How To Develop Power For BJJ

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.