I’ve been lifting heavy for 8 years, never had issues with tendinitis, added in bjj 4 weeks ago, first week I did 2 days , second week I did 5 days, 3rd week I did 6 classes. I struggled with recovery on the 2nd and 3rd weeks and felt like I got tendinitis so I dropped 2 gym/weight sessions and the issue seems to have stopped. I think it’s just about finding your maximum recoverable volume and staying a touch under. Find the right balance and you’ll be able to do both
Kind of the same, never got injured in years of crossfit and lifting heavy. Once I started BJJ I started to have some nagging tendinitis in the elbows and neck
In my experience I can get away with doing up to 4 or 5 gym sessions per week and about 3 or 4 bjj classes a week but in order to do that you have to have your recovery and stress management on point, not be cutting weight and have a sedentary job. Anything more than that and something will have be taken out.
I’m a six month wb and have been lifting heavy for 3 years. It seems like you are new to bjj but if not feel free to ignore my comment. I found that my body didn’t adapt to bjj until about month 3. After three months it got a lot easier on my body to do 3-4 classes per week along with 2 hard lifts and 2 yoga sessions.
Great advice! What helped this year was combining lifting and training BJJ on the same day. Lift in AM train in evening. Counter-intuitive but high intensity days and days to fully recover work better for me than steady state... where I never had a day to actually recover.
I “accidentally” discovered this too. My plan was to alternate lifting & bjj days. After a couple of weeks I found I kept getting too “busy” or not really feeling up to lifting on my days off from bjj. But i actually felt more like lifting earlier in the day before bjj, so I did. Seems counterintuitive like you say, but it works great for me. I think my body was sorta subconsciously telling me that having real rest days is better than steady low level stress every day. Always good to listen to your body!
Just as with BJJ, it’s best to leave the ego at the door when you’re lifting. If you beat your body up just to put that extra plate on then you’ll end up injured and off the mats, and nobody wants that. Push yourself, but do it safely.
Great advice! Especially for people starting BJJ. I've lifted my entire teenage and adult life and played sports. When started BJJ I was around 22 and fell in love with it but like Chewie said I was one of those shooting stars. I'd go hard in the gym 4-5 days a week but I started accumulating injuries and would have to stop going for months at a time. This has happened probably 8-10 times over a course of 5 years. I'm now 27 and I've finally realized that I have to slowly get into it so I don't get injured or burn out. I've been training solid for almost a year now and I'm loving it! I started going back 2 days a week and I've built myself up to 4 days a week now. The biggest thing for me was changing my mindset, I wanted to be really good so I trained like the guys that were really good and my body couldn't take it. After taking a break to heal I saw how much better everybody that I had trained with and even used to beat easily had gotten and it messed with me mentally. What really messed with me the most was knowing 3-4 years in that I should be a purple belt if I had been consistent and never stopped. Thankfully I've learned that you just have to focus on being better then you were the day before. I'm now close to getting my blue belt but frankly I don't even care about that, I just wanna get better.
If you want to be really good, you should train 6 days a week. Your problem was going too hard all the time. Alternate hard and light days. Only roll hard maybe once or twice a week. Other days should be flow rolls and drilling. Russians understand this. Americans believe in intensity over volume and that's why it takes them forever to get good at things. Kids wrestling in Russia for 2 years destroy kids wrestling in America for 2 years. Look up Firas Zahabi on this.
After years of powerlifting/strongman training I started BJJ. I found that I couldn’t do both intense. Focus on BJJ and take it easy with lifting then switch and cut the number of days for hard rolling and push the weight heavier.
I’ve been training for 25 years before I started BJJ, and doing both is challenging. If I have hard BJJ sessions, I train a lot lighter in the gym and add a lot of stretching. The stretching has been extremely beneficial for me. On lighter weeks I do tend to hit the weights a lot harder.
