Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
Discussions on improving your BJJ, navigating mat-politics and all aspects of the jiu jitsu lifestyle. Multiple weekly episodes for grapplers of any level. Hosted by JT and Joey - Australian jiu jitsu black belts, strength coaches, and creators of Bulletproof For BJJ App. Based out of Sydney, Australia
Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
What You Must Eat For Better BJJ Performance
You're doing the lifting, you're training jits consistently, mobility everyday, getting the right sleep, but you are STILL not making the gains you want on and off the mats. Good chance it is your nutrition. This episode covers our big 5 for nutritional excellence when it comes to fueling yourself for BJJ. Comment below what you think of our top 5, and how you plan on implementing some changes for the better!
---------------------------------------
BULLETPROOF SHIRTS: https://www.fanwear.com.au/products/core-bullet-proof-for-bjj-classic-tee
---------------------------------------
Increase athleticism, reduce injuries and build a grapplers physique with the Bulletproof for BJJ App. Start your FREE 14 Day Trial today:
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bulletproof-for-bjj/id6444311790
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bulletproofforbjj&utm_source=na_Med
Stay Hydrated with Sodii the tastiest electrolytes in the Game! Get 15% OFF: BULLETPROOF15 https://sodii.com.au/bulletproof
A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready. Essentially, at this point, the fight is over, so you pretty much flow with the goal. Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power? I'm ready. The five most undervalued aspects of nutrition for BJJ Now, these are the five things that we feel are not really getting tapped into, which, when you do, is going to really level up your jujitsu and your energy overall.
Speaker 1:So many folks out there doing lots of different stuff. They're doing saunas, they're doing ice bars, taking all kinds of supplements, but really people when you talk to them you say how's your diet? They're like, oh, a bit crap, could be better. Yeah, that's always the way, right, it doesn't matter who we talk to. They might be dialing in their training, their stretching. You're like great, just bought this new Solo Drills DVD. Bro, I'm on it. Bro, I've got the eight sleep. Yep, that's right. Like just doing all of this, everything around, yeah, all this peripheral stuff, but neglecting the base, which is nutrition. And we're going to get into the five key things that you really need to be addressing which is going to help you. Number one this is number one. It doesn't mean this is the number one thing, but I'm going to start with this.
Speaker 1:I've got this as good word from a chief nutritionist at the UFC performance center in Shanghai. His name's Reed real check him out. He wrote the white paper on how to cut. His name's Reid Real, check him out. He wrote the white paper on how to cut weight. We did an episode with him maybe 100 eps ago yeah, ages ago, it was just after COVID actually and he'd been locked in a hotel for like 18 months in Guangzhou or wherever the bloody hell he was. But he was at the Gatorade Institute working with the athletes there football players, all kinds of things and then the UFC kind of poached him and he wrote the baseline document which serves as the way in which athletes try to cut weight in the UFC. Really smart guy, black belt savage. I've lost to him at least three or four times in competition. Never beat that guy, but give him a run for his money.
Speaker 1:This is what he said. Bjj athletes need to eat like football players we're saying NRL football players here because they eat a really good mixture of carbohydrates, fats and protein. Because, like rugby and they eat a lot. They eat a lot because they're running a lot. They're smashing their bodies up a lot. They really have to work hard to keep their nutrition up. And he feels that a jujitsu athlete is more akin to like a rugby athlete than anything else. And he said the biggest mistake we make is we cut back on carbs. What's going on there? We're obsessed with how we look. We all want to do the geese off, you know like abs out kind of thing, and carbohydrates has been demonized for a long time, but really this is the fuel. This is what we need.
