Strength And Conditioning Megathread - December 18, 2017

Struggling to balance cardio/conditioning with being fresh for training.

I train 5x per week (90-120 minute sessions). I also do some strength and prehab stuff (pullups, core work, some plyos) after class. These after training workouts aren't too insane, maybe 15-20 minutes of work.

The problem is when I mix in cardio sessions. I love cardio. My go-to right now is 2x15 minute jump rope rounds 120-150rpm. I try to do this 1-2x a week. Banging out the cardio workout is not a problem on that day, but the problem is the rest of the week I feel way more drained, like I can't recover from the grappling either. My legs are tired but it's just overall fatigue. I typically try to do cardio on Monday and Friday (Friday is a no grappling day).

My diet is on point (~3K calories/day, 40/45/15 protein/carb/fats) and my rest is pretty decent (decent amount of rest time but I know I'm pumping out cortisol...life is stressful). My testosterone is OK for my age, not amazingly high but not crazy low.

My 5 day training schedule isn't new, and that itself is tiring but I can handle it. I feel like I'm a cycle of being in great shape, but always being wrecked from the effort required to maintain that shape, to a degree that it's compromising my grappling training.

I'm 36. Do I just need to accept that now I can't recover from all the workouts I can possibly do? Or accept that if I do cardio workouts I am gonna be kinda wrecked for training? I love cardio but it seems like it's hurting my grappling by making me tired and sluggish. Is this a normal tradeoff?

/r/bjj Thread