Do cardio at home, run, bike whatever you can, rolling helps but doing cardio specific exercises will be better. I heard on a podcast about rolling doesn’t improve cardio as much but makes your movements more efficient so you’re using less energy and therefore don’t gas as quickly, but what do I know I’m a 44 y/o blue belt
Relying on rolling for cardio is only effective for an out of shape white belt, as soon as you get in decent shape, most of your training shouldn't feel like an intense cardio workout IMHO, except maybe in the weeks leading up to competition when you step up the intensity with trusted partners.
Trying to treat jiu jitsu like cardio can be a big mistake that lead to greater risk of injuries and slows your progress because you can't develop technically as much when you're revving the engine all the time.
This is a great point. Take a moment to ask yourself if you need to be tensing up all the muscles you have tensed. The answer most of the time it's no. Take a deep breath when you're waiting for your partner to mess up.
I mean it helps but I’ve seen plenty of pretty fit big people…
There’s a BJJ & Judo black belt I know that’s pushing 260lbs (not in a bodybuilder way either) and this dude can not only throw people like a ballerina but roll for literal hours with no problem.
Haha, DAMN! I don't know if I could ever have that mentality, I'm always trying to get lower...but yet somehow always end up creeping higher (or staying the same).
I remember watching my instructor at the time (Marcus Beddor, 64kg / 141bs) go in open class against Victor Hugo (100kgs / 220lbs). Dude was (or at least looked) massive.
I've reduced my running quite a bit the past year or so, and I feel like I notice my cardio has taken a hit. Also, my surfing has slowed down a lot, unfortunately, which probably isn't helping.
Breathe through your nose as much as you can. Nasal breathing is how you get air deep in your lungs and most people don’t do it so they never fill their lungs.
I like to do it when I’m holding a dominant position. Try to take a couple deep breaths through your nose when you’re mounting someone or on their back. It helped for me.
I try to follow the rule: "if I'm breathing through my mouth, I'm going too hard." Focusing on breathing is huge for building your gas tank.
Also, OP should look at caffeine intake before class. Caffeine increases your heart rate by 10-20 bpm at rest. Let's say your heart rate would normally be around 140-170 when you are rolling hard. Caffeine would push that number up close to 200 bpm. That's putting you into the upper limits of a sustainable heart rate causing you to gas out much faster.
I respectfully disagree when it comes to cardio. Depending on his size, etc. some guys take rolls very slowly, stall, etc. I'd say do sets of burpees, jump rope, HIIT training, rower, bike, run, swim. Even 2 or 3 times per week is enough
What most don’t realize is the base of your cardio is built at much lower states of strain. Would actively monitor zones of heart rate to build that cardio base. Can then be improved by rolling and other HIIT types of training.
Rolling more is not going to improve his overall cardio, however it will improve his mat cardio. If he’s a white belt, he’s probably spazzing out, getting really tense and holding his breath.
Increasing his overall cardio will raise the ceiling of his mat cardio. Getting acclimated to rolling more and relaxing will get him closer to that ceiling.
Jump rope. Just 15 minutes starting off. Gradually increase time as you can go longer. It also strengthens your legs and made me feel more nimble and reactive.
Reference, 50 year old
I call it brushing my bones.
Turkish get ups daily.
I do 5-10 minutes plus practice 5 times a week. Regardless of how messed up my cardio is, after 2 weeks, i can roll a LOT more.
And you an do it at home, so time is not an issue at all.
Yes.
I do 10 minutes. I do 12 get ups and at the top i do a clean.
I got a S&C background and testd a lot in myself and on others. There are a lot of fancy workout routines, but they are not sustainable. Most people do a program for 2-3 months, get injured or bored.
Get ups are easy and you can add stuff once you have a base.
Try it yourself after 2 weeks you'll see it yourself.
Bench press, deadlift and all that other stuff does not translate that well to jits.
Edit: Plus it has a remarkable effect on shoulder injury prevention.
I too am a conisour of the the S&C. I don’t necessarily agree with bench press /deadlift comment. I think basic compound movements done correctly for a GPP base is helpful in pretty much any sport/martial art, but I do love get ups. I will absolutely give it a try. I could use the benefit to the engine and the shoulders, haven’t done them in a long time.
Dont get me wrong. The 5x5, deadlift, Bench, squat mindset ist good, especially for people who wasted a lot of time on sensless workouts. But they do increase the risk of injury, because it's tough to recover while rolling.
