In a recent social media exchange, elite Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitor William Tackett challenged a common misconception about cardiovascular training for high-level grapplers. Responding to a post by Dr. Mike Piekarski about conditioning for jiu-jitsu, Tackett offered valuable insight from the perspective of a top competitor.
While agreeing with Dr. Piekarski’s overall assessment of training zones, Tackett pointed out a crucial factor that many might overlook: the efficiency of movement in high-level practitioners. “From years of training jiu-jitsu, most competitors become so efficient with their movements, pacing, and technique, that they don’t exert as much energy as a lower-skilled athlete would,” Tackett explained.
Drawing from his own experience, Tackett revealed that his heart rate rarely reaches Zone 3 (high-intensity) during regular jiu-jitsu training. He cited a recent no-gi session where he spent only 7 seconds in Zone 3. This efficiency, while beneficial for performance, creates a challenge for cardiovascular preparation.
Tackett emphasized the importance of still accumulating Zone 3 minutes each week, especially when preparing for high-level competitions where adrenaline and intense competition can push heart rates into this zone. However, he cautioned against achieving this through methods like “shark tank” drills or pairing conditioning directly with jiu-jitsu, citing an increased risk of injury.
Instead, Tackett advocates for a safer approach: dedicated Zone 3 training once per week through activities like running, assault bike, or circuit training. The workout graph featured in Dr. Piekarski’s post actually showed one of Tackett’s trail running sessions, designed specifically for this purpose.
“In my experience, this is much safer to push to fatigue, rather than when someone is trying to submit you,” Tackett noted, highlighting the importance of separating high-intensity cardiovascular work from technical training.
This insight from Tackett challenges the notion that simply “going hard” in jiu-jitsu training is sufficient for developing the cardiovascular fitness needed at the highest levels of competition. It suggests that even elite grapplers may need to supplement their mat time with specific cardiovascular work to prepare for the demands of top-tier tournaments.
Full post from Piekarski:
There is a misconception on how to train conditioning, specifically for grappling sports. I would say many old school coaches are still stuck in their old ways of yelling at their students to “Just GO HARD” ramping the intensity way up, reducing the rest of a training session. Or arbitrarily adding sprints without adequate rest to the end of class.
While their theory is that this will improve conditioning, any improvements plateau fairly quickly.
Here is a picture of a famous jiu jitsu competitor posting their overdrive conditioning using @trainwithmorpheus
I am familiar with this app / HR monitor as I use it for myself and clients. The app had recommended training zones per week for improving cardiovascular function. You can see based on the 3rd slide you need FAR more volume in the blue zone than you do in the red zone.
Slide 2 is an example of one of my training sessions from a year ago (my cardio has improved since then – overload then was at 164 bpm where today it would be at 172 bpm). I did 5×6 min rounds starting from the feet. The red zone were during rounds with other black belts. You can see that this ONE training session alone is enough for my overload for the entire week.
How many training sessions will a professional competitor get in per week between skill training + S&C? 8-12.
My recommendation :
You will likely get an excessive of volume of overload training as an accidental bi-product of just training. If you want to improve your cardiovascular capacity it would better to add blue zone training that you won’t get from skill training.