I think people forget the neurological system, it's a huge part of BJJ and weight training. Just because you feel you have more in the tank from your musculoskeletal system doesn't mean your Neuro system isn't completely drained.
Really good advice. After loads of injuries as a blue and purple belt, I realized the importance of lifting to prevent injuries. Slowing down is the best thing, and incorporating into a sustainable routine is key. I have seen many shooting stars in the 11 years I've been training, they usually burn out quickly.
Good advice if you want to be average. To be great you have to keep training a high volumes. The people burning out don't truly want to be great at bjj. People also need to learn not to go hard every session.
I think it's also really important to have a focus and view the rest through that focus. I lift and do BJJ,but my lifting is always supplementary to my BJJ, not a focus in and of itself. This basically means staying within a range I know I can control, because taking a month off BJJ because of a weight lifting injury would be counter to my goals.
I always take the approach of phase training. Phase 1 intro Phase 2 now we are getting into it Phase 3 advanced work relax repeat. When I first started hitting the gym again I was benching 135 lbs for weeks. I use to bench 315 lbs but I kept telling myself it’s all about routine and giving my body a chance to adapt.
I was lifting five days a week, and going to Jiujitsu three times a week, and all the stress from both, I was rollin with Shea, and me an him roll really hard, and I pulled my groin, and then I was down for three week’s. I now go to Jiujitsu three time’s a week, and lift three time’s a week every other week. Thanks for another great video.
@@orion8125 i think once aweek is not enough to get stronger? Atleast we need two days and hours of bjj Myself i do fullbody 3 times aweek with 3-4 days of bjj
I lift 5 times a week, 2 hours each in the morning. I go bjj 3 times a week, 2 of which are in the evening. It’s definitely possible to do. You will feel tired and you will need a good program and auto regulation (I.e RPE/RIR) is a must, but definitely possible.
Fantastic advice as always. My last injury was from lifting too heavy. Screwed up my elbow and it hasn’t been right since. I was weight training 4 times a week, and BJJ 3 times a week. Too much for this old guy. I cut down my weight training to 2 times a week, and dropped the weight a bit with BJJ 3-4 times a week. I can go heavier on days I feel good, but I don’t push it. Rest/sleep is crucial to not getting injured and listening to your body is key.
Great approach! The big picture is always what matters most. Consistency is what adds up. Adding intensity later is a lot easier than trying to dig yourself out of a rut!
Even as a semi experienced person in both, when I increased volume of both and started feeling the tendons light up and stuff it was still a mystery as to why but this video is very true. One good thing id recommend to all people is learning to listen to your body because that has probably saved many some big injuries.
Thanks Chewy. I just returned to the mat after a year of doing other things like weightlifting and coaching kids soccer. My instinct is to come back hard, but I now realize I need to focus on building back a routine, and going easy until that routine is locked in. Thanks again. Peace out.
Hey chewjitsu i hope you are doing great. I 've been watching your videos for quite some time now. I'm a white belt bjj trainee and I find it kinda difficult to put my legs in play in bjj, its not really a matter of athleticism i just dont really know how to be constantly using my legs while on my side or on my back, i would really appreciate a bjj footwork drill video. If you dont feel like doing so or maybe you didnt read my comment, it's ok . Thanks for all the content you've put up anyways.
Awesome video!!! I started the other way. I was crushing the weights and started BJJ. I started getting injuries and for a 6 month period I was sleeping 2-3 hours a night because of neck and shoulder pain. I'm 54yrs old now and have to back off the weights a little and incorporate light rolls too. Now when I add anything (like the heavybag) I ease into it. I find it useful to let my body acclimate and take stock of what's going on. Good job!!!
Ive studied Strength and Conditioning and this advice is legit, i would add proper warm ups and cool downs, stretching an yoga, that balance of yin and yang energy and your body will thank u. pro athletes have massages, ice baths, crio therapy, rest days (rest months too), nutritionists etc.
