Strength: How Much is Enough?
The biggest lie in all of grappling, which became the sales hook for BJJ, is that “strength doesn’t matter.” In any physical endeavor, strength is never a weakness. However it does have a limit to it’s return on investment.
Virtually every professional athlete has a strength and conditioning program. Other grappling sports — judo, wrestling, sambo — have long understood the importance of strength training in conjunction with their sport / skill training.
BJJ as a culture and community seems to want to maintain the mystique of traditional martial arts, that “technique conquers all” (TCA), and “the small guy can beat the bigger guy.”
In case anyone hasn’t noticed, the “big guy” can learn the same techniques. Additionally, weight classes exist for a reason. They did not in the early 90s circa UFC 1, but ironically, people weren’t complaining about steroids then.
The use of PEDs is also prolific in BJJ because testing is lax or non-existent — I’ll have a separate post on that topic soon. Clearly grapplers have figured out that technical ability is a force multiplier. It should also be obvious that, per physics, that multiplier needs an input force (strength) to be useful.
Some folks, like myself, just like lifting weights. However, feelings, or “liking” something, shouldn’t be conflated with the results it produces. More is not always better. It’s difficult to justify BJJ being the focus of your training if you’re spending 80% of your training time in the weight room (1).
Daniel Strauss wisely explained on the NonProphet podcast (2) that “the primary objective (of strength training for sports) is to reduce the risk of injury; and after that it’s performance.” This gives us a helpful guide.
Strength training should help prevent injury.
Strength training should improve performance.
When training impairs sport performance (because of fatigue, soreness, motivation, injury, etc.) we’ve clearly gone awry. Strength training should make us strong and compliment our sport performance rather than inhibit it. “Compliment” also likely means “going in a different direction in order to support”; rather than doing more of what we’re already doing in our skill training.
The folks at StrongFirst provide their own principles which also have a place in this conversation (3). However, the most salient part from that article is that “strength is a skill.” If BJJ is about honing and efficient tactical use of skills in order to secure progressively more control ultimately leading to a submission; then we ought to be training the skill of strength as well.
Benchmarks or "standards” are difficult to establish. I’ve attempted to do so in the past and upon maturing I’ve openly discussed my biases in those standards (4, 5). These sorts of synthetic and arbitrary benchmarks are inherently limiting. Indeed, to know one’s limits is to set them. Once you say, “I cannot go further”, you surely will not… at least not now.
My initial benchmarks were based on the work of Dan John (6). For a deeper look into some of his methods that are relevant to grapplers, see the chapters on “Anaconda Strength” and “The Litvinov Workout” in his book “Now What” (7).
Looking over Dan’s list again, it’s really good. If you can’t do a few pull ups and squat / bench your body weight, you’ve probably got some general “armor building” to do that would help make you a more robust athlete.
Likewise, some general aerobic fitness and metabolic capacity are going to help you get more out of each training sessions and more training sessions each week. That is the foundation of “conditioning.” Fitness is a measure of physical capability without context. Conditioning describes one’s ability to apply their fitness.
In rock climbing, the terms “onsight”, “flash”, and “redpoint” are used to describe different capabilities more granularly than just “how hard can you climb?”
Redpoint = The hardest route you can climb without falling, but with practice, and with input (“beta”) from others.
e.g. You try a route every weekend for a month or two and then finally redpoint it.
Flash = A route you can climb without falling, but with some insight, but no practice.
e.g. You walked up to the wall, chatted with a friend about the route, sized up a strategy from a guide book description, and then completed the route without falling on the first try.
Onsight = A route you can climb without falling, with no insight or practice.
e.g. You walk up to the wall and climb a route without falling on the first try.
These terms and Dan’s experience can help us quite a bit. I may be able to work up to a 3xBW dead lift if I’m focusing on strength training and for more than an 8-week camp; it’s going to be a long endeavor that clearly takes away time from grappling.
What maybe more practical is what Dan refers to as an “expected” level of strength, may be our flash level of strength. In other words, a standard you should be able to achieve on any given day of the year.
The sweet spot is probably our flash level, what Dan calls a “game-changer” level. What is the level of strength I’m capable of with a temporary shift in focus for a 4-6 week “camp.” A “camp” implies a sharpening of skill (perhaps conditioning or tactics) that is built on the broad foundation of technical ability.
I’ll revert to Dan’s outline to give you a 2024 update (below). Previously, I had included a “specialized” tier which I I thought to be the point of diminishing returns. On a bell-curve, or “standard distribution”, this is about 1 standard deviation (SD) above the mean (mathematic average).
In very general terms, you can get +1 SD better at a lot of things, with enough time and energy — “purple belt” if you will. But the “point of diminishing returns” is actually much before that. Most people who ever step on a BJJ mat will quit before getting their blue belt, and certainly before purple belt.
You can be a pretty effective grappler in terms of MMA or even law enforcement with “just” a blue belt in BJJ. However, the disproportionate increase in effort — the very fact that “it is not worth it” — is what makes the spectacle of specialization noteworthy, but I digress..
Push:
Expected / Onsight: BW Bench Press x 1
Game-Changer / Flash: BW Bench Press x 15
Pull:
Expected / Onsight: Pull Up x 5
Game-Changer / Flash: Pull Up x 15
Hinge:
Expected / Onsight: Dead Lift 150% BW x 1
Game-Changer / Flash: Dead Lift 200% BW x 1
Squat:
Expected / Onsight: Back Squat BW x 1
Game-Changer / Flash: Back Squat BW x 15
If you can meet those numbers at the drop of a hat, strength isn’t your problem. However, I also want myself and my athletes to follow the same template for aerobic and lactic / metabolic training. For that you’ll have to wait until next time!
#strengthisneveraweakness