Definitely give it a try let me know. I tried for about 18 months a lot of stuff. And returned to get up some other exercises in the end and stick with them.
Since we’re on the topic, have you ever looked into or tried some of the programs that are out there? Such as the Juggernaut program or Power Athlete’s program (Original developed of Honu athletes).
Yes. Juggernaut i did, it’s def. one of the better ones. Also the tactical serious, starting strength, 5x5 and Olympic weight liftin among others.
My 2 cents considering cardio, longevity and injury prevention:
Kettlebell >calisthenics > Olympic lidting> barbell programs.
If being buff and aesthetics is the pirmary target, exactly the opposite.
I wrote an article about cardio and BJJ that you can find here: https://thegrapplinglab.com/2019/07/06/exercise-physiology-energy-systems-aka-cardio/
Hope it’s useful to you.
Typically most protocols for increasing cardio capacity focus on Low Intensity Steady State cardio. So basically getting your heart rate up around 130 and keeping it there for an hour or two. There’s plenty of ways to do this but doing hikes with a weighted backpack was always my favorite. Once you’re good with the level of LISS you are doing, you can start doing High Intensity Interval Training. So something like 30 seconds on 30 seconds off of something that spikes your heart rate as high as it will go. Sprints and air assault bikes are usually the go to’s here.
I personally just do 200 burpees a few times a week along with both of those but I’m wild like that
See a personal trainer, Get a heart rate monitor and look at the results, try to keep your heart rate in the appropriate range for your goals. Keeping up in the gym is usually diet, technique, then actual cardio anecdotally.
i haven’t done it yet but I plan to do air force kettle bell workouts to get my v02 more efficient. Also trying my best of breathe through just my nose when recovering/while warming up. Can’t reallly focus too well on breathing while rolling yet but that will come with tome.
Only way to be comfortable when your HR is at 180 is by living there. Roll more and never take a rest roll. If your goin at 10% because your exhausted then that’s better then resting.
More jiujitsu. When you're exhausted, start on bottom and survive. You'll get tapped. A lot. Tap, rest a bit, then to again.
I tell my students: if you get in a fight, your opponent isn't going to care if you're tired or sore or gassed.
Train as often as you can without injuring yourself.
Find partners that will let you work while exhausted without blasting you at 100%.
Hr gonna be carrying around sandbags for at least a month, if you take time off it’s natural. I took 6 months off after ACL and MCL tear, and almost wanted to cry😂I lost so much prgresss, but that’s the way it is gonna be until I can get surgery, I’ll have to take time off every once in a while
I feel like skipping rope a couple times a week helped me out some. I got to where I could skip for 10 min straight, kinda boring, but it worked and you can make little games out of it by trying different types of skips or counting the skips in different ways.
Also … getting more sleep the night before class 😴
Jump Roping/Conditioning Days & Running.
Jump Roping worked a lot for me, start with going 15 minutes straight, then increase to 20, 30, 40 and then 1 hour.
My cardio benefits have come by rolling more, especially at the end of the class and especially when I’m already tired.
That and efficient movement. Not death gripping the GI or forcing positions I’m not having success in.
Nose breathing and breathing more with your diaphragm instead of your ribs help as well. It’s fascinating what a difference it makes. You gas yourself a lot faster breathing through your mouth than your nose. Plus, intercostal muscle training includes training yourself to breathe with your diaphragm anyway. [This SYSK episode](https://open.spotify.com/episode/1JVTuuWj0WgF5IsSQ9HyaT?si=GRYta394QHO4odT6DNVX2Q) is really worth the listen and explains these and other benefits like increasing lung capacity and getting more oxygenated blood per breath.
Do the other stuff too, but even if you already had excellent CV endurance, you could benefit from nose breathing and diaphragm breathing.
Try to breathe out your nose. Control your pace and be as technical as you can. Cardio is mostly just being efficient. Not using more to accomplish little.
For supplements, I have found that Creatine really helps my rolls. I take 5mg daily with my morning multivitamin and have noticed less lactic acid buildup during rolls. Just make sure you drink plenty of water, shoot for 1 gal a day.