I was a lifter first and only came to jiu jitsu when I was looking for a new style of cardio, couldn’t handle jogging anymore. I’ve been training jiu jitsu 4-5 days a week for 4 years now and haven’t had any issues.
Great advice Chewie. Getting back into BJJ and my goal is to get my cardio right first and lift. Not to gain more muscle but kind of tone it up because I’m actually very strong for my frame and that came in handy when I wrestled in high school and college.
Great video and solid advice. I always suggest to new lifters to start light, do one set of 8 exercises that target theajor muscle groups for 10-15 reps each 2 days a week just to prime the body and get the tendons used to the stress. Do that for two weeks then add a third day for two weeks before doing a specialized program. Also allow for 10-15 minute warm up prior and 10-15 minutes of stretching and foam rolling after each session.
A MMA coach I follow said that 5x5 would be enough for strength, if someone is also doing martial arts. That's only 1 exercise/day, 5 sets x 5 reps, targeting the big muscle groups, increasing the weight whenever you feel it's getting easier.
This is good advice. When I started BJJ, I didn't like it so I had to force myself to come 2x a week. A few weeks I only went 1x! But as I kept coming I started to enjoy it and now I go 4x per week. Same with lifting. When I started I only went twice a week because I hated it. Now I lift 5 days a week because I love it.
Yup this happened with me. 3 years ago I decided I needed to fix up my life. So I went from going to running occasionally, to going to the gym 6 times a week. Got Bicep tendonitis in both arms in just 2 months. Thing is muscles adapt more quickly then tendons, which adapts more quickly then bones and ligaments. So my muscles felt great, but just the rest of my body was not prepared. Totally agree, it’s a long term process. Life lasts a pretty long time. It’s not like you are gonna run out of time to work on your squat. I mean let’s say you are 23 like I am. If we assume your athletic potential starts declining at 30, that gives you 7 whole years. That is plenty of time to become essentially whatever you want to be.
Wow! I’m so glad I stumbled in this video because I’ve been bummed out that my elbow hurt for the past 2 weeks and couldn’t train. The doctor said it was probably an elbow sprain...either way, it was shortly after my second week of training BJJ. I rolled every class with typical white belt intensity. I’m going to take your advice and slow down, maybe skip rolling some days, and try to build a strong fundamental core of technique and strength!
I’m just happy to be able to do some basic mobility exercises anymore. Everything aches all the time. I get injured if I sneeze. My body feels so fragile nowadays. Lifting weights? I remember those days. 😕
Agree. From someone who has been off the mats for 2.5 years especially if you're older and you love bjj go slow. I started working out a year ago and I'm stronger than I've ever been in my entire life. I'm 45 and I blew out my l4-l5 and had to have immediate surgery. I start with cardio first. Then slowly added weight training. Many times I had to stop due to pain, so then I would start over. If you are older IMO you better be a beast to protect your spine if you are going into BJJ. I'm going to hit the mats at the end of January 2022 and we will see what happens. Listen to Chewy he's right.
Great advice. I have seen too many people, who stared too hard. Just to quit shortly afterwards as they got burned out. It applies to weights, bjj, or whatever really :) Greetings from Poland.
For reference TL;DR Start with low intensity in anything that you want to do (weight lifting, bjj, etc). Give your body time to get used to new routine Summary - Lifting too much can cause tendinitis due to overuse - When adding something new, focus on new routine. Otherwise, jumping into something and training hard from the get go can cause a burn out and/or result in injuries - Start with lower intensity than your ego might want you to. You will then give yourself time to get used to stress, to new movements, to work on form and efficiency - Start light in the beginning and slowly ramp up the intensity. About 2-4 weeks. Focus on setting the routine so that your body acclimates to the new activity - Routine will help you get into a rhythm without burnout and will help maintain the habit
I'm guilty. Imagine my shock as a young 20 year old when my calves and knees gave out from the strain and I had to take a month break to recover and didn't get around to coming back.
