want our sets to be low reps, with sets of 3-8 and rest intervals of 30-60s.

Here are some of my favorite power exercise

• Box jumps
• Sled sprints
• KB Swings
• Plyo push ups
• MB slam and throw variations

• Dynamic effort deadlift and squats

I did a full article on developing power, you can check that out here

Strength

Strength is number 1 in my book. It’s going to have the biggest impact on your jiu-jitsu.

Injury prevention, better performance, and improved conditioning.

Getting strong is going to do a lot for your BJJ.

You want to get strong with decent technique on the 5 fundamental movement patterns

• squat
• Hip hinge aka deadlift
• upper push
• upper pull
• Single leg

Pick variations that don’t beat up your joints.

Train them heavy for reps of 3-12.

I like to start my day with lower rep lifts and towards the end of the workout I’ll do higher reps.

Do 1-4 hard sets per exercise and make sure you rest 60s to 2 minutes. Don’t turn this into circuit training or cardio.

The focus should be on building strength and muscle.

If you want a free strength workout, go here

Aerobic Fitness for Jiu Jitsu

Did you know aerobic fitness controls our ability to recover? So, without proper aerobic fitness:

• The quality of our rounds will go down or we will be forced to sit out
• We will not be able to train frequently for long periods of time.
• We might find ourselves getting beat up and constantly hurt.

Aerobic fitness gives us better endurance and pace.

But, on top of that, it helps us recover better. That helps us BJJ guys. In so many ways.

The most important one, is we can train frequently for years, without burning out.

The more mat time we have, the better we get it.

I wrote an article on aerobic fitness, you can find it here

But, here are the big points to improving it

• Keep your heart rate between 120-150 for 30-60 minutes 1-3x a week.
• Use cyclical exercise like bikes, jogging, elliptical, sled dragging etc
• Use exercise that won’t cause too much wear or tear on your joints.

Mobility

Mobility is important, if your hips and shoulders are too tight. Some moves are just going to be hard to pull off. Which will limit how skilled you can get.

Mobility is different from flexibility. Flexible is how much range of motion you have in certain a joint.

Mobility is how much control you have in that range of motion.

Think of someone who stretches your hamstring out by pushing your leg up, that is your flexibility.

If you try to lift your leg up as high as you can, that is your mobility.

We often get hurt when our limbs are taken to a spot where, we don’t have control.

Mobility that you’ll need the most in Jiu Jitsu are:

• Hip mobility –
• T-spine mobility
• Shoulder mobility

I hate mobility, so I try to put most of this stuff in my warm-up before I lift.

Also when you lift, working through a full range of motion, is going to help your mobility.

These are the 4 things you need to improve on.

Some of these may be in a solid place and some are your weakness.

Determine which one is your most glaring weakness and work on making a strength, while maintaining some of the other attributes.

Any questions on How to Get in Shape for Jiu Jitsu?

If you would like help with that, try this program

My Instagram for quick daily tips

Are you sick of gassing out during rounds and looking for the best BJJ Cardio Workouts to improve your gas tank?

Today, I’m going to give 3 cardio boosting workouts for BJJ.

A couple of months ago, I wrote about how to boost your BJJ cardio, but today I’m going to give you the specifics.

Take all the guesswork out.

If you like to see my original article, check it out here

BJJ Cardio Workouts

How many days of cardio, do you need?

How many days, you need will depend on a a few things.

The first thing is your current BJJ schedule. If you train 1-3 days(BJJ sessions) a week, you could fit 2-3 of these sessions in. I would prioritize the 2 aerobic sessions because they have more upsides. But, if you train BJJ 4-8 sessions per week. Doing 1 aerobic session per week is plenty for most guys.

The second, thing is your current fitness level.

A quick test to see, where you are at, is when you wake up. Measure your resting heart rate. Do this for a few days and take the average.

High 60s+- Your conditioning is something you really want to develop and it is vital to really spend the next 8-12 weeks, hitting 2-3 cardio sessions per week.

Low 60s – You are in a decent place from a cardio standpoint. Depending on how much BJJ you do.

I may do 1 cardio session a week. I would spend 4 weeks on each workout, before moving to the next workout for the following month.

Note, that if your Heart rate is low but your cardio on the mats, is horrible.

Consider a few things outside of the BJJ Cardio Workouts, to work on.

Your technique, your strength levels and your recovery habits.

Those are mostly likely bigger linchpins, than your actual conditioning. I go over these things in the article I posted above.

