Recommendations for competitive bjj athlete

[JTAY97]

Hey guys,

I’m a competitive brown belt (26 years old) and want to be the best possible at my sport.

I enjoy lifting and have been doing a conjugate type program for the past few months.

It’s got quite a bit of accessory work in the 10-20 rep range to build muscle and the workout either starts with a max or speed work.

I’ve just found out about TB and it seems like a cool approach.

I am actually around 10Kg overweight right now so my goal is to drop 10kg whilst keeping Jiujitsu as my focus.

How should I approach my lifting during this time?

I need to keep fatigue low but I don’t want to lose a bunch of muscle and I enjoy having some accessories for the arms and shoulders as I feel it makes me look good.

I saw fighter was low volume but it seems to be a lot of heavy work (3-5 reps) which I can imagine would be super hard on the body in addition to training bjj 6x per week.

I’ve been told by others I should stick to a conjugate type program as there is a small amount of heavy lifting and the rest is higher rep work to build muscle which has the largest contribution to strength.

What program would you guys recommend and why?

I appreciate it! Thanks

[Maxrip13]

Hey guys,

I’m a competitive brown belt (26 years old) and want to be the best possible at my sport.

I enjoy lifting and have been doing a conjugate type program for the past few months.

It’s got quite a bit of accessory work in the 10-20 rep range to build muscle and the workout either starts with a max or speed work.

I’ve just found out about TB and it seems like a cool approach.

I am actually around 10Kg overweight right now so my goal is to drop 10kg whilst keeping Jiujitsu as my focus.

How should I approach my lifting during this time?

I need to keep fatigue low but I don’t want to lose a bunch of muscle and I enjoy having some accessories for the arms and shoulders as I feel it makes me look good.

I saw fighter was low volume but it seems to be a lot of heavy work (3-5 reps) which I can imagine would be super hard on the body in addition to training bjj 6x per week.

I’ve been told by others I should stick to a conjugate type program as there is a small amount of heavy lifting and the rest is higher rep work to build muscle which has the largest contribution to strength.

What program would you guys recommend and why?

I appreciate it! Thanks

Hey mate,

I also train BJJ and Muay thai around the same amount of sessions as you. I would definitely recommend Fighter or even Operator to complement your BJJ training.

Which books do you own? My advice would change a bit depending. General advice below:

It comes down to how many lifting sessions you can do a week and what your goals are from that session. With 6 BJJ sessions a week you are most likely doing double days, so you need to be reasonably smart unless you aren't working.

I use assistance work as required when I do Fighter, but find I don't need to when I do Operator or Operator I/A. My go to cluster is usually a Squat,Weighted Ring dips and Weighted Pullups + a core movement. I do some form of conditioning after (usually LSS). I find I can't do heavy squats and deadlifts in the same cluster when I am regularly training BJJ. It's just too much for my lower back and hips.

In my opinion the best upper body hypertrophy exercise is the Weighted Pullup, I find it pointless to do any extra arm or back work (outside of warmup rehab work) when I simply add weight to my pullups. Weighted ring dips have similar results. A moderately heavy 3-5x5 with these movements, will build more muscle than most dedicated assistance work and is easier to recover from with such a heavy sport volume.

It all comes down to what you want to achieve. BJJ seems to be your focus, so why wouldn't you want to do just enough strength and hypertrophy work to support that? Dropping 10kgs will mostly come down to diet, without knowing more I can't offer any other advice. I usually find whenever I am doing extra hypertrophy work I tend to over eat to compensate for the higher volume training. I justify poor food choices because I am working harder.

If you follow Tactical barbell 2 as written and do a basebuild to start, you will probably find you drop those 10kgs pretty quick. I still train BJJ when I basebuild, but you may want to drop a session or 2 for that first 6 week period.

I recommend Tactical Barbell to any of my training partners who ask what I do for Strength and Conditioning outside of BJJ.

TLDR: Tactical Barbell is an awesome program to complement BJJ.

[JTAY97]

Thanks for the reply dude I really appreciate it!

I’m finding it hard to come to the terms that I gotta have a cluster of just 3-4 exercises on TB fighter in comparison to the conjugate routine I’ve been following.

I’ve been told that I need to get used to higher reps and volume work in the gym and over time it won’t make me feel wrecked.

A typical ME Upper day atm looks like:

ME Bench Variant - Work to a 1RM
DB Bench 3x10
Inverted Row 3x1RIR
Accessory Shoulder 3x12-15
Accessory Arms 3x12-15

I’ve heard that people tend to recover better from higher reps than heavy reps and the body doesn’t feel as beat up.

Not feeling fucked on the mats is my main priority aswel as reducing my risk of injury!

I have TB 2-3 but honestly not read them.

I’m going to read them asap/

Could you also tell me what sort of numbers base building and fighter produced?

I’m wondering if just 3-5 reps on the main lifts would work better than higher rep work as my matches are typically 8-10 mins long.

I know a lot of high level grapplers train like bodybuilders (Gordon Ryan / Nicky rod etc) but others who do all low reps howveer it seems these two are stronger than most in the sport.

Also would fighter be suitable even if ‘base building’ hasn’t been followed as I’m unsure what that means.

Sorry i should have read the book first.

