Supplemental Jiujitsu Training

I often get asked, "What can I do to improve my Jiujitsu skills when I can't hit the mats?" I realize that people can't always make it to training and sometimes no one is around to grapple with, so what can you do?

There are many drills that can be practiced on your own and that will help improve your Brazilian Jiujitsu skills.

Here is a brief list of them.

Bear Crawls; This exercise will help build a phenomenal endurance that will translate directly to sparring. If you can add weight to yourself either through the use of a weight vest or by carrying someone on your back you will make great gains in muscular and cardiovascular endurance.

Workout in water; Here you can either use weights under water for additional resistance or practice your Brazilian Jiujitsu moves under water. Everything from shrimping to bridging will help you when using the techniques out of water. You can go in shallow water or deeper water for standing moves.

Training on the beach; Again here you can practice shrimping in the sand. The natural resistance the sand offers will help you fly on the mats.

Hill sprints; There's nothing like hill sprints to develop your aerobic and anaerobic conditioning. You'll want to sprint up the hill as fast as you can and jog down and around for a few minutes before doing it again in intervals.

Grapple against a tree; I know, this one sounds ridiculous, until you see the advantage of doing it for yourself. Practicing pushing and pulling movements against the resistance of a tree will help develop your power specific to your grappling beyond anything weight training could ever do for you. You'll just have to try it yourself and after a while you'll become a believer.

Rock climbing; Believe it or not, rock climbing is the single best exercise for your grip strength. Try it once a week for a few months and you will not believe the strength you will gain in your grips, your opponents won't believe it either. They'll be shocked is more like it.

Do the alligator; Similar to the bear crawls, the alligator is just performed lower to the ground, this takes bear crawls to another level, especially if you add a weight vest here as well. Just be ready to swear alot afterwards and don't say I didn't warn you.

Lastly, Yoga; That's right, Yoga will help with everything from breathing to core strength and posture.

Try Power Yoga for an intense workout that will also take your flexibility to new heights.

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