Speaker 1:When you're doing any activity that lasts more than, say, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, you're going to need some carbs. Yeah, it's funny. Um, I have just been paying attention to it more recently cause I've been wearing the whoop, oh yeah, or the whoop for the Americans, and it's like I'm actually really surprised at how intense jiu-jitsu training is, even when I'm just coaching and then maybe I jump in and do a couple of rounds. It's an intense output for me based on every other thing that I do. Even if I go and do some fucking hill sprints, yeah, or I go for a medium distance run, I'm like that really hardly touches what I do in a jujitsu class. Yeah, and carbohydrates are the fucking high octane fuel source that your body evolved to thrive on. There is sort of no way around it. Anyone that tells you otherwise is grifting. There are other fuel sources, but the absolute fucking jet fuel for our bodies is carbohydrate, a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:And even though a jujitsu round might be short and someone might make the argument, oh it's only five minutes, only six minutes, classically jujitsu coaches will not give you enough rest time in between the rounds. It's like five minute round, one minute rest, get some water, get back in. Yeah, you know, if you just did a hard fucking round and then you got one minute before the next hard round, that feels like about like five seconds. You're cooked, yeah, and. And really, if you don't have enough glycogen in your liver, like if your liver is not stocked up and is pumping the glycogen out to your muscles, you're kind of fucked. Like we all know what it's like when we just are cooked after two rounds, right, and, and I feel like we're not attributing it to a lack of eating, like when we're not thinking, oh, I'm under eating. He goes. Oh, yeah, fuck, I forgot to have enough coffee. Yeah, you know, I did an ice bath yesterday. I didn't get up at two 45 to ice bath and do my breath and meditation or training this morning All the nonsense. When really you're under fueled. And this is the thing even though the rounds might be short, you still had the warmup, you still had the technique, you still had the specific If you're ecological, you've still had all the constraints based games Like there's a high energy output.
Speaker 1:And here's the other thing too when you're learning which is primarily what you should be doing when you're at jujitsu for you to actually learn, your brain can only use blood glucose. It can't use fat. It's going to struggle to use ketones. That's what's passing the blood-blame barrier for your brain to work. So if you don't have that in there, you're not going to be fucking absorbing the lesson or learning. Well, you can't use ketones and shit to learn. It's way harder, it's way harder. Don't fucking crucify me on this, folks, but when you start getting into ketosis and your body is breaking itself down, your body is actually going to be using a lot of energy to create the energy. It's like ketones is like an ideal fuel source. It's not ideal. And when you just need atp, you just need fucking sugar in the muscles as soon as you can. You want to make sure your liver's stocked up.
Speaker 1:So here's something which was uh, kind of debunked not that long ago, which is about, uh, fasted activity. And now, like, there was always this thing like, oh, if you do fasted cardio, it's way better. But what they actually found was Way better for fat loss. Fat loss, yeah, and we do. We all like, oh, I wouldn't mind being a bit leaner or whatever. We all go through that from time to time. Or maybe you're someone who's focused on weight loss Hour to hour. No, no, no. But let's say, your goal is to lose 20 kilos. This idea of, like, fasted cardio oh well, jujitsu is cardio right. Like, I'll just do it fasted.
Speaker 1:What they have shown very clearly is, if you have nothing to eat before exercise, your exercise intensity will remain quite low, whereas if you actually do have something, even if it's just a banana or a small snack, your ability to generate energy is way higher, because by eating that, it sends a message to your liver hey, liver, we're going to get some carbs soon. You can pump out that glycogen, right. Whereas if you don't do that, the liver's like no, you can't have this glycogen. Bruh, I'm keeping it. You know it gets stingy with the glycogen, and so, even though you may have some energy in the tank, it won't allow it to get pumped out. Yeah, a survival mechanism. So the idea of doing something fasted actually lowers exercise intensity, and so this isn't so helpful for jujitsu. Yeah, right, your carb is the one. It's funny.
Speaker 1:One of the first books I ever read about the whole paleo thing was the Paleo Solution by Rob Wolf. Ah, yes, and it was cool. I enjoyed it at the time and it was quite influential to me at the time. And following enjoyed it at the time, and, and, and it was quite influential to me at the time, and, uh, following rob wolf on instagram, that book is very much like anti-grains, right? No, no grains, no legumes. You know, it's all fucking anti-nutrient stuff trying to kill you, so it's basically meat and veggies. Yes, you know, and, um, and I don't, I don't mind that way of eating. No, no, it's not terrible. Yeah, but it's just funny.
Speaker 1:Once he took up jujitsu I think he might be a black belt now, okay, I remember when he first took it up, but he was like, oh, wow, having. He was like a crossfit functional fitness guy, but he's like, um, I've taken up jujitsu and I've actually had to start getting a bit more carbs, and so I've been eating some grains and I was just like how fucking funny you're doing like you're doing it, you know what I mean? Like it's just a more demanding thing, and all of a sudden you're like, oh shit, I need some carbs. They're not so bad after all. Oh, imagine, imagine we can all change our mind. But yeah, your carbs are important, man, and it's kind of.
