ATTENTION: If you compete, watch this, VERY important....

If you are competing in jiu jitsu nowadays, you must now train like a pro athlete, you must have a strength training program you are religious with, EVERY professional athlete works on their core and balance. Long gone are the days where you can get away with just tricks, without working on your strength and core.

This is something anyone can do that combines core strength training AND balance in one workout. Watch the whole thing, he gets progressively more insane with it, you're gonna trip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWvIu7s-vIM&sns=em

Master Eddie post more stuff like this for real bro, We'd love to see some training and conditioning and some lock flows that just tire the fuck outa you on MTS. PLEASE PLEASE

I agree with having professional training if your competing! That was a hard core routine right there, BUT THAT WAS NOT a healthy program for your knees. Having your ass lower than your knee during squats (especially) with weights is not good for your knees!

I'm with Jack as far as breaking the 90 degree angle for a squat for safety reasons, but damn that guy's strength and stability are amazing with squats.

I agree with the weighted squats being probably a bit much... but one also probably needs to take into consideration the level of this mans athletic ability. While it probably is not still great for him.. the weightless squats I would venture to say are doing little damage.. the 24kb may also not ad much again looking at him as a whole.. he certainly is far from your everyday joe.

With that being said what the fuck do I know im not a trainer or anything of that nature.. so.. I sent it over to my girl to look at. Shes currently in school for her Dr. of Physical Therapy. She's always showing me some pretty tight shit for jits I could post some of it here if we had a thread.. It will be interesting to hear her classmates and her own break down of his routine and its mechanics.

Getting choked, (especially) coupled with a neck crank is not a healthy program for your neck.

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Originally Posted by Jack LaBarge

I agree with having professional training if your competing! That was a hard core routine right there, BUT THAT WAS NOT a healthy program for your knees. Having your ass lower than your knee during squats (especially) with weights is not good for your knees!

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Inspiring video! Thanks Eddie.

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Originally Posted by John Wilcken

Getting choked, (especially) coupled with a neck crank is not a healthy program for your neck.

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The whole purpose of a training program is to make you better! If that same program is hurting your body or is shorten your jitz tournament career then your not training smart. Your remark I would suggest a better (technique) defense against the choke. Not the same!

I do my squats all the way down below my knees, is that really bad? I hear it is and I hear it isn't

when doing squats, you want your butt to be only just slightly below your knees forming a horizontal line (as your butt and knees are different sizes)... you should NOT allow your butt to "sit" and "relax" in the down position because it transfers weight to the wrong parts of your body (lower back and knee strain). mark rippetoe's book starting strength is the bible of basic weightlifting and really cheap too!

while searching i found this link, not exactly what we're talking about:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_defecation_postures

http://www.crossfitoakland.com/sites...Comparison.jpg

however... when doing air squats with no weight, you can let your butt drive all the way down as it's more of a rapid hip thrusting motion than slow heavy weight lifting. 2 different exercises.

it's been debated for a long time. I do rippetoe style squats (slightly below parallel, hip drive, ect.) because he is the god of squat knowledge. I would not listen to anyone else. In fact, I have had knee surgery, and doing his style of squats has improved my knee pain and stability, not made it worse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yha2XAc2qu8

If jesus descended down from the heavens and told me not to squat below parallel, I'd tell him to shove it and read rippetoes book, maybe next time he carried that cross he'd have better form.

Ok, so I just got off the phone with my girl, here is the best quick break down I can give of what she told me. The compression forces in the knee during this kind of a squat are extremely hard on your joints. Anytime you press your knee over your toe you create the same severe compression forces on your ankle. A person is more likely to injur themselves using that as a training tool you are pushing your muscles to extreme lengths under extreme tension, the longer you hold it there the more force your muscle has to generate to rebound and the greater a chance you risk of suffering injury. In her words, its a hell of an impressive demonstration and is a neat way to show how developed he is as an athlete. The man has more impressive leg strength then probably 95% of the world and the part when he does it on the kettle bell nearly looks fake its such a freakish display of strength, but the only reason it wont create problems as quickly for someone like this is the immense muscle structure he has around his knee. In short, it is not worth it and there are better and more effective exercises then this. You are taking great risk in trying anything like his with out first being in great physical strength and even then the risk still out weighs any benefit from this exercise.

