Keith’s story is a good one.

We had mutual friends and we are a bar and he told me he was going to come to see me on Monday.

Since a lot of people would say this to me, I forget all about it, until you showed up Monday.

He processed to be one of my hardest working clients ever

Never missed session
Trained hard AF
His nutrition was on point, but he just did basics stuff very well

I think he ended up dropping 60lbs and then told me he wanted to work on filling out his shirts.

We shifted to build muscles and strength, which we were able to do.

Another cool thing, how much he pushed him self in other ways

He got really into 5ks and kept beating his time.

If your going to take anything from Keith is

Make up your mind and go all in

Don’t try change everything at once, often, a phase approach is best fat loss, than muscle gain.

Keep eating basic
more protein
more fruit and veggies
less of everything else, but without elimination

Want to learn what are the 3 of The Best Strength Exercises For BJJ that will allow you to perform at a high level on the mat and avoid common injuries?

I made a video on this. Check it out here

3 of The Best Strength Exercises For BJJ

If you have any questions let me know

How to build a strong and resilient body, so you can train for life. BJJ Strength & Conditioning Guide 101

Hi, My name is Bobby Collins. I’ve been a trainer for 15 years but I’m also a BJJ lover. I train 5-6 days a week.

As much as it is cool, to get promoted, get subs, and win medals.

The mental and physical benefits of BJJ are so profound and important for my life.

I want to be on the mat for life

I’m on a mission to help others do the same.

There is so much information for younger and competitive grapplers to perform at a high level.

But, not nearly enough for older guys 35+, who want to do everything they can to get strong, so they can stay on the mat for life

If this sounds like you. keep reading as I share, some of my basic thoughts on BJJ Strength & Conditioning

BJJ Strength & Conditioning

Strength training

The # 1 thing anyone should do to improve their performance on the mats from a fitness standpoint is to get strong. There are so many reasons why. I’m going to go over 3.

Staying on the mat and avoiding injuries

The first one is having more strength and muscular tissue around our most vulnerable joints, which will help us get injured less and even make us harder to submit.

Here are a few examples

• Strong core over ribs, to avoid popping your ribs
• Muscles around the knees make it harder to twist your knee the wrong way.
• Muscles around the shoulders, so your arms are not so easily ripped into vulnerable positions.
• A muscular body can handle impact better, which is why in football everyone lifts. Because they know it is protective.

Getting strong for better conditioning and gassing out less

This might not make sense at first, but let’s think about it.

If you’re a weak dude, when you use good technique, you are going to use a high percentage of your max strength.

Take a strong dude, he is using similar techniques but he is using a small percentage of his strength due to how strong he is.

Which one is going to fatigue and get tired faster?

The weaker one, his muscles are going to be full of lactic acid, his heart rate is going to go through the roof, and he is going to have a hard time recovering in between rounds.

Stronger is usually better

I know everyone in jiu-jitsu is all about, the weaker guys beating the bigger guys.

But, is that really true?

Isn’t it more about technical guys beating guys without any or little technical skill?

If you are stronger, you can have more strength behind your technique.

Now, this won’t be applicable to every move. But, for certain moves, it’s a big advantage.

This will make up the foundation of your BJJ Strength & Conditioning.

Aerobic-based and walking

Aerobic-based and walking

When it comes to building our cardio. Everyone is so quick to do HIT or other intense forms of cardio.

But, this is a big mistake

Adding more stress on top of strength training and BJJ is usually not a good idea

Plus, building an aerobic base is going to help you more than any HIT routine will.

This form of training is easy to recover from, so it won’t interfere with your BJJ.

Building the aerobic base and what this means.

Having a strong aerobic base is going to allow your heart, muscles, and the rest of the aerobic system to produce power for longer.

This system also enables better recovery, so a better base means.

Better recovery and we can train more, without beating ourselves into the ground.

One of the ways we do this, is to do cardio at moderate intensity, so our heart can fully stretch as it pumps.

This will allow your heart chamber to grow in size and allow more oxygenated blood to be pumped per stroke.

