If you want a no nonsense list of the the 15 best Jiu Jitsu exercises then you’ve come to the right place. In this article we will review the best exercises that should be included in any good strength and conditioning program for Jiu Jitsu athletes. I will also include some of my most popular programs that will develop the required level of strength and condition to excel on the mats. Let’s get to it.
When doing my research for this article I confess I found quite a lot of nonsense on the internet. The most popular articles on this topic tended to revolve around calisthenic based movements, and drills that are meant to mimic common Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu movements like: hip escapes, and guard passing. These are very poor options for developing high level grappling performance.
It hurts my heart seeing athletes waste time on sub par training. This is especially offensive given how hard most BJJ athletes work in their regular Jiu Jitsu training. Before we go any further, here is the full list of the 15 best Jiu Jitsu exercises for functional strength and conditioning.
15 Best Jiu Jitsu Exercises
- Barbell Back Squat
- Hex Bar Deadlift
- Weighted Pull Ups
- Barbell Bench Press
- Weighted Dips
- Rope Climbs
- GHD Sit Ups
- Barbell Windshield Wipers
- Zone 2 Conditioning
- Assault Bike Intervals
- Weighted Hangs
- Dumbbell Rows
- T-Bar Rows
- Weighted Jumps
- Banded Kettlebell Swings
This list of 15 exercises is enough to keep you progressing from white belt to black belt. In fact, they are the basis for any good exercise program. This is by design.
One of the most common mistakes that combat sport athletes make is confusing the specific movements of their sport with weight lifting and conditioning workouts. Occasionally this makes sense, but most of the time it’s just a massive waste of time. Adding weight to a solo drill doesn’t make it better!
In order to better make sense of the physical requirements to excel in Jiu Jitsu, we’ll take a quick look at the research to see just how fit, and how strong the top level athletes are. Once we know that, we can make sure that we are building an exercise routine to reach those goals.
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Jiu Jitsu Strength and Conditioning Research
The good news for most athletes is that you don’t need an extreme level of strength or cardiovascular fitness to do well in Jiu Jitsu. This research review analyzed several studies and found that the average male athlete is reasonably strong and fit.
The top level athletes bench press roughly 250 pounds, or roughly 1.4 times their bodyweight. They displayed 110 pounds of static grip strength, and had a VO2 max of roughly 50 ml/kg/min. These athletes also had between 14-18 percent body fat on average, with more experienced athletes closer to the 12% area. Interestingly enough, these numbers match other high level martial arts athletes.
Other studies found strong correlations between leg strength, upper body pressing strength, and pulling strength. An average experienced Jiu Jitsu athlete could do about 14 dead hang pull ups. The vast majority of these Jiu Jitsu practitioners are locally or regionally competitive, with 3 or more years of experience.
As a fitness coach I find these numbers to be strong, but attainable for the vast majority of people reading this article. None of these results are elite level, which is good news for us. Now that we have some idea of the requisite fitness characteristics we need to do well in Jiu Jitsu, let’s get to the list of 15 best Jiu Jitsu exercises.
15 Best Strength and Conditioning Exercises for Jiu Jitsu
In this section I’ll list the exercises I’ve already highlighted perviously. I’ll provide links to each exercise that will cover the basics of each movement. I will also provide links to programs that will help you put these exercises into a reasonable order, taking the guess work out of your Jiu Jitsu fitness program.
I highly recommend checking out the video’s as they will give you tips on proper form which will help you get the most out of these exercises in your training sessions.
If you want a detailed program designed to build serious overall strength and work capacity, then you should check out the functional fitness program below.
Barbell Back Squat
The back squat is the king of lower body strength training. You should use full range of motion and keep the rep range around 6-12 for 3-5 sets. You don’t need a lot of work here, but it does need to be relatively heavy. Choose a weight that allows you to complete each set with 1-2 RIR, or reps in reserve.
Remember you can’t do any lower body explosive movements without a large base of strength. Explosive power is limited by overall lower body strength.
Trap Bar Deadlift
This is my favorite entire body strength movement. The hex bar is safer for your back, and allows you to move more weight. If you don’t have this bar, you can always use the trusty straight bar deadlift. Stick to similar reps ranges as the back squat. I also recommend wearing a lifting belt when doing heavy deadlifts, as it plays a crucial role in building abdominal pressure to avoid injury in your lower back.
Weighted Pull Ups
This is one of the best upper body strength movements for grapplers. It builds a lot of upper body pulling strength, and helps to increase your grip strength at the same time. Stick with 4-8 reps per set, with 3-4 sets in total. If you want to build more endurance then you can always go with regular non-weighted pull ups
Barbell Bench Press
Bench presses are the gold standard for upper body pressing strength. Building a big bench plays a vital role in increasing your upper body fatigue resistance, making escapes more doable, when fatigued. Stick with the back squat rep ranges.