The last thing to consider, when deciding, how much cardio to do is your overall stress.

Stress is accumulative, relationship stress, lack of sleep, work stress etc…..

These can all limit your recovery ability if you feel your life is very stressful.

I would focus only on the aerobic session for 1-2 x a week. Doing more than that and/or the hard session will do more harm than good.

Aerobic session

This is going to be the foundation of good cardio and overall fitness.

The aerobic energy system, is the system we use and rely on most in our lives.

If you want to live a long and healthy life, you have to take care of your heart.

This training will help your heart be able to pump more oxygenated blood into the rest of your body per pump.

This gives you better endurance, faster recovery and makes sure your heart rate doesn’t go through the roof during training

These are moderate-intensity sessions, we are breathing a little heavier.

But, we should be able to talk normally.

Try to keep your heart rate between 120-150 beats per minute.

Your aerobic training workout

• Air Bike 25 Calories
• Rower 25 Calories
• Planks 30s
• Banded pull parts 20
• 20 minutes 0 rest

This is one way you can, do this style of training. There are a ton of other ways to do this as well.

Another idea is to jump on a machine and go for 30-60 minutes. Many people do this.

But, it is not my style.

The big thing to remember is to keep your heart rate in the proper zone and go for 30-60 minutes.

Aerobic StrongMan

This will develop your aerobic system just, like the last workout, but we are going to use heavy-loaded carries and sled/prowler work to build that energy system.

This will also help build muscular endurance and give you more capacity to hold position/submission for longer, without your muscles getting burned out.

The Workout

• Famer Walk 100 feet as heavy as you can
• Backward sled drag 100 feet
• Forward sled drag 100 feet
• Rest 2 minutes 6 Rounds

These are some of the funnest conditioning workouts to do.

Hard conditioning Day

This is the type of training everyone goes to first but without a good aerobic base and a decent level of strength.

You won’t be able to do it properly and it won’t be effective.

Without strength, you can’t go as hard as you need to for this style of workout.

Without the aerobic base, you won’t be able to do enough quality reps, for it to cause many changes.

These are simple :

Go as hard as you can 5-15 sec with 60- 90 sec of active recovery. 6-12 total rounds.

My favorite exercises to these with are

• Prowler sprints
• Rope Slams
• Air Bike
• KB Swings
• Hill Sprints

The key with these is going as hard as you can.

Followed by enough recovery, so that you can repeat these high efforts.

Without enough intensity, you will not develop the power and explosive burst you need to dominate the scrambles.

But, without proper rest, you will not be able to have high-intensity sets and half your reps will be poor quality.

Don’t think you are doing yourself any favors by resting too little.

These BJJ Cardio Workouts are great for building a huge gas tank. But, will help you recover better, so you can train more frequently and for years to come.

Any question?

Training upper body with bad shoulders , can be done with a few tweaks.

Today, I’m going to go over some tweaks to your training to help you make gains in the upper body, without banging up your shoulders.

Shoulder Function: Training Upper Body With Bad Shoulders

Our joints work a certain way, and when they can no longer do so, they become dysfunctional, and this is when we have problems.

If you look at the shoulder joint, it is a ball and socket joint. That is created by 3 bone structures. Your:

• Collar bone
• humerus (Arm)
• Scapula (shoulder blades)
• T-spine/ ribs (upper back)

The first three create a ball and socket joint. The T-spine or upper back is where your shoulder blade has to move around in order for your shoulder to function. Technically, the T-spine is not part of the shoulder joint, but it does affect its function.

Your shoulder blades move across your back in many ways to keep the joint intact and allows your shoulder to function properly. Some of these are:

• Elevation (moving closer to your neck)
• Depression ( moving away from your neck )
• Abduction (shoulder blades moving away from each other)
• Adduction (shoulder blades moving towards each other)
• Upward rotation
• Dpownard Rotation

If we don’t train the shoulder properly and allow for all these movements, then we may lose the ability to do so, and this can lead to problems done the road.

We tend to run into issues when our tissue is very tight around the shoulder blades, limiting our movement when we move the arm. The big muscles to affect this are our pecs and lats.

This is also why it is vital to do upper body exercise properly, for example, many people row without adducting their scapula together. They just drive their elbows backward.

We need mobile shoulder blades, which is why we can’t just do bench presses all day because we get little shoulder blade movements with those.

We need a good balance of pressing with weight, as well as push-up variations.