I am 36 former Rugby Player for nearly 15 years. Always lifted , i do BJJ for 9 years and i am a Brown belt. Now i lift 3 Times a week and do 2 45 mins Zone 2 cardio. I train BJJ 4-6 Times a week. More 4-5 . I stopped Lifting that heavy and this helped me the Most! My joins feel so much better now.
Kicking myself for not finding this video three months ago before I fractured my left rib, bruised my right rib and tore my pec. Conditioning lessons keep getting retainer when you don’t learn them the first time, I guess. Oss!
This is good advice. I've been lifting for 5 years but I sprained my ACL in BJJ because I was going too hard from the start and it took over 2 weeks to recover.
As a former white belt who used to train 5 days a week, it's always tough when I get injured and have to stay home for multiple weeks. Most recently, I fractured my pinky finger (playing football) and missed 5 weeks of training. Since I've been stuck at home, I started doing push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups and squats (25 each every day) and running a few times a week, to stay in shape and get a little bit stronger, but also to get a routine going. I went back to jiu-jitsu last Saturday and got promoted to blue belt, but I injured my groin and it's tough to stay away, yet risky to train and aggravate the injuries.
I had a long childhood of baseball. Got into training jiu jitsu last year. I was a bit overweight but my body still had some athletic capability. I wasn't lifting until about 6 months into BJJ. With the lifting and diet, I shedded off weight but I was pushing the limit too hard. Started having sore back, arms, tennis elbow, etc. I've gotten my diet pretty tuned up but even then, as a blue belt, I still push the limit a little too much and can overtrain a bit. This stuff is a marathon, not a sprint. Take a day off if something feels wrong and recover.
I ran into this issue as well. I've worked out/lifted for years, but last year took up BJJ. Was lifting 5 days/wk and started doing BJJ 5 days/wk as well. My 43 year old body quickly said "F you, dude" by way of a shoulder injury that sidelined me for almost 5 months. I'm back at class 4-5 times a week with 2 days of light lifting while my shoulder finishes healing up but am definitely forced to incorporate recovery time. Getting old sucks.
I had a fellow white belt in my BJJ class. He was also going to a kettlebell class our gym offers, which I don't do but I've seen them going very heavy - maybe too heavy. Once he told me that he felt strong but his body was in pain, and that was more than two days after his last kettlebell sesh. I haven't seen him since, and I'm afraid this might have something to do with his poorly-planned lifting training. How unfortunate.
Im soo guilty of this. Its just, i love lifting and i love jiu jitsu. I sometimes over due it every couple months and feel a little injury coming and get mad at myself. But, when we take those shirtless pics after nogi class, its totally worth it!
I've been a powerlifter for around 20 years. I lift 4x week and juijitsu 3x week. I tried to do 4x week for both and man it wrecked me. Dropping one juijitsu day and I can do both.
The good thing about Chewys advice, is if you are a COMPLETE newbie, ANYTHING you do at the beginning will make you stronger, even if it is lighter than you can do. If you haven't been off the couch in 10 years, and on day 1 your whole workout is 5 push-ups only....thats enough to cause a stress to the body. Point being, you are still getting much benefit from starting lighter than you want.
I was training weights very very hard and added rolling and got a major injury. On the flip side, I was rolling almost 7 days a week every week and got hurt adding weightlifting. Respect each discipline. If you don't, you will be humbled.
Coming from power lifting into jiu jitsu my lifting routine was to much and my recovery suffered. I’m switching to less days lifting and adding mobility training.
Hey chewy i have a question for you, I am a 2 year white belt but i wasn't able to train over the Covid lockdown like everyone else, im back to Jiu Jitsu for about 3 months im 16 years old and im getting smashed by big guys who have only been training since we re opened 3 months ago, should i just be training harder? should i not be going too easy? do you have any advice?
