Ollin BJJ Support - Aerobic Fitness
Integrative and practical endurance for grapplers.
Austin Haedicke
1356 Words | Read Time: 6 Minutes, 9 Seconds
2025-04-07 17:00 -0700
To improve our “conditioning”, we must train what we’re not already conditioned to. That means not just doing more of the same intervals / pace we experience on-the-mat.
Program Overview:
As usual, Michael has some pointed, astute, and accurate observations. The difficulty with “just rolling more” is in our inability to regulate pace at a granular level.
While we can do this in a synthetic environment, like the track or weight room, it’s much more difficult in the “field of play” – in this case, grappling.
We also don’t want to just do more of what we’re already doing on the mat, e.g. high-intensity intervals. For this reason, you won’t find many anaerobic capacity sessions in my training logs that aren’t grappling sessions.
Over the last few years I’ve really been harping on the detrimental idea of “going medium”, or rather, getting ground down to a medium pace because you’re under-recovered. Obviously this is counter productive as we neither recover during the session or stimulate development of novel adaptation.
This program from Ollin provides a general guideline for managing intensity, suggesting:
- 80% of training time at less than 70% intensity.
- 15% of training time at less than 90% intensity.
- < 5% of training time at a high-intensity competition pace.
As for the program’s structure, as written it is:
- 3 sessions / week for 6 weeks.
That’s 18 sessions total if you’d like to split it up differently. However, be aware that the volume will accumulate throughout the program. The last week’s total volume is about 45% more than the first week.
Measures and Objectives:
- Avoid the temptation to “win” sessions.
Specifically, this requires re-defining “win criteria.” Whereas a typical workload (e.g. 10-20-30-40-50 rep ladder) would be measured “for time.” I really wanted to dig into a “true Zone 2” which meant focusing on doing the work and taking as long as it needed while maintaining a cap on my heart rate.
- Focus on sustainability and utilize creativity.
Can I do this? Can I do this for an hour? Can I do this for an hour and still train tomorrow? These are all valid questions we have to ask ourselves each and every training session. The program itself doesn’t prescribe any mat-time, though it’s implied that you can do it alongside your regular grappling training.
However, consider that a particular sports practice may be especially hard or easy, and your support training (fitness) needs to remain subordinate to that.
- Improve VO2max, as a measure of aerobic fitness / endurance.
Within the last week or two of the program the charging cable for my Garmin watch died, so that borked my dataset. However, it also reinforced the emphasis on “paying attention” to my internal state rather than relying on an external device or metric.
On the other hand, I did start using my Morpheus HRM again which is a useful external reminder regarding HR and the above limits I set for myself during particular sessions.
Application and Observation:
The outdated equation for maximum heart rate (MHR) is 220 minus your age – 184 for me. However, an actual heart rate monitor (HRM) has clocked me at 193 during a grappling session.
One way to calculate “Zone 2” is 70% of MHR – 135 for me. Another method is called a MAF Score which is computed by 180 - your age (plus or minus 5-10 depending on injury and training level) – 144 for me. Together those give a nice working range for me to stay within.
One really nice thing about Morpheus is that it dynamically adjusts training “zones” based on how un/recovered you are. That same “blue zone” for me has ranged from 145 - 157. So, generally speaking, staying above 130 and under 150 was my objective during this program.
Most sessions are around 75 minutes including the warm up. The difference being, how much time is allotted to the warm up and support segments versus the main “work” segment.
Easier sessions had a longer warm up and and support, with shorter work; while the proportions were reversed for longer sessions in the later weeks. This is a very natural progression and way to continue progress and momentum from the previous Ollin program’s mobility work.
Outcomes:
Overall, I did a good job keeping my heart rate throttled. Only in the last few sessions did I ramp things up, and even then they were part of an isolated exploration / assessment opposed to everyday training.
Specifically, in session 17 I clocked 175 bpm while still breathing through my nose. I was biting my lip, but breathing through my nose nonetheless.
As with most of Ollin’s programs, the emphasis on creative uses of equipment and movements was much appreciated. In application, it gives you great freedom to simply ask yourself at the beginning of each session:
- What is my intended sensation?
- What is my target duration?
- What is my target intensity (HR)?
Obviously, as certain movements / muscle groups (e.g. hinging vs. squatting) got overcooked, more specific substitutions were warranted. Though generally the “sensations” could be replicated just fine – e.g. what is supposed to elicit “lung burning” versus “muscle acidity.”
VO2max is a tricky devil to measure accurately without complex equipment and efficiency of the movement being measured (e.g. cycling vs. running). Garmin has had me pegged at a running VO2max of 45 for the past several months after hitting a bit of a valley (41) last fall.
On the other hand, my lifetime cycling PR VO2max about 56 (echo bike, 7/17/22). That’s estimated from 18.6 cals / min for 10 minutes which converts to about 373 Watts and I weighed about 82 Kg at the time.
Lastly, the easiest, but perhaps least accurate way to measure this is based solely on RHR. In which case, my RHR of 56 (via Garmin) and age of 36 gives me a VO2max of 50. One way to interpret all of that is that I generally have pretty good aerobic fitness (based on RHR), I’m kind of bad at running, and kind of good at cycling.
What’s, maybe, more important than all of that though is that the last few sessions were indicators that I can in fact control my heart rate for 60+ minutes of output. Now, whether or not I can do this without the live Morpheus display keeping me on track may be a different story.
Nevertheless, I’d consider my goals met and dare say that my overall physiology doesn’t seem to be the problem.
Concluding Reflections:
I really liked the undulating intensity structure of this program, opposed to more traditional linear progressions. For example, even in the NP endurance manual, things were set up in two week increments where volume would increase every two weeks – though there were active recovery days programmed into each week.
This alternative approach, undulating intensity, feels like a very clever way to sneak in active rest. While each week had a “short, medium, and long” session, they all increased slightly (~5 minutes) every week.
That means you start with 30, 45, and 60 minute sessions (135 minutes total) in the first week and work your way up to 55, 70, and 75 minute sessions in the last week (200 minutes total) – a 45% increase in volume.
The program is supposed to be 3 days / week for 6 week, which I think is very feasible even if you’re grappling 2-3 of the other days of the week and have family obligations or just want to rest on the 7th.
Because I was working on a deadline, I crunched everything down to 4 days / week for 4.5 weeks and still managed to grapple 3 days per week (though on was always very light). That too is doable, it just takes some creativity and willingness to adjust intensity on-the-fly.
Lastly, it’s definitely worth mentioning that the exercise selection of this program significantly lowers the barrier to entry for the sometimes daunting aspect of “endurance” and “cardio.” Specifically for grapplers, the mix of long EMOMs and hypertrophy are much more welcoming (and probably more familiar) than the idea of “just running.”