One more point, I want to talk about is, how we need the shoulder blades to move for ideal function, and the mobility of our T-spine or upper back plays a crucial part.

A very rounded and tight upper back will make the scapula movements difficult. This is why working on T-spine mobility and posture can really improve shoulder health.

Are you still with me?

I know that was a bit much, Let’s go into some practical tips on what we can do, to improve shoulder health and still have great upper body sessions

Warmin up and mobility

Warm-up keeps you from getting banged up.

Doing a proper warm-up can work as a mini mobility and re-hab routine, that you do every time you workout.

This can help you drive better function out of your shoulder, not just for your workout today but for the rest of your life.

My 3 part warm-up

1. Mobility work is often, done using soft tissue work with a foam roller, various stretches, and mobility drills.

2. Activation work is when we are firing the upper back and weaker shoulder muscles, through body weight drills and band work.

3. Movement work we practice the movements we will be doing in the workout with great form and slow tempo.

This is going to get you ready to train hard but also add years to your shoulders.

Here is what it may look like

• Soft tissue with a foam roller roller on the upper back 60s
• Stretch your pecs and lats with bands or straps for 30s
• T-spine rotation, my favorite is the windmill 2 sets of 5 reps
• For upper back activation, I usually like to pair banded pull-apart and face pulls for rep 10-20 reps for 2-3 sets
• Practice push up with a very slow tempo and perfect form, for 3x 3 10s rest

The warm will set the stage for getting an awesome upper body session without killing your shoulders, do not skip it.

Neutral Grip

If you have achy shoulders, don’t get fancy with different grip angles.

A neutral grip is your pal, this is a better position for your shoulder, neck, and elbow health.

This is not to say pronated grip is bad, but they are not the best option if you have shoulder issues.

When it comes to pressing, that is why Dumbells are great, because you can use a neutral grip.

Training the back is no different, neutral grip handles for rows and pull-downs are going to do wonders.

It’s not that you can never do things like, a wide grip pull down, you might just feel better:

If 80-90% of your work is from neutral grip handles

Slight Angles

We can use a slight angle with pressing movements like a decline or incline.

By putting a bumper plate below either side of the bench.

This angle is thought, to cause less stress on the shoulder, especially reducing stress on your rotator cuffs.

Give, this small tweak a try and see if you notice a difference in your shoulder joint comfort.

Upper Back

A strong upper back can support your shoulder health.

Since we know that the scapula, is a part of shoulder joints, it makes sense that a strong upper back.

Will allow better overall shoulder movements.

Do more total reps with your upper back, to build up and counter the massive tightness most of us have in the pecs and front shoulders.

We want the majority of this work to come from horizontal rowing. Vertical exercises do not have the same external rotation effect as horizontal rowing.

Some of my favorites are

• Ring rows
• Seated Rows
• T-bar row with supports
• 1 arm DB or KB row’

Build the upper back up, it’s the foundation of healthy shoulders.

My exercise library

Exercise Order

It’s typically thought of, as the first exercise of a workout. Should be the hardest and most intense exercise.

You want to be fresh, so you can have masterful form and be able to push it hard.

But, as we get older our joints start getting achy.

It can be very helpful, to do some pump work for the upper back and rear shoulders before we go into this heavy pressing work.

Getting the upper back pumped and warm, will allow for smoother pressing movements and reduce some joint pain.

An example of this might be

Seated rows 4 sets 15, then

DB Incline Bench Press 5x 5

The downside of this, it might affect the weight you can use on the press, but it keeps your shoulder overall healthier.

That may be what is most important to you.

Also when it comes to muscle building, don’t always think of the weight you use, but the intensity you use.

Even if the weight is a little lighter, as long as you still go hard on the sets, you’ll still make gains.

Upward rotation/Overhead Work

As we get older we lose the ability to move our arms overhead.

This can cause problems such as shoulder or neck pain.

We want to have better overhead movement as long as we can.

We want some overhead movements in our workout routine or hybrids(like a landmine press or high-angle row)

For many guys overhead pressing, is just going to wreck the shoulders, so staying away from it might be for the best.

But, one exercise I find for training overhead, so we get the upward rotation of the scapula and good overhead position.

Is neutral grip pulldown

This usually can be done pain-free and we will get many of the benefits of overhead movements.

I also wanted to touch on how important is to have a mobile T-spine/upper back.