Lifting and jujitsu is a hard balance. If I roll hard I lift lighter and vice versa. I cant recover otherwise. From time to time I throw myself into both fires but its rare. Been lifting for 20years and been in BJJ for 4.5 years.
I do BJJ three times a week , Monday BJJ ,Tuesday 5x5 squats about almost 90 percent on working rep max , 3 minutes rest while resting i do abs in Smith machine. After legs i do shoulders 5x5 btw your shoulder press will suffer from squats. Rest 3 minutes and do abs in the machine while resting. BJJ fundamentales and regular class same day. Wensday- 5x5 deadlift rest 3 minutes ab machine while resting ,then bench press 5x5 rest 3 minutes and guess what more abs while resting ,same day fundumentals and normal class .My numbers drop high but now i have more resistance when lifting. I walked 7 to 8 miles a day and lifted 50 to 20 pounds most of the day at the job . Now i work sitting most of the day XD 4 ,12 hour days numbers will increase give it time it's a long process. I felt sad then i told my self I'll get stronger no time to cry. Now i want to start doing volume work on Thursdays , also use the sauna more and do a bit more cardio . Give it time results will come if you assert your self.
I came from powerlifting/bodybuilding into bjj. my first few weeks, after every class I'd come home shaking from fatigue, and all my joints were in lots of pain. it's a matter of getting used to the training. I recommend cutting off a day in your weight training and cutting down on the volume when starting bjj. Not only can lower volume and substituting it with heavier weight can help you with bjj, but it'll also make doing both efficiently possible.
Anyone that has competed in a sport at a competitive level and then stopped for a significant length of time, and then tried going back into it all out knows this all too well.
I usually take 1 day OFF. Usually Fridays. NO weightlifting, NO BJJ. NOTHING but rest. Saturday a little weightlifting. Every other Sunday roll at an OPEN mat. Some Sundays off. Monday thru Thursday 1 hour a Day BJJ. Maybe on Tuesday a little weightlifting. By Friday I am soar. So Fridays help ME heal. I also get massages from time to time to help. And the massages really do help.
Sorry I missed ya. Yeah I'm feeling fine. Jess has been sick for the last week and I caught a little of what she had. I'm fine. Just wanted to stay on the safe side and not spread any funk.
I love lifting weights and BJJ equally. This whole summer I did both each day 5-6x a week but I set a rule for myself - if I went hard in the gym, BJJ would be only drilling. If I wanted to roll in the evening, I would go light in the gym or do some explosive work / cardio. It may have still been a bit too much to be honest because now I have a tendonitis in my forearm / biceps and a fucked up shoulder. I feel like if you are over 30 and not on PEDs, you really have to pick your battles. I'm 32 but I feel like 72 lol.
Any lifting I do for my upper body twice a week is just maintance I'm happy where my strength is but my lower body is my focus along with jiu jitsu my goal is jiu jitsu 4 days a week while squatting twice a week gonna try to find a routine that will allow me to progress on squatting while training jiu jitsu
Lifting weights is like a martial art beginners take for granted that they know the movements and very commonly do them wrong. Going heavy when you haven’t learned the patterns of movement causes more stress and unintentional aches and pains, just the same reason I often avoid white belts cause of your gonna get injured rolling it’s normally a big heavy spazzy white belt.
You can definitely do both of those - if you have enough of a base, but even then you need to be pounding down a massive amount of food and getting extra sleep every night.
For me at 61, I do HIT ( Mike Mentzer n Dorian Yates ) and yes you can ease into it. But, once you are into a routine that stresses rest n recovery to build muscle, you only hit the gym a couple times a week. It also helps me avoid injury. The other option is doing volume.l, but I have a life outside the gym and don’t want to spend 20 hours a week in the gym.
In my experience I was lifting pre-bjj and in my experience the thing that was hardest for me was that my muscles were so tight that I had trouble being flexible, so I had to add a lot of stretching which allowed me to not be injured. This was just my experience, stretching and yoga helped me to become less tight.
