Bike riding helps with cardio for grappling ?

Deltafarce

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I've stopped running recently my body is just too beat up I think. My cardio is pretty bad and I feel it on the mat does bike riding help?
 
I've stopped running recently my body is just too beat up I think. My cardio is pretty bad and I feel it on the mat does bike riding help?
It won't hurt, but it's not specific enough to have a really noticeable transfer onto your mat performance. Best cardio for grappling is grappling.
 
Cycling is a good low-impact way to work the aerobic system.

The best way to be a better grappler would be getting more mat time.
If you can't grapple that often and want to supplement your classes, activities like swimming, climbing or rowing would be more "specific" to your sport, but cycling is fine too.
 
The last guys suggestions are better for grappling than cycling. You have to build endurance in your upper body for grappling, and a lot of times grappling happens in bursts do you need to do anaerobic workouts (sprints in whatever workout you're doing, basically).
 
I found more mat time helped a lot, and anything high intensity like sprints.

I found lower intensity things like distance running and swimming not very helpful; I was quite the runner when I started BJJ and even the high intensity warm-ups kicked my ass, and I lasted all of one minute on the mat (not knowing techniques also caused me to use a lot of energy).

Now with all the high intensity warm-ups and mat time, I can get through a couple of rounds no problem.
 
I find running and cycling helps a lot, definatly not as good as more grappling but thats dependant on your schedule. I do bjj 4x a week and thats because my gym only has....4 bjj classes per week.

Call me old school, but I believe roadwork is very important for fighting be it grappling, striking or mma. Show me a successful fighter who dosent do any sor of extra cardio....
 
Cycling uses a completely different energy system than grappling. Its really not going to help much.

Call me old school, but I believe roadwork is very important for fighting be it grappling, striking or mma. Show me a successful fighter who dosent do any sor of extra cardio....

Roadwork and is only one kind of extra cardio. Lots of successful fighters do not do roadwork. But since you asked, 2x UFC champ Frank Mir is adamently against road work. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/mma/2011-06-13-mir-nelson-training-camp_N.htm

Frank-Mir-Esther-Lin-MMA-Fighting.jpg
 
As a relatively low-level athlete, bike commuting worked pretty well for me as active recovery and weight control, but I wasn't doing anything like training for race pace. I was just getting in a steady 4-5 hours of aerobic work a week commuting to and from work. If you're a well-developed athlete, you probably put the aerobic base that would help train down years prior. I definitely don't think I got any kind of specific muscular endurance from it.

That said, if you have a problem with high resting HR and time to recovery between rounds, adding in high volumes of active recovery/CO can work wonders.
 
When I'm doing lots of cycling/running, my grappling is always better than when Im slacking on it. If fighting was my job and I could do 2-3 sessions a day, I'd do less running/riding but thats not my situation.
 
It won't hurt, but it's not specific enough to have a really noticeable transfer onto your mat performance. Best cardio for grappling is grappling.

This. I haven't seen any performance plus to be honest with bike riding. My trip is 6.6km to training and same 6.6km to back home, thats over 13km in total, which is not that much, but still something.
 
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