Speaker 1:I think we often misplace our efforts to try to lose weight in the wrong areas. Yeah, and so one of those efforts is like oh, I'm going to reduce my carbs can help reduce body fat. Maybe there's an inkling of truth in that and that could be part of your approach. But starving yourself of carbohydrate when you are trying to perform at a reasonable level on the mats regularly, it's not going to be a best strategy. Look, you know there's you shouldn't.
Speaker 1:From what I've learned about behavioral science from people way smarter than me, we're talking like atomic habits. We're talking people who literally use you know biochemistry to change people's lives. Essentially, you shouldn't try and do two things at once. So if you're really trying to lose weight, you shouldn't try and quit smoking at the same time. This is very hard to do. You could, but it'll be really tough. In the same way, if you're really trying to do something physically hard, you have to make sure you're eating to support it, trying to like, be like, oh, I'm gonna lose 20 kilos and also do jiu-jitsu not that it can't happen, it's just coming up. It's so much fucking harder. Right, you're making, you're playing, uh, life on hard mode. Yeah, so let's go.
Speaker 1:I I think part of the reason why carbs get demonized is food fads, and this is number two. This is where we're. We're, we're fucking up, we're neglecting, like, what makes sense for what's cool right now. So let's talk carnivore, let's talk keto, let's talk veganism, let's talk all the extreme ends and why that is actually fucking up your jujitsu. So, nutritionally, could you just eat meat for a month and just be okay if you don't do shit? Yeah, you probably could. You'd be fine. You could probably not eat any food for a month and if you don't have an active lifestyle, you, you'd be shitty. But you could. You could get away with it, you know, but is this going to help you be good for jujitsu? No, like I, and you might be trying it right now. You might like. No, I'm doing the keto thing, man, I'm. I'm buying ketones from my local crossfit, which has proven to not really do anything. But yeah, I'm just um, you know, but I have some beers on a Friday, but I'm keto Weekends are. Yeah, I got these keto cookies. Yeah, bro.
Speaker 1:The difficulty with a lot of these extreme kind of food fads that come in and get popularized by your local podcaster, international famous podcaster or some celebrity you follow on Instagram. It's generally about making money. There's something to the marketing scheme which allows that person to create leverage to make money. It's not necessarily in your best interest. So when we have a look at these different food fads, part of the reason why they come through as myths or fads is it doesn't last that long. People do it for two or three months and they're like I can't. Actually I can't live my life and do this. First month was great.
Speaker 1:Well, they get it usually a couple of years in and within that couple of year period, it's enough time for them to like, start blogging about it, start a podcast, start influencing those around them that this is the way, and then, once they realize their hormones are a fucking mess or they get debunked, they're knocking on death's door. They stop the podcast, they don't write on the blog anymore, but they don't tell anyone. No, so you're like, but I heard that thing was really good. You're like, yeah, no, but what you didn't follow was the rest of the story when they almost died. Now they just need a balanced diet. Yeah, it's like cali muscle. It's like he's all about being natural and you're like the dude took more steroids than anyone for fucking years. People like how do I get lean and jack? He's vegan, you know. Yeah, he was also on steroids for 20 years. Like there is like androgenic effects for a long time. Post like it's. That's the thing that's crazy to me that you know they talk about.
Speaker 1:Like these different athletes who are vegan, it's like, but they weren't lifetime vegan. There was a time where they ate meat and they built themselves up. Now they're vegan what we don't get to see, and obviously it's kind of boring like as if you'd want to follow it. Five years later you find out, oh, they're not vegan, they're also been on steroids the whole time. Which is kind of unfair, which is the lack of transparency around some of these fads.
Speaker 1:When you see someone saying I eat like this, what I eat in a day. Shoot me now. I don't give a fuck what you eat in a day. You're a Muppet, shut the fuck up. But I know it's not going to make sense because you're trying to make money or stand out and be different when the truth is eating a balanced diet isn't sexy or it isn't like. It's something you've probably heard a million times.