Without this, the shoulder blades, do not move well on the upper back. And if your shoulder blades don’t move well. Your shoulder issues will continue….

If and how much overhead exercises you can tolerate will depend on a few things. But, a tight T-spine will definitely limit that capacity.

Be sure to have good posture when you train and work on T-spine mobility as much as possible.

Volume

Sets and reps.

Think of this as volume.

How you do the exercises is important.

But, so is the amount of work you do. If you’re doing too many sets or reps you’re going to get beat up.

Also keep in mind the higher the reps, the more likely those reps will be low quality as you accumulate fatigue.

High reps aren’t always the safest like people think.

For the average person doing 6-10 hard sets, per muscle group, per week is going to drive both strength and muscle gains.

You’ll feel much better if you split those in between a couple of sessions. So, instead of doing 10 sets for the chest in one day.

You are better off splitting it in between two of your sessions. Do 5 sets on Monday and 5 sets on Thursday.

It is always best to start at the low end(6 total sets) and work your way up.

One last thing, I’m a believer that the total reps of back work should be higher than the total reps of chest or shoulder work.

Almost everyone’s shoulders are going to feel better this way.

Those are my best tips for Training Upper Body With Bad Shoulders. Any questions?

I want to give you a little gift, here is a 2 Days A Week Strength Training For BJJ.

In the last couple of months, I have written countless articles about how to train for BJJ, so you get hurt less and dominate on the mat. Check them out here

Today, I’m going to take the guesswork out of it all. By giving you a 2 Days A Week Strength Training For BJJ.

You can program strength and conditioning for BJJ in many ways.

But, it seems like many guys , only have the chance to train, two times a week.

That is what I’m going to give you today. This is plenty for most guys because:

• That is all they can recover from.
• They rather spend most of their extra time, on the mats instead of the weight room.
• They don’t want it to interfere with BJJ

Your 2 Days A Week Strength Training For BJJ

This is written with the masses in mind.

It is not customized for you.

Feel free to sub out movements, that don’t feel the best for your body.

If you need help adjusting these, you might enjoy my 1 on 1 coaching

I have a huge exercise library, so if you are unsure of how to do these exercises. Check it out here

The Warm-up

This is something people skip a ton.

But, this is a vital part of the 2 Days A Week Strength Training For BJJ.

This is going to get ready for the workout, but it is also going to act like a pre-hab to strengthen and mobilize weak areas.

So you can perform at your best and get hurt a lot less.

If you’re really stiff and have mobility issues. You can even use this on an off days as a mobility routine.

The Warm up

• Calf raises 15 reps
• Pec stretch(any kind you want) 60s
• Couch stretch 60s /
• 1/2 kneeling rotations 10/ side
• Deadbug-alternating arms and legs 10/
• Bridges 20
• Banded pull parts followed by banded face pulls 20 each
• Box Jumps 3x 5 rest 60s

Once, you get to know this, it shouldn’t take you longer than 10-12 minutes to do.

Workouts

Workout 1

These workouts are going to use super sets to save time. You want to do the first exercise, then the second exercise. Repeat for the given amount of sets

Optional finisher to supercharge your BJJ Conditioning

I wanted to give you some optional finishers to improve your gas tank, you can do these after your strength training or on a separate day.

Air Bike Sprints

Sprint all out 5-10s , then rest 50-55 sec 6-10 round.

Make sure you go as hard as you can. My goal when I do this is to see, how many calories I can get in the interval and each sprint see if I can beat it.

Then do your best to control your breathing and drop your heart rate as low as you can during the recovery period.

Sled Drag/Loaded Carry

• Drag a heavy Sled backward for 100 feet
• Farmer Walk with 2 heavy Keetlbells for 100 Feet
• Rest 90s
• 3- 5 rounds

Be sure to be in a slight squat when you are dragging and go heavy

Farmer walk, keep a good upright position and crush the grip of the KBs with your hands

Rower

• Go 70-80% max intensity on the rower for 15 sec.
• Then go slow for 45 sec
• Repeat 10-20 x

This is a great one to build an aerobic base, if your conditioning is your weakness. The goal is to keep your average HR around 180 minus your age.

All three of these things will develop different aspects of your conditioning game

Air Bike– develops power during intense scrambles and your ability to recover activity after them.

Sled/loaded carry- Help you build relative strength and muscular endurance, so you can have the ability to hold position isometrically, without creating too much fatigue.

Rower- Aerobic conditioning, so you can recover better from training and in between rounds.

