Can Supplements Help You Train

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is not an easy sport.  Training bjj can be very rigorous and it can be very taxing on the body.  Many people that train Jiu Jitsu are between the ages of 30 and 50 years old and it can be very hard for their bodies to acclimate to.  This is because bjj requires you to use muscles that you have probably never even used.  There are awkward motions and things that we do in bjj.

Some of the major muscle groups that we use in Jiu Jitsu are the hips, back, shoulders, and legs.  We are using almost every aspect of our body.  This can be very difficult for the average practitioner because many people who train bjj are not athletes and they just do it as a hobby.  This poses a problem because some people who train have never played any sports.  They may not know the proper way to recover.

We strain our bodies so much when we train bjj, we constantly hear people that train complaining about their backs, necks, hips, and shoulders.  So how can we recover from this?  Well, the fact of the matter is that there are a few things that can help you.  Today we are going to discuss how taking some supplements can help with our performance and recovery.  The thing is, there is no magic supplement but if you take supplements while incorporating yoga and stretching, you will see a difference.

Stretching and Supplements

Stretching is imperative for recovery when training Jiu Jitsu.  We often times push ourselves past our limits in bjj and we are forced to do unorthodox movements.  People may put us into bad positions and we can strain our lower back or necks.  Sometimes when we are rolling we may be caught in a position and we may not be able to get out and hurt ourselves a bit.  To recover, you will benefit tremendously from stretching. 

Along with a strict stretching regimen you can also implement a supplement or two into your daily routine.  There are many supplements that can help with inflammation, if you stretch a sore muscle group and take a supplement to reduce the inflammation the combination of both can be very beneficial.  For instance, fish oil is one of the best ways to reduce inflammation without damaging or destroying your liver.  It is excellent for cognitive function, memory retention, blood pressure and recovery.  This is an easy supplement to take for recovery. 

If you are able to take fish oil and incorporate a stretching routine, you will see much faster recovery time.  You can also take supplements like amino acids or “post workouts” so that your body restores its muscles properly.  These will allow you to regulate lactic acid and be healthy and recover quick.  Sometimes you can also use something like a “pre-workout” to help you train better and smarted.  Many times, we are injured because our bodies are already tired, and it is difficult to function well. 

We recommend taking a non-stimulant pre-workout.  This is due to the fact that bjj is such a rigorous cardiovascular workout that you probably don’t want a substance or chemical elevating your heart rate when you will be elevating your heart rate naturally in bjj.  Check out some of our supplements below for a good non-stim pre-workout. We just partnered with ATP products to carry all natural and peak performance supplements that have been approved by the World Anti-Doping Committee. 

Yoga and Supplements

Yoga is another excellent thing to incorporate into your training regimen.  Even if you only do yoga once a week or even once every month, you are going to benefit.  Why does yoga help?  Yoga classes can help you exceed personal limitations that you may have on your body.  They will help you push yourself and reach levels of flexibility and dexterity that you never have.  When combined with the right supplements, you can also start to see excellent benefits. 

For example, many people suffer from nutritional deficiencies that they are not aware of.  Some of the most common ones include low levels of Vitamin-D, low levels of Iron, Magnesium and Zinc and low levels of B-vitamins.  All of these can play a role in your overall energy, productivity and recovery.  When we do bjj we need to make sure that we are not nutritionally deficient.  If we think that just doing yoga will be a magic cure, we may be in for a rude awakening.  There are so many variables to proper recovery that if we can address the vast majority, it is likely that we will see an increase in recovery time and performance.  

People often focus to much on the training and not on the recovery, but you can ask any professional athlete, the recovery process should be considered part of the training.  All to often we see some older guys say that they are to sore to train more than once in a week but if they dedicated sometime to recovery it could benefit them tremendously.  That being said, sometimes there are time constraints that can make it very difficult to have such a strict training regimen. 

If you want to check out some amazing supplements, we attached some below from one of our new partners, ATP Products.  This is a stellar company with nothing but the best all-natural products.  Check it out below.