After months of going back and forth between what I wanted as my fitness goals I've decided I want to pack on muscle. The idea of being bigger and having a stronger physique is something I'd like to achieve more than just being smaller. However, like any fitness idea its something I don't want at the sake of poor BJJ performance. So for starters I understand the idea of the gentle art and how small Helio and many other famous BJJ athletes are, but regardless. Will adding size and defintion decrease BJJ performance. ( performance being defined as make me a poor athlete in competition in terms of scrambling, speed, passing ability, & flexabilty. ) Come to think of it I don't know many well known Jiujitsu athletes who are bigger. 2.) I follow a paleo(primal) based diet. I eat mostly meat and vegitables, and Fats, with the carbs I do eat coming primarly from fruits. I'm more primal being that I do drink milk too. it has been the main eating style that has worked for me ( at least when I was trying to lose weight) due to it forcing me to eat whole foods, and avoid certain chemicles at all cost. It kinda stop the grey area of healthy or not I have when eating a lot of carbohydrates or diets that permit them in large amounts. If at all possible I'd like to continue this way of eating to keep me on the straight and narrow. For lifting I lift 2-3 times a week. I'm following the 5/3/1 plan by Jim Wendler. Been doing the Boring but Big assitance plan for almost 3 weeks now, before that I did Stronglifts 5x5 for about 8 months before taking time off to start my new job. So though my max has decreased due to that time off, I wouldn't consider myself a novice lifter. So to summarize my questions: 1.) will packing on muscle take away from my jits abillity? 2.) Do I have to switch to carb heavy ( 200+ grams) style of nutrition to gain muscle, or will increasing Fat, and Protein suffice. 3.) Do I have to get fat ( IE. Chunky around face, kneck, and abdominals) to gain muscle. I've heard this reffered to as a *dirty bulk?*Any more light on that? I'm aware I will get larger, but I would like to focus on gaining as much lean muscle as possible. Not blubber. 4.) I don't plan to see results in 4 weeks or money back. I know this takes time. but any approx ETA for gains? 5.) BONUS ROUND- I plan to be Khal Drogo for Halloween so this will definitly be one of the added bonuses to this?
No, stronger is almost always better. The only reason your jiu jitsu would get worse is if you were sacrificing training time to lift. Low carb diets aren't great for athletic performance of any kind. You could vary your intake so you eat more carbs on days you lift and then eat very few on rest days. You can stay reasonably lean whilst building muscle, but progress will be slower. Again, eat like a horse on days you lift and eat less on days you are resting. Martin Berkhan wrote a lot about this on his LeanGains site. It's like anything, it depends on how hard you work. I'd suggest something like 5x5. It's proven to show good results for new lifters and there is a good community around the programme.
When you get strong remember to roll light with weaker people some of the time (not all of the time, as your doing them a disservice) and your skill level will still get better, don't be that guy who's always rolling light, or that guy who never rolls light so only gets used as A game practise.
When I lifted a lot and replaced fat with muscles, I could not only smash people but my post-lifing cardio routine improved my endurance 5 fold. After rolling for 10 I was just getting started and some people would gas out. Then I stopped lifting It will make you better no doubt as long as you add strength to your technique and not replace technique with it.
