5 Exercise I Hate For BJJ Athletes

I’m going to go over 5 exercises I hate for BJJ athletes. Actually maybe hate might be a strong word. But, there are better options in my opinion. Let me know if you agree or not.

Let’s start off by saying everyone is different and exercises you use to strengthen your body is going to be different for everyone.

But, there are 5 common exercises , I think are over rated for BJJ athletes. It’s not that you cant do them with success. I think there are better variations , that are safer and have more upsides

5 Overrated Exercise For BJJ athletes

Barbell Press

Maintaining quality over head movements, is important and we do need over head strength in BJJ.

But, most guys and especially BJJ guys, have really awful shoulder health.

Not to mention , most have really rounded and tight T-spine(upper back), which makes going over head head painful and dangerous.

I think people should take steps into addressing this by mobilizing their pecs, lats and T-spine.

I like to incorporate landmine press variations , this allows us to train in over head like range of motion but it’s more shoulder friendly.

My favorite landmine press variations

• Viking Press
• 1/2 kneeling landmine press
• Staggered Stance landmine press

If you do overhead pressing and it’s killing your shoulders . Consider swapping it out for landmine press.

One of the downfalls of this exercise, is at the top of the range motion it is rather easy. I like to attach a band , to fix this issue.

Barbell Bench Press

I know this is most guys favorite exercise to do.

But, the rigid nature of the bar is rough for many guys especially for BJJ.

What people don’t know is our shoulder anatomy are all different. Meaning the angle that the arm is in matters. It’s important to be able to play round with it and customized it to you.

With the bar or even chest press machines. We can’t really do that.

I prefer most my chest press work be done with DBs. You can play around with the angle to see , what feels best.

Myself , I always felt DB presses way more in my pecs and they feel great on my shoulders.

BONUS TIP- By slightly inclining or declining a bench , we can make this even more shoulder friendly.

If your shoulders are beat up, lets put the barbell to the side and try some heavy DB presses.

Back sqauts

Back squats can be a great exercise. But, what many people think is a simple exercise.

Is actually a more advanced squat varation. You need great hip, ankle, t-spine and shoulder mobility to pull this off.

Again I’m going to harp on the poor shoulder health of most BJJ guys. Cramming a bar on your back can be a huge shoulder, elbow, wrist and lower back killer.

We should all learn good squat movements and be able squat 100lbs with a DB or KB before we touch a bar. But, even once you do that.

I tend to like variation which are more joint friendly such as the

• Safety bar squat
• BB Front squats
• Zercher squats

Barbell Deadlift

The biggest benefits for pulling a regular deadlift from floor for BJJ, is the ability to develop max force for the lower body.

There are few issues with the dead lifts.

The first one is not taking the time to learn the basics

Thing like :

• Proper hip hinge.
• Mastering the deadlift with KBs first
• Dead lifting with your legs versus pulling with your arms
• Proper bracing

A second, is regular deadlifts takes more mobility than other variations, and often are done incorrectly because of this.

The risk-reward ratio is just low with this exercise. You might be better of with dead lift variation like

• Trap bar deadlift
• RDL variations
• Deadlifts off blocks

Jogging

Running is something many people love to do. But, seeing as knee injuries are common in BJJ.

Putting a pounding on the joints to build your gas tank isn’t the best idea.

Especially if your someone who train BJJ, 6-9 session per week.

Not, that you can’t jog, some people tolerate it well and others do not.

Here are some exercises, I like to do to build the gas tank without jogging

• BJJ rolling and with various intensitys.
• Air bike
• Rower
• Loaded Carries and sled drags

Want me to take care of your strength conditioning for BJJ?

I’m looking for 5 BJJ athletes or hobbyist who want to

• Get mat strong and improve their performance
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• Get hurt less and recover quicker
• Get fit and healthy for life

If that is you go here and fill out the form , to see if this program is a good fit for you.