Showing posts with label creatine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creatine. Show all posts

Bjj / grappling/ MMA Tips: recover faster between sessions with these 4 tips

I recently read an online article on recovery between sessions and I thought it did an OK job of telling you what's important but still left much to the imagination with regards to immediate steps to take so here goes my version:

The best ways to recover faster between jiujitsu sessions:

1 – Stretch your muscles and decompress your spine 

Have a post-session routine and stick to it. This doesn't need to be complicated nor take a long time. A good start is to do the following three stretches religiously after every session:

a. Downward dog: this will work your back chain (calves, hamstrings, spine...etc) for 1-2 minutes 


BJJ / Grappling and Weight Loss Training Tips


Above are my figures as of today, 2 days ahead of the Manchester Open.

Don’t get me wrong; I have not been loosing weight specifically for this event, but rather for the long-term health of my joints and internal systems. I don’t consider myself heavy, but I strongly believe that the less you weigh within healthy parameters the better. There is a lot of research to support that but I just think that it makes sense.

This all started on the 1st of January 2010. I weighed 89kg and felt that I was taking a long time to recover from the weekly BJJ / Grappling sessions. I researched recovery and and found out a lot about rest, protein, carbs, creatine…etc. But everywhere I looked, weight a healthy little was often looked more favourable upon than weighing a healthy lot. That, combined with the Warrior Diet that I’d been following for a few months then, lead me to make a few small changes in my life. I didn’t want to go on a short-term diet or exercise plan. I wanted to take it very slow. Unnoticeably slow. In fact, so slow that I wouldn’t even notice it and therefore not look forward to it finishing (which is the culprit of every short-term diet!)

So what did I do?

-I only ate food that tasted really well.
-I stopped eating crap
-Following the Warrior Diet, I ate fruit and veg thru-out the day* and one meal at night
-I drank lots of water, tea and coffee
-I consumed lots of smoothies. Always homemade.
-I consumed lots of fruit juices. Always, always homemade.
-I used my lunch period at work to burn 300 kcal. 5 times a week. Every week.
-Every time I went to the gym, I recorded my weight and my Body Fat% and kept it on an Excel spreadsheet – without judging it!

I noticed that I was getting results but, as I said above, I didn’t want to judge it. Apart from running a column for the actual figures, I also ran a separate one that gave me averages. So if on day one I had 14kg of fat and on day two I had 14.9, the average would be 14.95…and so on. I did this because my training in Statistics told me that while figures can lie short-term, averages seldom do in the long term. Also, it gave me great consolation around e.g. Valentine’s day when my body fat weight got stuck (or even went up!) by thankfully the average kept creeping down. It was more forgiving and reminded me that a day or two are not the end of the world!

With the gi, I weight about 84kg, which puts me in Medium Heavy (81-87kg). Oh well. It’s all fun and games.

Have a great weekend and if you’re attending the Manchester Open, come by and say hi.

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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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BJJ Nutrition Tips: Recovery Update: Creatine Rules!


Jeez that thing tastes sweet! The brand of Creatine I am using is grape flavour and the tin advises stacking for 5 days with a high dose (20g of Creatine spread over 4 servings) and then down to one serving a day. My urine is very concentrated so I am always keeping a water bottle with me and I will soon half the daily Creatine dose again. I definitely noticed an improvement in my recovery and I recommend the stuff to everyone out there.

Also, a friend recommends Glutamine, which I’m going to look into. I think I’m eating a better diet all-round, which is also helping.

When I go to the gym before work, I always grab a glass of milk afterwards for some extra protein. The same applies with after grappling / Brazilian Jiu Jitsu sessions. A blend of protein and carbs seems to do the post-workout trick (nothing fancy. A glass of milk and/or peanut butter with some toast is just fine!)


If you are having any specific recovery related issues, drop me a line on parttimegrappler@yahoo.com


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BJJ Nutrition Tips: Supplementing with Creatine Monohydrate


My current training schedule involves a short (but intense) Kettlebell session 4 times per week plus at least 2 technical gi sessions and two (shorter) sparring sessions.

It's not much compared to what some professional fighters do. But then again, I'm not a professional fighter!

Nevertheless, this schedule leaves my knackered! Once I'm warmed up and rolling, I feel fine but I feel that I'm always walking around tired. So I did some research into the subject:
  1. I Googled "Recovery Grappling Nutrition" and "Wrestling Recovery Research" and followed a few of the (sciencey-type) links
  2. I had a chat with my manager at work who is into Triathlons! I figured if anyone will know a lot about recovery it's going to be someone who does three sports!
  3. I took a long hard look at my daily habits
The fruit of my labour was:
  1. I wasn't drinking enough water
  2. I wasn't eating good pre- nor post-workout snacks
  3. I looked at supplements as something of a luxury (only for pro-athletes)
  4. I wasn't getting enough sleep
  5. I almost never stretched
So, not one to waste any time, I put the following into place:
  1. I took a 1 litre bottle to work and left it on my desk for daily refill
  2. I bought a tin of Creatine Monohydrate from Holland & Barrett for £10!
  3. I started drinking a small glass of milk immediately after my kettlebell sessions
  4. I started stretching for short periods thru-out the day!
  5. I started getting to bed earlier
I will keep you posted on the outcome.
PS. If you want to see the update on this subject click here.