• This means we get tired less.
• We recover better
• We have a lower heart rate overall, upon waking, and while we train
• Even living longer

• 1-2 x a week we want to do zone 2 work or aerobic training.

We want to use cyclical-type exercises like 

• Airbike,
• Walking
• Elliptical
• rower
• Sled dragging
• Jogging etc

Make sure to keep your heart rate in the 120-150 BPM or 60-70% of your max heart rate

These workouts should be around 30-60 minutes.

Walking

Getting outside and walking more, and hitting about 7500 steps can be huge for recovery.

Something many people don’t know, is we actually recover better, while we move.

A big reason for this is blood flow. If we can get more blood flow in a stressed or injured area, that is most likely going to be very beneficial from a recovery standpoint.

Try to add some walks daily and see if you can do 1-2 aerobic sessions per week.

With the aerobic session make sure you’re using exercises that don’t beat up your joints.

For example, an air bike might be easier on the knee than running.

If gassing out is an issue, don’t neglect this stuff for better BJJ Strength & Conditioning

Eating healthy and fueling jiu jitsu

We all know that eating healthy is going to give us better performance and health. We cannot neglect our nutrition if, we superior BJJ Strength & Conditioning,

But, if you’re serious about being your best self and keeping your body injury-free, nutrition is going to play a big role.

How and what you eat will drive better recovery or can worsen your recovery.

Let’s go over a few big ideas when it comes to what you eat.

Hydration

Hydration is huge. Showing up to train, just a little dehydrated and your performance is going to plummet.

You’ll cramp, you’ll get gassed out quickly and your chances of getting hurt goes through the roof.

Try drinking half your body weight in ounces and then add 16 oz for every hour you train.

In the summer months, it may be a good idea to bump up your electrolytes by supplementing with magnesium and sodium

My favorite supplement for sodium is LMNT

Ancient minerals for a magnesium supplement.

Protein

Protein isn’t just a bodybuilding thing. But, the building block of all tissue in our body, and if we aren’t giving our body the resources to rebuild, we will get hurt.

Plus, from a weight management point of view eating more protein is gonna be huge.

Try to .7-1 g of protein per body weight

The best protein choices are going to be from animal products like

• Chicken
• Fish
• Pork
• Greek yogurt
• Cottage cheese
• Whey protein
• Lean beef

Fruit and veggies

You have been hearing this since you were little but fruit and veggies are going to give you a variety of vitamins and minerals we need to thrive. 

Plus, fruit is a great way to give your body quick fuel.

All the fruit and veggies will help you get more water and fiber in as well, for better health.

Carbs

BJJ is an intense sport, and carbs are the best fuel source for quick explosive movements. 

Carbs are gonna be your friend for performance and recovery.

Healthy carbs will always be better, think of things like

• Rice
• Pasta
• Bean
• Potataos
• Fruit

It usually makes sense to eat your heavy carbs meals around training and at night to improve sleep quality.

Remember guys sleep = better recovery

Maintenance Calories

I know people, don’t like to track their calories, but making sure you’re not undereating, will definitely affect how you feel on the mat.

When people eat less to lose weight, they are choosing to under recover.

When you have fewer calories to play with, it makes your recovery go down, kills your gas tank, and even makes it easier to get banged up.

Most of the year try to eat at maintenance calories

To get a ballpark number multiply your body weight by 13-15 and try to hit that number.

Hope this article started to give you the blueprint, on how to train to stay on the mat for life.

Get strong

Improve your conditioning 

Eat well and enough

Any questions comment below and if you want daily BJJ Strength & Conditioning check out my IG

If you want to work with me, you can apply for coaching here

I’ve always hated working out.

It’s boring and drags out.

It always seemed too much like a hamster running on a wheel.

When I got into training, that all changed.

Working out and training might seem like the same to most people. and the difference I’m going to explain might seem like a stretch.

But, for me, it made training fun, interesting and motivating.

To me, a workout, is where you go in to just to sweat, burn calories and go through the motions.

But, training is when you train intentionally with purpose.

Training is about trying improve your performance each week by

Doing more reps

Doing More Weight

Beating your times from the previous week.

