Strength & Conditioning for BJJ and Muay Thai in Edinburgh
Programming built around your sport, not a generic gym split.
Most personal training programmes are built for general fitness or aesthetics. Combat sports athletes need something different. Grappling and striking place unique demands on the body: explosive output under fatigue, grip and core endurance, rotational power, and joint resilience that generic gym programming simply isn't built around.
I've spent 14 years coaching strength and conditioning, with a specific focus on BJJ and Muay Thai athletes training here in Edinburgh. Whether you're competing, training recreationally, or coming back from an injury that's kept you off the mats, the goal is the same: build the physical qualities that actually transfer to your sport, without burning you out or leaving you too sore to train.
Why Generic Programming Falls Short for Combat Athletes
A standard hypertrophy or fat-loss programme isn't designed with your sport in mind. It won't account for the grip endurance grappling demands, the rotational and hip-driven power striking relies on, or the need to recover well enough to still show up for BJJ or Muay Thai sessions on top of strength work. Programming for combat athletes has to work alongside your sport, not compete with it for recovery.
What a Programme Actually Looks Like
Every athlete's programme is built around their specific sport, competition schedule, and current physical limitations. Broadly, this covers:
- Strength built for transfer — compound lifts and unilateral work that carries over to takedowns, scrambles, clinch work, and striking power, not just numbers on a bar.
- Conditioning for the demands of your sport — the ability to maintain output through a hard round or a long roll, built through the right mix of aerobic base and sport-specific intervals.
- Grip, core, and rotational strength — the qualities that separate athletes who can control a position or generate real power from those who can't.
- Injury prevention and rehab work — shoulders, knees, and lower backs take a beating in grappling and striking sports. Programming should protect the joints you rely on most, and if you're already carrying an injury, sessions are built around what you can safely load, not paused entirely until you're "fully healed."
Based in Leith, Training Across Edinburgh
In-person sessions run from Leith, with clients training across Edinburgh more broadly. If you're not local, the same programming is available through online coaching, with regular check-ins and adjustments based on your training and competition schedule, wherever you're based.
Who This Is For
- BJJ or Muay Thai athletes preparing for competition
- Recreational grapplers or strikers who want to train smarter and get injured less
- Athletes returning from injury who need a programme built around rehab, not around ignoring the problem
- Anyone whose current gym programming feels disconnected from what they actually need on the mats
Get Started
If you're training BJJ or Muay Thai in Edinburgh and want strength and conditioning work that's actually built for your sport, get in touch to talk through where you're at and what a programme would look like for you.
Ready to start? Callan reviews every application personally within 24 hours.
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