It's taken almost a year to balance everything, but currently doing 2 Jiu-jitsu classes, 2 MMA training sessions and lifting twice a week. I usually stack one lifting day with a Jiu-jitsu day since jits isn't super taxing for me anymore and I usually have plenty of energy after classes. Still getting the diet and when and how to eat down though lol, always seems to be a struggle 😅
I've been a dedicated weightlifter for over 30 years and one thing I have learned is that if you're going to do something else really physical like BJJ then you need to use weightlifting to support that activity. It's not going to be easy to be a hardcore, competitive powerlifter AND a hardcore, competitive BJJ practitioner. There is a reason professional fighters don't work out like professional powerlifters, weightlifters and bodybuilders.
Is there any particular weight workouts to do that helps BJJ? Getting ready to start lifting with my BJJ instructor on non class days and I'd rather focus on workouts that may help with BJJ.
You can get really specific with weight training at certain levels. But if you're new to it. Your best bet is to get on a program that will strengthen your whole body to build a strong base. There's so many programs out there. Everything from free ones like Stronglifts 5x5 to paid programs. You can also hire people to write a program specifically built for you. Later on down the road you could be more specific with sport focused exercises.
Here's a question. I'm wanting to add in a bit of running 3 days a week on top of BJJ 3 days a week + lifting 3 days a week. Should I be worried about the added running?
And if you start down the lifting/bodybuilding rabbit hole you are going to encounter discussion around TRT. If you’re pushing 40, get checked and consider treatment. Recovering like a young guy again.
Definitely remove your ego from lifting if you’re just starting. I saw much better results in my squats when I stopped putting absurd amounts of weights and going halfway to depth and instead dropped the weight and went to a deeper squat. Start light, check your form, be consistent, and try to progress continuously that’s what has worked best for me.
I’m a white belt who is training BJJ for 4 months and next month I got my first tournament, some days I feel great at training and everything goes fine, some days I suck so much at bjj and can’t pass guards or everybody is passing my guard or they submit me.. I hope I’m ready for my competition because I get frustrated a lot because I suck at it
i also wasnt coming form an arhletic background and after 1.5 years of mma i started combining lifting weights 3 times a week with my mma training that i do 5 times a week. I did that for a few months and then i got myself a herniated disc with 19y years old. Now i cant train mma at all and it fuckin sucks. I hate myself so much for that.
This is spot-on good advice! When I wanted to increase my JJ training to 5 days a week, I did it very slowly. I wanted to add specific lifting/conditioning to this, I did it very slowly: where I could do 3 days a week kettlebell training, I set the number of exercises per session, but I only allowed myself to do 1 set of each exercise for about 2 weeks, then I increased the intensity/reps gradually until my body was conditioned for it. Now, I did not miraculously start passing everyone's guard and subbing like a monster, but... I gave some beatings, I took some beatings (alot... LOL). But the take away is that my body is handling the intensity way better and in a truly sustainable way. I'm building a solid BJJ game and my body is meeting the challenge because I've taken it slow: BJJ is a marathon, not a sprint!... Oss!
I’ve done both me and my boy back when we trained mma at Jackson’s academy, we would hit the gym afterward early night, but I lifted years prior off and on, so was experienced in that realm. However, I can say do not train legs the way I do anyhow which is only. Once a week when In the routine. I only do half squats, leg press, lunges sometimes and basic flexion/extension, before during training days. My legs are super sore for 3-6 days after a leg workout like jello could barely sit down more less roll or anything , so do legs on last day of the week of you BJJ training and wait at least 3 days because your legs will be so sore that you are very liable to tear shit, and for me 3 Days ain’t enough, but hard to space out 4 days and training.
@@zackscott8636 I just stick with the natural way bro. But I agree it can help, I believe squats boost testosterone levels. Upper body is all good any-day, just the legs I feel need to be spaced about 3 days at least prior to training, and I take that protein to help recovery.
