I’m a big fan of kettlebells, and think they’re great for BJJ. For a while I was doing a variation of the “Fight Gone Bad” circuit that is popular with CrossFitters. In my version of Fight Gone Bad I would do one minute of squats, one minute of rows, one minute of shrimps, one minute of swings, and one minute of presses. I’d do three of these five minute rounds. This workout is both mentally and physically draining, and after a while I found it to be detrimental to my BJJ. I was so depleted after doing Fight Gone Bad that I was too weak to roll and ended up getting injured twice.

Then I discovered Kenneth Jay’s VO2 max workout. I actually bought the DVD from dragondoor. If you’re considering buying the DVD I’ll give you warning that it is tailored to RKC kettlebell instructors. There are a lot of diagrams and charts that demonstrate the scientific underpinnings of VO2 max from an instructor’s point of view. The DVD will not teach you how to snatch properly. If you want to learn the snatch I recommend one of Mike Mahler’s DVD’s. I have two of his DVD sets and they’re very good for kettlebell biomechanics.

I won’t get into the science stuff, which I barely understand anyway. In brief, I’ll just say that VO2 max refers to the body’s ability to transport and utilize oxygen. Many consider VO2 max to be a key measure of cardio-respiratory endurance. Improving VO2 max is complex - the one thing I’ll mention is that interval exercise has been proven to be more effective at increasing VO2 max than long duration exercise.

Anyway, the DVD shows you how to measure the kettlebell snatch cadence that optimally stimulates VO2 max. In my case it was 16 snatches every 36 seconds. So the complete workout consists of 20 sets of 36 seconds of work and 36 seconds of rest. During the work period I’m supposed to do 16 snatches at a cadence that will make me finish the last rep exactly at the end of the 36 second interval. Unless you’re huge, a 35lb kettlebell is the ideal weight for this protocol.

In my case I started at 12 sets. I couldn’t do any more than that because my hands were too weak to do that many snatches. Eventually I worked my way up to 16 sets of 16 reps. I wanted to compete in a couple of tournaments this summer and I thought I better amp up my cardio training so a few weeks ago I started doing 16 sets of 18 reps. Last week I started doing 20 sets of 18 reps. Here’s what my hand looks like this morning…

I started developing blisters about ten days ago. I put krazy glue all over them so I could get through my workout but I guess the additional four sets I’ve been doing all week were the straw that broke the camel’s back. The big blister in the middle of my hand was oozing in a frightful manner this morning. It was effing heinous if you want to know the truth. I’ve also got three blisters on my right hand that are ready to go at any moment.

Anyway, the good news is my cardio is better than it’s been in twenty years. Also my grip strength is way better. Now if I could just elevate my technique…

I’ve discovered that you really can’t do many exercises with a sprained MCL. Last week my plan was to stay fit with the awesome Naked Warrior workout. Unfortunately, I can’t even do a pistol on my good leg because I can’t keep the lame leg straight as I squat down.

Then I tried to do some one-arm pushups but unless you can keep your body completely tight and rigid from head to toe you won’t budge from the down position. I could literally feel power leaking out of my bad knee when I tried to do one-arm pushups and eventually I just gave up.

I have figured out a few exercises that put no strain on my knee. First and most obvious is the situp. I’ve been doing a lot of cross-choke situps. Basically this involves reaching far between your legs with the blades of your wrists turned in as though your are cross-grabbing the lapels of an opponent’s kimono. On the negative I try to touch my elbows to my belt-line, just as I would with a real cross choke.

The other exercise I’ve been doing is the kettlebell press from a seated position. I just sit on the ground with my legs stretched out in a V in front of me. Then I crush-grip the handle of a 45lb kettlebell and do a strict military-press overhead. This is an awesome workout for your core because your obliques and abs have to be flexed tight during the press or the kettlebell will just pull you backwards and you’ll smash your head. I can only do about five reps on each side. By comparison, when I do a regular clean-and-press I can generally do 10-12 reps with a 53lb kettlebell because of the additional power from my legs. By eliminating the legs you amplify the difficulty of the press and recruit different muscles.

A hellish variation of the seated press is the seated curl. From the same position as before, you just crush-grip a kettlebell by the horns and hold it in curl position in front of you for as long as you can. This drill engages the back muscles more. If you don’t keep your back tight, the weight of the bell will just pull you forward.

You don’t really need to crush-grip the bell in either of these exercises but I’m doing so because I want to improve my grip strength and frankly it’s the only exercise I’m going to get for a while.

When my knee is rehabbed a little more I’m going to try to get back to my Naked Warrior training and I hope to blog about it more in the coming weeks.

I have a crazy bad toothache and I need to see an endodontist for a root canal. I can’t bite down on my mouthguard without agonizing pain. The last class I went to I almost blacked out when I put in my mouthguard. So I’m thinking I won’t go to class until I get my mouth repaired. Since I can’t go to class I’ve been doing more conditioning which isn’t as fun as skill training but I’m less likely to grit my teeth. In my current condition if I grit my teeth I think I might just drop dead on the spot.

Anyway, I have a new system for my rounds training. Basically at the top of the minute I ask my trainer (wife) to tell me how many reps I did of that exercise during the last training session and then I try to beat that number by two reps. Also I asked her to tell me when there are ten seconds left in the minute so I can be mentally ready to transition to the next drill and don’t get caught sucking wind and feeling sorry for myself. So far this system has been working. On December 27 I moved 1042.1 pounds per minute. Last night I moved 1207.89 pounds per minute over three five minute rounds with two minute rest periods.

BTW - while my kettlebell training has been better, my weight is much worse. I can only eat soft foods until my surgery so I’ve been eating pasta and smoothies and enchiladas. It’s surprisingly difficult to find mushy food that won’t make you pack on the pounds. Yogurt would be good but it hurts my stomach for some reason. I can’t wait till my tooth is fixed so I can go back to eating celery and raw almonds.

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.

I had a terrible conditioning workout today. I got these 45lb Go-Fit kettlebells to work out with in Minneapolis and they have this weird rubber coat. The rubber smells intensely bad and it was kinda distracting. Also, I felt a pain in my hamstring after the first round of double kb swings so I finished the last two rounds with a single kettlebell. My pounds-per-minute statistic is going down which is totally bumming me out. I need to push harder tomorrow and make something happen.