Any questions?

Go here for daily strength tips

Hi I’m Bobby! I’ve spent a better part of my 15-year career, helping folks over 40 get strong and staying healthy. As a BJJ enthusiast, I think I have some great ideas for Strength and Conditioning For BJJ Over 40

Today! I’m going to go over some of my opinions and what I do with current online clients who are 40+ , some train BJJ, and some don’t.

Strength and Conditioning For BJJ Over 40

Sets and reps

Strength and Conditioning For BJJ Over 40, is not just about what you do. But, how much of it you do.

If you’re lifting, you have to understand as a older guys/girl your recovery is not what it used to be, especially if you have poor recovery habits.

You have to take into consideration all the other stresses in your life, such as your BJJ training, work, relationship stress etc.

Because of this Strength and Conditioning For BJJ Over 40 , you’ll do much better with less volume. So aka less sets and reps.

You’ll get stronger, and build more muscle as well as your workouts will be an asset, instead of a liability.

Especially if you don’t have a goal of building muscle. You might be shocked, at how much strength you can build with just 1-2 hard sets for each exercise.

Start with 1-2 hard sets and slowly build up and see how you feel.

Avoid using bodybuilding like volume, it will most likely just wreck you.

Some good numbers to try to hit each week would

6 Hard sets of each muscle group per body part at the end of each week.

Joint friendly Movements

As you get older your joints have more miles on them. You have to be smart about what exercises you choose to use.

AIt’s important that you pick exercises that tax your muscles, while not beating up your joints . This is a big part of Strength and Conditioning For BJJ Over 40.

We want to typically stay away from exercises that

• Compress our spine
• Put our joints in really weak and uncomfortable positions
• That hurts you, and not in a good way.

This is where DBS and KBs are going to be some of your best options.

I have a full article on my favorite joint-friendly exercise here

You”ll have to play around with exercises and find what works best for you

Extra cardio

Everyone over 40 thinks they need more cardio, especially if you’re a lower belt starting your journey.

But, I would prioritize recovery and strength training, before you add cardio.

But, if you do, most likely as 40 + you have a ton of stress in your life, and adding high-intensity cardio isn’t going to make anything better.

But, most likely makes things much worse.

If are going to add cardio sessions, I would add aerobic training.

Which is developing the aerobic system, so your heart can pump more oxygenated blood more efficiently.

This will give you better endurance, and better recovery from jits.

In general; you want your HR to average, 180 minus your age for 30-60 minutes. I’m 36, so mine would be 144 beats per minute.

I recommend you do this with joint-friendly exercises, that aren’t going to beat up your knee, ankles or lower back.

This style of training is boring, but it is needed if your aerobics system is hurting.

A few things I do to make this fun or less boring.

• Watch a movie or TV or I’ll watch fights when I’m on a machine.
• Do circuits to keep it engaging like 5 minutes on the air bike, 5 minutes on the rower and 5 minutes incline walk and repeat for 30 minutes.

If you want a better idea of how to improve your gas tank go here

Recovery from Strength and Conditioning For BJJ Over 40

As you get older, your recovery gets worse.

Sometimes, this is from age, and for others it is just the added stress in our life that makes habits, that boost recovery to slip away.

If you can’t recover from it, it is waste.

This is why it depends on how much train BJJ and the other stress factors in your life.

This should dictate how many strength and conditioning sessions you do each week.

But, there are some things that will help you boost how well you will recover, that is what I’m going to talk about next.

#1 Fitness- Being strong, moving well, and having good aerobic fitness, will allow faster and more complete recovery.

#2 Food – How we fuel is going to have an impact on how we recover. Keep it simple: lean protein with most meals, stay hydrated, fruits/veggies and carbs around your workouts, as well at night.

#3 Sleep- I should have written this first, it is the best way we can recover from anything. Try to get 7-9 hours of sleep and the more of it you get before 12am the better. A good rule of thumb, is to go to sleep around 10 p.m. or earlier.

You’ll often see recovery tips from supplements, ice baths, foam rolling etc. These can definitely help but they are small rocks, compared to the three I listed above. Dial those three in first, before worrying about that small stuff.

This is how I would train if I were 40+.

Actually, this is how I’m training now at 36. The earlier we can train like this, the less likely we have to deal with, what the average 40 or 50 years has to deal with.

