Build a weapon, not a costume

Most confuse exhaustion with readiness, but if a strength session leaves you sore, stiff, and slow in tomorrow's class, it isn't helping you. It's just making you tired.

Your body is your main tool on the mats. Time on the mats is what builds your game, so strength training has to support that, not compete with it. If your lifting makes you slower, irritates your joints, or changes how you move in rolling, something is wrong with the program, not with you.

The test is simple: after your strength work, do you roll better or worse?

Strength work should leave you fresher and more capable. Think of it more as practice, than a test. You already get all the testing you need in live rounds.

Next: why grinding yourself with circuits is the wrong kind of "conditioning".