Weighted Dips
This is a less popular movement, but it has a lot of carry over for BJJ athletes. It really hammers the triceps, and lower pecs. These muscle groups are heavily involved in framing, and are key for injury resistance. Go with 5-15 reps per set with 3-4 sets per workout.
Rope Climbs
This is a killer arm, back, and grip movement. Most importantly, it works the grip in the same position as you normally grab someone’s gi. If you can do legless rope climbs go with those, otherwise there’s nothing wrong with starting seated and letting your arms pull you to a standing position.
GHD Sit Ups
This is going to be the best, and most challenging core exercise you’ll ever do. GHD sit ups are an essential component for building a strong core because it works both your hip flexors, and abs. Most core work just does one or the other. Start with 3-4 sets of 7-10 reps, and increase as you’re able in future workouts.
Barbell Windshield Wipers
This is a great overall core movement because it builds strength in common BJJ movement patterns. In this version you hold a barbell with 95-155 pounds locked out in bench press position. You then move your legs to touch the plates on each side. This engages your smaller core muscles, as well as abs, and hip flexors.
Zone 2 Conditioning
This is key for so many reasons. Zone 2 cardio is easy cardio that builds your aerobic conditioning. It’s long duration, and easy to recover from, because of the low intensity.
Almost all Jiu Jitsu athletes overlook this training method. As a result they gas out much sooner than they should. Read this article for all the details of this training method. As you’ll see, it’s a great way to build a killer cardiovascular system.
Assault Bike Intervals
I love the Assault Bike, and have written several articles on how to best use it. Its my favorite tool for Zone 2 training as well as high-intensity interval training. When using it for interval training, you should stick with a 1:3 work to rest ratio. If you go hard for 30 seconds, then you need 90 seconds of rest. You can repeat these intervals for 6-8 times.
Weighted Hangs
This is another great grip builder that most athletes overlook. Once you have a reasonably strong grip you don’t get much from unweighted hangs. Add 25-45 pounds and work on 3-4 sets of 30 sec plus. Add weight so you aren’t hanging over a 45 sec.
Dumbbell Rows
This is one of my favorite back exercises for grapplers. I prefer the bench supported version where you brace with the same side arm and knee on a bench. Most athletes go too light. Keep the reps between 6-12 per set, with 3-4 sets per workout.
I also recommend using lifting straps to assist your grip on the heaviest sets. While you can get some grip work from these, this is a back exercise first and foremost.
T-Bar Rows
This is another great option because it supports the low back, and allows you to work a rowing movement with heavy loads. Stick with the same rep range, and sets, as the dumbbell row. I also recommend using a full range of motion.
Weighted Jumps
This is my go to movement for athletes that don’t have the time to properly learn to olympic lift. You can get 95% of the same lower body power benefit from weighted jumps as those lifts, and you can learn to do it in 5 minutes.
There’s also a lot of research showing weighted plyometric exercises are the best way to build lower body explosive strength. I like to use a barbell in back squat position, loaded with 40-60% of my bodyweight. Go with 4-6 reps for 5-10 sets. The goal is to jump for max height on each rep.
Banded Kettlebell Swings
I’m not a big fan of traditional kettlebell movements. They’re only good if you don’t have access to an actual gym. However, if you add a band, anchoring it under your feet, a normal kettlebell swing becomes a great power movement. Because the resistance bands slows the weight, you can put much more effort into each swing. Go with a moderate band, and moderate weight KB. Try 5-10 reps, for 5-10 sets.
Now that we’ve covered all 15 best Jiu Jitsu exercises, I’ll review a few of my complete programs, that will build strength and aerobic capacity in the next section.
Fitness Programs for Jiu Jitsu
I’ve written tons of programs on this website for all types of athletes. In this section I’ll link to several programs that will work for BJJ. Keep in mind that these should be thought of as complementary to your work on the mats. This means I’m not going to recommend my high volume advanced programs. That’s simply too much work for peak grappling performance.
- 6 Week Beginner Hybrid Program
- 8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program
- 3 Day Strength Training Split Program (Free PDF)
- 4 Day Split Strength Training Program
- 6 Week Muscular Growth Program
If you’re the type of athlete who likes to have a clearly defined program, with a warm up, and coaches notes on each block of training, then I recommend checking out one of my premium programs. You’ll find my most popular program below. It builds muscle mass and conditioning, perfect for Jiu Jitsu performance.
Final Thoughts
I want to emphasize that getting fit and strong is a universal process. Jiu-Jitsu practitioners don’t go through this process differently, nor does it mean you need special exercises. Another benefit of a general strength and conditioning program is that it increases your injury resistance.
Stronger thicker tendons and muscles are more resilient to injury, and recover quicker. This is also another reason I recommend Zone 2 training. It drastically increases full body circulation, which increase blood flow to damaged tendons, and cartilage. This is the only reliable way I know of to increase recovery for those specific areas.
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