Kettlebells for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

A question I recently recieved about kettlebells and BJJ.

Q:well, maybe you can just answer this: it seems there is a limited number of chest exercises with kettlebells. is that true? also, what are the pros/cons of doing the full body workouts i see so much three times a week or so, vs concentrating on one area (push, pull, legs, or wahtever) per day?

A:The benefit of full body workouts is this - in BJJ you need full body strength all the time.  You don't need a strong chest today and strong legs tomorrow. 

Sadly, deadlifting on tuesday and running four miles on thursday means that your strength is seperated.  If you were in a situation where you needed to run a mile, deadlift, then run a mile and deadlift, you would be puking your guts out.  BJJ is more like the second example than the first.  You need to be pushing, pulling, squating - all repeatedly, mostly explosively, often under cardiovascular stress, in five minute bursts.  So why wouldn't you train exactly like that?

Kettlebells have no chest exercises.  You want to work your chest - then bench and do pushups.  Kettlebells are about building explosive power with your whole body, from the ground up.  They are also about conditioning.

Just because I use kettlebells does not mean that I only use kettlebells.  They are a tool, and a very good and unique tool.  But there are lots of tools.  Like sandbags and barbells.  If you think kettlebells are good, mix in some sandbag training.

Here is the thing about kettlebells - they will never make any sense at all until you train with them.  Buy yourself "Enter the Kettlebell" by Pavel, and just start doing it.  Use a dumbbell to start.  Everything will make sense once you start doing it.

Comments

[Art Vincent]

Great ideas....glad I found this place...high degree of anticipation to put some of this stuff into action tomorrow.

A guy in Dave Drapers web site irononline.com sent many of us over.

Art