Jiu-Jitsu Exercises: The Complete Movement Library

This is the list. Every movement below earns its place because it changes something specific on the mat — a grip that holds, a frame that does not collapse, hips that finish a sweep. It is organized by what the movement does for you, not by what body part it hits. If you want the full framework that these movements sit inside — how much, how often, how to phase it around competition — start with BJJ strength and conditioning: the complete guide.

Two rules before you use it. First, the mat is the priority. Lifting exists to make your jiu-jitsu last longer and hurt more, not to give you a second sport. Second, pick a small number of movements and get genuinely strong at them. Nine solid lifts trained hard for a year will beat forty lifts sampled for a week each.

How to read this library

Pulling: the grip comes first

Jiu-jitsu is a pulling sport. You pull sleeves, you pull collars, you pull a wrist across the centerline, and you do it while somebody actively fights you for it. The athlete who loses the grip battle loses the match, and grip is almost always the first thing to go.

The problem with a standard pull-up is the bar. A straight steel bar in a closed hand is the one grip you never get in competition. Switch the implement and the same set of reps starts paying rent: rope, gi, and rotating-handle pull-up variations put the hand in the position it actually works in. If your grip is the specific hole in your game, go deeper with the grip strength guide for fighters and grapplers and the 30-exercise grip list.

• Gi, rope, and clock-grip pull-ups — the main pulling lift. 3–5 sets, 3–8 reps.
• Renegade rows — horizontal pull plus anti-rotation in one movement. 3 sets of 6 per side.
• Loaded carries — grip endurance without a fresh set of sore elbows. 4 rounds of 40–60 seconds.
• Dead hangs — the cheapest honest grip test you have. Work toward 60 seconds.

Pressing: shoulders that hold a frame

Grapplers do not need a big overhead press. They need shoulders that can hold a frame against a heavy top game and still be healthy after a hard camp. That means pressing with control and with feedback, not chasing a number.

• Half-kneeling bottoms-up press — self-limiting. If your alignment is off, the bell tells you immediately. 3 sets of 5–6 per side.
• Bench press — useful pressing strength when technique is honest. 3–5 sets of 3–6 reps.
• Renegade rows — pairs with pressing to keep the shoulder balanced.

The bench has a bad reputation among grapplers, most of it earned by bad technique and too much volume. Set up correctly, keep the elbows in, stop hunting max singles the week before a tournament, and it is a good lift. Details in the bench press breakdown.

Hips and posterior chain: where sweeps and stand-ups come from

Almost everything you finish from the bottom is hip extension. Bridging, sweeping, standing up in base, driving into a takedown — all of it. Almost every grappler is underdeveloped here and compensates with their lower back.

• Barbell glute bridge — direct, loadable hip extension. 3–4 sets of 8–10.
• Banded Zercher good morning — hamstrings, glutes, and upper-back posture in one movement. 3 sets of 8.
• B-stance squat — single-leg drive that transfers straight into a single-leg takedown. 3 sets of 6–8 per side.
• Trap bar or conventional deadlift — the general strength lift. 3–5 sets of 3–5.

Bilateral squats and deadlifts still belong in the program. The unilateral work is what closes the gap between a strong gym number and being able to drive off one leg when your other foot is off the ground.

Trunk: anti-rotation before crunches

Your trunk's job in grappling is to refuse to move. It resists being folded, twisted, and stacked. That is why anti-rotation and anti-extension work beat sit-ups every time. The full breakdown lives in the grappler's core workout.

• Renegade rows — the trunk pays for every rep of the row. 3 sets of 6 per side.
• Medicine ball drills — complex movement over a shifting mass, which is exactly what being on top feels like.
• Crawling variations — trunk, shoulders, and hips coordinating under load.
• Hollow holds and dead bugs — unglamorous, effective, hard to do badly.

Power: being violent on demand

Power is strength expressed fast. It is the difference between a heavy sweep and a sweep that lands before the other guy reacts. You build it after you have some strength, not instead of it. Three drills carry most of the load, all covered in the power drill breakdown.

• Med ball overhead toss — whole-body power. Low reps, full intent. 4–5 sets of 3.
• Sprinter step-up jump — single-leg power off a 12–18 inch box. 3 sets of 4 per side.
• Staggered-stance broad jump — horizontal power from a wrestling stance. 4 sets of 3.
• Hang clean progressions — loaded triple extension once your technique holds up.

Conditioning and staying on the mat

Rolling is not a conditioning program. It is the sport. If you gas out in round three, the fix is usually structured conditioning plus a grip that stops failing — why rolling is not enough covers the actual protocol. And none of this matters if your neck and joints break down: keep the neck, upper back, and shoulders and joint health on the schedule year-round, and warm up properly before you compete.

Kettlebells cover a lot of ground when you are short on time or equipment — see kettlebell training for BJJ.

How to phase this across a competing year

Jiu-jitsu has more than fifty competitions a year. You cannot peak for all of them. We aim to peak our athletes for three to five events and treat the rest as training tournaments. That means the training year moves through phases, and the same movements get loaded differently in each one.

The movements barely change between phases. What changes is load, volume, and rest. In the hypertrophy phase you also add isolation work — the smaller muscles that let you pull more weight in the big lifts and that lower your injury risk when a scramble goes sideways. In the strength phase you begin the progressions that set up the power phase. In the power phase you add plyometrics and Olympic variations.

A useful test of whether your squat pattern is ready for load: watch the squat itself. It shows you mobility restrictions, side-to-side imbalances, and roughly where your strength sits. If the squat looks bad, that is your starting point, not the weight on the bar.

A sample training week

Two lifting days is enough for most competing grapplers. Three works in the off-season. This is a two-day template built out of the movements above.

Common questions