It’s Not about the Numbers
Owner & Head Instructor, Ground Rules Academy
Due to some health limitations that lasted a few years, I was not able to train hard. I kept the academy going and give my students some good looks occasionally, but I could feel my skills, timing, and fitness deteriorating. All the while I was dying to get back into peak form, get back into competing, and to be an example for my students. I truly believe in leading from the front.
With a lot of persistence and a little luck, I finally figured out how to manage my nagging health issues last February (diet was the key). And in April I felt ready to gradually reintroduce a training program.
I came across a training program called Tactical Barbell from books written by pseudonymous author K. Black and it sounded like the perfect program for me. The central thesis is that strength and cardiorespiratory training should not take away from your sport-specific training, so a very select number of compound lifts are performed several times a week (along with cardio) to provide a solid athletic base upon which to train jiu jitsu skills. These workouts should not crush you and leave you needing days to recover… otherwise you couldn’t regularly perform skill work. They should be just enough to stimulate muscular strength (and cardiorespiratory endurance) adaptation. The goal is to find the sweet-spot between maximizing gains and minimizing recovery time.
More context: outside of experimenting with some kettlebell programs, I have not touched weights in 20 years. I had plenty of weight room experience as an (Academic) All-American discus thrower in college, but my current ability to move heavy weight in the gym is relatively sad.
And I remember the weight room culture from high school football and collegiate track and field very well. There was a leader board with the heaviest lifts on the wall, which was undoubtedly intended to provide motivation, but it drove us to focus on lifting big numbers right now instead of incremental progress or long-term growth. To jack up as much weight as possible, even if it let proper mechanics go to hell. As long as I get the weight up, who cares how it looks? Right?
But there is a better way. Just like the mats, the weight room has forced me to swallow my pride. The insecure young man inside me wants to peek at my neighbor in the gym to see how much he’s lifting, but I’ve learned in the last few months that it’s not about the numbers. I need to stick to the program on light squat squat days, even if the weight is puny. The only way to maximize strength gains (without compromising skills training) is to focus on the proper movement pattern using the right resistance in the moment.
I can say confidently that this is the way to go. It’s expected for beginners to progress rapidly with their weight in the early stages of lifting because it’s a classic learning curve. My lifts have exploded in just 3 months, and I’ve made excellent progress on resolving chronic movement issues that have plagued me since youth.
I noticed that the right load somehow draws out the weak spots. In other words, if the load is too light then I can’t feel a weak spot because it’s hidden by compensation, and if the load is too heavy then everything is working and feels overloaded. When I find a new weak spot under an appropriate load, I take notes and make sure to engage the spot in my appropriately loaded work sets. The weak spot becomes stronger over the course of a couple weeks, and then I look for the next weak spot to emerge. The whole system gets stronger over time by following this pattern. But the key is this: You must have the appropriate load to engage and strengthen the weak spot.
All of this is to say, leave your ego at the door. It’s not about the numbers. It’s about personal growth, improvement, and staying healthy. This is just as true for the weight room as it is for the jiu jitsu mats.
Russ Jensen, PhD is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and the founder of Ground Rules Academy in Pleasanton. With a PhD in physical chemistry from MIT, he brings a unique, science-based approach to teaching technique on the mats. He is the author of Ground Rules: Simple Physics for the Grappling Arts.