Speaker 1:So the challenge here, folks, is to be able to see through what is being sold as popular for does that help my BJJ? Through what is being sold as popular for does that help my BJJ? Because there's some folks who will say eating a vegetarian diet is better for me for various reasons X, y, z and I'm not against a vegetarian diet at all, and power to you if you have a sustainable way to do that. But the challenge is this whether you are more on the protein side or you're more on the carb side, or however you uh want to go with your diet, having an extreme version either way doesn't necessarily give you what you need to be able to repair from jujitsu. You know, that's what I would say. That's why these things fall down in the face of the challenge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, sometimes, like sometimes, you're fighting an uphill battle trying to follow some of those diets. Sometimes it could be the best thing for you, right, like, because you might've come from a place where you're just eating fucking takeaway process shit like 90% of the time, and then you jump onto something like fucking paleo or keto and all of a sudden you're eating more whole foods, and it's natural, and you're preparing yourself. That could be a fucking total net positive for you in your life, but you just got to take it with a grain of salt that perhaps it was the removal of processed foods that allowed you to to feel healthy again, and so, while keto was one way to do that, there's a whole bunch of other ways for you to approach that, and and this is usually what the thing is right For people who jump on these fads, it's the stuff they cut out that has the most significant effect on their health, and so if you keep that in mind and it's like, well, use the fad as a tool to cut the shit out, but then don't be afraid to explore while still trying to keep the bad stuff or the less ideal stuff out of your diet. Yeah, and look, there's heaps of trends out there, right, like people were in glucose monitors. It's like, oh, I don't want to spike my insulin, but it's been debunked, my friends. Like, insulin spikes are natural in healthy people. If you've got type 2 diabetes, that's a fucking problem, yeah, but if you don't, don't fucking buy a glucose monitor. So stop fucking with that. Like, there's many things that get popularized within the fitness industry which aren't necessarily helping your jujitsu, and that's what we're talking about here.
Speaker 1:Ladies and gentlemen, not everything I say is in good taste, but I'll tell you what is in good taste. Sodi, the sponsor of today's episode. Now, this is the sample pack. This has got every flavor in the rainbow. We've got pineapple, grapefruit, citrus berry, passion fruit, raspberry I love raspberry and this is the best way to dip your toe. It's got all the electrolytes that are going to keep the water in your muscles. So you get great performance at jujitsu and it tastes delicious. If you go to sodicomau and use the code BULLETPROOF15, you get 15% off and you get yourself some delicious hydration. Get it today.
Speaker 1:Now number three, and we have talked about it a fair bit, but this, really, people are still not clicking with this protein. And why do we say this? Because the amount of your body breaking down as a result of jujitsu, whether it's direct impact damage or just muscles breaking down from so much use, from just loving and doing jujitsu. If you are not having enough protein and having enough protein is a fair bit you're not going to repair, you're not going to restore and you're kind of working yourself gradually, gradually, gradually, until you end up with some kind of breakdown, whether it's tissue breakdown, digestive breakdown, it's one of those things that you can kind of go suboptimally for a while until the thing breaks. And lack of protein is a huge factor in that. Yeah, yeah, protein. I just think like if you're not getting it in at each of your three meals in the day and you are training, you're not eating enough.
Speaker 1:Like, simply put, and like for an adult human man or woman, like an egg or some cheese or some yogurt is not enough for a meal, right, and part of it is. It's expensive. Yeah, it's a valuable part of every meal. It's money, right. Yeah, you look at any, it doesn't matter. You go takeaway, wherever you go, the highest price item on the other than like, obviously it could be fucking lobster or caviar, I don't know what you, what you're paying with sauces. I don't know about caviar, but fat, yeah. But here's the thing usually the highest price item has the most amount of protein. Yeah, like piece of steak, piece of fish, whatever the fuck it is. You'll notice the cheaper products, carbs, and it's because it's cheaper to produce that. It's way more energy intensive and expensive to produce this.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, an animal soul had to be taken in order for this protein to make its way onto the table. Possibly Soul snatcher, but that's the thing. True, even if your protein comes from a plant source, that plant was probably harder to grow or process than something else, right? Whether it's a chickpea? Or even if we look at fat content, if we look at an avocado, they take a lot of fucking water for you to be able to grow an avocado, right, cardo, right?
