Kettlebell Workout

This is a cool workout that places an emphasis on conditioning as well as strength.
Do as many rounds in 20 minutes of 5 pistols (right/left), 5 strict one arm press (right/left) and either 5 one arm body weight rows or 5 strict pull ups as you can.
These types of circuits give you the benefit of heavy low rep strength training, but also give a great cardio conditioning workout, especially if you take no rest between exercises or circuits.
Try and get this workout done 2x a week in conjunction to your BJJ training. A quick warm up of 5 minutes skipping and some joint mobility is always a good idea as well.
Remember your strength and conditioning work is supportive of your jiu-jitsu be carefull not to overtrain.
Enjoy
Micah

Kenneth Jay's VO2 Max protocol

The first thing you have to do is to establish at what snatch cadence you come the closest to eliciting your VO2max. This is done by doing an incremental test that lasts no less than 6 minutes. Basically you just start out very slow and for each minute you increase the cadence. When you have get to the 6th minute you go all out snatching as many times as you can without stopping for at least one minute. The test might look like this but is subject to individual differences:

1st minute: 10 reps left arm

2nd minute: 12 reps right arm

3rd minute 15 reps left arm

4th minute: 17 reps right arm

5th minute: 18 reps left arm

6th minute: 26 reps right arm (all out effort)

The 6th minute reflects your VO2max cadence, hence that will be your interval training tempo. It is very important for the protocol that you continued snatching for the entire 6th minute. (make sure afterwards you balance out the numbers of snatches performed on each side so each side get a total equal amount of work).

In this example the VO2max cadence = 26reps

The interval work/rest time is determined to 36 sec. which is 60% of one min.

In those 36 sec. you need to keep your VO2max cadence = 26reps x 60% = approx. 16 reps.

So the setup is as follows:

VO2max/lactate tolerance and buffering:

Work/rest ratio: 1:1 (36 sec of work separated by 36 sec of rest.)

Number of intervals: at least 10 and the goal is to work up to 17+ sets before you test the SSST.

Number of reps per set: 16 (it is very important NOT to go faster or slower. DO NOT speed up to get more rest- it will ruin what you are trying to do.)

If your hands can take it do this at least twice per week. Only substitute with swings if it is really necessary. The program is based on the specific VO2 kinetics of the snatch not the swing.

The program is very taxing and one should always build up volume slowly.

KJ advocated doing the workout2-3 times a week for ( I beleive) 4-6 weeks before switching to another focus.You should be able to increase max vo2 strongly in that time frame and will notice a big improvement in conditioning on the mat.

Just be carefull not to overtrain! your number of strength and conditioning workouts will be determined by how often you are getting on the mat and ALSO your recovery ability! Ill go over this in another post, for now get snatching and let me know how you go!

Micah

p.s.With its origins in the U.S. Secret Service selection process, the rules for the Secret Service Snatch Test (SSST) are simple. You must do as many repetitions of the kettlebell snatch as possible in ten minutes. Using the 24kg kettlebell (ladies, use the 12kg), you may switch hands whenever you’d like and you may even set the bell down. Final count is total sum of snatches, period. The only unspoken rule is that you will not quit. Don’t even think about stopping when the phone rings. You can rest the kb on the deck to keep a lung down.
NOTE: Kenneth Jay uses a 16kg kettlebell for his VO2 max protocol for guys, ladies possibly an 8.

p.p.s. Kenneth said that the swings require too much total body tension and subsequent afterload on the heart to elicit a good vo2 max stress. stick with the snatches and the 16 kg unless you are over 200 lbs. the key is that the work is fast and gets your hr to to 95% level it needs to be to get the cardio response you are looking for.

if you just want a killer workout then swings for any number of time/rest ratios are excellent.It has a much more muscularizing effect, as you would expect with a higher level of tension.

Kettlebell Training

“If you lose a match because your opponent has more skill, that’s okay. If you lose because of your conditioning, you have a personal issue.”

I have never been a fan of gym based workouts. Maybe it’s just me, but I never found a gym routine that built strength I could use in athletic activities. It didn’t translate into fitness in the surf, hiking, mountain biking, jiu-jitsu or other pursuits.
Kettlebell training solved a lot of this. Being pressed for time (and somewhat by cash), I really didn’t want to shell out for a hideous direct debit at some nightmare health club/fitness first/body sculpting/designer studio.

For a couple hundred bucks, I got a lump of iron I could keep in my room and use in a multitude of ways. I can even take it to the park or use it as a doorstop. Anything to keep me out of those horrible semi-solariums, being subject to crap music and surrounded by guys with gelled hair do’s churning out dumbbell curls while talking into their blue-tooth headset.

A kettlebell costs about as much as a couple of months membership to a local gym but you get far more physical and mental bang for your buck with a kettlebell.

Kettlebell lifting can be tough and there is a fair amount of technique. But it has a diverse range of applications: Build strength. Develop flexibility. Raise your level of conditioning. The list goes on. In fact, there is quite a diverse range of materials to work with depending on your goals. Fat loss with kettlebells is no doubt a very welcome side effect of KB training. Kettlebells can be used for:

• Building Strength
• Increasing conditioning – muscular & aerobic & anaerobic
• Developing whole body coordination & explosiveness

• Balance

A couple of other BJJ/Kettlebell related factors include shoulder health, grip strength and conditioning.

Shoulder Health

Most BJJ practitioners I know have sore shoulders occasionally. Many of my team mates at Novagen Academy use glucosamine or other joint support formulas to help with shoulder pain. The shoulder has an extremely wide range of motion which also makes it susceptible to injury. Kettlebells help build healthy shoulders because the muscles, tendons and ligaments that support the shoulder joint are continually exercised with even the most basic exercises. For instance, if you squat a barbell, you can support it on your back, effectively disengaging your shoulder. If you squat with kettlebells your shoulders will be engaged even if you hang the bells like suitcases at your side. If you squat with the bells racked, shoulder engagement will be much greater..

Grip Strength

The no-gi game emphasizes arm and head control. The gi game emphasizes collar and sleeve control. Either way good grip-strength is a key to a successful BJJ game. Nothing is worse than losing a clean set-up when an opponent breaks your grips. Kettlebell training is uniquely beneficial for grip strength. Unlike conventional weight training, you don’t need a separate set of exercises for your forearms and wrists. The handle of a kettlebell is quite thick and you need to fully engage your forearms just to establish a good grip. Even in “rest” positions like the rack, your grips are always working to stabilize and position the bells, resulting in fantastic grip strength. After I started working out with kettlebells I found that my forearms don’t get burned out anymore.

Resistance + Cardio

A lot of people understand “conditioning” to mean running and other forms of aerobic cardio. BJJ however is characterized by explosive movements like the double-leg takedown, as well as sustained resistance as with the rear-naked choke. Because you have to resist a human opponent, BJJ is inherently unpredictable and you rarely have an opportunity to pace yourself or “groove” as you do with running or swimming. For this reason, I believe that long-duration aerobic cardio training is a poor fit for BJJ. Interval training with kettlebells affords great cardio benefits in addition to a challenging anaerobic resistance workout.

In my next article Ill look at a realy cool training protocol that has really helped my game in all of the above factors and all from the comfort of my own room (and with my choice in music :-) )On top of this the workout only takes about 20 minutes 2-3 times a week!