You’re all pumped up and ready to hit the mats, you’ve been studying new moves on YouTube that you can’t wait to try out. Drill time is finally over and now it’s time for open mat. You signal over to you friend for a roll. You guys tap hands. “Let’s do this!” a voice inside your head screams. 5 minutes later he’s got you in side control and you’re totally gassed out convinced that you’re going to die and your heart is trying to explode from your chest. Sounds familiar? If it does, you need some cardio work my friend! Here is a simple outline that you can use to make your own cardio routines specifically for BJJ
- Ditch aerobic steady state cardio
There is a time and place for steady state cardio such as fat loss or making weight but for the purpose of grappling fitness and lasting 10 minutes on the mats without gassing. High intensity anaerobic training is the way to go. Intensity levels should be near maximal (85%+) and in short bursts of up to 2 minutes with very little rest in between. Training anaerobically trains your body to deal with lactic acid accumulation better which is a result of continuous high intensity activity a.k.a grappling. Steady state cardio doesn’t produce the same lactic acid burn that you experience from high intensity training so while it may still improve your cardio, it does very little for what we are really going for here.
2. Keep movements as specific to BJJ as possible
We are not bodybuilding nor are we powerlifting. To be better at something we need to actually do that something or something that replicates it as closely as possible according to the theory of training specificity. For example, a burpee would be a good exercise to do as it simulates the sprawl and scrambling from the ground while a bad exercise would be a bench press as there is very little pushing in BJJ.
3. Perform multiple movements in one set
Rather than performing 3 sets of 10 burpees which would be great if we wanted to get really good at burpees, we need to tax our body a little bit more and incorporate more movement and transitioning to better simulate real grappling time. An example would be 1 sets consisting of 5 burpees to tuck jumps followed by 5 Lunge and follow through followed by 5 fireman lift and squats. I got tired just from typing that out!
Perform movements with power:
4. Perform movements as quicklyand explosively as possible
o really keep your heart racing and to train power it will not do to perform reps systematically. You need to really go for it, jump as high as you can, lunge as far as you can e.t.c The whole point of keeping the workout intervals short and intense and so you can go all out on every set knowing that your torture only lasts up till 2 minutes. Of course some pacing is required but minimally it should feel like 85% of maximal effort.
EXAMPLE
Double leg take down with partner 30 seconds -> Hip escape from sidecontrol to full guard 30 seconds -> arm bar from guard 30 seconds -> Sprawl burpees 30 seconds.
Repeat for 5 sets if you can handle it. Rest 1 minute in between sets including the time you spend vomiting and crying in the corner.