How Important are Diet and Nutrition for the Average Jiu Jitsu Practitioner?

Jiu Jitsu is a grueling sport.  We put our body through so much when we go into bjj class and roll.  Many of the BJJ Practitioners tend to be between the ages of 30-50.  So many of us are constantly getting submitted, thrown, and beaten up on a day to day basis.  Jiu Jitsu is not easy and if it was, a lot more people would do it.  There is a certain type of person who becomes addicted to the rigorous grind of training bjj.  These days we are even seeing a lot of young kids try and make bjj their life.  They are training twice a day everyday like full time athletes and doing everything a professional athlete would do to reach their goals.

This brings us to our question, how important is it to have good nutrition and a good diet for the everyday bjj practitioner?  We are not referring to the guys that want to be professionals, obviously they need to have a good diet, we are talking about the everyday guy that works a full-time job, has kids, and still makes the time to go in and train bjj with all those young killers.  Should they be incorporating a healthy lifestyle? 

The simple answer is, obviously.  It is important to have a healthy diet and lifestyle to support your bjj habits.  BJJ is grueling on the body and it puts us through a lot.  We burn an immense number of calories rolling, we put our backs, hips, necks, and other major muscle groups through hell, and we beat ourselves up.  It should be obvious that if you have a healthy diet and nutrition you will be less sore, and overall healthier.  The problem lies in the discipline it takes for the everyday practitioner to upkeep this healthy lifestyle. 

Lifestyle vs Diet:

The key word here is lifestyle.  Many people use the term diet to refer to nutrition and eating healthy, but a diet puts a limit on things.  Saying diet suggests that you will only keep this nutrition up for a certain duration of time.  This is the problem.  For bjj practitioner’s it is essential for them to have a healthy lifestyle along with their training.  Even if they only train 2-3 times a week, bjj still takes a toll on your body, especially when you work and have kids.

Having a healthy lifestyle is very difficult for the everyday person because they have so much things on their plate.  Family, work, relationships, social time, and so much more.  So it is not ideal to suggest to the guy who already struggles to make it to 3 bjj classes a week that he should also incorporate a healthy lifestyle.  Time management is key here. 

Is there a secret to being able to do this?  Is there some sort of cheat code that we can use?  Well, not really, but building habits is the foundation of a healthy lifestyle.  If you start to do something as a routine on a day to day basis, there is a good chance that this routine will stick and you will develop a habit.

Benefits of Good Nutrition and Lifestyle for the Average BJJ Practitioner

The benefits of developing this healthy lifestyle are endless.  You can have a myriad of benefits from doing simple things like cutting carbs down, increasing healthy fats, and limiting your gluten, sugar, and carb intake levels.  There are an abundance of studies showing that if you increase healthy fats and lower your intake of sugar and processed carbs your body will recover quicker and you will feel better. 

Processed carbs like bread and sugars from candy have been proven to increase inflammation and make it harder for your body to recover, they can also make you lethargic and make it difficult for you to feel good.  The main reason we want to influence people to have a healthy lifestyle while practicing bjj is so that they can have higher energy levels, perform better, and of course recover. 

Recovery is the most important thing for bjj.  We often hear people at our bjj academy complaining about neck pain, low back pain, hip pain, knee pain, tendonitis and so much more.  In order to mitigate these symptoms and relieve them naturally instead of with NSAIDS and other drugs we can start with our diet.  It has been proven that fish oils can help us with brain function, memory, and severely reduce our inflammation.  This is imperative for training bjj.  This is because the fish oil will allow us to keep training. 

It is also shown that diets high in healthy fats like fish oil will do all of the same.  On the other side of this, we know that processed sugar and carbs will increase our inflammation and make it more difficult for us to recover.  Asides from the fact that a healthy lifestyle can alter every aspect of your overall physical health, when discussing it particularly for bjj, it will help! Believe us!

Instead of spending all that money on chiropractors, doctors, and medicine, just start eating clean.  Try it for a month and see the difference.  Even if you only train once a week watch how much better you retain information, how you combat soreness, and how your energy levels and thinking clarity will increase.

If you are not sure where to start and how to eat well, check out our newest and best-selling diet product from George Lockhart.  Lockhart is one of the UFC’s leading nutritionist and has helped some of the best professional athletes in the world lose weight and doing it in a healthy fashion.  Lockhart is the real deal and this product can literally change your life.  It is an E-Book and a DVD.  This is also available as a digital download below.