The deepest benificial squat stops parallel to the ground, when your knee advances over your toe or you go past parallel with the ground you are now using your quads to force yourself back up and have eliminated the point of the squat.

I know I butchered her answers, but if you guys would ever want to do like a weekly couple of questions I am sure she would be willing to answer shit. I never dealt with PT's tell I started to date her, my back was fucked up for ages went to chiro after chiro. she set me up with one PT, the lady set me and then gave me some strength building routines.. ive never had a back problem sense.

She has taken the time to watch a lot of jiu jitsu with me and has even worked on some cool stretches to help with rubber guard that really stretch your ass muscle. For instance you do one prone on your back.. bend your left knee, press it up and towards your right shoulder with your left hand. Now.. take your right hand and grab your ankle above the joint so up by your shin, don't grab your foot she tells me its hard on the joint in your ankle and we arent stretching that. you should feel the stretch pretty easily.

Piston squats are pretty badass, and they definitly won't blow out your knees unless you do them with insane weights like that dude is doing, if you're doing them with just your body weight, or a little bit more your knees should be able to support you fine, plus you'll be getting the whole muscle to work. Also, it's actually easier to do them if you're on a little step of some kind, which makes it easier to go down all the way without having too much trouble with your balance.

If you guys want an other cool exercise, that works your leg muscle, but also builds up a lot of HIP EXTENSION and explosiveness try this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzBoQIw5we4
The last one is a bit ridiculous, but its pretty doable with weights, at first its hard just to do it with your body weight, but you'll see that once you get the movement down, blasting up with more weight is a piece of cake. Try it out some.

That pistol squat balancing on th kettle bell is intense!

That was a wicked video and the debate it created was well thought out. I had knee surgery and wouldn't do more than 90 degree squat myself. There are other ways to develop leg strenght, but that dude is putting on a unbelievable display of strength. It blew my mind. What more are we capable of...

I can do the part where he put the kettlebell on the floor and walked away

I wonder what is the best way to train your body for jiu jitsu...

I would say kettlebells, bulgarian bags, medicine balls, running and swimming. I worry that the typical lifting weight routines will just make you better at lifting a weight in a very specific manner, rather than allow your body to perform better in jiu jitsu. On top of that you will be heavier, tire faster, a little less flexible and lose some dexterity.

For example, how does doing squats with lots of weight improve your game? It will help when breaking the guard of your opponent when your standing up, but other than that it will just make your legs big, heavy, oxygen hungry, less mobile and less flexible.

What do you guys think? I would really like to hear your thoughts on what is the best way to strength and conditioning your body for jiu jitsu.

First off, Mark Rippetoe is the man. His seminal book Starting Strength is the Bible for building strength through full body movements, primarily the squat.

Secondly, LoL at anyone who thinks deep squats are bad for you're knees. I'd be willing to bet that most of these people have never squatted more than 2 plates to depth in their life. And smith machines don't count.

The definition of parallel is when the crease of your hip (where you're thigh meets your hip) is level with the top of your knee. When you break parallel on the squat, the movement engages the hamstrings and gluts more, making it more of a hip dominant exercise than a quad dominated exercise. In fact, stopping above parallel is actually WORSE for you're knees because of the shearing forces placed on your knees in stopping and reversing the motion, rather than utilizing the stretch reflex that kicks in when you break parallel.

The depth standard for powerlifting competitions is that you must break parallel for the lift to count. There's no way that this would be the standard for squatting hundreds of pounds if it was bad for your knees. I know some people will point to the gear powerlifters use (squat suits, wraps, belts, etc.). The depth standard is the same for raw, unequipped powerlifters as well.

Also, look at the depth that olympic lifters hit when they clean and snatch. They are going way below parallel with, again, hundreds of pounds.

Squats are the best way to build total body strength. Pick up a copy of Rippetoe's book. It'll change your life. It did for me.

A good way to get your balance level up for pistol squats is to start out holding on to something stable until your leg strength and balance get up there. You can also hold a door handle on a open loose swinging door or hold your toes until you can go no hands.

Anybody got exercises for doing leg curls without any machines or partners?

that vid made me feel like a total pansy.

