Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) has quickly become one of the most popular martial arts.  It has become popular because of its effectiveness coupled with the ability for people of all shapes, sizes, genders, and abilities to train the martial art regularly without necessarily incurring significant injuries.

There are very few martial arts in which you can train at 100% intensity repeatedly for days, weeks and months on end without incurring a life altering injury.  In BJJ you get to practice your art and techniques against resisting opponents thereby mimicking true combat (albeit limited by the rules of the martial art).

This relative safety and accessibility has meant a large number of BJJ participants are casual recreational performers.  There exists a middle ground of casual and masters level competitors – people who do not seek the highest levels of the sport but compete for the exhilaration, the challenge, and the feeling of accomplishment. At the other extreme there exists a growing professional core of BJJ practitioners.  It is for this elite 2% of athletes that this article is written.

The competitive athlete needs to focus on the three key elements when not at the height of their competition period.  As there generally does not exist a season – give that there are competitions year round – for the elite BJJ competitor, the training protocol is bi-phasic:

1. Physical Preparation
2. Capabilities Expansion and Optimization

This is the phase of training where the focus should be on force, speed, and stamina.  The goal is to peak for competition and to be … well … BJJ strong.

The methodological framework is graphically presented as follows:

In future blog posts we will focus on specific elements and exercises of the Physical Preparation component of the framework.

These are the elements of training that expand the capacity and capabilities of your body to perform the required movements – static, defensive, and offensive – of BJJ at a high level.

The methodological framework is presented graphically as follows:

Here too as above, future blog posts will expand upon the specific elements, exercises, movements, and philosophy behind the Capabilities Expansion framework.