If your looking for daily Strength and Conditioning For BJJ Over 40, check out this page for daily tips

This Bobby! I love lifting and BJJ. I want to do it for as long as I can. Training the core is a vital part of that. Today I’m going to teach you all about core training for BJJ

Knock on wood but, I have not a serious rib injury, where many guys who do BJJ get them often.

I think because I have built armor around my ribs with core training for BJJ

Not just any type of core training for bjj, but functional core training.

Today I’m going to go over how to build a strong core, so you don’t get hurt and perform at a high level on the mat.

You have the outer core, that you’ll see if your body fat is lower enough.

But, then you have the inner core , which helps create tension to protect your spine.

If all you do is hip flexion exercises aka outer core, like crunches and sit out you might build the outter abs but your inner core will be weak.

You’ll be more prone to injuries.

We want to develop your whole core for BJJ , so you are strong on the mat and can resist pressure more easily.

As well, as decreasing the chances of getting hurt, because your lack of strength and/muscle around your most vulnerable area.

I’m going to teach you how to do that today.

Core Training For BJJ

To build a core that performs and protects, their are 4 categories we are going to go over, that we want to train.

• Anti-extension
• Anti-rotation
• Anti-lateial flexion
• Anti-flexion

When developed and worked together, you’ll have less lower back pain, better performance and a stronger core for BJJ.

No more pressure tapping from knee on belly

Anit-Extension

This is when we fight extension of the lower back, these would categories as anti-extension core exercises.

This will challenge our inner core and anterior core to a very high degree.

Exercise that would be under this category would

• Planks
• Deadbugs
• jacknife
• Ab fall outs
• Hollow holds
• GHR isolation

We want to resist the extension of the lower back as we do these. We do this by tucking our rib cage in and breathing into our core, and bracing.

Bracing is when you breathe into your core and think about pushing your core/abs out 3 dimensionally. This can be a little hard to grasp at first. But, this is essential to what a lifting belt does.

A good drill to try this, is to tie and band around your mid section. Take a breathe into your belly and try to stretch the band using your gut. Push out in the front, sides and back.

Anti-Rotation

These will target your inner core, anterior core and side core(olbiques)

The idea is to resist the rotation of your torso.

Things like

• Hip taps
• superman
• mountain climbers
• pallof holds or presses

Really anything where forces are trying to get you to twist and you have to resist that.

Anti Lareial Flexion

This involves resisting bending to the side, which is going to challenge your lateral core like obliques the most

Things like

• Side planks
• pallof press with pole
• single arm farmer walks

Anti-Flexion

This is going to be the one move, that is not super core related but hips and glutes, which can be considered part of your core

This is going to be extending your hip and resist the hips from bending . Things like

• Backe extension hold
• bridges
• hip thruster
• Rever see hypers

A strong glute is going to protect your core and lower back, so be sure to train this one.

Levels of Core Training For BJJ

There are different levels to core training for BJJ

Level 1 static holds, holding these for time, being sure you resist the movements

2-4 sets 20-60s are some parameters to start with

Level 2 Would be added dynamic movements and resisting , while we move another part of our body.

• This would ab fall out, moving the arms out, while not letting your lower back go into extension.
• Single-arm farmer walks, walking, while not letting the DB/KB flex you to the side.
• Pallof press with band, moving the arm, while not rotating the body.

The one movments that are different would the flexion, in which you would flex at the hip and go into extension.

This would bridges, instead of bridges hold or back extensions, instead of the iso hold at the tops

How to add core training for BJJ until your workouts

There are a ton different ways you can add core training for BJJ into your current routine, I want to give you 3 ways I do this for myself and my online clients. If you want more strength tips for BJJ go here

#1 Do 1-2 core exercises at the end of most strength workouts. The idea behind this, is doing the hardest exercise first in the workout and more isolation exercises towards the end. You can think of core work as isolation exercises. I do this version the most often.

#2 Core work can be done first , before you lift. This is backwards, then what is typically done. But, the idea is sometimes, people might skip the core at the end because they don’t want to or they run out of time. This ensures you always get the core work in .

Doing some core work can even help you move better. At times working the muscle of the core can unclick hip mobitly. If you are doing squats, starting that workout with 1-3 sets of core, can help the squats feel better

#3 This another one I do often is to add core after cardio. If you are someone who hasd cardio days. After you are done with cardio piece for the day . Add 1-3 sets of core work.

When you do core, I would pick 1 core exercise from 2 of the 4 categories and work them 1-3 sets 8-12 rep or for 20-60s.