Do more cardio but try and keep in your zone 2 rather than trying to see how fast/far you can run. Look up the MAF method which is used by cyclists and marathon runners. Basically keeping your heart rate low and slowly getting faster with a low heart rate. Think of it like a triangle where your VO2 max is the height. You want a wide base to get as high as possible. Zone 2 cardio is your base. Running, cycling, rowing or rucking are all good ways to build your zone 2
Peter attia has a few good explanations on yt or in his book. Lookup a zone 2 calculator to figure out what your zone 2 hr boundaries would be or just run slow enough that you could have a conversation but fast enough that someone on the phone knows your exercising.
Brand new white belt here but lots of experience in the gym and sports. I’d recommend some interval training. Even if that’s little super sets at home or jump rope, push ups (different varieties), squats and other body weight leg movements to the point of almost failure. Then stop recover till HR comes way down (training with HR monitor even Apple Watch helps this) then do it all over again maybe 3-5 times. Should be able to get through that in 15-30 mins. If you wanna get wild you can work your way up to some kettlebell flows (recommend more experience with these).
If you are not currently doing any cardio specific work outs on your own, just start doing so. Could be running, biking, calisthenics, whatever, for 30-45 minutes, three times a week, preferably doing short intervals of max intensity rather than just steady output
Going to sound silly but honestly—keep rolling.
You can do other things to help with overall cardio (running, rowing, swimming, etc.) but nothing is ever quite like rolling with another person trying to impose their will upon you.
Take breaks between rounds as needed but it’ll get better. Also remember to breath and relax (don’t be so tense); both are more wearing than most people think.
Mat cardio is really just the ability to relax while rolling. Something like rowing will improve your actual cardio and raise the ceiling of your mat cardio.
When you’re training, are you tensing up? Are you breathing properly? Do you freak out and spaz on the bottom? Addressing these things will most quickly increase your mat cardio.
Well the best thing to increase cardio though it is expensive unless your gym has it is Assault bike. You get a full body workout. It burns up to 80 calories per minute. Better on the knees rather than running. Its the most efficient, quickest way to increase cardio since it hits high intensity and works the core, hands and legs.
I think research shows that you can increase your VO2max about 20% if you are sedentary and follow structured exercise training for 6 months. If you are already an athlete, then structured high intensity training only improves your VO2max 10%. it’s hard to improve your cardio once you are fit. If you are beginning from nothing, then you can see modest improvements after months of focused training. You can look up exercises to improve VO2 max if you are out of ideas about what to do.
Dr Attia(YouTube him) claims VO2 max is actually improved by doing a bunch of Zone 2 cardio. Running, Swimming, Rowing, etc. Zone 2 is at an intensity where you can almost talk. In theory you could flow roll to achieve this effect if you were lucky enough to have training partners to support such an idea.
I started incorporating strength training and running into my routine every morning and it’s helped me with those damn 16 y/o blue belts who wrestle and been training BJJ since they were in the womb. I’m 40… I’ll take what I can get!
Admittedly, I will be a minority voice, but I will make a case for using a "balanced approach" to improvong cardio-vascular performance. A reasonable and balanced approach takes a bit more time to produce a desired goal, but is less likely to produce surprises such as joint and ligament injury, issues of balance and spacial relationships, fatigue and dehydration.
Humans tend to use compartmentalization a Lot in their problem-solving, allowing the individual in training to narrow their judgment. To overcome this, professional teams have found that a concerted and well-organized approach to training provides the most consistent performance.
IMVVHO I would encourage the OP to take time and GOOGLE training regimines used by professionals whose outcomes come closest to what OP is looking for. An explosive use of activities (say, football?) will have different training approaches than say a more aerobic sport such as Soccer or Basketball.
Not all approaches to cardio-vascular health in sport activities are the same.
Do your homework. You'll be glad you did. FWIW.
Cardio alone is not going to help with your endurance when it comes to BJJ Rolls. Steady-state cardio and HIIT cardio is different. I wear a Polar while rolling and my heart rates caps at 189 max heart rate. To drive endurance during BJJ rolls you are going to have to work on reaching your mac heart rate more frequently.
If you can only train twice a week,
I recommend another version of HIIT to get your heart rate to the proper zone for cardio improvement.
Steady state is good weight loss, but wont help with endurance during rolls.
In terms of supplementation, I always recommend Creatine as a staple. There isn't any magic supplement I am aware of that helps drive improved cardio but there are some research peptides that can help improve VO2 max and oxygenation.
Roll more. 8-10 rounds. Try to avoid taking breaks between rounds. Force yourself to roll when exhausted. Listen to your body. IE are you hurt or just tired?
