If you’ve ever wondered what the best heart rate monitor for jiu jitsu is then you’ve come to the right place. In this article I’m going to review my favorite device for tracking heart rate, calories, and overall grappling training volume. Keep reading for more.
Readers of this website know that I write a lot of fitness programs, especially hybrid fitness programs, combining cardio with heavy weight training. I’ve also started to do a lot of jiu jitsu in the last few years. Because I have a relatively high training volume in the gym, I needed a way to track my output, and overall effort on the mats.
I’m a big proponent of Zone based training for endurance athletes, and you really need to use a heart rate monitor to do this. Naturally, I decided to use my normal Garmin HRM Pro to start tracking my jiu jitsu sessions. I immediately ran into problems.
These chest strap monitors are very accurate, and they provide excellent data for working in your target heart rate zone, for most activities. However, I found that they don’t work well for jiu jitsu for several reasons. First, they slide around in most of the positions that you find yourself in on the ground. I found that I would constantly have to adjust it back on my ribcage.
This movement lead to inaccurate readings, and large chunks of training time that had no heart rate reading at all. As a result, I decided to look for a different sensor to see how that works.
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Polar Verity Sense Optical Heart Rate Monitor
I quickly found the Polar Verity Sense Optical heart rate monitor (Amazon Affiliate Link), and start to test it out. This sensor is worn on the the arm, either on the bicep or forearm. It uses optical sensor technology, like Apple Watch, and Garmin do to track your heart rate.
While there are pluses and minuses to this technlogy, I found that the Verity performs well for most training session. Here’s a quick overview of the specs for the Verity.
Some of the key features I think make a difference for jiu jitsu heart rate monitors are the ability to be placed in many different locations. The Verity can actually be put nearly anywhere on your body, provided it’s held closely to your skin.
I tend to wear it on the armband it came with, on my upper left arm. I’ve found that it does well with the sensor more towards the inward side of my bicep.
The Verity lasts for around 30 hours which is a decently long battery life. I tend to charge it roughly every 2-3 weeks.
The other nice feature I like is the ability to save heart rate data on the sensor itself. This came in handy when I went to a large open mat situation where the watch the sensor was out of bluetooth connectivity range. It couldn’t connect to the sensor but once it came in range, it was able to upload the data after I stopped recording the activity on my Garmin watch.
I also like the Verity because it has a high waterproof rating which does give me peace of mind as it’s going to be absolutely covered in sweat for long periods of time. If it can read during swimming then it’s good for rolling!
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6 Month Impressions
I originally purchased this in December of 2025, and I’ve been using it consistently since then. I view the data both in Strava, and in the Garmin app that I use with my Epix 2 smart watch. The two metrics I really look at are overall training time, and my caloric burn during rolling.
The overall training time allows me to be honest with myself about how much training time I’m putting in. I can go to open mat and pretend like I was training for 2 hours, but my heart rate monitor might only say that I’ve been active for a little over an hour, because I spent too much time yapping with everyone else!
Moreover, the heart rate zones allow me to get a good idea of how hard I’m really working during a training session. I find that for hard sparring I’m in the 170-190 range. This is when I’m rolling with an athletic upper belt, and am most likely getting smashed!
Below you’ll see an example of a jiu jitsu session. As of this writing Garmin doesn’t have that activity type so I use Mixed Martial Arts to categorize it.
I can see a real difference if I role with someone who’s lighter, and less experienced. My heart rate might only get to 110 – 130 in such a case. While these metrics are useful, I want to quickly review how I analyze them.
Using Garmin Metrics for Jiu Jitsu
As I stated earlier I tend to use the overall training time, calories, and heart rate zones the most. This is because these have the biggest impact on my overall recovery. They will also determine how much more I need to eat, to be ready for my gym sessions.
You might be surprised how many calories you burn if you’re sparring at full pace. For an average class where I start with drilling some moves with light resistance, work some new movement technique, and then go to live sparring, I tend to burn 8-10 calories per minute. This is around 550-600 calories per hour. If I spar during a 90 minute session continuously, I’m closer to a thousand calories per hour.
One thing Garmin doesn’t really understand is the impact sparring has on your overall training readiness and recovery. It has this same problem with heavy strength training too. It tends to just estimate recovery time based purely on heart rate and respiration data.
You might be getting absolutely worked by someone pinning you down, but Garmin may not see this as objectively difficult, if your heart rate isn’t super high.
By far the biggest drawback is when pressure gets put on the sensor. Because its on my arm, it is susceptible to dropping a reading when someone has side control pressure on that arm. I can literally see how much time I’m pinned in side control by how long the sensor can’t read my heart rate.
I find that 80-90% of the time I have great readings, with only a few drop outs. However, some classes where you’re drilling movements that put pressure on it, you will have minutes of drop out readings. This does lower your overall metrics, and caloric burn. I’ve not found that to be a big problem just something I’m aware of.
Final Thoughts
If you’re the type of athlete that likes to have metrics to assess their training then I think the Polar Verity is a good investment. It’s compatible with any device that can pair with bluetooth or ANT+, which is almost any smart watch you would use for fitness.
Even the basic metrics can help make sure that you’re eating enough to support your overall training. It can also keep you honest with your overall training time. As of this writing you can pick up the Verity for just over $100. (Amazon Affiliate Link)
I should also mention that you can use this for your other workouts as well. It’s can be paired with Zwift, or used for biking, gym workouts, and more. If you have any comments or questions put them in the comments section below, and I’ll get you an answer. Now get out there and get training.
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