📝 How Jiujitsu Athletes Should Train Strength & Conditioning

If you train jiujitsu, are interested in strength & conditioning, or you’re some combination of the two, this article is perfect for you.

My friends and I run the best gym in Austin, East Austin Jiujitsu Parlor. Part of the reason our gym is so special is because we have a comprehensive strength & conditioning program run by my business partner, Dr. Sean McEachern.

For the past year, Sean has been working with high level grapplers like Chris Wojcik, JayRod, and many others around the city. He just released our protocols and programming online so I wanted to pick his brain about strength & conditioning, injuries, and what grapplers need to consider for both of those. I’ve also included videos on how to perform the exercises we discuss.

Now let’s hear what he has to say.

What’s your name?

Dr. Sean McEachern PT, DPT.

Why should I listen to you? What are your qualifications?

Well you should just trust me because I’m a doctor. 

No, actually, I’ve been coaching athletes and competing at a high level for 20 years. I was a sponsored skateboarder, I had a scholarship to play soccer in college but joined the Marines as an Infantryman. That’s a long story. After I got out I was a regional Crossfit competitor and a nationally ranked Olympic Weightlifter. 

My background in athletics exposed me to a wide array of movement patterns and I learned so much through my own athletic trial and error. That’s what gave me a keen eye for assessing and developing movement quality. I think it’s almost more important than having my Doctorate in Physical Therapy.

Yeah it’s kind of like those zen stories about learning only so you can simplify everything and approach it with an informed open mind.
So how long have you been doing jiujitsu/martial arts?

I did some Tang So Do when I was young, but I really got into martial arts when I was in the Marine Corps. 

The Marine Corps developed MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program), which Marines participate in during boot camp and throughout their career. It has a belt system, a list of techniques, and specific physical events that have to be completed before getting promoted. It takes from boxing, Muay Thai, jiujitsu, and judo, but it’s all very basic techniques. It really emphasizes the combat side of things. 

The motto is “One mind, any weapon.” I was a black belt instructor, so one of my roles was teaching martial arts to my platoon. This is where I found out about jiujitsu. I didn't actually start training at an actual academy until 2019 when I joined Paragon Jiujitsu Academy in Austin,Texas. Since then I've been training consistently 3-5x per week.

It’s okay if you can’t say any names, but who have you worked with? Like what types of athletes.

Before opening East Austin Jiujitsu Parlor I worked at EXOS at Onnit. We worked with high-caliber athletes across the NFL, MLB, and UFC. A particularly high-pressure patient was a pitcher for the Yankees. His manager even attended the first session to make sure I was the right fit.  He was definitely the most high level and high pressure athlete I worked with. 

Can you say what you helped them with and what their recovery was like?

He was dealing with thoracic outlet syndrome for a couple years which never recovered. In order to take pressure off of the nerves they removed the 1st rib. 

The recovery was pretty a intense 3-5 times per week 1.5 to 2 hours a day. We started with assessing movement of his entire body. While rehabbing his shoulder we also cleaned up a lot of bad habits with his hip extension mechanics. That was very informative for me, I had to learn a lot about pitching styles and their mechanics to try and keep what makes him great. 

Because he had nerve issues for a while his shoulder blade wasn’t moving like you’d expect. When he lifted his arm overhead his scapula would come off of his spine almost an inch. We spent a lot of time just building muscle mind connection between his scapula and shoulder blade. 

After about 6 months of rehabbing he started a very specific return to throwing protocol that I got to be a part of but was done mostly with his pitching coach and team mates. He ended up coming back and pitching for another couple seasons then retired. Most pitchers that get this surgery don't end up returning to the same level as before. We were both really pleased with his results.

What’s the biggest issue you see with jiujitsu S&C programming? 

It's interesting to observe the divide in people's training approaches. I often see two extremes: those who overtrain, constantly pushing themselves to the maximum every single day, and those who do the complete opposite, neglecting strength and conditioning entirely. It seems that some believe getting better requires completely exhausting themselves, and if they feel they can't sustain that level of intensity, they simply choose not to train at all.