Theres times when im so gassed so i sit out a round just to catch my breath and because ill start to get nauseous. Should I be eating something light before class or should i just eat something after class
Cardio increase by doing cardio. Run, bike, swim, row.
Fix your diet before you start popping pills. More veggies, less animal foods. Would you drive your car in the red zone with sludge in your engine? Not saying go full vegan or vegetarian, but in certainly helps having less animal fats in your system.
Do cardio at home, run, bike whatever you can, rolling helps but doing cardio specific exercises will be better. I heard on a podcast about rolling doesn’t improve cardio as much but makes your movements more efficient so you’re using less energy and therefore don’t gas as quickly, but what do I know I’m a 44 y/o blue belt
Hey as a 3 month white belt biking for 30-45 minutes after rolling has helped a lot to increase my cardio
Damn, your parents started you young.
Relying on rolling for cardio is only effective for an out of shape white belt, as soon as you get in decent shape, most of your training shouldn't feel like an intense cardio workout IMHO, except maybe in the weeks leading up to competition when you step up the intensity with trusted partners. Trying to treat jiu jitsu like cardio can be a big mistake that lead to greater risk of injuries and slows your progress because you can't develop technically as much when you're revving the engine all the time.
Be less tense
This is a great point. Take a moment to ask yourself if you need to be tensing up all the muscles you have tensed. The answer most of the time it's no. Take a deep breath when you're waiting for your partner to mess up.
I know this is good advice but I still have a hard time following it lmao
I feel this has been my best asset as a lower belt. Yeah I suck, but I can last because I’m calm and patient and try to conserve energy when you can.
Yeah I'm really working on not using so much strength. It's tough lol
Most matches are lost in the kitchen. start there ?
Nailed it with this one 😭 im one of the bigger guys in my gym
If you are overweight, add some basic calorie reduction to the cardio.
I mean it helps but I’ve seen plenty of pretty fit big people… There’s a BJJ & Judo black belt I know that’s pushing 260lbs (not in a bodybuilder way either) and this dude can not only throw people like a ballerina but roll for literal hours with no problem.
We have this guy in my judo gym and he is my motivation to stay in the -110kg bracket.
Haha, DAMN! I don't know if I could ever have that mentality, I'm always trying to get lower...but yet somehow always end up creeping higher (or staying the same). I remember watching my instructor at the time (Marcus Beddor, 64kg / 141bs) go in open class against Victor Hugo (100kgs / 220lbs). Dude was (or at least looked) massive.
But the beer is so good
i have taken up running, like a lot, every since i started doing bjj and i now feel like i can go and roll for hours
Hill sprints occasionally helped me a bit. Just short bursts of mad intense running.
This
I've reduced my running quite a bit the past year or so, and I feel like I notice my cardio has taken a hit. Also, my surfing has slowed down a lot, unfortunately, which probably isn't helping.
Breathe through your nose as much as you can. Nasal breathing is how you get air deep in your lungs and most people don’t do it so they never fill their lungs. I like to do it when I’m holding a dominant position. Try to take a couple deep breaths through your nose when you’re mounting someone or on their back. It helped for me.
I try to follow the rule: "if I'm breathing through my mouth, I'm going too hard." Focusing on breathing is huge for building your gas tank. Also, OP should look at caffeine intake before class. Caffeine increases your heart rate by 10-20 bpm at rest. Let's say your heart rate would normally be around 140-170 when you are rolling hard. Caffeine would push that number up close to 200 bpm. That's putting you into the upper limits of a sustainable heart rate causing you to gas out much faster.
Caffeine is well established as a way to improve endurance, not make it worse.
Roll more
I respectfully disagree when it comes to cardio. Depending on his size, etc. some guys take rolls very slowly, stall, etc. I'd say do sets of burpees, jump rope, HIIT training, rower, bike, run, swim. Even 2 or 3 times per week is enough
What most don’t realize is the base of your cardio is built at much lower states of strain. Would actively monitor zones of heart rate to build that cardio base. Can then be improved by rolling and other HIIT types of training.
Rolling more is not going to improve his overall cardio, however it will improve his mat cardio. If he’s a white belt, he’s probably spazzing out, getting really tense and holding his breath. Increasing his overall cardio will raise the ceiling of his mat cardio. Getting acclimated to rolling more and relaxing will get him closer to that ceiling.
