During my very first week of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training, my teacher Greg Nelson told the class, “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.”
This created a problem for me. At the time, I understood “conditioning” to mean running and other forms of aerobic cardio. While I’ve been a runner for most of my life I had to hang up my sneakers because of chronic foot pain. In fact, one of my biggest motivations for studying BJJ was to maintain fitness without pulverizing my feet. So I started researching alternative forms of conditioning, and soon discovered kettlebells from Mike Mahler’s website.
After training with kettlebells for a while, I noticed that many other Jiu-Jitsokas train with kettlebells. I’ve never seen any type of explanation for the rapid adoption of kettlebells amongst BJJ and MMA fighters so I thought I would share my thoughts. I believe that kettlebell training is uniquely complementary to BJJ in the following ways:
Shoulder Health
Most BJJ practitioners I know have sore shoulders occasionally. Many of my team mates at Minnesota Martial Arts Academy use glucosamine or shark cartilage or both 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.
Proportionality
Practically all BJJ techniques involve compound movements. For instance, the shrimp escape involves a coordinated exertion of every major muscle group in the body. The typical “beach physique” of huge pecs and biceps and skinny legs is extremely disadvantageous in BJJ because your legs are overburdened, making basic movements grueling. Kettlebells promote proportionality of strength because you can’t easily isolate any single muscle group. For instance, you can’t easily do bicep curls with kettlebells. The closest analogue is the hanging clean, but that exercise engages your core and shoulders as well as your biceps. If you have major strength disproportion, kettlebell training is corrective. For instance, you may be be able to press 140 pounds. But if you can’t clean two 70 pound bells, you can’t even setup a press. The clean engages your hamstrings, shoulders, buttocks and back, promoting proportionality of strength.
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, and I can pull people off their base with a wrist curl, which is pretty cool.
Resistance + Cardio
BJJ 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.
Biomechanical Reinforcement
The biomechanics of the squat are the same as the standing guard pass. The biomechanics of the kettlebell swing are the same as the uppa or bridge. The more I train, the more similarities I find between kettlebell exercises and BJJ techniques. Since “technical” Jiu-Jitsu is largely a matter of sound biomechanics, it makes sense to me that you would want to drill these biomechanics as much as possible. Adding resistance with kettlebells makes the movement more realistic and has helped me raise my BJJ game, perhaps more than the other drills I do.
If anyone else has thoughts on how kettlebells complement BJJ, I’d love to hear them.
