Conditioning for Grappling Conditioning for Grappling A friend of mine used to be an Iron Man. However after two minute on the mat he was seeing spots, had his tongue hanging out and simply did not have the strength to carry on. The point is that you can be in shape - but grappling shape is a whole different animal. It is a different type of conditioning then what you need for any other sport.
Grappling demands complete body movement.
Because of the totality of energy expended the body quickly goes into oxygen debt and reaches muscle failure. There is one supplemental exercise I would advice whole heartily however and that is weight lifting. Although often rejected by martial artists who do not value raw strength as much as most other athletes do, weight training offers a wealth of benefits to the grappler. In my opinion weight training should be part of every grapplers training regiment. Grappling is very physically demanding pursuit.