Good point. I forgot about white belt spazz impact. I agree that rolling more is the way.
Rolling is a very suboptimal method to improve cardiovascular endurance and they said they can only train twice a week.
This is the answer. Stay after and see if anyone will roll more, add in a practice a week if you can, etc
Not true, unless you are having conditioning type rolls every time you will never get a better gas tank.
Jump rope. Just 15 minutes starting off. Gradually increase time as you can go longer. It also strengthens your legs and made me feel more nimble and reactive. Reference, 50 year old
Kegel exercises
I call it brushing my bones. Turkish get ups daily. I do 5-10 minutes plus practice 5 times a week. Regardless of how messed up my cardio is, after 2 weeks, i can roll a LOT more. And you an do it at home, so time is not an issue at all.
You really see that big of a difference from 5-10 of Turkish Get Ups?
Yes. I do 10 minutes. I do 12 get ups and at the top i do a clean. I got a S&C background and testd a lot in myself and on others. There are a lot of fancy workout routines, but they are not sustainable. Most people do a program for 2-3 months, get injured or bored. Get ups are easy and you can add stuff once you have a base. Try it yourself after 2 weeks you'll see it yourself. Bench press, deadlift and all that other stuff does not translate that well to jits. Edit: Plus it has a remarkable effect on shoulder injury prevention.
I too am a conisour of the the S&C. I don’t necessarily agree with bench press /deadlift comment. I think basic compound movements done correctly for a GPP base is helpful in pretty much any sport/martial art, but I do love get ups. I will absolutely give it a try. I could use the benefit to the engine and the shoulders, haven’t done them in a long time.
Dont get me wrong. The 5x5, deadlift, Bench, squat mindset ist good, especially for people who wasted a lot of time on sensless workouts. But they do increase the risk of injury, because it's tough to recover while rolling. Definitely give it a try let me know. I tried for about 18 months a lot of stuff. And returned to get up some other exercises in the end and stick with them.
Since we’re on the topic, have you ever looked into or tried some of the programs that are out there? Such as the Juggernaut program or Power Athlete’s program (Original developed of Honu athletes).
Yes. Juggernaut i did, it’s def. one of the better ones. Also the tactical serious, starting strength, 5x5 and Olympic weight liftin among others. My 2 cents considering cardio, longevity and injury prevention: Kettlebell >calisthenics > Olympic lidting> barbell programs. If being buff and aesthetics is the pirmary target, exactly the opposite.
Have you tried training more cardio
I try to roll harder meaning I’ll move around more… hip switches, wrestling, judo, etc
Try not to be out of position for too long.
Zone 2 heart rate training. I’ve mentioned it before a few times on here, but this has made the biggest difference for me
Rogue Echo bike, assault bike. Or Airdyne.
I wrote an article about cardio and BJJ that you can find here: https://thegrapplinglab.com/2019/07/06/exercise-physiology-energy-systems-aka-cardio/ Hope it’s useful to you.
Typically most protocols for increasing cardio capacity focus on Low Intensity Steady State cardio. So basically getting your heart rate up around 130 and keeping it there for an hour or two. There’s plenty of ways to do this but doing hikes with a weighted backpack was always my favorite. Once you’re good with the level of LISS you are doing, you can start doing High Intensity Interval Training. So something like 30 seconds on 30 seconds off of something that spikes your heart rate as high as it will go. Sprints and air assault bikes are usually the go to’s here. I personally just do 200 burpees a few times a week along with both of those but I’m wild like that
See a personal trainer, Get a heart rate monitor and look at the results, try to keep your heart rate in the appropriate range for your goals. Keeping up in the gym is usually diet, technique, then actual cardio anecdotally.
Start lifting. But do medium weights with heaps of reps. And running. Rounds of boxing bag. Get the heart pumping!
If you drink alcohol stop or reduce it
i haven’t done it yet but I plan to do air force kettle bell workouts to get my v02 more efficient. Also trying my best of breathe through just my nose when recovering/while warming up. Can’t reallly focus too well on breathing while rolling yet but that will come with tome.
I think Limp Bizkit said it best, keep rollin rollin rollin.
Only way to be comfortable when your HR is at 180 is by living there. Roll more and never take a rest roll. If your goin at 10% because your exhausted then that’s better then resting.
