There are many people that believe that BJJ is the only thing they need to do in order to have perfectly healthy bodies. That being said, it’s true that while training BJJ you will work all your muscles out. But is this enough?
We don’t think so. We think that you should supplement your BJJ training with other forms of exercises. In this way, you will be able to get the best of both worlds. One of the most popular forms of exercising is CrossFit. How does CrossFit relate to BJJ? Is it good to supplement BJJ with CrossFit? Read the rest of this article and find out.
Hitting the right muscle groups for BJJ with CrossFit
As you may be already aware – BJJ is a sport that taxes your entire body. All you need to do to realize this is have a single rolling session. The muscles of your arms, legs, and torso will have to work tirelessly and in unison in order for you to be able to just survive. Even your neck muscles will have to work to resist the clinch and the various chokes.
That being said, CrossFit is great because of the fact that there are many types of CrossFit workouts that will target all the muscles of your body. And if you prepare your muscles by working them out with traditional CrossFit exercises, you will all but bulletproof your body for rolling.
Below you will find an example of a great set of exercises that you can use for hitting all your muscles. For now, it’s important to be aware of the fact that you will need to target all the muscles of your body in a functional way.
Example of a CrossFit WOD for BJJ
Again, if you wish to build up your body for BJJ, then you will need to target all your muscles in a functional way. This is why we recommend the CrossFit compound exercises – exercises that target multiple muscles around the body.
So, we recommend doing drop down sets of a few CrossFit exercises. The set of exercises we recommend are deadlifts, squat cleans, push jerks, and pull-ups. You do the WOD by doing 5 reps of deadlifts, then 5 reps of squat cleans, then push jerks, then pull-ups. You don’t stop here, but you keep on doing the exercises in the same order. However, now you will need to do only 4 reps instead of 5. Again, you complete the entire row and you begin doing the same exercises, only this time with three reps. Then two and finally, one rep of each.
If you do this entire workout, you will feel a burning sensation in all the parts of your body. Of course, you need to modulate the mass of the weights according to your abilities and strength. And be mindful of the technique. There are people that do squats and deadlifts with terrible form. This is not only bad for your strength gains – but it can also cause devastating injuries to your knees and lower back. Finally, make sure that you do a proper warm-up before beginning your training session.
If you want to see this workout of the day, then we suggest that you check out
The potential drawbacks of CrossFit for BJJ
CrossFit is not without its drawbacks. One of the potential drawbacks is that there are many CrossFit practitioners that focus only on explosivity work. They do the lifts and cleans and pushes and pulls in a very explosive way. They don’t mind the technique and they don’t do slow reps.
Well, slow reps are where true strength comes up. Explosivity has its place in your work out – just a bit more sporadically. If all you do is explosivity work, then you may injure yourself while you work out, or while you train BJJ.
Another potential drawback is that CrossFit is taxing for your body. This means that you will lose a lot of energy trying to do the CrossFit workouts. By the time you enter the mats for your BJJ training, you may feel exhausted. And this is why you won’t want to exhaust yourself by training all the time. Make sure that you modulate your workouts in terms of the demand placed on your body. If you feel that you’re getting exhausted – rest.
In conclusion
CrossFit definitely has something to bring to the table when it comes to training BJJ. There are many kinds of effective exercises that you can incorporate in a healthy lifestyle. And many of these exercises will translate directly to BJJ. Make sure that you’re dedicated and that you do the CrossFit exercises with proper form so as to not injure yourself and to maximize your gains. Above all else, make sure that you have fun with it!
Check also:
- Best CrossFit Shoes 2018
- HIIT for BJJ – Benefits and Drawbacks
- Calisthenics for BJJ : Benefits and Workout Example
- Powerlifting for BJJ: Benefits and Workout program
