Smartwatches and Combat Sports Don't Mix Well Together. Here's The Fix

Smartwatches and combat sports don’t mix. Whether you train Muay Thai, BJJ, wrestling, or MMA, wearing a smartwatch during training is uncomfortable at best — and dangerous at worst. Between gloves, clinching, grappling, and high-intensity rounds, accurately tracking heart rate and training load becomes almost impossible. In this video, I break down why smartwatches like the Apple Watch Ultra and Garmin watches struggle in combat sports environments, and how I finally found a better way to track my training without wearing a watch on my wrist. I walk through my thought process, including why I didn’t go with Garmin’s more expensive heart rate strap, and why I landed on a simpler chest strap solution that still integrates perfectly with my Garmin ecosystem. This setup allows me to track heart rate, training load, and recovery data accurately during sparring, rolling, and pad work — without smashing a watch or ruining sessions. This isn’t about chasing numbers or obsessing over data. It’s about managing fatigue, avoiding overreaching, and training hard for years without burning out — especially as you get older and combat sports start to take a bigger toll on the body. Chapters 00:00 - The Problem 01:10 - Why It Matters 01:35 - The Backstory 01:55 - The Near Perfect Option 02:57 - The Perfect Option 04:50 - The Important Stuff If you’ve ever tried wearing a smartwatch for BJJ, Muay Thai, wrestling, or MMA and thought, there has to be a better way, this video is for you.