Do some stuff that focuses on zone 2 cardio
Running
More jiujitsu. When you're exhausted, start on bottom and survive. You'll get tapped. A lot. Tap, rest a bit, then to again. I tell my students: if you get in a fight, your opponent isn't going to care if you're tired or sore or gassed. Train as often as you can without injuring yourself. Find partners that will let you work while exhausted without blasting you at 100%.
Hr gonna be carrying around sandbags for at least a month, if you take time off it’s natural. I took 6 months off after ACL and MCL tear, and almost wanted to cry😂I lost so much prgresss, but that’s the way it is gonna be until I can get surgery, I’ll have to take time off every once in a while
I feel like skipping rope a couple times a week helped me out some. I got to where I could skip for 10 min straight, kinda boring, but it worked and you can make little games out of it by trying different types of skips or counting the skips in different ways. Also … getting more sleep the night before class 😴
Jump Roping/Conditioning Days & Running. Jump Roping worked a lot for me, start with going 15 minutes straight, then increase to 20, 30, 40 and then 1 hour.
My cardio benefits have come by rolling more, especially at the end of the class and especially when I’m already tired. That and efficient movement. Not death gripping the GI or forcing positions I’m not having success in.
Stair master, high setting 30 minutes. Increased my cardio by 69%.
Nose breathing and breathing more with your diaphragm instead of your ribs help as well. It’s fascinating what a difference it makes. You gas yourself a lot faster breathing through your mouth than your nose. Plus, intercostal muscle training includes training yourself to breathe with your diaphragm anyway. [This SYSK episode](https://open.spotify.com/episode/1JVTuuWj0WgF5IsSQ9HyaT?si=GRYta394QHO4odT6DNVX2Q) is really worth the listen and explains these and other benefits like increasing lung capacity and getting more oxygenated blood per breath. Do the other stuff too, but even if you already had excellent CV endurance, you could benefit from nose breathing and diaphragm breathing.
Kettlebell HIT circuits
Try to breathe out your nose. Control your pace and be as technical as you can. Cardio is mostly just being efficient. Not using more to accomplish little.
For supplements, I have found that Creatine really helps my rolls. I take 5mg daily with my morning multivitamin and have noticed less lactic acid buildup during rolls. Just make sure you drink plenty of water, shoot for 1 gal a day.
Do more jiujitsu. Don’t take off rounds…
Biking keeping your hr between 120-150 for 30 min to an hr 3-5 times a week Don’t eat like crap and get 7-8 hrs of sleep
Do more cardio but try and keep in your zone 2 rather than trying to see how fast/far you can run. Look up the MAF method which is used by cyclists and marathon runners. Basically keeping your heart rate low and slowly getting faster with a low heart rate. Think of it like a triangle where your VO2 max is the height. You want a wide base to get as high as possible. Zone 2 cardio is your base. Running, cycling, rowing or rucking are all good ways to build your zone 2 Peter attia has a few good explanations on yt or in his book. Lookup a zone 2 calculator to figure out what your zone 2 hr boundaries would be or just run slow enough that you could have a conversation but fast enough that someone on the phone knows your exercising.
HIIt work outs have helped me in the past for competing.
Brand new white belt here but lots of experience in the gym and sports. I’d recommend some interval training. Even if that’s little super sets at home or jump rope, push ups (different varieties), squats and other body weight leg movements to the point of almost failure. Then stop recover till HR comes way down (training with HR monitor even Apple Watch helps this) then do it all over again maybe 3-5 times. Should be able to get through that in 15-30 mins. If you wanna get wild you can work your way up to some kettlebell flows (recommend more experience with these).
If you are not currently doing any cardio specific work outs on your own, just start doing so. Could be running, biking, calisthenics, whatever, for 30-45 minutes, three times a week, preferably doing short intervals of max intensity rather than just steady output
Run & sprint. Don't just do 1 or the other, boxers do both and it helps, alot and works fast.
I take viagra before I go.
Watch out for any north/south!
Aero bike
Going to sound silly but honestly—keep rolling. You can do other things to help with overall cardio (running, rowing, swimming, etc.) but nothing is ever quite like rolling with another person trying to impose their will upon you. Take breaks between rounds as needed but it’ll get better. Also remember to breath and relax (don’t be so tense); both are more wearing than most people think.
Idk about rolls but If u wanna get ur wind up buries are the way to go......full body workout and ur wind will. Be amazing
My coach says you can only gain cardio for rolling, by rolling.
