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[u/secretsauce223]

[u/bjj-ModTeam]

Hi there,

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[u/legato2]

Do Tabatas until you fall off the erg gasping for air on the ground in a puddle of your own sweat. It won’t take as long as you think.

[u/secretsauce223 → u/legato2]

This became the most upvoted comment. I have no ideas what Tabatas is, but Tabatas it is!

[u/legato2 → u/secretsauce223]

20 seconds max effort 10 seconds active recovery. That’s tabatas people usually do like 4 or 5 mins as a set but I just go till I blow.

[u/johnpoulain]

I'm a big believer in Steady State (or zone 1) heart rate training. All the cardio systems are used for high intensity activities and zone 1/2 can take a lot more improvement than higher heart rate zones (e.g. most people wouldn't finish a marathon, amateurs might finish in 4 hours + and the record is 2 hours. 95% of people can do 100m, amateurs will be able to do it in 15 seconds and the world record is 9.5 seconds. Lots more room to improve sustained effort). It also reduces how long you need to rest to recover and increases your power output when you're gassed. However this style of training takes a long time (40+ minutes a session). You can generally do this at a pace that doesn't overly fatigue you so don't have to be very careful programming.

HIIT targets lactic systems (Zone 3 / 4) which is more similar to Grappling but potentially you get less improvements out of them. Pros have probably tapped out the general steady state improvements and are looking for this specific system so won't do as much lower intensity work. One of the things I took from Juggernaut 2.0 was the idea of tempo teaining. I generally do 8 x 30seconds rowing at 70% of max watts for 30seconds, 40% of max press ups, 40% of max situps and 15 seconds rest. The bodyweight exercises are a good way to add General Physical Preparedness and I think also help make general Warm Ups a breeze. Aiming to go further in the row rather than getting more bodyweight stuff in. Advantage is that this doesn't take anywhere near as long as Steady State but it leads to more fatigue and needs to be programmed more carefully.

Tl;Dr Slow Cardio takes a while.but leads to more benefits; HIIT is a time saver but can be draining.

[u/pigeondo → u/johnpoulain]

HIIT has become more popular because it engages people's shorter attention spans better and keeps them focused. Longer cardio is just simply more boring despite its proven efficacy and importance until you actually have reached close to your peak steady state potential. Particularly with BJJ since you're already doing interval training in rolls doubling up on that makes no sense unless for some reason you're trying to maintain BJJ cardio during an extended period where you can't roll.

A dance class routine is the closest analogue you can get to jiu jitsu without a partner, but weirdly no one seems to reccommend that hence the hiit cardio thing having more to do with people's interest than actually finding the most effective training methodology.

[u/johnpoulain → u/pigeondo]

Not sure its just an attention span thing; you can get benefits with more intense training and it doesnt take as long as steady state.

Especially when youre doing cardio for improvements in another sport the practicing of the sport has to be the priority. If you're fitting it around a job and family taking another 4-8 hours a week to do long cardio sessions might be too much.

[u/WristlockKing]

Rowing is good for the similar mechanics. The tacketts used the assault bike for the 6 minutes of beast mode training.

[u/Boxyuk → u/WristlockKing]

Assault bike is excellent because you can yet a life regrettinly hard workout on it for very little impact on your joints.

Great for us slightly to heavy grappliers

[u/FuguSandwich]

Start with the Basic Conditioning Program in the Concept2 Training Manual. It's a list of successive workouts:

5X1 Minute, 30 seconds rest between intervals

6X1

7X1

8X1

5X2

6X2

7X2

8X2

5X3

6X3

7X3

8X3

4X4 (60 seconds rest between intervals now)

5X4

6X4

7X4

4X5

5X5

6X5

7X5

4X7:30

3X10

2X15

1X20

1X22

1X24

1X26

1X28

1X30

Target SPM of 26-28 (start lower, around 20-22). Damper setting 3-5. Aim to keep all 500M split times under 2:00 and over time try to get them to 1:45.

Once you've completed this program, I would just do intervals with work/rest ratios aligned to whatever BJJ comps your doing, e.g. 5-10 minutes for IBJJF depending on belt level). If you can go balls to the wall on an erg for 10 minutes you will have zero problem going 100% for the entire duration of a 10 minute match.

[u/Excellent_jun91 → u/FuguSandwich]

im in south africa. someones selling a concept 2 they bought from a small gym they say serviced it at end of last year. 2300km lifetime metres. so 2.3mil... ZAR11500 so about halfish that in dollars or so.

should i buy it you think?

[u/FuguSandwich → u/Excellent_jun91]

I have no idea what that price correlates to in dollars, but there are people out there rocking previous model Concept2's with tens of millions of miles on them that work just as good as new. With proper maintenance they last forever.

[u/Excellent_jun91 → u/FuguSandwich]

about 550 to 600 you can say USD. yeah i was thinking do i need to replace the chain and cord etc... does have a pm5 monitor tho so thats a plus

[u/FuguSandwich → u/Excellent_jun91]

That sounds like a reasonable price. I've had my Model D for 15+ years and never replaced anything. If you keep the chain oiled it should last forever. The elastic cord will need to be replaced at some point though. Mine has a PM3 which is fine for me.

[u/RedDevilBJJ]

I start at about 20 minutes, medium pace the whole time.

Couple weeks in, I add in a 5 minute block of “sprints” at the 10-minute mark: 30 seconds max effort, 30 seconds regular pace, repeat

Then I start adding time to the total 5 minutes at a time: up to 25mins, then 30.

For every 10 minutes I add to the total time, I add another block of sprints.

[u/Mu99az]

I go 10x500m intervals. Try and do all of them under 1min 50secs. 1min break between.

[u/Excellent_jun91]

as per rowing sub: stwady state more steady state alotta steady state (aka zone 2 long session).

i love the concept 2. i miss it since i left gym. soooo addictive

[u/LawfulIrrigation_8]

I do intervals on the rower where I go 30 seconds hard then 30 seconds easy for 20 minutes, feels more like rolling than a steady state slog ever did

[u/CatRepulsive2819]

Google Norwegian 4z4 and Taku Tabata interval workouts. This will give you awesome cardio protocols for grappling!🤙🏼

[u/jumbohumbo → u/CatRepulsive2819]

Op note these are pretty advanced without a solid aerobic base first

[u/JKFGAUUS]

Excelente para desenvolver base aeróbica, Z2.

[u/Boxyuk]

Mark mcqueen does a brutal workout on the rower.

10x500m, 1 min rest.

Best possible time each interval.

Try it, fucking brutal

[u/jumbohumbo]

Listen to Charles Eoghan experience podcast #154 with Alex sterner. It's all about developing cardio for BJJ and how Alex programmed cardio for Marlon Tajik for adcc 2026

[u/Bonez101]

https://thepeteplan.wordpress.com/beginner-training/

This is what I’m currently doing. So far so good

[u/babylioncroissant]

3 sessions a week:
10sec max effort 50s rest x 10
30sec on 30 sec off x10
3min on 2min off x5

[u/Warm-Warning67 → u/babylioncroissant]

what’s the name for this?

[u/roldar → u/Warm-Warning67]

I think it's call "Please kill me now."

[u/Shallbecomeabat]

I cannot repeat it often enough: the best cardio workout for BJJ is BJJ. Nothing else fully translates. No tabata, no running, rowing, whatever. Do long ass rounds! A friend of mine and me we met as white belts three times per week at my place and did 2 40 minute rounds with 5 minutes break in between. I can more or less roll endlessly now.