The old school BJJ mentality is that warmups should get you fatigued, so that you can practice technique under realistic fighting conditions.
But I’ve been studying kettlebells recently and reading a lot of Pavel. His philosophy, at least for kettlebell training, is that short bursts of intense activity followed by nearly full aerobic recovery minimizes the reliance on glycolysis for energy production, which causes burn, fatigue, soreness, and extra metabolic waste.
It seems like a BJJ warm up with a similar anti-glycolitic philosophy could help keep technique crisp to avoid reinforcing sloppy pathways. Recovery periods during warm ups could also train us to flip our intensity on or off at will. Save the burn (if you must) for rolling.
Does anybody employ a strategy like this for warm ups? Any suggestions for implementation?
I have coached martial arts for a little bit and been head coach of a high school wrestling team for a while. Producing some state champions and state placers.
I have them do a yoga ish warm up with calisthenics mixed in at proper time. Short bursts mixed with a resting short stretch. I also used this when I fought professionally. I prefer this and my athletes request I lead it as it is hard to memorize for some.
I swear by this instead of the fatiguing warm ups we did in BJJ years ago. Try it and see what results it brings you.
You can't avoid an energy system. You bias them in training. As your body will replenish ATP via the route that the environment sets. I.e anaerobically you will use PCr system which isn't very efficent in the long run and is without oxygen.
Then the glycolytic system is split into fast and slow. Where again dependant upon environment set will dictate how ATP is replenished. But again you won't avoid a particular system.
People get fatigued at different points dependant upon fitness level. I.e their efficency to be able to expend energy and replenish ATP. Think of getting a sprinter to jog for 90 min at zone 2. It will gas him very quickly in comparison to a marathon runner.
As for warm ups the most evidence based and established method. Used in sport, especially here in the UK, is the RAMP protocol.
R = Raise. Aim to increase blood flow and core body temp in preparation for activity. As this helps increase viscosity of the joint and release synovial fluid from the membrane.
A = Activate. Start prepping the movement patterns for activity. Think animal flow for us would a be a good start.
M = Mobilise. Increase the a range of motion of the movements used in the activate phase.
P = Potentiate. This would be going into a diluted version of your main theme.
Don't get wrapped up in energy system avoidance. As unless you have money to burn. You won't have access to the equipment to accurately monitor this. If you make all your students wear HR monitors. RPE scales vary to each person and is subjective. If you hit the principles set above you will have a well rounded warm up for any sport.
You can also use the allocated time of your warm up to layer in skill acquisition of what your main class focus is for that time. So you could use a sequence as part of the activate and mobilise thst is specific to the sport and is something you are working on.
A study looked at this, I can't remember which one it was I've read so many over my last two years of my Masters, they found that adding in the skill work as part of the warm up added an extra few hours per month to technique work. Plus it allows you as a coach to see information retention and where you may need work on with students.
Traditional BJJ warmups, aka line drills, are generally a waste of time and some of the movements if used as a "warmup" are pretty likely to get you hurt. I know I've hurt myself more during warmups, particularly at seminars, than I ever thought about during actual training. But for new students just learning BJJ I believe there is actually merit in doing the drills after being properly warmed up from something else. Once you're proficient at hip escapes, rolls, etc. it's really not something you need to spend an hour or two a week doing.
Although I have never heard it called RAMP I looked it up. What I do and how I mix it up is very very close to this. Started it when I was a teenager. It just felt right and my body responded.
Thank you for letting me know there is research on this to follow. I appreciate that. Made one tweak already that I feel might make it even better for my athletes.
"Traditional BJJ warmups, aka line drills, are generally a waste of time and some of the movements if used as a 'warmup' are pretty likely to get you hurt. I know I've hurt myself more during warmups, particularly at seminars, than I ever thought about during actual training. But for new students just learning BJJ I believe there is actually merit in doing the drills after being properly warmed up from something else. Once you're proficient at hip escapes, rolls, etc. it's really not something you need to spend an hour or two a week doing."
"As for warm ups the most evidence based and established method. Used in sport, especially here in the UK, is the RAMP protocol."
This sounds like a great place to start. Thank you! Given how important warm ups are to sport in general, it does not surprise me that there is an evidence backed method.
"The old school BJJ mentality is that warmups should get you fatigued, so that you can practice technique under realistic fighting conditions. But I’ve been studying kettlebells recently and reading a lot of Pavel. His philosophy, at least for kettlebell training, is that short bursts of intense activity followed by nearly full aerobic recovery minimizes the reliance on glycolysis for energy production, which causes burn, fatigue, soreness, and extra metabolic waste. It seems like a BJJ warm up with a similar anti-glycolitic philosophy could help keep technique crisp to avoid reinforcing sloppy pathways. Recovery periods during warm ups could also train us to flip our intensity on or off at will. Save the burn (if you must) for rolling. Does anybody employ a strategy like this for warm ups? Any suggestions for implementation?"
It really depends on the audience. If it's my competitors we get down on some calisthenics if they are the women's only class it's a slow roll. An evening class usually doesn't even warm up and just cuts to technique, the drills warm the folks up for that. But first thing in the AM is a must
