BJJ Performance Secrets: Timing Your Nutrition.

For years I marvelled at how my perceived performance in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (or any sport or martial art for that matter!) could vary from day to day and week to week. I read in countless nutrition books and articles by some heavy names how performance can indeed be cyclical, but this wasn't it. It wasn't just cyclical but rather...inconsistent! One day I'd be rolling with 5-6 powerful BJJ players (and probably get smashed too) but my energy level was tip top and another day I'd struggle to get even past the warm-up.

It is only recently I've more fully realised the influence the content (but more importantly "timing") of my diet plays on my BJJ performance:

1. Food has a stand-alone value (energy, building blocks, hydration...etc.) but also a secondary, chain-reaction effect on the body (carbs are energy, but they also release insulin and serotonin. Protein is building blocks but it also stabilizes blood sugar levels...etc.)
2. Meal size, proportion and timing has plays a vital role in my BJJ performance and energy levels.

Here are a quick couple of really awesome tips on how to use your nutrition to skyrocket your performance:

1. When you eat something, the sugar has to first go into your blood before it goes into your muscle cells. Give it some time and schedule those light meals throughout the day, keeping your BJJ / Grappling session in mind.

2. When sugar goes into the blood, it causes a release of insulin. The more sugar, the more insulin. Insulin’s primary job is to get that sugar out of the blood and into the cells. This means once it’s done, your blood sugar level will drop and even though your cells are saturated with the sugar they need, you will feel a little tired and sleepy. Keep that in mind when you are a little tired and hungry 10 minutes before the session and a Mars Bar seems like a good idea! Rather reach for some protein (my favourite is a handful of nuts of some lean cheese or meat)

3. The best time to have a small dose of pre-workout carbs is 1,5-2 hours before the session. This tip alone is worth gold. My favourite is Nature Valley Crunchy bars.

4. The best time for post work out recovery drink/snack is IMMEDIATELY after the work out. Not when you get home. Not after your shower, not even on the ride home. The first thing you should touch as you leave the mat should be your shaker! All you need is a little bit of protein and little bit of carbs and lots and lots of water. The ideal ratio is that found in a chocolate milk (my fave is Yazoo followed by lots of water)

5. If you happen to weigh yourself before and after the session (in dry clothes) you can register how much sweat you lost. Now over the coming 2-3 hours, I advise you to drink 1.5-2 times that amount (e.g. if you lost 1kg then drink 1.5-2 litres)


The first thing you should notice is that this all takes some preparation! Pack your training bag with your fruit, container of nuts, snack bar, your shaker (with a scoop of powder in it) and another bottle for water.

A Jiu Jitsu bag without the above is not the bag of a top performer and you are cutting yourself short.

If you liked those tips, I learned them all and more from Anita's book Food For Fitness. To order your copy of the book, click on the image on the book cover above.

Give these tips a try for 2-3 weeks and let me know about how you are feeling…and remember to share this article on your Facebook and (if you have it) Twitter accounts.


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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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Training Tips: When Too Busy for BJJ / Grappling, Do Something!!

The whole idea with this blog is to give us Part Time Grapplers hope when time seems to get scarce. Lately, I have been completely swamped under with Uni assignments and exam preparations, not to mention work. This has meant that BJJ / Grappling has had to take a back seat and I have learnt that’s OK. But what-a-to-do?

Well, the best way to improve at BJJ / Grappling is to actually do it. Technique sessions, light rolling, competitive rolling…etc. AKA Mat-time!

But when you can’t get enough mat-time I find that following to be a golden rule:

Doing Something is Much Much Better than doing Nothing
Blaming never gets anyone anywhere good in a hurry.

As you may have read before, I have developed an interest in CrossFit. I have toyed with posting my daily workouts here but didn’t want it to become a chore, nor do I want this blog to turn into “Look-at-what-Liam-Can/Can’t-Do” but I think it would help those of us who think there aren’t enough hours in the day to see what I get up to and how I fit (or try to fit) everything together:

Average Weekday (this is only typical for when Uni takes over my life):

6.00 Wake up
7.30 At work, in one of our empty meeting rooms, coffee in one hand, Uni book in other hand
8.30 Time for Breakfast (On The Warrior Diet, this is 2 pieces of fruit, 1 pot of Yogurt and Water and tea.
8.45 At my desk, ready to start the day
12.30 Hit the gym at work to do WOD* (Workout Of the Day. Not my lingo!)
1.15 Showered and back at my desk
5.00 Leave home
7.00 Rested and (very well-) fed and ready to study some more
9.30 Time to call it a day. Spend some time with my wife.
10.00 – 10.30 In bed. Lala Land!
Lather, rinse and repeat Monday – Friday, with one session of BJJ / Grappling squashed in here or there. Intense periods like this seldom last for more than 3-4 weeks and can actually do your brain and body good by giving them a different feed.

Click on the envelope to the right and let me know what you all think

*Today’s WOD was:

1. Warm up
2. 1000 meter row on the Concept II (level 6, 3.51min)
3. KB Snatches (40 reps) (20/arm)
4. Pull-ups (Max reps) (14 reps)
5. Stretches

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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: Food For Fitness Book Review

In my never ending search for more efficient ways to do things, I have recently been looking into the question of diet and nutrition and have very luckily stumbled upon, in my personal opinion, one of the best books ever written on the subject. It’s called Food for Fitness and is written by Anita Bean, A former body building champion and a highly accomplished Registered Nutritionist. I recommend the book without reservations to anyone who is looking to get the best out of their day.

I know many of you are thinking: “There are lots of books on Diet and Nutrition out there. What makes this one so unique?”

We, apart from the excellent and well-researched content, and Anita’s own reputable name, the winner point for me was the design and layout of the book. To me, the question of design has always been about usability, problem solving and aesthetics. This is what distinguishes Food for Fitness: It had it all!

Food for Fitness started with a thorough look at food groups and their functions in the body and followed that up with a very user-friendly association chapter where you were advised on how to time food stuff (around your training sessions) to optimize the benefits. This section was very good in that it both gave you the author’s recommendations but also the guidelines that allow you to substitute your own favourites! Not everybody likes/has access to/can afford The Royal Jelly!

Food for Fitness goes on to list Super Foods, Tips for weight management and much more before it summarises all the knowledge into ready-to-use menu options.

This book is worth its weight in gold! Get Food for Fitness and see your energy levels soar!


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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.