Speaker 1:So I think the thing about protein is, if you're not getting like a minimum, a minimum of like one gram of protein per kilo of body weight, or it's like what is it? Um, like two, uh, yeah, a gram to every 2.2 pounds of body weight, then you're way under, you're way under, and even then I would say you're under. And and here's the interesting thing Everybody has different tolerances for protein intake. But when you actually even healthy, fit people. When you get them to go, I was like, oh, I want to get stronger. You're like, okay, you're going to have to up this to like two grams or 2.5 grams per you know kilo of body weight. People like, oh, my god, that's a lot. It's a bit of work in that, right, you know, I'll tell a story about a?
Speaker 1:Um, a young fella who came and trained with me here, jujitsu guy, okay, and he was a I think it was a blue belt, maybe a purple belt, but he, you know he's he'd been on the mats a while and bit of a no-gi savage loving it, and he came in because he's like, hey, I want to, I want to get some strength tips from you. So we did. Actually, his partner bought him a few pt sessions with me as a christmas gift. How nice, yeah, and um, great thing. And yeah, that's right. And um, we did some great training together and I was just sharing with him some insights and he was a fit, strong guy, did a bunch of trainings in good nick.
Speaker 1:But I asked him about his diet and he was like, oh, like, I can't eat in the mornings and I asked why. He said I get like if I eat in the mornings. And I asked why. He said I get like, if I eat in the mornings, like my stomach hurts. And I was like fuck, what's the deal with that? And he's like it's always been that way, kind of since I was a kid. And, um, I was like wow, that really kind of sounds problematic to me.
Speaker 1:But we kept just sort of training and going through it and I kept quizzing him and sort of what I arrived at was I think that this guy has just never eaten enough and I think that it's just that his gut is just not comfortable being full yeah, being full. And so I kind of challenged him on it and I said I'm making an assumption here. What I'd like you to try is eating first thing when you get up. And I was like make it something substantial. You know like we've spoken about right, a few eggs, fucking toast with cottage cheese, whatever avocado. And I was like, can you try it? He's like, yeah, I'll give it a go, I'll give it a go. Anyway, he got back to me a couple weeks later and he said, hey, it's feeling good like actually eating first thing. Fine with it. And I was like that's awesome.
Speaker 1:I ran into him, um, maybe earlier this year or late last year, and he's like bro, I just wanted to tell you like I've been eating consistently and like I've put on like 10 kilos and I feel so fucking strong. And he goes yeah, it's just, it's just funny looking back at how I thought I couldn't. And very, it's very interesting because he got by. You know, he got by eating the way he was, but it was not congruent with what he was trying to achieve at all. No, and so sometimes that thing of like just forcing yourself to do something for a week or two, your body recalibrates and there you go. Now you're on track, a hundred percent. That's such a, it's such a good story and there's so many easy ways to do this right.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter if you're vegetarian, you're vegan. Like, there's always ways for you to get protein in. Yeah, it doesn't matter if you're vegetarian, you're vegan. Like, there's always ways for you to get protein in. And it doesn't have to be a meal. If you're someone who doesn't like eating in the morning, you could do a shake, like a shake doesn't smash you in the same way like a big meal does. And if you're someone who's like struggling with time, it could just be a couple of little yogurts.
Speaker 1:I had a bowl of yogurt with natural yogurt, just with some honey on it I ate. Driving into the gym this morning, just eating, this Joe had the beehive, he was cultivating it, he had the cow in the back Smoking the bees, the baby cow, and he was just like milking the cow, driving with his feet. It's very jujitsu. And he just put it all together in the bowl and what do you know, farmer Joe? But very digestible, right, very Like yogurt, like it's not solid stuff. No, it's great pre-training, probiotic, it's all the good stuff right there. And so I think that's the thing.
Speaker 1:The reason why we have talked so much about protein is because we're also about people doing the lifting, which supports the jujitsu, and if you're not eating enough, you can't build a house without supplies. We're also big fans of protein powder. Yes, it is a great, it's an excellent supplement. It helps you fucking meet those needs, definitely. And so let's go now to number four, which is snack for recovery.
