BJJ Nutrition Tip: The Warrior Diet: How to Fit Your Diet Around BJJ / Grappling

I received a question from Marc in France (Once again, many thanks for reading the blog!). It was regarding an earlier post of mine about supplementing with creatine . I have replied to Marc’s specific question but it reminded me to give an update on my (always evolving) training, diet and supplementation.

As much as I love training with Kettlebells, I am constantly looking for new ways to get an edge over those who have more time to train than I do. Thanks to a small competition by the gym instructor at work, I discovered the rowing machine! I've always known that rowing is a great sport and form of exercise, but never thought much about indoor rowing. Now I do interval training on the rower as I feel the use or your body is very similar to that in Grappling / BJJ. More about that in a future post.

Further, as I am faced with accumulating uni work, I have scaled down my Grappling training for this and next week down to Fridays only. Added to that, I am on the rower 3 mornings a week before work. As the workload on my body is lower, so is the need for recovery assistance (i.e. creatine). I have now stopped using creatine but will probably get back on it when back to my usual sessions.

The biggest change I have added is that I am now following something called the The Warrior Diet. I can’t remember how I stumbled upon it, but I liked the initial idea and went to Waterstones and checked the book out. The basic concept is that warriors of old used to eat one meal a day* and the author of the book, Ori Hofmekler, feels that we should revert back to that way of eating/living. I thought to myself: “I’ll try this for a week or two. If my body likes it then I’ll invest in the book”.

5 days later I was feeling such a difference I went back and bought it and I’m now an avid follower. I love the The Warrior Diet for the following 6 reasons:

1. I eat my 5-a-day before 6 o’clock every day.
2. My stomach and alimentary canal feel great.
3. I feel lighter and more energised.
4. The hunger actually keeps me sharp.
5. I’m losing weight without really trying.
6. I get to eat anything I want for dinner. Anything. Everyday. Need I say more?!

I strongly recommend everybody to read the The Warrior Diet. Ori is a wise man and there is a wealth of information in the book. Not just about diet, but health, history and physiology. Besides, when a book opens up with comments by Pavel Tsatsouline and Steve and DC Maxwell, you better believe it’s worth a read.

Check it out and let me know.

*Apart from your evening meal, you can eat fresh fruit and vegetables (and some yogurt) thru-out the day.


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I hate this weather! I hate this weather! I hate this weather! I hate this weather! I hate this weather! I hate this weather! I hate this weather! I hate this weather! I hate this weather! I hate this weather! I hate this weather! I hate this weather! I hate this weather!

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BJJ Tips: Positional Contol v Submissions: A Manager's Perspective

As you may know, I divide my free time between training, studying and socialising (hopefully adding some painting in the new year). I came across the following piece in one of my Management books:

“A successful team needs to balance two types of behaviour: Task-oriented and Maintenance oriented. It is the manager’s role to push for that balance.

Task oriented behaviour:

1. Proposing ideas and courses of action
2. Building upon suggestions from others
3. Disagreeing with diversions from course
4. Giving and seeking info relevant to task achievement
5. Summarising discussion / progress

Maintenance oriented behaviour:

1. Gateskeeping and ensuring all parties are involved in discussion
2. Encouraging cooperation and participation
3. Resolving conflict and being ready to compromise
4. Giving feedback on feelings, opinions and actions
5. Recognising that team members have own feelings and priorities”

Looking at that, I immediately recognised it as a parallel to the BJJ / Grappling game. If you were to look at your strategies, techniques or even body-parts as members of a team (Team You), you could easily translate the above into Jiu jitsu-speak (notice I didn’t say Portuguese J) Let me demonstrate, from a body-part point of view. In this example I presume you are in a dominant position. Submission (Task) oriented behaviour:

1. Faking attacks and pushing the action
2. Capturing sbmission opportunities as soon as they present themselves
3. Focusing on the task at hand and avoiding distractions
4. Attempting submissions, checking their defences / awareness
5. Reviewing success / failure of submission and what could be worked on

Position (Maintenance) oriented behaviour:

1. Gateskeeping and ensuring all body parts are actively involved in maintaining / advancing the position
2. Covering all aspects of positional control and maintenance (e.g. block guard recovery and going to knees from side control)
3. Accepting loss of position and immediately transitioning to an escape or another position
4. Swimming through his pushes, contouring around frames and faking different attacks to keep him on the defence.
5. If you partially lose a position (get a leg trapped when in mount) re-group and work to re-gain the position

I think it translates pretty well. I love things like that. BJJ / Grappling being a microcosm and all that rubbish! Have fun with it and let me know what you think. ----Did You Like This Article?--- Drop me a line on parttimegrappler@ymail.com or explore some of the recommended past articles on the right...

BJJ Time Management Tips: Priorities in BJJ / Grappling

Last night’s BJJ session was a busy one; both in the number of Gi clad people on the mat and the number of grappling techniques taught. Position of the day was the half-guard. The first drill was recovering / maintaining a good posture in half-guard bottom and Martin our coach explained the three golden rules from there:

1. Stay on your side
2. Prevent the Cross-face
3. Work for the underhook

There are things that need to be done from every position. Without them you are playing against the odds and seriously slashing your chances of success. That is true both in management and in BJJ/Grappling. My advice is to spend some time identifying these priorities and then adhere to then religiously. Your game will thank you for it many times over.

Make a list of the 3-5 top things to do from each of the major positions BJJ/Grappling:



Your coach, training partners and library of books and DVDs will be of great help here but never forget that you can probably figure out and definitely verify most of these yourself through constant experimentation and refinement. There is an amazing sense of satisfaction behind solving one's own problems. Naturally, you can bounce your ideas off the above-mentioned sources. Just make sure you don’t do it in the middle of a session.

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