I've been training Brazilian jiu-jitsu for about 4 months now and I'm in decent shape, but whenever we do live rolling I'm completely exhausted after just a few rounds. My technique is getting better but my cardio seems to be the limiting factor. Is this normal at my experience level, or should I be doing different conditioning work outside of class?
Don't just go out and run more miles thinking that'll fix it - BJJ cardio is totally different from regular fitness. At 4 months you're probably tensing way too much during rolls (everyone does), which torches your energy fast, and your body hasn't learned yet how to move efficiently without burning out. I noticed this with myself when I first started doing intense stuff - I'd gas hard after what felt like nothing, but once I slowed down, focused on staying relaxed and letting technique do the work instead of muscling through, things got way better. Try some lighter, longer rolling sessions mixed in with your regular ones, and honestly just spending time drilling at a conversational pace will build your base cardio for BJJ specifically way better than generic conditioning ever will 💪
Are you drilling efficiently or tensing up a lot during rolls? At four months in, what you're hitting is pretty normal - your cardio baseline might be fine, but BJJ has this sneaky thing where bad positioning and unnecessary tension absolutely drain you way faster than they should. Most people at your level are fighting too hard instead of using weight and leverage, which torches your energy. You'd probably see better results mixing in some conditioning specific to grappling (like burpees, bear crawls, or just more live rolling at controlled intensity) rather than generic cardio, but honestly the biggest fix is relaxing more and getting tighter technique so you're not muscling everything.
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