Speaker 1:Now, I'm not talking like a Snickers bar, I'm not talking like a piece of cake. I'm talking about plan your snacks so your jujitsu is better. What am I talking about. I'm talking about the pre-training snack or the post-training snack, because these are the times when we kind of if we had made the effort to have it and it doesn't have to be super complicated, doesn't take meal prepping. If you have it, your training will be better and you'll bounce back from training quicker. Now there's been a ton of research to show that it doesn't matter if you eat something 20 minutes after training versus five hours. But I'll fucking tell you the difference in how I feel is huge. Whatever the fuck is going on in my muscles, I don't give a shit. But if I am able to have a protein shake post-training or a protein bar with some coconut water or something, oh, I feel like my whole nervous system calms down. I feel like I've started the recovery process.
Speaker 1:Yeah, also, if I come into jujitsu even though it's okay to be like maybe a little bit hungry, like we're talking about before, about the whole coming into training fasted if you're trying to learn and you're trying to bring some intensity to roll in, to rolling just a banana, you know, just have a banana half an hour before training could make all the difference between that being a great session or being an average session. Yeah, the pre-training snack is and you're very big on this, aren't you Joe? Yeah, I mean, I've been bad at it. I was bad at it for a long time. I didn't really pay it a lot of attention. I think through my whole training I was just shit. I was a super paleo guy man, but all of us in our 20s kept me lean and you know I thought I was doing the right things.
Speaker 1:But um, yeah, these days, like a mid-afternoon, what I notice about myself is if I don't eat, I cross a certain threshold where I now no longer need to eat, right, right and so like, and because I'm, I get into the work that I'm doing. If I'm at the computer, like I'll always eat breakfast because it's kind of a milestone of the day Do the training in the morning, have breakfast, start my day, and then, if I'm on track with my work and I'm in a flow, I just don't want to stop and have lunch, and I could literally go till the evening and then get home and be like, oh, it's dinner time, which isn't supportive of what I'm trying to achieve at all. So I actually have to fucking force myself to take that break. So pre-training snack is the same thing. I have to force myself. Fuck, joe, it's 3.30. Go and eat some yogurt and a banana. Like, fucking, do it now, even though you don't want to. And then I do it and I feel better for it every time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it is a challenge, because we're all, most of us are at well, we're probably overly caffeinated all of us To an extent, right, and so you can ride that kind of anxiety, sort of riddled energy all the way to training. But it's not, you're not showing up in your best form, no, whereas the snack kind of snaps you out of that, gives you a bit of fuel, makes the body be like, hey, we're supported, we've got some nutrients, yeah. And you're like, fuck, yeah, let's go train. Look, I want to redefine snack because it's super processed. So it means you're using all these digestive enzymes to fucking turn it into anything, and then maybe you get a little bit of carbs.
Speaker 1:Maybe, when I say a snack, I'm talking about like and this going back to the first point of like eating like a footballer like we're talking a bit of fat, bit of protein, bit of carbs, like a mini meal. A mini meal, yeah, a snack is a mini meal, and so for me like that looks more like an egg sandwich. Uh, a fucking protein shake. There'll probably be a coffee in there and if I have a coffee then I might have a protein bar, a handful of nuts and a piece of fruit, maybe some chocolate like dark chocolate, preferentially the reason why I fucking love dark chocolate with, like some almonds, very high protein. There's a bit of protein in there, but let me fucking tell you, it's got arginine in it. It's also got that lead, cadmium. If you go for the lint, oh, hey, man, it's not. It's not their corporate responsibility to not put lead in there. Okay, it's a premium product. What's arginine? L-arginine, like the better.
Speaker 1:Alanine and l-arginine are like two things that help your muscle pump. It's like an amino. Uh, it helps with blood circulation and, uh, blood, uh, blood vessel dilation gives you pump. So they often put it in pre-workout. So, like my friend James Ross shout out Richmond gym, gs science. He was like bro, if you cause, I I've struggled with beta alanine Like I get the tingle. I get those tingles. I hate it. Fuck, I feel like I'm having a stroke. Yeah, sensitive as I am to caffeine, I'm hyper sensitive to that right, and it makes me feel fucking uncomfortable. He's like oh bro, just have like some almonds and some dark chocolate, it works just as well. Oh, wow, so for muscle pump, fucking great, right.
