Jiu Jitsu can be a very hard and taxing sport to practice regularly. When you have two bodies applying maximum force upon each other to control and submit, much effort is applied to get there. In Jiu Jitsu, the body is also subject to being twisted and held in positions it might not be accustomed to. Adding to the excursion, some gyms do not have air conditioning and heavy sweat is produced in a training session. A hard session of Jiu Jitsu with live rolling can leave a practitioner wiped out and sometimes unable or at the least very unwilling to get out of bed the next morning or make it to their next training session.
At the time of this writing, I’m a 39-year-old Jiu Jitsu practitioner and know that when I push hard at a training session without properly preparing and recovering, I will be left wiped out the next day. I can barely get out of bed and when I do, I’ll feel completely drained, weak, sore, and hungry. As I’ve aged and continued working out and practicing martial arts, I know that I need to properly prepare and recover so that I can bring my best to the next training session.
To optimize recovery after a hard Jiu Jitsu session you must take steps to feel your best for the next session. Over time I’ve come to learn that the primary methods to get me ready for my next Jiu Jitsu session are to hydrate, eat, sleep, and restore my body. In this article I will share my learnings developed over time and specifically what I do for hydration, eating, sleeping, and body restoration to recover and prepare myself for my next Jiu Jitsu training session.
Hydrating for Jiu Jitsu Recovery
One of the most important aspects of recovery is hydration, specifically not allowing yourself to get dehydrated during the Jiu Jitsu sessions. If you do live drilling and rolling on an unairconditioned hot day you will sweat and sweat a lot. Not hydrating beforehand can lead to bad dehydration. If you find yourself dehydrated after a Jiu Jitsu session, you may feel like the life got zapped out of you and it can take multiple days to rehydrate and recover. To ensure I stay hydrated during hard Jiu Jitsu sessions I use a combination of drinking volume throughout the day, mineral supplements, and rehydration after the Jiu Jitsu session. Here is a link to my complete hydration routine that I try to implement before every Jiu Jitsu session.
I usually will take a full 40 oz of water to Jiu Jitsu practice and when I feel thirsty I will drink. After the Jiu Jitsu session, I usually have about a 1-hour commute back home where I will put down a 16 oz Gatorade Zero. When you sweat you lose both liquid and minerals necessary for the transportation and utilization of fluids throughout your body. The sodium and other minerals in the Gatorade help replenish lost minerals through heavy sweat. I also like the taste and it feels like a refreshing treat to have a Gatorade Zero on ice after a hard training session. The rest of the night I will work on finishing the 40oz of water I brought to the class if I didn’t finish it at class. Beyond that, I drink if I have the room and the thirst to do so.
Properly hydrating before class and rehydrating after has made a big difference in how I feel directly after class and the next day. On days when I went in with little hydration I would often feel completely bonked after class and had a hard time getting out of bed the next day with complete soreness and fatigue.
Eating for Jiu Jitsu Recovery
Proper nutrition is another factor that will help your recovery after a hard Jiu Jitsu session. Like with most exercise the right nutrition will help your body recover more efficiently and quickly. I like to keep it simple with nutrition and recovery. Protein for muscle recovery, carbs for energy recovery, and fats for flavor and additional calories.
Like most, I attend Jiu Jitsu classes in the early evening. I do not like to eat dinner before class as it can lead to bloating and an upset stomach, which can make for a bad time on the mats. Instead, I like to try and fuel up with a high-carb snack that my body can use quickly as needed during practice. Here are some of my favorite pre-practice Jiu Jitsu snacks:
- One large banana
- Oatmeal with fresh berries or other fruit
- Whole wheat bread with peanut butter
- Fruit and veggie smoothie
Eating a high-carb healthy snack before training acts similar to hydration where you won’t get totally drained during or right after training. After training, I switch into recovery mode with nutrition and look to more high protein and slower burn carbs into my system to help with recovery. On my way home I will have a high protein lower carb protein bar and a Gatorade Zero. Once home I will have dinner and focus on high-quality protein, a grain/starch carb, and a vegetable carb. A typical meal would consist of 150-200 grams of chicken breast, 1 cup of brown rice, and 1 cup of frozen corn with a small amount of butter. This is the style of dinner I typically stick with and rotate out the meat, grain, and vegetable as my tastes seem fit. Simply pick a protein, high-quality grain, and a vegetable and adjust the amounts depending on your physical activity level and size. You can also cook the individual items in different ways to keep them varied throughout the week. Here are some of my regulars:
Protein
- Chicken Breast
- Chicken Thighs
- Lean cuts of beef
- Turkey breast
- Ground turkey
- Eggs
- Lean pork chops
Grains/starches
- Quinoa
- Brown Rice
- Sweet potatoes
- Potatoes
- Wild Rice
- Whole wheat
Veggies
- Corn
- Broccoli
- Green Beans
- Carrots
I am usually ravenous after a hard training session. One thing that has made it easier for me to stay on nutrition point, is to prepare my meals for the week on the weekend. I cook a large portion of meat and grain/starches and have frozen vegetables on hand. When I get home all I need to do is cook the veggies in the microwave and reheat the meat and grain and I have a quick healthy meal to fuel my body for recovery. The last thing you want to do is flush physical training gains down the toilet by immediately heading to the nearest fast food drive-through to stuff your face with bad fats and sugars. Having a plan and food readily available has helped me throughout the years from staying away from the convenient good tasting caloric bombs that fast food offers.