Each time you hit core, do a different combination of the categories.

Day 1

Anti-exntesion/anti-laterial flexion

Day 2

Anti-rotation/anti flexion

As you get better and train with high-level guys, your opportunity to pull off your moves becomes smaller.

You need to be able to explode when you see an opening.

The sad part a a 35+ BJJ practitioner, power and our fast twitch muscle fibers are the first to go as we age.

This is why everyone should have some type of power training in their routine

This reminds me of a sweep, I was working. I took my time to set up and waited for my opportunity, then I was able to explode, get the sweep, pass the guard, and get into an attacking position.

So, if I had not built and maintained power, I might not been able to pull things like that off.

How To develop power?

Power is something, that can be hard to get people to buy into, because it feels like easy work sometimes.

Power is about moving very fast, with little to no weight, with a long duration of rest.

It might feel like you are not doing much, but you are developing power.

We want to explode as quickly and as hard as we can. We train these for low reps. The higher reps you get the less explosive, you become and now you are no longer training power.

We also want to stay away from fatigue, because that will slow us down and stop us from being truly fast and explosive.

Which will hinder our ultimate goal for developing power for BJJ and in life.

Do reps 1-6 reps for rest intervals of 30-90s. They are done for 3-10 sets.

You want to train power first before you get into your heavy lifting.

We tend to do 2 types of power exercise, one that is done really fast with no or little external resistance,

• sprints
• plyo
• jumps
• MB throws

We also have strength-speed exercises, which involve moving lighter loads faster compared to when we lift heavy, these are like

• Olympic lifts
• KB swings/cleans or snatches
• Dyanicn effort deadlift and squats.

I like to utilize both, but depending on where your weak links are, one may help you out more than others.

When it comes to exercise selection for power exercise, with BJJ guys in mind. I like power exercises, that aren’t going to take a long time to learn and are joint-friendly.

I’m going to finish this post, with some of my favorite power exercises, I like to use

Box jumps

This is a lower-body power exercise, it is easy on the joints and can be scaled toward your fitness level.

• Bend your knee
• Hips rapidly and jump as high as you can on the box.
• You should be able to land on the box in an athletic stance, but not with your knees to your chest.

I like reps for 3-5 here for 3-6 sets with 60s of rest.

KB Swings

A great dynamic exercise, to build explosive power in the hips, as well as build a strong core. It also teaches you to relax and explode. Which is needed in BJJ.

• Throw the KB, through your legs, but above your knees
• Without using your arms explode your hip forward.
• Let the KB float up and as it comes down repeat and throw it back through your legs.

I like higher reps here 6-15 reps and 30-60s of rest between rounds, 5-10 rounds.

Dynamic deadlifts and squats

I like to use banded for these lifts, and focus on coming up rapidly with lighter weights, usually 50% of my max on that particular lift.

For deadlifts, I like to use trap bars and BB sumos.

For the squat I like box squats or regular style squats, I prefer to use a safety bar, because of the less wear and tear on the joints.

I like 1-3 reps here with 30-45 s rest for 6-10 sets

Medcine balls throws or slams

There are so many throws and slams you can do, to build power with medicine balls. These are extremely joint-friendly, they have no lowering phase.

Here are some drills I like

• Slams
• Rotational slams
• rotation throws
• Slamo-rotational throw
• Chest pass
• Scoop throw
• Step through chest pass

I like 3-6 reps with 30-45 s rest 5-10 sets here

If you want to stay young and be explosive on the BJJ mat ensure to train power 2-3x a week.

Do you want to Stop Gassing Out During BJJ?

So much, that you have to take rounds off, as your friends roll, round after round.

That means, they are getting better and you are not.

I have 5 cardio tips to stop gassing out during BJJ rounds.

Read on to build your gas tank for BJJ and have better cardio

Stop Gassing Out During BJJ

#1 The art of timing and tension

One of my coaches said,” BJJ is a lot of timing and knowing when to apply tension(strength).”

Knowing when to relax and when to apply your strength. Is a game changer.

This can mean the difference between gassing out constantly and being one of the guys who seems to have an endless gas tank at your BJJ gym.

Think of a new white belt, they have 100% tension all the time, in every situation.

The guys who has an endless gas, is not always because of their cardio..

But, this is due to their efficiency at BJJ.

If you’re always tense, you are going gas and gas out fast.

