[kingo]

right now i weigh 180lbs but i would like to get bigger and stronger. i train bjj 6 days a week for about 2-4 hours, so keeping weight on is little difficult for me. i'm looking all over the place researching different strength training techniques so i have a vague idea of what i need to do. my main questions involve diet and the amount of weight i should be training with. what should i be eating to gain muscle mass? and maintain energy? also how do i decide the amount of weight to use for different excersises-overheadpress, dumbellpress, bench, squat etc. any info would be greatly appreciated.

[Sparky-bjj]

I'm not asking this to disrespect you or something. But if you train in bjj, why are you so obsessed with gaining weight? Why not just try to fight in your natural weightclass? For bjj a big muscle mass isn't necessary at all. Muscle endurance and cardio is much more important. Offcourse muscles won't harm you at all, but if you train 6 times a week for 2-4 hours, you're propably not that weak at all. Sparring and cardio is more important than gaining weight if you ask me. If muscle mass was that important all mma fighters and grapplers would look like bodybuilders. Those that do look like a bit like bodybuilders with lot's of raw muscle mass like randleman, coleman, sean sherk, ken shamrock,...don't necessarily perform better than weaker looking fighters. For example look at the sakuraba vs randleman fight. Lot's of muscle mass doesn't necessarily mean you're much stronger. Bodybuilders aren't as strong as they look. Matt hughes for example is one friggin' strong guy, but he doesn't have that much muscle mass. He wouldn't be shit in a bodybuilder competition, where muscle mass is very important. My focus in bjj is about losing weight (body fat) to fight in a lower weightclass Anyway this is all just my opinion.

[Sparky-bjj]

Also if you do lot's of sfull force sparring, you'll gain enough muscle mass and you'll also gain muscle endurance and cardio. That is my main training: sparring, sparring, sparring.

[zefff]

Agreed! Also bigger does not equal stronger but it obviously does mean heavier. Why not develop more power within the frame you already have? I noticed you asked about diet so it maybe that an improved diet might give you the energy gains you need to get stronger without a weight gain regime. I would say begin with eating all the fresh fruit and veg you can get your hands on. Eat good quality meats and fish (not fryed, processed, burgers or anything like that) and cut out processed foods, excess sugars, salts and fats. You should feel better in a week.

If you really want to gain then people like angryrocker4 will have more specific info. He even had a thread where he lists his HIT workout. Just spend half an hour on the Strength Training forum list and Im sure you'll find what you are after.

peace

What you're lookin for is a power/olympic lifting routine. That will give you stronger muscles at the least body weight. The main thing is to do high weight, low reps, and dont go to "failure". That will focus on strength. I like to stay in the 4-8 rep range, do at least 4 but if you can do 8 or more, add weight. And I do between 2-4 sets per exercise, so pretty low volume.

Theres a bunch of programs out there, but I really like the powermatrix if you can find a copy.

[zefff]

The problem I see though is that just like Sparky said, being a BJJ player he will need cardio and muscular endurance. Will a program like that with high weight/low reps provide it?

The bjj should be good for cardio and endurance itself. I do it too. I find 1 hour of rolling a day is more than enough for me, but if he wants, he could do some other type of endurance/cardio training around when he does Bjj and then the weight training later/earlier in the day, as long as he gets about 4 hrs in between workouts.

Ideally, I'd put one, either strength or endurance on a maintanance routine and focus on the other until I got to the level I wanted and then switch back if needed. Just depends on how his body works.

[kingo]

i'm not looking looking to get that much bigger than i already am, maybe 185 to 190 max, but ideally a fighting weight of 185. i believe 182 or 185 is the high end of my weight class. so i completely agree that bigger is not necessarily better, but i would like to get stonger and have more explosive power without loosing flexibility. i'm going to look into the power/olympic lifting routines and will start adding more cardio to my sparring, i.e. running and swimming before rolling. then in the evening hit the gym for strength training. i've read some places that doing certain weight training can cause you to become very rigid or stiff (which is obviously not good for any bjj or mma fighter), so what types of strength workouts should i be doing that will help my game? thanks alot for all the input

Thats only if you dont do any stretching whatsoever. I also do a bit of yoga to help out as well as stretch in BJJ.

Definately powerlifting then, you can get some great explosiveness out of it. Certain exercises FOR SURE to include, incline bench press, military press (to the front of head), squats, and heavy standing calf raises (really help gettin explosive) and t-bar rows. Programs to look for, metal militia, west side, 666, then you have basic routines like 5X5 and such. Basically just high weight, low reps.

Remember that alot of guys in the 185 class drop from 200-210 to fight.

[bamboo]

Bikram yoga does wonders for flexibility as well as core muscle training.