BJJ Shawn
Level 6 Valued Member
Now, I don’t mean this in a bad way, I’m just disappointed with my last six months so I’d like some opinions.
I was out of BJJ for 16 months or so, and during that time I spent the first 8 months being lazy then I did S&S plus a little bit of naked warrior practice for about 7 months. After hitting timeless simple, I started doing the 10,000 swing challenge and the first couple days were miserable but it got better and better. I was only using a 24k bell, so strength wasn’t the issue, but strength endurance played a huge part.
After two weeks, I got to roll with a few guys and I spent two hours dominating everyone and never got worn out. Then, every month or so since I have rolled with the same guys.
After finishing the 10k swing challenge, I completed timed simple, and thought I should work on my base of strength. I have since spent the last 5ish months doing mostly barbell lifting, and have gotten much “stronger.” My deadlift 5RM has increased over 50 lbs, bench press about the same, and OHP about 25 lbs. In all measurable ways, my base strength has gotten much better. However, every time I roll I do worse and worse, and my strength gives out quicker and quicker. My conditioning is now terrible, which I totally understand why and am not too concerned about since I plan to work back towards going conditioning, but I thought my strength would increase and instead I now feel overpowered by people that are my size and have done zero strength training in the past two years but focused on aerobic exercise.
Am I wasting my time with base strength work? What made the 10k swings so useful for grappling, and is a workout like that sustainable or just a peaking program? My plan was to work more base strength, then soon I was going to switch back and do some q&d/S&S/A+A in addition to barbell work, but now I’m questioning whether there’s any point in strictly strength work for athletes outside of the strength sports. Should I just go back to kettlebells and skip all the other strength work?
I was out of BJJ for 16 months or so, and during that time I spent the first 8 months being lazy then I did S&S plus a little bit of naked warrior practice for about 7 months. After hitting timeless simple, I started doing the 10,000 swing challenge and the first couple days were miserable but it got better and better. I was only using a 24k bell, so strength wasn’t the issue, but strength endurance played a huge part.
After two weeks, I got to roll with a few guys and I spent two hours dominating everyone and never got worn out. Then, every month or so since I have rolled with the same guys.
After finishing the 10k swing challenge, I completed timed simple, and thought I should work on my base of strength. I have since spent the last 5ish months doing mostly barbell lifting, and have gotten much “stronger.” My deadlift 5RM has increased over 50 lbs, bench press about the same, and OHP about 25 lbs. In all measurable ways, my base strength has gotten much better. However, every time I roll I do worse and worse, and my strength gives out quicker and quicker. My conditioning is now terrible, which I totally understand why and am not too concerned about since I plan to work back towards going conditioning, but I thought my strength would increase and instead I now feel overpowered by people that are my size and have done zero strength training in the past two years but focused on aerobic exercise.
Am I wasting my time with base strength work? What made the 10k swings so useful for grappling, and is a workout like that sustainable or just a peaking program? My plan was to work more base strength, then soon I was going to switch back and do some q&d/S&S/A+A in addition to barbell work, but now I’m questioning whether there’s any point in strictly strength work for athletes outside of the strength sports. Should I just go back to kettlebells and skip all the other strength work?
Last edited: