[Dercel]

Completed my 8 week transition period, and about 12 weeks into my base building plan. This past week during my rest week I went to about 4 bjj classes to demo it out. I am interested in trying it out for 90 days and evaluating from there, but know this will likely interferes to some degree with my mountain training.

Any bjj practitioners in here? Anyone work this into there mountain fitness training? “Rolling” is definitely aerobic, and there is a element of endurance strength as well. Just curious if others find these to interests overlapping.

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on February 18, 2019 at 5:54 pm #16817

I have no doubt that BJJ is very aerobic and can be very intense. However, it’s not going to transfer very well to mountain sports because the movement patterns have nothing in common.

To get the most bang for your buck, you’ll want to make training activities as similar to the goal event/activity as possible. For example, I’ve spent six years training for skimo, but it hasn’t made me a better swimmer or cyclist.

Of course, it’s not bad to try different sports, but just be aware that aside from some general strength and the health benefits of being active, BJJ won’t help your performance in the mountains.

[caseyfortin]

caseyfortin on February 19, 2019 at 3:28 pm #16856

I have trained using the uphill athlete program for around 3 years and I am also a BJJ Brown belt and train BJJ 3-4 times per week.

BJJ is a great workout but it’s defiantly on the higher intensity, muscular endurance side of training. Scott is correct that it does not translate well to performing well in the mountains but I have found that training for the mountains and expanding aerobic capacity greatly benefits BJJ. The times when I’m in my best uphill shape I can roll for hours without getting tired.

The key for me has been to not let BJJ workouts take the place of any of my aerobic workouts, it’s just something you have to add in extra. It depends on what my current training objectives are, if I have a big climb I’m training for I’ll do less BJJ and more aerobic training and if I don’t have anything planned for the mountains I’ll focus more on BJJ. It also makes it nice to be able to switch things up.

Hope this helps!

[cameron.vanderkamp]

cameron.vanderkamp on February 19, 2019 at 9:39 pm #16858

I agree with Scott and Casey, BJJ does not translate well. However, a way to get mat time is by drilling techniques and not rolling. Assuming you have the time to drill and complete your normal training sessions.

This week I am scheduled for twelve hours of training, BJJ account for two hours. However, I am getting 5 hours of mat time by drilling techniques. I can get an hour of drilling in per day, which will not affect my fitness, as long as I do not free roll. When I roll my heart rate gets into the anaerobic zone, without accounting for this, would ruin future workouts. Thus they need to be planned. You will know what your body is able to get away with.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on February 21, 2019 at 8:35 am #16903

Thanks for the confirmation, @cameron.vanderkamp and @caseyfortin.

@caseyfortin: It’s interesting that you’ve found that general aerobic fitness benefits BJJ. That reminds me of when I was sport climbing. If I was aerobically fit, then I could last on routes longer and get more burns in per day. But of course, sport climbing fitness never helped my uphill fitness.

My guess is that activities that are globally aerobic and less technical (running, hiking, etc) can support activities that are more specific and highly technical (BJJ, sport climbing, etc.)

All: If you’re interested in more general-versus-specific training thoughts, there’s another thread going on here.

[nasirkhamlichi1]

nasirkhamlichi1 on March 3, 2019 at 10:33 pm #17380

I do both and agree with everything that has been said, however I will say I see massive benefits in flexibility, movement and core strength from Jitsu into mountaineering.

I am following an extended 24 week expedition programme, and I will say my cardio and Strength in BJJ has seen massive benefits.

Jitsu is the icing on the cake for training, and like said above just dont let it replace your Z1-Z2 endurance workouts.