Small dude 4 life

[Retterwrath]

What's up everyone? I'm Sam from Minnesota. I read a lot and post a little. Recently promoted to blue by Nate Kleinfeld.

I'm 5'6, 130lb. I have a goal to gain 10-15 pounds by the end of the year. Trying to find the right balance of strength training and Jiu Jitsu. I'm sure everyone else is as well, but I'm wondering if any small dudes have been through this and packed on some healthy weight.
I can attend Jiu Jitsu up to 4-5 times a week, i normally do 3 with school and what not.

I was able to gain 15lbs a few years ago, but I had to drink a shit ton of mass gainer and shove food into my face all day. I lost the weight after an injury and stopped strength training. Recently picked up strength training again.
Not sure what answer I'm looking for, just want to hear everyone's thoughts...
For example, should I hit the gym as often as I go to JJ? On the same days or alternating? One more than the other?
Let me know what you all think from personal experience whether you're a small dude or not.
Appreciate you all.

[Tim Bruhn]

Congrats on the blue mate.

I think it depends on your goals and how time rich you are. Are you trying to be the next 'world' champ or you happy loving and living the Jiu jitsu life?

I lifted my whole life but as soon as I found Jiu jitsu I felt like every second I spent in the gym I could be doing Jiu jitsu so why 'waste' it.

Now doubt stronger can help so if you were going to starting hitting the gym I'd be focusing on getting stronger not trying to put on mass. I love nothing more than getting monstered by a small guy, to me that's what's truly amazing.

No real answer there but i suppose my stance is fuck the lifting do more Jiu jitsu

[Craig Murray]

i gave up long ago trying to gain weight. It just wont stick. If you can really gain 1 lb of muscle a month, that's very good.

That's not to say strength training is not a great idea. You can train your neuro-muscular system to perform better by strength training and not gain any muscle. That makes you stronger and more explosive. The benefit there is you don't have to go up in weight-class when you compete

Best of luck!

[Brian Debes]

When I started training I was something like 5 foot 11 and 114 pounds. So way skinny-er than you. Being smaller and weaker will often make you much technically better at jiu-jitsu but being a bit more in shape can help boost your actual performance.

So two answers: 1. if your goal here is to improve your future competitive performance, then do BJJ every day and lift twice a week. If you can, lift one of those days on a non-bjj day. Lift for strength, not weight gain. At your height, its best for you bjj for you to continue to be your current weight.

2. You want to gain weight for personal reasons not connected to Jiu-Jitsu and thats of similar importance to you as jiu-jitsu. In this case, I would lift 3 times a week on not jiujitsu days. Lifting on a day you do allot of cardio is more likely to just help you get strong but not help you gain weight. Find meal replace meal protein shakes (meal replacement, not pure protein because you want massive calories) and drink that after work outs. A gallon or so of whole milk a day will also help allot with putting weight on, but I would not really do that on a jiu-jitsu day... you might end up... giving that milk back so to speak... That said, all that isn't good for your jiu-jitsu but you can get away with it along side your jiu-jitsu.

I hope this helps!

[Blake Small]

If you have regular reasons why you need to gain weight I am with Brian. You do bjj 3 times a week, lift 2-3 times a week if twice a week I would say do full body workouts, if 3 times maybe push, pull, and lower body for the 3 days. You're right you have to eat to support weight gains, creatine might help you put on 5 pounds faster than normal. I feel you I started at 5'9 145lbs im now 170lbs but it took me a couple years and I still float about 10lbs when im hitting jiu jitsu hard. I personally am 30 and am not really interested in competition thats why I put on weight, if I was a competitor I would have stayed at 145lbs.

[Bryan Wong]

I'm going to have to go with what a lot of the other guys are saying as well. I'm 5'6'' and weigh a bit under 140 and I used to work at 24 Hour Fitness selling memberships (top closer in my over one year there!) and I can tell you that for me, working with my buddies who were trainers and lifting constantly and eating clean but frequently got my weight up to 150 at the max. But I was eating so much that it became a burden and I was really pushing my genetics big time. After starting BJJ I've been content with my natural weight due to the weight classes (I assume you are into competing) and wanted to be going against guys who are my natural size.

As Brian said, though, if aesthetics is your primary goal then keep at a good bulking plan with mass as your goal as opposed to performance based strength for what we do in BJJ. Just don't be frustrated as a hard gainer as some cats aren't meant to be that huge; we can thank genetics for that one. Although, a steady diet of steak and eggs can help even the hardest gainer, I'd stick to lifting for strength and keeping on that BJJ grind!

[Drew Champlin]

5'6" 145lbs here. 2 days of strength training (full body workouts) and 5 days of JJ. I always do the JJ, the strength training fluctuates based on motivation and weather or not there are any competitions on the horizon.

About 5-6 years ago when I got into weight lifting I bulked up from 120lbs to 180lbs. I thought it was the greatest thing ever until I started doing JJ 3 years ago and realized I was made for the lighter weight classes. I just kind of gradually let the weight go, didn't do any special diet I just cut out some of the over-the-top eating habits that got me to 180 (like chugging whole milk and eating peanut butter straight from the jar). Now at 145 I feel like I'm at a pretty ideal size/strength. My weight lifting helps me deal with guys who are a little heavier, and my genetics make it easy for me to drop 5lbs in no time at all to compete at a -140 weight class if I so desire. As anyone who competes in this size range will tell you there's always a solid chance of being moved up a weight class so you gotta keep your strength up.

[Patt Holloman]

What's up everyone? I'm Sam from Minnesota. I read a lot and post a little. Recently promoted to blue by Nate Kleinfeld.

I'm 5'6, 130lb. I have a goal to gain 10-15 pounds by the end of the year. Trying to find the right balance of strength training and Jiu Jitsu. I'm sure everyone else is as well, but I'm wondering if any small dudes have been through this and packed on some healthy weight.
I can attend Jiu Jitsu up to 4-5 times a week, i normally do 3 with school and what not.

I was able to gain 15lbs a few years ago, but I had to drink a shit ton of mass gainer and shove food into my face all day. I lost the weight after an injury and stopped strength training. Recently picked up strength training again.
Not sure what answer I'm looking for, just want to hear everyone's thoughts...
For example, should I hit the gym as often as I go to JJ? On the same days or alternating? One more than the other?
Let me know what you all think from personal experience whether you're a small dude or not.
Appreciate you all.

The only way to gain is to take in more calories and hit the weights. You can gain the 15 way sooner than the end of the year, just have to keep with it.

https://dovitamins.com/products/purepump

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/dway...diet-plan.html

http://nkdnutrition.com/products/wei...ein-supplement

[Patt Holloman]

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/stre...=9780736092265

[Retterwrath]

Thanks for your responses so far, everyone.

I picked up strength training again mostly for it to supplement my jiu jitsu.
My dexterity and speed have been doing me well, endurance isn't horrible either.
Current efforts to improve my game involve increasing strength(possibly along with some healthy weight), and doing an analysis of my game plan.

The analysis will likely result in an overhaul of several systems and honing in on more specific drilling.
There are some clear dead ends in my life grappling thought process that I have to manually override, and writing it out has been helping so far.
Do you all mess with visual game plans ever? I know people have vastly different opinions on this as well.