[Maxrip13]

Thanks for the reply dude I really appreciate it!

I’m finding it hard to come to the terms that I gotta have a cluster of just 3-4 exercises on TB fighter in comparison to the conjugate routine I’ve been following.

I’ve been told that I need to get used to higher reps and volume work in the gym and over time it won’t make me feel wrecked.

A typical ME Upper day atm looks like:

ME Bench Variant - Work to a 1RM
DB Bench 3x10
Inverted Row 3x1RIR
Accessory Shoulder 3x12-15
Accessory Arms 3x12-15

I’ve heard that people tend to recover better from higher reps than heavy reps and the body doesn’t feel as beat up.

Not feeling fucked on the mats is my main priority aswel as reducing my risk of injury!

I have TB 2-3 but honestly not read them.

I’m going to read them asap/

Could you also tell me what sort of numbers base building and fighter produced?

I’m wondering if just 3-5 reps on the main lifts would work better than higher rep work as my matches are typically 8-10 mins long.

I know a lot of high level grapplers train like bodybuilders (Gordon Ryan / Nicky rod etc) but others who do all low reps howveer it seems these two are stronger than most in the sport.

Also would fighter be suitable even if ‘base building’ hasn’t been followed as I’m unsure what that means.

Sorry i should have read the book first.

[Maxrip13]

Thanks for the reply dude I really appreciate it!

I’m finding it hard to come to the terms that I gotta have a cluster of just 3-4 exercises on TB fighter in comparison to the conjugate routine I’ve been following.

I’ve been told that I need to get used to higher reps and volume work in the gym and over time it won’t make me feel wrecked.

A typical ME Upper day atm looks like:

ME Bench Variant - Work to a 1RM
DB Bench 3x10
Inverted Row 3x1RIR
Accessory Shoulder 3x12-15
Accessory Arms 3x12-15

I’ve heard that people tend to recover better from higher reps than heavy reps and the body doesn’t feel as beat up.

Not feeling fucked on the mats is my main priority aswel as reducing my risk of injury!

I have TB 2-3 but honestly not read them.

I’m going to read them asap/

Could you also tell me what sort of numbers base building and fighter produced?

I’m wondering if just 3-5 reps on the main lifts would work better than higher rep work as my matches are typically 8-10 mins long.

I know a lot of high level grapplers train like bodybuilders (Gordon Ryan / Nicky rod etc) but others who do all low reps howveer it seems these two are stronger than most in the sport.

Also would fighter be suitable even if ‘base building’ hasn’t been followed as I’m unsure what that means.

Sorry i should have read the book first.

The book really does cover why this type of approach works well with other competing demands better than I can. I can just give my personal experiences.

I started on TB during the military to progress my strength whilst having to deal with unit PT. I got enough variety from the other randomness and less volume worked well for me. I was only just getting back into BJJ after an 8 year break. I ran base building and ran Operator as my main cluster. I was only training BJJ 2x a week at this time.

I transitioned into Law enforcement and have complete freedom over my training. I do between 5-7 skill sessions a week between striking, grappling and MMA. I have had some decent injuries from my careers.

I am of the opinion that sport training, in this case BJJ, will take care of most of your sport specific conditioning work. Any training on top of those sessions should be to prevent injuries and improve your general all round fitness to allow you to do more skill work. I want to be strong enough and conditioned enough that I can make it onto the mats more often.

The training session you posted is focused on improving your benchpress 1RM. I don't care what I can bench in the grand scheme of things, I am just benching because it builds upper body strength. There is nothing wrong with assistance work if you need it, but it's called that for a reason. It's to assist your main lifts.

There is more to Tactical Barbell than just doing sets of 3-5 reps. My guess is you have seen the program written up by someone who wrote a reddit or blog post about it. I like the way Tactical barbell is programmed because I don't see the point of burning myself out on a heap of assistance exercises when I can just put more effort into my main lifts and gain strength and muscle that way. The heavier sets of 5 won't be an issue recovery wise until you are hitting advanced lifting numbers, you will probably find you feel amazing because you don't have all the extra volume of the assistance exercises. You will lift heavier but feel fresher, I feel the best in the lower rep high intensity weeks because the volume is so low.

I do add some variety through my warmups to prehab some injuries. This circuit is similar to your assistance exercises and includes the kind of exercises people would usually use. I just keep it lighter and under 10 mins. It achieves the same thing but allows me to make my main cluster the actual focus of the session.

Basebuilding is a period where you take the time to build your aerobic system and set yourself up to be able to train more frequently in the future. TB 2 covers it in detail, but you are taking a period to prepare yourself for future training. Long steady state runs and strength/endurance sessions to be able to do more in the future.

In terms of high level grapplers doing bodybuilder sessions, that's because they don't have jobs and take certain supplements I am not willing to take. In the end they win because of their skill as opposed to their strength and conditioning routines. Both of those guys you mentioned are extremely unhealthy as a heads up. Gordon can't train half the time which matches up with when he started taking massive doses of PEDs and Nicky Rod had to revamp his entire diet after getting blood tests done because he major issues in his biomarkers. Both have achieved more than I ever will in grappling.

Fighter is just a strength program within the TB system. Go and read the books and most of your questions will be answered. You already own them, so there is no excuse.