Sleeping for Jiu Jitsu Recovery
With your nutrition and hydration on point, sleep is where your recovery efforts are put to work. My current routine when I get home is to wash my Jiu Jitsu clothes, take a shower, eat my dinner, relax, and then hit the sack. I’m a night person and like to spend a few hours chilling out before bed. I’m usually an easy sleeper too so after an exhausting Jiu Jitsu session I can fall asleep easily at the time I choose. If you struggle with this try to create a routine that signals it’s time for bed. When I’ve had issues going to bed at a decent time I would set a timer on my phone to signal me to go brush my teeth and get to bed. I still use this alarm to help make sure I go to bed at a time when I can get 7-8 hours of sleep. The amount of sleep necessary depends from person to person but in my experience the more the better after a hard Jiu Jitsu session. 7-8 hours leaves me refreshed and I’ll tend to feel groggy and tired throughout the day. Get a good amount of sleep and your body will thank you by locking in physical gains and allowing you to be refreshed and ready for the next training session.
Restoring Your Body for Jiu Jitsu
A hard session of Jiu Jitsu can leave you feeling very sore and stiff the next day. Body restoration in terms of mobility and flexibility has not only helped me recover the next day but has also helped improve my physical Jiu Jitsu performance over the long run. For mobility, I like to practice Jiu Jitsu type movements and for flexibility, Yoga has been great for me.
For my mobility routine, I’ll take 10 minutes after breakfast and conduct a mobility routine similar to how a boxer would shadow box. I’ll do sets of 10 with exercises like shrimping, heisting, shoulder rolling, bridging, butt scooting, and technical stand-ups. After doing a few exercises with sets I’ll take a couple of minutes to freestyle chaining moves together as if I was grappling an opponent. I’ve found that learning to move your body without a resisting opponent exponentially returns gains when the time comes to grapple with an opponent. Two of my favorite resources to get specific movements are the following:
BJJ Fanatics: Self Mastery: Solo BJJ Training Drills by John Danaher
The Budokon Mobility System by Cameron Shayne and Xande Ribeiro
After spending 10 minutes on Jiu Jitsu specific movement exercises I will move directly into a Yoga routine. I started Yoga when I was 39 and like many males thought stretching to be a waste of time or at the minimum a low priority. When I started I was stiff as a rock and after just a few sessions I could tell the difference in my flexibility and ability to use different positions and transitions while rolling. I take only 10-20 minutes and use the program Yoga for BJJ. I like the Yoga instructors and there are many Yoga sessions available based on body parts, experience level, and length.
Here is a link to my full review of the Yoga for BJJ Program
As I’ve aged flexibility and mobility are now a must for me to feel recovered and ready for my next training session. I found that it doesn’t take much time, I typically spend 20 minutes a day on mobility and flexibility combined. Not only has this helped my recovery, but it’s made me stronger, more mobile on the mat, more flexible, and more technical. If you master your body it will help you dominate others on the mat.
Hydrate, eat, sleep, and restore is my motto for recovery and being able to come 100% mentally and physically to your next Jiu Jitsu session. As you age each point becomes more and more critical to having a healthy long Jiu Jitsu journey, so start as early as possible. While relatively simple, there is a lot that goes into being on point for each of these recovery strategies. It doesn’t have to be 100% perfect all the time, but creating habits and actively sticking to the plan, and continuously improving will help in your recovery and overall Jiu Jitsu.