What about training and physical preparation generally? 

Not having a plan limits so many people. They find a program and just put it on repeat, not being intentional with progressing and building general physical skills. They stay with 3x10 for years but after a short period it actually stops working.

 My best piece of advice is to try to build all 10 general physical skills: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy.

What 3 exercises give you the most bang for your buck? Why?

Sprinting, lunging, and pull ups. 

There is so much to be gained from sprinting: coordination, speed, power, not to mention all the cardiopulmonary benefits. I've been using sprinting drills recently in my programming with more of a lens towards coordination. We’re trying to change the quality of movement, not just focusing on how fast the sprint is. 

We’re trying to turn people into whips, where they can relax and snap into producing extreme force. It's a difficult attribute to develop but it has so much carry over to jiujitsu. If you watch someone execute a perfect throw it looks effortless. They relax, move, and snap into the movement. That's the skill sprinting can build. 

I enjoy heavy squats but I think lunging has more athletic carryover, specifically for jiujitsu. The act of being in a split squat, being strong and balanced enough to lift heavy loads, has so much direct carryover with passing, wrestling, and foot strength. Foot strength has a huge protective value to the knees but it often gets overlooked and undertrained. 

The third would be pull ups. When someone is really good at pull ups they have a really developed back and shoulder girdle which helps to protect the neck and offers great strength for jiujitsu. Plus it makes you look jacked. Which, I mean, come on, who doesn’t want that? 

What 5 accessory exercises are the most helpful for jiujitsu athletes? Could be strength, cardio, or anything. Why did you choose these exercises?

1- Neck Extension: Making the neck robust is important for longevity on the mats and it’s relatively easy to train. With all the snapping down our necks take, training neck extension can make a huge difference.

2- Good Morning: Same idea with snap downs but this exercise offers protection to the low back. Doing good mornings with correct technique can reinforce good shooting mechanics as well, not allowing your back to round. 

3- Splits Training: Training the splits is for both guard players and people that like to play on top. Both athletes need lots of hip flexibility and training the splits with isometrics, eccentrics, or with load creates a very high capacity for the tissues which can prevent injury.

4- Speed Training (jumping, sprinting): I mentioned the whip earlier. I see a lot of jiujitsu athletes that are very stiff. Some would say they aren't athletic. Doing speed training helps athletes gain athleticism.  

5- Norwegian 4x4: This is a specific protocol to build VO2 max, which is your body's ability to utilize oxygen during high intensity. More importantly it builds pain tolerance and trust in your cardio.

Norwegian 4x4 has you do 4 mins on, 3 mins off for 4 rounds. You're meant to go as hard as you can for the 4 mins, but you definitely have to pace yourself because you have to hit 3 more hard rounds. After a couple months of doing this you get to a point where you trust your recovery enough to push almost as hard as you can for all rounds.  

What is the most common injury you see in working with jiujitsu athletes?

I think it's a tie between neck injuries and knee injuries. Neck injuries can be really scary. Some progressively get worse and can lead to atrophy and permanent nerve damage. I recommend seeing someone as soon as you can to see if there is any nerve involvement.  

What’s the weirdest?

Adductor tendonopathy, which is essentially a really pissed off adductor. That injury can be very hard to treat and mostly pops up out of nowhere. 

What can you do to prevent it?

There are 2 main ways how injuries occur: 

1st is the specific movement that caused the injury imposed more force than the tissues could handle, essentially a capacity issue or an overtraining issue. 

2nd is a biomechanics issue, if your missing range of motion or are in a bad position, which is essentially a compensation, tissues get overloaded and can tear. 

So the basic premise to prevent all injuries is having a high capacity for load, which is gained through strength training, and ensuring that you have full range of motion while knowing how to maintain a biomechanically sound position throughout that range of motion. This is where having a well rounded strength training program comes in. 

Specific to the adductor tendinopathy, training the splits, sumo DL, and single leg jumping and landing mechanics can greatly reduce the likelihood. 

