Today I wanted to share a comment and response from one of my YouTube videos on “BJJ Cardio” because this follower express an extremely common sentiment that I hear all the time…
Comment:
I recently got back in bjj/sub grappling in my late 30’s. I used to do it in my early 20’s and was thin, flexible and in great shape. I’m now much heavier, been lifting heavy weights for years and im gassing out terribly. Im thinking about stopping lifting and just running and stretching in my off days maybe hitting the heavy bag as well. I especially get tired in the gi, i much prefer no gi being a former wrestler.
My reply:
Hi, this is a very common experience. What I’d submit to you is that you very likely have less a conditioning problem than you do an efficiency problem (even more so since you mentioned that you get tired in the gi and prefer no gi due to your wrestling background).
One one hand, it’s great to be in shape for general health and of course if you’re competing, and strength training is an important aspect of overall fitness and injury prevention. But on the other hand, you also want to use and rely on these attributes (strength and “cardio”) as little as possible in your training. Doing this might feel like a step back in the short term because you may “lose” in some exchanges where you would have previously compensated with physical attributes, but your skills and longevity will benefit tremendously by playing the long game.
An example of this is how many times we hear 40+ grapplers talking about how they like the gi because they can use strong grips and “old man strength” to hold onto opponents and slow them down…
Or on the flip side, others who prefer no gi because they want to rely on explosiveness and don’t want their opponents to be able to control them as easily.
No right or wrong, but it’s important to understand that both extremes are actually going to impede your actual long term Jiu-Jitsu skill development in favor of optimizing for short term results by relying on your physical attributes.
Here’s a more productive alternative:
Strong grips? Great, but try to use them as little as possible and see how much you can substitute grips for weight distribution. If you hate no gi because you don’t do as well when you have no grips, do more no gi.
Explosive? Great, but try to use it as little as possible, and see how much you can substitute explosiveness for better connection and angle. Put on the gi so people can grab you and slow you down.
Moral of the story:
Solve problems with JIU-JITSU!
Whatever attributes you have will always be there in your back pocket in a competition or a fight, but remember they won’t last forever. Be willing to sacrifice a little bit of your “edge” today in order to have better, more efficient Jiu-Jitsu down the line.
