The power of cross-training is an important interest to anyone that trains in the art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, because not only can it increase your strength, but it can increase your flexibility, cardio, and muscle fatigue as well. We have covered running and swimming so far as part of the power of cross-training. In this article, we will talk about how weight training can help you improve your game of Jiu Jitsu.
For someone that uses a lot of the bottom game you will need to strengthen your hips and legs. A lot of the closed guard game can come from the inner thighs especially when throwing on armbars. That is a strength that you cannot get from running, swimming, or any other training. You need to use weights to do so. Obviously, you can use weight training to increase your strength in other areas like upper body, core, and hips, but you have to make sure not to increase your bulk to make you less flexible.
One way to make sure that you do not bulk up too much is to use less weight and higher reps. This can help in two different ways. First, the higher reps is going to allow you to push back your muscle fatigue. When you do sets of 25 or even burn outs you will push past your limits. This transfers to rolling, because you will not have those dead limbs that may happen during long sparring sessions. Second, you can actually use weight training to help increase your flexibility. When doing bench, dips, or lunges try to push your abilities in terms of how far you go down. Do not do benching where you do not touch your chest, allow the weight to bring it down as far as you can. Those are just some of the ways that you can increase your ability on the mats through cross-training with weight training.