It is this intention, that not only makes it more engaging.

But, really effective as well.

By getting into improving performance, you get to build some wins. while you’re trying to change your body.

Fat loss takes time and it can be like watching paint dry at times.

This can be why people can’t stick to a plan for long.

If your , only feeling of winning is, when the scales move down, it can be a tough process.

But, if you feel a win because you’re doing more weight or reps each week.

You can create more wins and that makes the plan easier.

You might even, eventually be one of the crazy people, who says working out is fun 🙂

Train for performance and eat for health and your body fat/muscle goal goal

My name is Amber Pinto and I’m a busy mom of three young boys. I decided to train with Bobby about 6 years ago. I joined because I wanted to be active and able to keep up with my children. I was nervous to train with Bobby because I’m a very shy person. Also, I was unsure if I would even be able to train without being so exhausted and getting sick to my stomach. I’ve tried different exercise classes before and i always quit because I would end up sick. I decided to join and try it out. I was able to notice results during my first month. Every time I showed up I would leave feeling better and stronger. I’ve had a lot of success mentally and physically. The program works because you are given all the tools to succeed. Bobby is very knowledgeable, patient and professional. I am able to be active with my children and I’ve gained an outlet to relieve stress. I’m thankful that I made the decision six years ago to give it a shot. If I was to give someone advice about joining I would say to try it out you have nothing to lose but so much to gain. Bobby’s program works because it is programmed to fit each individual’s needs. The people at the gym are extremely supportive and encouraging.

Are Crossfit & Wods, a great ideas ?

I had a client this morning comment, on how much more she felt the exercise we did ,then last week.

She is about 3 weeks in.

This is due to building coordination, skill, and mind-muscle connection.

The better you do at an exercise the more effective it can be and you are able to push it harder. Constantly learning new exercise and workouts , is great way to never train hard.

Things like Crossfit & Wods aren’t a great idea.

We need time to learn and master the exercises and then push them hard AF.

If you’re always learning new exercises you’re probably not training that hard.

This is why we run workouts for 4 weeks trying to progress each week before we do a different workout.

Want a free workout

Follow me for daily strength tips here

I was talking skateboarding with my little brother the other day.

He mentioned he learned the ollie in a day.

It took me like a year to do this.

I watched endless videos.

Read article after article.

I loved skateboarding.

It was my life.

But, I was never that good.

Friends who barely skated could bust out double kickflips just for fun.

Skating was not only my first introduction to physical fitness. As before I only ever played video games for fun .

And the only physical thing I ever did was yard work and chores my Dad made me do.

But, it taught me some times ,your not going be good at things and if you want to improve you’ll have to work hard and long.

You might have to work harder, longer than others.

I had to learn to be ok.

You see many people see others, who they feel can lose weight easier or build muscle faster.

They focus too much energy on that, instead of their mindset,  habits, and consistency.

The truth it really doesn’t matter, if it comes easier to them.

It’s about you, it doesn’t change what you have to do, at the end of the day.

It’s just a waste of energy. You could be using it to grow and improve.

If you really want to achieve that goal of yours.

You have to do the work required.

Focus on you.

#1 tempo intervals

How?

• 10s 70% speed or effort
• Active recovery for 40-60s
• 15-30 minutes
• Can be done 2-4x a week.

Why?

It builds aerobic fitness without doing the same thing over and over.

Also, a recovery workout, to boost recovery in between hard workouts.

#2 Walking

How ?

• Put one foot in front of the other
• 10 minutes +
• Can be done daily.

Why?

The only form of cardio that won’t stress the body.

It’s available to almost anyone.

It is a good way to burn calories without increasing hunger.

Won’t beat up your joints.

#3 HIT

How?

• Go all out for 10-30s
• Recover 60- 120s or until your HR gets to around 130.
• Use exercise you can do fast and explosive but won’t beat your joints up.
• 10-20 minutes
• 1 maybe 2x week.

A little goes a long way with this one.

Why?

Increases power

Can temporarily boost your metabolism

Increase recovery ability

It’s fun

What is your favorite form of cardio?

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