I never want these posts, to seem like I’m exiting my lane of strength and conditioning and giving BJJ technique tips. I’m no expert at BJJ. But, I do know, that no amount of strength and conditioning will help if you are a complete spaz.

If you gas out, it may help to relax using so much strength, get your fundamental BJJ skills down, and learn when to apply tension, as well as when not to.

These are more topics to ask your BJJ coach.

#2 Build the aerobic engine

You need to build your aerobic base and fitness.

A quick assessment to do is to take your heart rate, first thing in the morning for a few days and see where it is at.

high 60s+, you’re in rough shape and need to build your aerobic fitness.

If it’s in low 60s-, you are probably in a good place.

If you don’t know your aerobic system, is the one energy system we use most our life, it will give us better endurance, and recovery and even help us live longer.

Let’s talk about how aerobic fitness impacts your recovery, it will improve your body’s ability to recover in between training sessions and rounds.

If you can do a hard round and 60s later you are recovered, and you are going to get better rolling sessions.

Versus the guy, who can’t recover well in the 60s and sits out too many rounds.

Better aerobic training = better recovery and stamina, which is why this is a great tool to build your gas tank for BJJ.

Here is how to build it.

To build the aerobic system we need to operate in a moderate intensity and keep overall blood pressure down.

This means keeping our heart rate in the 60-70% max HR range and using an exercise that is more cyclical in nature, jogging, biking, elliptical, rower, walking etc(also use joint-friendly exercise as well)

Another way to think about this intensity is you should be able to talk normally while doing this.

For most people, your HR should be in the 120-140ish range.

You want to also practice, what is called dynamic energy control, which is your ability to relax, focus on breathing and pace, to control your heart rate.

If you feel like you are getting winded on the air bike, can you mentally relax, and control your breath and your pace, to bring your HR down?

If you can do this in training/sparing, you’re going to be in a great place.

Remember the higher our HR is in sparing, the more we will slow down, make dumb mistakes and our ability to think/react will go down.

How to program?

You want to do this style of training for 30-60 minutes 1-3 x a week.

You can certainly could pick 1 exercise and do that for 30 minutes.

I like to make it less boring by doing circuits like

• 2 min bike
• 2 min jog
• 2 min sled drag
• 60s farmers walk
• 0 rest repeat for 30 minutes, staying in the right zones

Another idea is to jump on a machine and watch TV shows or movies, just pay attention to heart rate.

Whatever you choose to do, make sure you just get it in

#3 Train More BJJ

You have to pay the price.

You have to do more BJJ to get better endurance at it, if you are new and worried your conditioning is not where it should be for BJJ.

Of course, it is not. This takes time, you have to put in the work and time to build the technical skills and fitness qualities, specific to the sport of jui-jitsu.

Show up and make your classes consistently.

Don’t take rounds off, if you want better endurance, you can’t take a round off every time you are gassed out. Push through and focus on slowing things down, when you’re exhausted.

Pushing, and doing rounds when you are exhausted can be a great learning opportunity.

Building the skill of keeping good fundamentals, when you are exhausted is going to help from BJJ and fitness stand point.

Don’t skip sessions.

Don’t sit out of rolling sessions, unless you have to.

#4 Get Strong

Being weak is a liability in a lot of ways.

One of them is if you are weak and everything you do, you have to exert a high percentage of your max strength.

This is going spike your heart rate, get you gassed real quick, and make it harder to recover in between rounds.

You don’t have to become a bodybuilder, 1-2 days per week working on building strength with the fundamental moment pattern like

• squat
• single leg exercise
• hip hinge
• upper push
• upper pull

Is going to pay off, in a variety of ways. Muscle takes some time to build, but you may be surprised how much strength you can build with a little work.

I go over how to do this in detail here

Get strong and improve your cardio for BJJ

#5 Sleep/eating and stress

If you have competed and had to cut weight, you know how much a low-calorie diet, can affect your gas tank and cardio.

If you are doing all the right things, but your gas tanks still feels like garbage.

How is the duration and quality of your sleep?

Are you fueling yourself with the right stuff: Protein, fruits and veggies, water and healthy carbs

If you are dropping the ball on these things, you are leaving a ton of performance and cardio benefits for BJJ on the table.

This stuff can be the toughest to change, start with 1 health habit and develop it over time slowly, kind of like we do when we learn BJJ.

Over time you’ll get better cardio for BJJ and become one of those guys, who never takes rounds off.

If you have any questions I love to hear from you and if you’re looking for coaching, apply here to get started with me.