We’ve all heard the adage, “Abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym”, well so too are jiu jitsu champions. While we all spend as much time as we can on the mat to grow as jiu jitsu players, how we handle our nutrition off the mat may be even more important to that growth. A proper diet gives us the foundation we need to give it our all in our training while avoiding cramping, upset stomachs, injury, or other byproducts of poor nutrition.
Here are some of the best nutritional practices that have helped us in our jiu jitsu journeys.
Before & After Training
The hours leading to and following training may be the most important to your overall performance both in the short-term and the long term. Jiu jitsu is not only a cardio-intensive sport, it is also one that can put you in situations where you are facing heavy pressure from an attacking opponent. Because of this, we highly recommend keeping food to a minimum in the two-hour window before training. Ask any seasoned jiu jitsu player, there is no worse feeling than facing a heavy knee-on-belly with a full stomach, it’s a mistake we have all made and not one we wish to repeat. If you do need to eat within that two-hour window, we recommend light foods such as fruits, apple sauce, or a handful of nuts to give you some “fuel” to burn without filling your stomach.
Given jiu jitsu’s highly cardio-intensive nature, we burn a ton of calories while rolling, generally putting us in a caloric deficit depending on how much we eat on a given day. This makes it extremely tempting to eat everything that isn’t nailed down after a night of hard rolling, but a measured and calculated approach can lead to significantly greater gains in both your jiu jitsu game and body composition. One of your first goals after stepping off the mat for the evening is to get some protein in you, preferably within 20 minutes of the end of training. Rolling is very intense on muscle fibers, leading to a breakdown in our muscles without proper supplementation. Protein helps our body regenerate said fibers and builds new muscle, which makes it essential for building strength and preventing injury. Additionally, making a protein-heavy post-workout meal with a handful of carbs to restore our glycogen stores goes a long way towards helping our bodies recover and get ready for the next day.
Dieting
Being on a diet doesn’t necessarily mean that you are eating less to lose weight. A uniform and disciplined approach to what you eat can pay dividends for the performance of any athlete. Here are a couple of diets that are common amongst jiu jitsu players:
One of the most common diet plans in the jiu jitsu community is intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is relegating your eating to a pre-determined window, most commonly 16 hours fasting, and 8 hours eating. This manages your body’s insulin levels, keeping them lower and facilitates natural fat burning. It also facilitates cellular repair that removes waste material from cells and keeps you healthy and active. Additionally, it is far more difficult to overeat in this time-restricted window, which keeps you out of a calorie surplus, which will lead to unwanted weight gain if this is not your goal.
Generally a health-conscious bunch, the paleo diet is also very common in the jiu jitsu community. The paleo diet is centered around eating the foods our ancestors would have eaten during the Paleolithic era. This follows the hypothesis that humans are genetically mismatched with the modern diet and this mismatch is the root cause of many health problems plaguing society today. This limits the foods that you can eat to meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and oils derived from plants. In this diet, all processed foods are out, keeping your entire diet to nutrient-rich whole foods that our bodies are better equipped to digest. Some of the benefits of following this diet include blood sugar regulation, lower blood pressure, lower triglycerides, and better appetite management
If you are considering changing your diet, know what works for your body, and even consider consulting a physician before doing so as a significant change while training can have negative consequences.
Alcohol and Substances
If you talk to high-level jiu jitsu players, you will find that a common trait amongst most of them is that they do not drink alcohol. For some, it is the interference hangovers and other consequences would have with their intense training schedule, for others, it’s the extra calories that a few beers or cocktails can add to their generally meticulous diets. While most of us don’t follow the same regimented lifestyles of high-level players, these takeaways can be applied at any level. There is nothing wrong with having a drink, but a night of boozing can have its ramifications. Drinking significant quantities of alcohol can leave you extremely dehydrated, leaving your body in a state that’s less than optimal for training for as much as a couple of days depending on how well you can rehydrate. Additionally, all the empty calories that come from an alcoholic beverage can lead to significant weight gain, especially if you drink sugary cocktails or gluten and carb-heavy beers such as stouts.
Another less spoken about but potential side effect substances have is they remove you from the present and in a hyper present sport like jiu jitsu, this can be the difference between success and failure. Even the day after consuming any substance, the brain fog can leave you mentally elsewhere when you need to be focused on what’s happening on the mat moment to moment. This mental lapse, even if it is for a split second can spell disaster in a roll, causing you to miss a window for a pass, get swept, or even submitted.
Only you know your body and how best to fuel it. That being said, to be successful in jiu jitsu finding an optimal way to do so is paramount. Proper pre and post-training nutrition are crucial to making sure your body is properly equipped for hard rolling, as well as recovery after it. Even outside of this window, managing what you are eating through a mindful approach to your diet is one of the key building blocks of long-term success in the sport. This all doesn’t mean you can’t have the occasional indulgence, but we strongly recommend keeping them managed relative to your goals within the sport.
When all the dots connect and your nutrition keeps you of sound body and mind, this allows you to have more effective training sessions, which of course leads to significant improvements within your game.
OSS
Interested in trying Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or have any questions about how it can help you with self-defense? Contact us today!