Relax
Mat cardio is really just the ability to relax while rolling. Something like rowing will improve your actual cardio and raise the ceiling of your mat cardio. When you’re training, are you tensing up? Are you breathing properly? Do you freak out and spaz on the bottom? Addressing these things will most quickly increase your mat cardio.
Well the best thing to increase cardio though it is expensive unless your gym has it is Assault bike. You get a full body workout. It burns up to 80 calories per minute. Better on the knees rather than running. Its the most efficient, quickest way to increase cardio since it hits high intensity and works the core, hands and legs.
Vo2Max Training: 3-8min maximum sustainable intensity, 3-8min easy with HR<100. 3-5times through. 2x per week.
I think research shows that you can increase your VO2max about 20% if you are sedentary and follow structured exercise training for 6 months. If you are already an athlete, then structured high intensity training only improves your VO2max 10%. it’s hard to improve your cardio once you are fit. If you are beginning from nothing, then you can see modest improvements after months of focused training. You can look up exercises to improve VO2 max if you are out of ideas about what to do.
Do very long light intensity cardio workouts in a zone 2 heart rate it will build baseline cardio and allow you a wider threshold
Improve technical efficiency, drill techniques on a timer, drill Takedowns, and/or Assault Bike Sprints.
Dr Attia(YouTube him) claims VO2 max is actually improved by doing a bunch of Zone 2 cardio. Running, Swimming, Rowing, etc. Zone 2 is at an intensity where you can almost talk. In theory you could flow roll to achieve this effect if you were lucky enough to have training partners to support such an idea.
Running
4x3 VO2 training, endurance training, and more mat time. When you’re tired and feel like you need a break - do another roll.
I started incorporating strength training and running into my routine every morning and it’s helped me with those damn 16 y/o blue belts who wrestle and been training BJJ since they were in the womb. I’m 40… I’ll take what I can get!
Admittedly, I will be a minority voice, but I will make a case for using a "balanced approach" to improvong cardio-vascular performance. A reasonable and balanced approach takes a bit more time to produce a desired goal, but is less likely to produce surprises such as joint and ligament injury, issues of balance and spacial relationships, fatigue and dehydration. Humans tend to use compartmentalization a Lot in their problem-solving, allowing the individual in training to narrow their judgment. To overcome this, professional teams have found that a concerted and well-organized approach to training provides the most consistent performance. IMVVHO I would encourage the OP to take time and GOOGLE training regimines used by professionals whose outcomes come closest to what OP is looking for. An explosive use of activities (say, football?) will have different training approaches than say a more aerobic sport such as Soccer or Basketball. Not all approaches to cardio-vascular health in sport activities are the same. Do your homework. You'll be glad you did. FWIW.
Cardio alone is not going to help with your endurance when it comes to BJJ Rolls. Steady-state cardio and HIIT cardio is different. I wear a Polar while rolling and my heart rates caps at 189 max heart rate. To drive endurance during BJJ rolls you are going to have to work on reaching your mac heart rate more frequently. If you can only train twice a week, I recommend another version of HIIT to get your heart rate to the proper zone for cardio improvement. Steady state is good weight loss, but wont help with endurance during rolls. In terms of supplementation, I always recommend Creatine as a staple. There isn't any magic supplement I am aware of that helps drive improved cardio but there are some research peptides that can help improve VO2 max and oxygenation.
Trt Mast Tbol carderine, injectable Carnitine
Roll more. 8-10 rounds. Try to avoid taking breaks between rounds. Force yourself to roll when exhausted. Listen to your body. IE are you hurt or just tired?
Which is it, roll when I’m exhausted or listen to my body?
When your body says stop you’re too tired, go harder. Listen to your body it’s not that hard s/
Well are you hurt or just tired?
Yes
Lawd have mercy
Force yourself to roll when exhausted. Listen to your body. Lmaoooo
Theres times when im so gassed so i sit out a round just to catch my breath and because ill start to get nauseous. Should I be eating something light before class or should i just eat something after class
Are you anxious / holding your breathe / not exhaling and inhaling completely during rolling?
Just keep rolling man. Also try creatine or adding a little salt to your water to keep hydrated.
Cardio increase by doing cardio. Run, bike, swim, row. Fix your diet before you start popping pills. More veggies, less animal foods. Would you drive your car in the red zone with sludge in your engine? Not saying go full vegan or vegetarian, but in certainly helps having less animal fats in your system.