BJJ Made My Lifts Weaker (Balancing BJJ and Powerlifting)
It can be hard to balance weight training and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. I know that for me, I struggled with it at a point in my life where I was doing Powerlifting and Strongman. I continued getting bigger and stronger and was chasing numbers in the weight room.
As I added extra bulk. My strength in the weight room increased. But my performance on the mats dropped significantly.
Then when I started focusing on BJJ more again, the weights in the gym went down. This was incredibly frustrating for me. Because as a competitive guy. I wanted it all! I wanted to be the biggest stronger person I could be plus be a bad ass on the mat.
And the only thing I was reward for my efforts was injuries and mediocre performance in both.
Balancing BJJ and Powerlifting
And in this video I talk about this in the hopes to assist our friend Peter who is a Powerlifter getting into Brazilian Jiujitsu.
He says that since training Jiujitsu he’s noticed that his lifts have dropped in their overall poundage. And if you’ve ever been involved in Powerlifting which places a hefty focus on pushing heavier and heavier weight. . . this isn’t the ideal situation.
His question he sent to me is two fold. . .
1. How do you balance BJJ training with Powerlifting?
2. Should he readjust his expectations for training?
I try to give some help to Peter from the perspective of someone who’s been much heavier and much stronger, who ultimately let go of that heavy weight to focus on BJJ more.
I also touch on the current program I follow for lifting in order to support my BJJ training. And hint around about some upcoming videos.
Let me also add this part in. You can still become very strong while training BJJ. No doubt about it. But you will not be an elite level lifter while you’re trying to be the best you can be on the mat. I go into this idea a bit more in the video.
Anyways, if you’re someone who’s really big into lifting who’s also pursuing BJJ. I hope this video is useful for you and your training on the mat and in the weight room.
Thanks for watching!
-Chewy
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I struggled with this when I started a few months back. I had lost a lot of weight a few years ago and then learned the basic lifts and spent the past couple years trying to drive those up. I had to let off the gas when I started learning jiu-jitsu so I could adapt to the extra stress. I’m back to within 3-5% of my 1RM’s now, but I struggled thinking I would lose those precious gainz forever while also sucking at jiu-jitsu. Turns out I was just panicking for no reason and everything will be fine. As with most things, the physical battle becomes easier once the mental battle is won, and typically that simply involves doing what you said, adjusting your expectations. Awesome post Chewy!