You have an ADCC athlete. They’re getting ready for the world championships. How do you get them ready? You don’t have to write the individual workouts, but give us an idea of what the macro & mesocycles could look like.

Starting with an assessment is crucial. I need to figure out what they are good at, what they are lacking, what their style of jiujitsu is to understand the specific attributes that are required to perform that style. 

Take 2 athletes, Dorian Olivares and Chris Wojcik. They have 2 completely different styles with completely different needs. 

Dorian’s style requires him to have lots of power endurance and lots of lower extremity stability in order to push the pace of his passing. Whereas Chris needs lots of flexibility and isometric strength to grab ahold of his opponents’ legs and stay stuck to them to finish leg locks. 

After testing, we perform a needs analysis, set measurable goals that support their game and fill in the holes they are lacking. The first block is endurance, strength endurance, and cardiovascular endurance. That leads nicely into strength, then power, and, lastly, speed.

 Generally I have specific exercises for that athlete that starts out as a physical therapy/ corrective exercise and through the entire plan transforms to more and more specific qualities that we are trying to correct. 

You have someone that has never done jiujitsu before. They want to start training. Build them the perfect week of training that includes technique work and S&C. Assume they can prioritize training.

3 days of training works perfect for this. 

Day 1 will be a full body strength endurance day:

Day 2 will be a cardio day.

 This workout needs to be scaled appropriately to make sure you can finish it without failing. Jiujitsu athletes need grit. Thats what day 2 develops. 

Day 3 is another full body strength endurance day.

Okay now make it more realistic. Write a second plan for a new hobbyist who works a 9-5, has a partner, and a kid. They want to do both S&C and jiujitsu but they need time for their kid/family.

Honestly the program for the beginner can also work for this person. I think the most difficult part of programming and where the art comes in is knowing how to take a program and make it work for 2 completely different groups of people. 

It doesn't need to be a crazy detailed program as long as you're getting an upper body push and pull, lower body push and pull, making some of the exercises single leg or split squat is extra credit, and adding in accessories is also extra points. Like I was saying earlier, I think people generally overtrain and add too much volume which is hard to sustain. 

Keep it simple, and make it something that you can sustain for years. That's where the real gains are made. Not in 3 months but 3 years, 10 years. Building true psychological changes takes time. Be patient, do what you can, and stay consistent

Anything else you think people need to know about S&C for jiujitsu, balancing the two, and anything else?

One piece of advice that I would give to everyone that does jiujitsu is force yourself to have seasons. Most other sports have seasons where you can switch your focus to more strength training or let your body recuperate from the sport. Jiujitsu doesn’t have seasons so it can be hard for pros. They have to stay ready for planned events like tournaments and last minute calls for WNO, UFC BJJ, or any other event that actually pays.

Have a 4-6 month period where you're ramping up the intensity during camps for tournaments or even if you're not competing just switching your focus to the goals you have for  jiujitsu. Then take 2-3 months where the jiujitsu intensity and, forgive me for saying, maybe even the volume goes down. You can still train but have fun with it. Play around with new techniques, maybe tap a couple times. 

During this time you’re switching focus to strength and conditioning, letting your nagging injuries recover, and trying to improve some of the 10 general physical skills.

And if you want to train with me online click here. I write new workouts every week and we’ll get stronger, together.

The ADCC Oceania trials came and went a couple weeks back. Two polar opposite prospects punched their tickets to the ADCC World Championships. -66KG competitor Ryoma Anraku and +99KG competitor Nicholas Maglicic.

Anraku is a former Internationally ranked freestyle wrestler. He took 3rd at the Asian games and Under 23 World Championships. He might just be impossible to score on in a jiujitsu tournament.

Maglicic is a lanky Australian submission specialist. The Atos black belt might not look imposing, but he is the current IBJJF No Gi World Champion in only his first year at black belt. When the brackets are done, don’t be surprised if Maglicic ends up as the division’s dark horse.

If you want to read about their games and the rest of the 2026 ADCC newcomers you check out my 2026 ADCC Rookie Report on the Help Center.