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Originally Posted by Eddie Bravo

I do my squats all the way down below my knees, is that really bad? I hear it is and I hear it isn't

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@bullsydodger - i tweeted you the vid and no it isnt really bad to squat all the way down. you have to train specific to you sport. when you shoot, roll, or sub some one do you only bend you leg to 90 degrees? hell no especially not the 10th plannet family. The beauty of pistol squats is that you cant do it with a shit ton of weight. granted that guy was lifting big kettle bells but if you x that weight by 2 you are still at less than 120lbs and you wouldnt think twice about doing 3x that weight on an olympic bar. Our gym has incorporated pistol squats for about two months and i promise everyone you will see a noticeable gain in you game. Watch pistol squat progressions on you tube. no body is expected to be able to do a full pistol right from the begining! Enjoy the ride to higher strength, balance and explosive power brothers. Its a trip when you bust out your first one.

Guys my friend Greg Walsh is an amazing Strength & Conditioning Coach, and has worked with me and my team for the past 3 years, he has a background in Combat Sports (Cert. Muay Thai Instuctor, Purple Belt in BJJ under Cleber Luciano, and trained CSW with Erik Paulson for years). He has a "WOD" (Work out of the day) blog that you can follow. He focuses on Core Strength (kettlebells, macebells, body weight exercises, etc.)and Dynamic excersise that directly transition to Combat Sports. I HIGHLY recommend checking it out (he has tons of videos as well).

http://wolfbrigade.net/

Thanks Chris, sounds like a perfect addition.

Heres a badass video of Mat one for Greg's guys.

http://vimeo.com/26817301

Sometimes I lie on my back and rock forward into the pistol squat if I'm feeling too tired to start it from standing. Here's a poorly lit, hastily put together video clip of what I'm talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUzy00vWzmg

Here Greg does some great work with Ashley one of our fighters:

http://vimeo.com/11313140

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Originally Posted by Chris Herzog

Here Greg does some great work with Ashley one of our fighters:

http://vimeo.com/11313140

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That looks likes a pretty badass squat, I'll have t try it out... if I can find a giant mace bell that is :p

Thanks for posting this thread Eddie! I'm a personal trainer at the Anythime Fitness Gyms in Ga and I feel the sameway about core training for Jiu Jitsu , Myself I enjoy kettlebells and bodyweight training. I have a friend Joey Alvarado I don't know if you have heard of him and his teachings ? He has made a DvD called Shadow Jiu jitsu and Kettle Combat systems and there both really great for MMA training and Jiu Jitsu conditioning I think. Joey had article in the same Jiu Jitsu Mag you were on the cover of a few months back showing some of his drills. Heres one of his youtube videos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYU7rbmfXIw

There's also a http://mymadmethods.com/ which is a magazine full of drills and great workouts for guys like us:)

Beautiful stuff guys, let's all push our balance and core to the max :)

Just picked up Rippetoe's book/DVD Starting Strength, and another one by Rippetoe. I'm going to start on the program next week. I've been trying a lot of different stuff to improve my overall strength, core strength conditioning/endurance and athleticism. I'm always looking for new stuff, and I'm willing to try just about anything if I think it will work. I'm currently looking at ordering some yoga DVD's that are geared towards martial artists. I'm also gonna get Joey Alvarado's Kettle-Jitsu, and Shadow-Jitsu DVD's. Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Just being a smart ass. Did not convey well over the internet.

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Originally Posted by Jack LaBarge

The whole purpose of a training program is to make you better! If that same program is hurting your body or is shorten your jitz tournament career then your not training smart. Your remark I would suggest a better (technique) defense against the choke. Not the same!

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Originally Posted by John Wilcken

Just being a smart ass. Did not convey well over the internet.

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Get off the roids man or take your medicine! Ok tough guy! I wasn't being a smart ass.

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Originally Posted by Jack LaBarge

Get off the roids man or take your medicine! Ok tough guy! I wasn't being a smart ass.

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Alright, no more roids.

Absolutely you should be squatting past a 90 degree angle, just be properly stretched and don't be using weight that is unreasonable for abilities. Also, have perfect form, feet just wider than your hips, feet slightly externally rotated(about a 15 degree angle), keep your heels in line with one another and keep your head up looking forward to keep your spine erected and avoid back injuries. Squatting at a 90 degree angle is asking for trouble. Your joint is least stable at this point, and you're going downward with body weight+added weight, and stopping at the knees most unstable position and then accelerating upward in the opposite direction. Not a good idea. But do body weight squats religiously til you have perfect form. Then add weight.