My First JJ thread.

[Taylor Culbertson]

Now that I am two weeks into my training to be the UFC heavy weight champ, I have realized a few things, and have a serious question. I use to lift weights about five days a week and that was all I did for exercise. I have been going to jj 3 times a week for the last two weeks and have been lifting weights 3 times a week. I can feel my body breaking down in a bad way. My question is, should I be lifting weights? Is it advantageous for jj or should I just focus on rolling and increasing my cardio?

[James III]

Lots of people will have different views on this but in my opinion I would just do Jiu-jitsu for now and let your body adapt to it first before you try to condition it specifically for rolling. I think if you try and do both so early you will do more harm then good. One your muscles have got strong and used to it then look into how to do specific strength and conditioning.

[Ehsan_Karam]

Rolling and cardio, if you've lifted for any amount of time you should have plenty of strength. The stronger you get right now the harder you're gonna be making it for yourself to learn Jiu-Jitsu. If you can get out of a given position by using strength then you always have that as an option , but the little guys who show up to class and can't muscle anybody have no choice but to learn to do the techniques correctly. I used to lift alot but after training full time for two years or so I decided to stop almost altogether and my game kinda took off. ( I say almost because I still do body weight stuff like handstand pushups and what not.)

[Daniel Valdez]

I think a person has to have to be great at providing the body nutrition, rest, and the correct training times before they can tweak how much is too much training. Without any the before mentioned, one day week can be too much.

[Ehsan_Karam]

And stretch. Also have you really been on here since last year with almost 1000 posts and you never trained until now?
Crazyness....good luck man, enjoy the journey.

[Taylor Culbertson]

And stretch. Also have you really been on here since last year with almost 1000 posts and you never trained until now?
Crazyness....good luck man, enjoy the journey.

yep, and thanks for the advice. I think I am relying on my strength way too much right now. I don't have a clue what is going on when I am rolling with someone, but I manage to not get murdered "to badly" by just exploding out when I feel like I am about to get in a bad position, which is probably also one of the reasons I gas so quickly. Not to mention I haven't done cardio in about 6 years.

[Jay Chow]

Remember you are using completely different muscles to your weightlifting ones. You are basically killing your muscles with the weights 3 days a week, and then killing off all the other ones the other 3 days. I'd reduce the weights to be honest, or see if you can follow a better routine.

Exploding out like you said is the complete wrong way to do it. You gotta get caught in stuff to understand how it works. Learning how to get out of Triangles, Armbars, Rear Naked Chokes, Leg Locks, Guillotines. This is the most important stuff. Exploding out will not help you in the long run at all, as you won't learn any defenses to it. Gotta pay your dues and get choked!

[Taylor Culbertson]

Remember you are using completely different muscles to your weightlifting ones. You are basically killing your muscles with the weights 3 days a week, and then killing off all the other ones the other 3 days. I'd reduce the weights to be honest, or see if you can follow a better routine.

Exploding out like you said is the complete wrong way to do it. You gotta get caught in stuff to understand how it works. Learning how to get out of Triangles, Armbars, Rear Naked Chokes, Leg Locks, Guillotines. This is the most important stuff. Exploding out will not help you in the long run at all, as you won't learn any defenses to it. Gotta pay your dues and get choked!

I have been feeling like what you said was the way to go, but how do you learn a defense for any of the submissions you listed by having it done to you?

[K Madden]

I have been feeling like what you said was the way to go, but how do you learn a defense for any of the submissions you listed by having it done to you?

by understanding what you can and cannot tolerate. some people are incredibly choke resistant. (maybe cause they introduced themselves to strangle-bation at a young age) others never tap to calf cranks. its totally personal. once you realize what is happening to you, you will learn to stay calm, relax and defend properly.

here is a trick ive used for my new students-
write, and i mean WRITE down every move that you did in your free roll session...immediately after you stop.
it will focus your mind to think about what you are doing, and one of two things will happen.
1-your mind will speed up to your body (<5% of people)
2- your body will slow down to your mind (+95%)
it will help you think clearly and with a purpose. seems to be a HUGE help to my students.

[Taylor Culbertson]

by understanding what you can and cannot tolerate. some people are incredibly choke resistant. (maybe cause they introduced themselves to strangle-bation at a young age) others never tap to calf cranks. its totally personal. once you realize what is happening to you, you will learn to stay calm, relax and defend properly.

here is a trick ive used for my new students-
write, and i mean WRITE down every move that you did in your free roll session...immediately after you stop.
it will focus your mind to think about what you are doing, and one of two things will happen.
1-your mind will speed up to your body (<5% of people)
2- your body will slow down to your mind (+95%)
it will help you think clearly and with a purpose. seems to be a HUGE help to my students.

Dude? Homework?