Brazilian jiu jitsu is one of the most complex and challenging training for players. Despite its complicated nature, students opt for BJJ gi as their career. BJJ training requires intense activity and a healthy diet plan to meet the energy expenditure during the training sessions. Healthy food can let the players focus on the move without bone injury or muscle damage.
Usually, the players need to follow two types of diets. One is the pre-training diet, and the second is the post-training diet. Both diets are mandatory to ensure a fast recovery from an exhausting training session. Before directly diving into the detailed information of the best foods, let’s discuss the effects of hard training on athletes.
Effects Of Challenging BJJ Training
Any challenging and exhausting workout needs a higher amount of energy. That’s why our body performs anaerobic respiration at a faster pace to meet the workout energy consumption. All the intense activity and training sessions, like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gi, break down the muscle fibers.
Moreover, the body utilizes the stored glycogen. It is stored in the muscles in the form of carbs. Whenever we need more energy, our body breakdown these carbs to get an instant boost. Therefore, the proper amount of diet enriched with proteins and carbohydrates helps to meet the energy demand during the sessions.
Essential Nutrients For Recovery
Our body is naturally capable of rebuilding and healing muscle damage. However, you need maximum sleeping hours to let the body function properly for muscle healing. It relaxes the muscles and allows the body to release the hormones. The higher release of insulin hormone restores the carbohydrates back into the muscles in the form of glycogen.
Glycogen, proteins, and carbohydrates are vital to recovering the muscles. Therefore, keeping all these nutrients in our daily diet is necessary. Post-training carbs help in restoring glycogen. That’s why taking a sufficient amount of nutrients build and strengthens body muscles.
Best Post Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Training Foods
The post training foods help the players to feel active and ready for the next training. A healthy diet routine does not cause much muscle fatigue and bone injuries. Here, we’ve discussed essential nutrients for recovery from BJJ training.
Food Enriched With Extra Carbs
Glycogen is used during physical activity such as BJJ practice or heavy exercises. Consuming carbohydrates can help your body maintains its glycogen levels after two to three hours of training.
The amount of glycogen a player uses depends on how hard they train. Compared to regular BJJ training, conditioning activities require more carbs. More carbohydrates are necessary for running or swimming than for BJJ practice or weightlifting.
Nutrition estimates the amount of carbohydrates according to the athlete’s body weight. After BJJ gi training, an athlete’s recommended carbohydrate intake is calculated by dividing body weight by two. For instance, divide the athlete’s body weight of 180 pounds by two. After each session, the athlete should take 90g of carbs.
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Glycemic Index For BJJ Players
Glycemic Index is one of the essential factors that gi bjj players need to consider. Carbs with a high GI dissolve quickly and integrate into your body more readily than those with a low GI. Therefore, high GI carbohydrates are preferred over low-GI ones. Whole grains, legumes, and non-starchy vegetables are low GI carbs, unlike white bread, potatoes, and pasta, which are high GI foods.
Proteins
Heavy work out and training sessions for a more extended period damage the muscle fibers. How fast your muscles degrade depends on how quickly your body adjusts to a busy schedule and how much you exercise.
Muscular collapse can happen throughout any training phase. After years of practice, gi BJJ players also have muscular breakdowns. However, the continuous healing of muscle fibers strengthens the muscles’ central structure. As a result, experienced athletes can predict low chances of muscle rupture.
Advantages Of Protein Intake
When you eat enough protein, your body gets all the essential amino acids needed to build protein fibers. Our body can produce the required proteins if our food is enriched with the essential amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins.
Every three to four hours, athletes must eat 20g to 40g of high-quality protein. BJJ gi athletes can take proteins before and after every gi session or rolling workout.
Sources Of High Protein
A diet with all the essential amino acids is considered high-quality protein food. It includes animal proteins like chicken, fish, beef, etc. Moreover, they are also a great source of omega-3. Salmons are an excellent source of protein. Salmon satisfies the need for protein while also lowering inflammation.
As post-workout nutrition, eggs, plant-based proteins like beans, and protein supplements are all excellent options. Also, our body absorbs casein protein more quickly than other proteins; it is the best protein supplement you can take while training jiu jitsu gi.
Water
For BJJ athletes, dehydration is a serious problem because players sweat a lot during practice. Most jiu jitsu gi athletes make drinking enough water before and after their workouts compulsory.
You should weigh yourself before and after a workout, though. You can determine your water intake by weight loss. Approximately you should drink 750ml of water for every pound you lose.
Fruits
Fruits are the best options to have after jiu jitsu gi session. Fruits like bananas, apples, strawberries, and others are easy to digest and offer instant energy after exercise. Fruits include antioxidants that help in lowering inflammation after vigorous exercise.
Conclusion
Brazilian jiu jitsu requires a lot of energy and causes damage to the muscle fibers. Proteins, carbs, and glycogen are must-have foods in a post-training diet. Fruits and water intake help to recover faster without getting dehydrated. Fruits contain an antioxidant that has anti-inflammatory properties. At the same time, water is also crucial for rehydrating after sweating a lot while practicing BJJ.
Proteins assist in repairing damaged muscles, whereas carbs aid in replenishing the body’s supply of glycogen. Together, proteins and carbohydrates affect hormonal activity, impacting how quickly muscles recover and how much glycogen is stored. This can let the players complete their training without getting weak and exhausted. Get yourself enrolled in jiu jitsu gi academy and compete with confidence. Focus on your diet to accomplish the dreams you have seen for your career.
