Hi,
I’ve been doing the long limbs intermediate program from your guide to hypertrophy book, with two BJJ sessions per week (just started).
3 weeks in and I’m finding it really hard to recover, my back, hips and abs are sore all the time and I’m feeling tired overall.
What should I do ? just push through it hoping I will adapt, or change my weight lifting regimen ?
I’m 28 years old with a pretty much stress-free life, I sleep as much as I want and I eat clean (but don’t count calories).
For clarification: Is it your entire back? Upper back? Mid back? Lower back?
If it is lower back, is it one side that is getting sore?
Entire back in that order: upper traps and neck, lats and mid back, lower back
And the soreness is bilateral (left and right) equally???
Mostly yes. Left trap is slightly more sore than right one.
How much time are you spending in someone else’s guard?
Does the soreness gradually lessen until the next workout?
I don’t know, maybe 20% of the time.
Yes, I just feel like I have no energy to lift weights today.
There have been numerous times I didn’t feel I had the “energy” to workout that day. But once I got started euphoria began to replace my lack of “energy.”
Do you feel better once you get into the workout?
Do you use any pre-workout drink?
Yes, I do feel better when I’m training but I’m feeling worn down the rest of the time.
I don’t mind pushing through the discomfort, just don’t wanna be doing more harm than good.
No I don’t use pre workouts, but I might grab some coffee beforehand.
That is likely a much bigger factor in your soreness than the weights. It’s a sport that really takes your body some time to get used to. I still remember when I first started wrestling over a quarter century ago (yikes!) how freaking sore I was all the time for the first few weeks… and I was young!
I, personally, would drop to minimalist weight training while you adapt to BJJ. Something along the lines of CT’s Russian strength/ skill or skeleton program would be the maximum I’d consider. Low reps and intensity and high frequency does well to keep you lifting and actually help flush some of the soreness. In reality, I’d probably even cut those sessions in half and just do a couple lifts for a handful of “skill” sets 2-3 days a week (instead of 5 or 6).
After you feel like you’re able to really drill technique in your BJJ sessions, vs. just survive them, that’s a good cue that you’re adapted to a point you can start playing with your weight training again. The issue is your technique just isn’t efficient enough, yet, and it’s requiring a huge amount of workload from your muscles and nervous system. That just takes time/ experience for your body to “learn” what to do.
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I endorse all of this. If you’re just starting out in jiu-jitsu, I would strongly encourage you to take a maintenance approach to weight lifting. I’ve tried various combinations of weight lifting and jiu-jitsu training for 17+ years now, and TFP is 100% right about the letting your body get used to the kind of stress it will be subjected to - and figuring out just how much recovery you need in order to perform at your best.
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