Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is not a practice where you can master the craft and then relax. It requires daily strength training and endurance always to want to improve. However, after so much training, it’s natural to want a change and find another way to keep your skills up.
This is where cross-training comes in. It allows you to make your workout regimen more exciting with new exercises and fitness experiences. It can give you a fresh perspective and hone skills like strength or speed.
There are also many options for BJJ cross-training. You can explore everything from different fighting styles to yoga or a well-developed Fitness Challenge. Here are some of the top sports to try so that you can strengthen your BJJ skills.
Yoga
Yoga is a fantastic cross-training practice for BJJ athletes. It centers on gaining flexibility, which will translate into smoother technique execution. It also encourages you to leave your negative thoughts at the door and walk into training ready to work. Benefit from increased focus, clarity, and positivity.
Many BJJ students find yoga helps with posture and pain issues. It is a restorative approach that can ease damaged muscles and joints while undoing damage from hard grappling in BJJ.
Plus, yoga helps with body awareness and breath control. If you know how your body moves and responds to stimuli, you can quickly adapt to whatever your opponent throws at you.
CrossFit & Fitness Challenges
BJJ requires you to use your entire body and all of your muscles. You need your legs, torso, and arms to be on the same page and have similar endurance levels. Even your neck muscles need to be strong to work around different chokes.
CrossFit mixes various types of workouts that will ultimately target every muscle in your body. A well-developed Fitness Challenge can be tailored to your goals and be planned to target weak areas and get that full-body conditioning.
Build a supplemental workout routine focused on particular areas you need to strengthen with these two options.
Rock Climbing
Rock climbing is a challenging and fun activity that can be done outdoors at a national park or safely indoors. It is another whole-body workout requiring your arms, legs, and core to work in unison.
Rock climbing will improve your BJJ game through strength and conditioning while building full-body stamina. Plus, rock climbing is all about grip, which is an essential part of BJJ.
If you can expertly scale a wall without slipping, you can maintain your grip in a BJJ match.
Swimming and Running
During BJJ, your body is pretty much in constant motion and requires you to be in peak shape. So, if you want to improve your BJJ, you need an activity that requires stamina.
Swimming and running are great for this since endurance is the name of the game. Both are relatively easy to get into since you either need a pool or a good place to run, and you are set. Building stamina here will translate to longer times on the mat without getting tired.
The Bottom Line
Cross-training for BJJ has a lot of advantages if you are looking to up your game. Depending on what area you want to focus on, you can find a sport to match it. If you want to improve your grip, go for rock climbing. Need more flexibility? Yoga will be a good match.
No matter what you choose, expanding beyond BJJ will have a positive effect. Just remember to keep BJJ practice at your center. After all, these are just supplements for BJJ, not replacements.
