Tag Archives: Conditioning
Lose Fat or Gain Muscle First?
Although I take my own nutrition very seriously, I don’t normally get involved in the weight loss field – it’s just not my area of specialization (‘dammit Jim, I’m a grappler, not a nutritionist…’) (more…)
The Exercise I Was Doing "All Wrong"
Let’s talk about lifting weights… LOTS of weights. But to tell you the whole story, first let me take you back to when I released a little DVD called Dynamic Kneebars… (more…)
Killer Grip, and How To Get It!
Stephan’s note: this post is one of over 50 lessons in the Beginning BJJ eCourse. Sign up here to get your hands on the rest of the lessons for free.
My BJJ coach Marcus Soares believes that a really strong grip is one of the most important physical attributes for a BJJ fighter. (more…)
Why I'm Training Like A (Strikeforce) Girl
I had a great conditioning workout today, motivated by two entirely different things.
The first thing firing me up was watching a Christiane Cyborg conditioning session on Youtube. She was preparing for her recent fight in Strikeforce against Gina Carano. (more…)
GSPs MMA Conditioning Coach: Jon Chaimberg
Jon Chaimberg is a guy I’ve always wanted to talk to. Actually, that’s an understatement, because I what I really wanted was pick his brain mercilessly until he gave me all the secrets of his incredible approach to MMA conditioning. (more…)
Two Interviews
Tradeoffs in Conditioning for Grappling
I first got serious about physical conditioning when I got involved in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Sure, I’d lifted weights and done some running before that point, but there was just something about grappling that drove home how very important conditioning was. (more…)
How to Stay Fit on Holiday
How many people do you know who gained 10 lbs or more over a relatively short trip to an all-inclusive resort, or a week of Christmas celebration? The holiday bulge phenomenon is really, really common. And maybe you’ve even experienced it yourself… (more…)
Functional Training Gone Bad
Today I’m going to tell you about one of the sillier ideas I’ve ever had…
About 10 years ago I got interested in functional training and sports specific exercises. I wanted to get away from the Pec Deck and do exercises that more closely mimicked the movements I was using on a daily basis in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, judo and wrestling. (more…)
More On Pull-ups...
Here is some feedback and some more pull-up variations that drifted in from the ether since I released the 19 Pullup Variations video… (more…)
In previously newsletters I’ve sung the praises of the pull-up. Grappling is much more about pulling than it is about pushing – using your arms to maintain the over and under grip in rearmount, tightening up the rear naked choke, bodylocking an opponent (more…)
Today I want to tackle a bit of newsletter housekeeping. A series of recent newsletters on conditioning have generated a lot of feedback, and more than a few questions.
Balancing Mat Time with Conditioning
Forget the work-life balance! Let’s talk about something much more important: the balance between mat time and conditioning.
I bring this up because one of the questions I get asked most frequently is about how to structure one’s training and conditioning for maximum benefit (more…)
A Sneak Peek Into a Fighter's Conditioning Routine
Most of my text message communications to my friends are pretty short and mundane. Recently, however, I had a very interesting conversation with MMA fighter Denis Kang, partially over the phone but mostly using text messages. (more…)
Train Hard, Recover Smart
Quick: what’s the most important meal of the day?
If you said “breakfast” then you’re wrong, at least if you’re a hard-training combat athlete. According to Martin Rooney, author of ‘Training For Warriors, the Team Renzo Gracie Workout’, the two most important meals of the day are your pre and post-workout meals.
Jiu-jitsu and Physical Attributes
Physical attributes are things like balance, neck strength, limb length, explosiveness, leg flexibility, and percent body fat. Your physical attributes are the foundation of what you can do with your body, and are influenced by genetics, training, age and injuries. (more…)
I Can't Run: The Excuse List
If you are a longtime reader of this newsletter you know that I think very highly of running as a conditioning method. Long runs, sprints, hill runs – as you can see from the following articles I think that they are all great. (more…)
Keeping the Will to Fight
As is so often the case, Mark Twain said it best: “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” This applies to dogs, grapplers, MMA fighters and jiu-jitsu players alike. (more…)
Monitoring Morning Heart Rate
Longtime readers will recall that I’ve written about overtraining, under-recovering and exercise-induced illness before (e.g. Don’t Get Sick and Overtraining in MMA). It sucks to have a streak of hard training sessions interrupted by the flu, and being overtrained makes catching that flu almost inevitable. (more…)
A "Hard" Bodyweight Workout
Someone asked me recently “if the bodyweight conditioning routine on your website is an easy workout, then what does your BJJ coach, Marcus Soares, consider a hard workout”? (more…)
How to Stand in the Guard
Last week I discussed the differences between standing and kneeling guard passes. One thing I pointed out was that some schools tend use only kneeling guard passes whereas other schools tend to mix up their guard passing and use both standing and kneeling passes. (more…)
Grappling/MMA Circuit Training Videos
When people think of conditioning they often imagine people doing cardio and strength training separately. In this paradigm you might run in the morning and then lift weights in the afternoon (more…)
Hard Come, Easy Go
In a previous tip I talked about how one often makes the fastest progress by working on one’s weakest area. An unfortunate fact is that when you have a break from training, intentional or otherwise, your weakest areas also regress and erode the fastest. (more…)
I’ve received lots of feedback about a previous tip discussing how some methods of neck conditioning can be problematical for some people.
Grapplearts newsletter reader Kevin shared his favorite method of neck training with us: (more…)
A reader writes:
Q: I would like to own a grappling dummy but all the ones I have looked at are very expensive. Do you have any suggestions?
A: There are many commercially available throwing and grappling dummies available on the market (more…)
Free BJJ Book !
To receive this free report and receive the Grappling Tips Newsletter enter your email below
Featured Grappling MMA Pic
