If you read my last post on Bulletproof Grips, you’d know that this rant stems from the question I get asked all the time by my jiu-jitsu family ”What is the fastest way to get stronger for BJJ specifically?”  

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – there are two main ways to hack your strength gains in BJJ. Last week we spoke about grip strength, today we’re talking about CORE strength

It’s possible you may have wasted many hours doing sit-ups, crunches, and other redundant ‘core’ exercises (I’m right there with you)…

But alas, this is not the way my friends. Some high-rep stuff is good, but where a lot of people go wrong is by neglecting to do the low-volume, higher resistance exercises. These the true path to building formidable core strength

THE MAJOR BENEFITS OF HAVING A STRONG MIDSECTION ARE:

1. Increased ability to create and control your own movements (move yourself)
2. Increased ability to resist external forces (people trying to move you)

Brazilian jiu jitsu puts you into some weird and unusual positions often times with load being placed on your spine from compromising angles. In order to stay injury free and in control, no matter where the rolls take you, we need to strengthen all the muscles between your ribs and hips

At Bulletproof For BJJ, our goal is to give you only the most bang-for-your-buck exercises… The following workout is composed of two major supersets with one accessory piece, this means you can get more out of your workout time while covering all bases

This workout will help you to control your body through multiple planes of movement

It will also build excellent anti-rotational and stability strength, which is necessary for good grappling. This program is ideal for an intermediate to advanced level of athlete. If you’re starting out we’d suggest keeping the weight lighter and the reps higher in order to build stability and awareness in the techniques themselves first

SUPERSET 1

A1) Turkish Get Up, 5 sets X 2 Reps

A2)  Renegade Row_, 5 sets X 3 reps each side

rest 60-90 seconds after completing both exercises

BEGINNERS: perform double the reps and 4 sets for each exercise (that’s 4 reps of A1 and 6 reps of A2)

SUPERSET 2

B1) Single leg Deadlifts, 4 sets X 5 reps each leg

B2) Kettlebell Swings, 4 sets X 8 reps

rest 60-90 seconds after completing both exercises

BEGINNERS: perform double the reps and all 4 sets for both

ACCESSORY EXERCISES

C1) Tuck Ups, 3 sets X 8-12

C2) Hollow Body Rocks, 3 sets X 10-15 reps

rest as long as you need in order to be able to complete the sets with good movement quality

BEGINNERS: change nothing here 

Work at approximately 75-85% of your Repetition Max. You can guesstimate this by starting light and completing some warm up sets of each major exercise, gradually adding more weight (5-10%) each set until the effort you are putting out to complete that set feels like a 7 or 8 out of 10

*1/10 being very easy and 10/10 being a maximal effort!

There are no shortcuts to building a healthy and strong body

That having been said, specific strength characteristics when trained correctly will have greater cross over and transferability, giving you greater athleticism for grappling

For optimal results look to do each of these workouts twice a week. If you want help with your strength and mobility training – we have you covered. Sign up for our free 7 day trial now and start building a body that is strong, mobile and less prone to injury.

JT.