Speaker 1:So pre-gym another way you can do that session coming up, you know what time it is? It's almond dark chocolate time. It's fucking almond time. Arm, arm yourself. So by making your snack or your mini meal just a little bit more, like there's a little bit more to it, you're going to get way more out of it. Yeah, I think this is what I'm trying to push for Go into your BJJ session with more fuel in the tank for better rolls and then just have something.
Speaker 1:Like I always have a protein bar in my fucking bag, like I always have to have something with me if I get stuck in traffic and I'm fucking hungry. There might be a fucking incident, yeah, I might. I might do a homicide that day. It's like that. So I gotta have snacks.
Speaker 1:You know what I will say these days, the fucking level of snacks you can buy from your local gas station servo is excellent, bro. You can get muscle meals there, dude. I yeah, that's right like I never go for that because I never want to do the microwave thing and all that. But I will often like mid afternoon, if I've got a long drive or if I'm kind of like lunch was a few hours ago and training's coming up, I'll go like you can go there and you can get like a chicken sandwich or a fucking ham and salad, like it's made fresh and the shit's got plenty of protein in it. You grab a little protein yogurt as well, sure. Grab yourself a little grass-fed beef stick, yeah, like there's a bunch of shika. Or a little little fucking sushi tray, bro. You can get like a butter chicken curry with rice and shit. Like the pre-made meals.
Speaker 1:The snack game in service stations is is wild. I mean curry, I gotta draw a line at pre-training. No fair, just Just the spice, yeah, just the fucking-. No, but what's interesting is the diversity of the food there. You don't have to default to a chocolate bar or a pastry, a packet of chips and, yeah, whatever the fuck that's right. So, yeah, the snack game is for your recovery. One performance, but two, helping you bounce back so you can get after that training the next day or the day after the last but not least, five hydration. It's a big deal, folks. We're talking electrolytes. Why the fuck do we need this Now.
Speaker 1:So, funny to me, I had a chat with. I was telling Joe about my deep dive on the Korean cosmetics game and what's current. I was enthralled in that conversation. But what's so interesting to me, I was talking to a woman who is not a makeup artist but like a beautician what have you. And she was like you know, just drink more water. She was like you don't wear makeup.
Speaker 1:I was like sometimes Depends on the party, but no, I was like is it a JB's Christmas party? Because I'll put on that frock, I'll, um. But no, I was like, uh, is it a jb's christmas party? Because I'll put on that frock, I'll frock up. Um, no, she just said to me she's like well, you're a guy, right, so you're not putting makeup on your skin. She's like the biggest problem for most women is they put makeup on and they gotta take it off and it it fucks their skin up, right, and so they've got to do a bunch of shit to try and fix their skin up and there's this perpetual cycle of makeup, makeup remover, moisturizers, all this nonsense, right, she's like you don't have to do that. She's like the one thing I can tell you, because I said I've got really dry skin. I fucking get x my girl's problems.
Speaker 1:She's like just drink more water, please. I was like, yes, ma'am. But I was like I fucking already drink a ton of water. What then? I drink the same amount of water that I drink I drink in coffee, which, uh, I need to 10x my water. Or do I need to minus 10x my coffee? Tell me, grant Cardone.
Speaker 1:But here's the thing Just drinking the water isn't enough. So there's plenty of people out there. They've got the big drink bottle. It's great. But you know and I've had a few people, a few clients actually say I just run to the toilet all the time, pissing all the time.
Speaker 1:Right, I put the water in, the water goes out. What do I do about that? That's why we are so big on making sure you've got some kind of electrolytes in your water. Whatever that looks like For some people it might even just be the sprinkle of salt. You were saying squeeze a lemon, a bit of lemon juice. Yeah, because that is what's going to help your body hold onto the water.
Speaker 1:Now, the sodium is what keeps it in your bloodstream. But what a lot of people don't know is you've got these things called sodium potassium pumps, and potassium is actually what pulls the water into the muscle. So you get a bunch of potassium in bananas. You get a bunch of potassium in coconut water. Coconut water very popular. Make sure you just flip it around and make sure it has got the potassium in there. Very popular. Make sure you just flip it around and make sure it has got the potassium in there. But, uh, sodium and potassium, they go hand in hand. This is also where a diverse diet helps too. Right, because a lot of green leafy vegetables will have potassium, yeah, and also a bit of magnesium.
Speaker 1:Now the thing about caffeine which is negative it does strip magnesium out of the gut. It also takes out calcium as well. Right, and we need both magnesium because magnesium. Here's the thing. I didn't know this for years. I just thought magnesium was great for chilling out. I got some magnesium. I had these real bad calf cramps. I was playing a lot of close guard, squeezing those fucking close guard. I was getting crazy calf cramps and someone put me onto magnesium spray and you just spray it on, rub it into the muscles and it was amazing. And what I didn't know about magnesium for years is that it actually draws calcium to the muscle Right, and calcium is what enables us to make strong muscle contractions. So if you're lacking magnesium, it will be hard for you to form these strong muscle contractions because you haven't got this thing drawing the calcium to the muscles to make it happen.
Speaker 1:So having sodium, potassium and magnesium together it's like this fucking holy trinity of hydration and Gatorade just ain't cutting it, no, and it's a really easy way to waste a lot of money. Yeah, it's so expensive. Now, a lot of them, right like Gatorade, even Hydrolyte, which is a popular brand that people buy at chemists it's pretty weak. It's pretty weak when you compare it to something like Sodi or Element, right like. These are like, really like high-dose electrolyte supplements that you don't need to be fucking drinking them all the time, but pumping one of those after training or a little bit before, a little bit after, during, like around training time.
Speaker 1:I'm a bit more in the morning kind of guy, but whatever you like here, yeah, so I'm morning always. But if I'm training jujitsu, I usually don't do two sachets a day, right, so I'll do a homemade salt and lemon in the morning then. Yeah, yeah, cool. But if I get up on a day where I'm not training jujitsu, I'm fucking straight to the. I have tried to reduce my caffeine intake because this is the balance Caffeine as much as it can take away the tiredness it will also take away. It basically blocks antidiuretic hormone, which means it's going to strip the water out of your body, as well as the good electrolytes and minerals. That's the thing, really.
Speaker 1:There's plenty of people out there drinking Gatorade. Plenty of people out there that might even be thinking Prime is like a hydration solution. There's all kinds of shit. Prime is so fucking shit, it's so garbage. I just it's so shit. I was excited to try some when I went to the States. I don't know why. It's because I was hungover, we were in Vegas and I'm like drinking more than I usually would and I was Fucking tasted like piss. But also, look at the ingredients. It's just got fuck all going on. No, it's rubbish actually, and the setup for the electrolytes is pretty terrible. So really, I mean other than your food.
Speaker 1:If you are someone who doesn't mind a coffee, you know you want to factor in that you need something that's going to counteract. The coffee is going to want to take it out of your body. You need something to keep it in the body and that's why the electrolytes coming in on the hydration tip is going to help you. And even though you know, don't worry, there is some value in say, I would say there's probably more value in getting like a Gatorade or a Powerade powder so you can kind of control it. Yeah, you know, just don't, you know, put a half scoop, you don't have to put in like 10 scoops, yeah, and then balancing that out with an electrolyte mix. That's ideal. Yep, you know what I mean. Or even, yeah, and I've, I've used that when it's all I could get access to. I would even take the gatorade powerade, which is an aussie fucking version, but I would put the powder and then I would add extra sodium, like extra salt, just from my fucking yeah. Yeah, just to make it somewhat more effective. Yeah, and that's really what it comes down to.
Speaker 1:We want to improve your experience of jiu-jitsu. So let's just summarize that, shall we? Yes, all five. Number one you need carbs. You got to get the carbs in there to have the energy to go the distance to perform well and just enjoy your training and learn some stuff. Number distance to perform well and just enjoy your training and learn some stuff.
Speaker 1:Number two don't play into the food fats. It doesn't matter if Joe Rogan does it. He's also on TRT and every other drug under the sun cocaine. He's making it happen. I mean, if you've got the Joe Rogan budget, please do whatever you like, but not all of us do. So yeah, don't play into the food fats.
Speaker 1:Number three protein. Got to get it. Repair your body, fucking. Get strong, get jacked. Protein will make such a difference to you and you don't realize it until you do it. It's really the secret sauce.
Speaker 1:And number four you've got to snack. Don't think of snacks as a garbage, throwaway thing. If you make that snack a mini meal, that is really going to be an unlock for jiu-jitsu performance and recovery. And then hydration we're not just talking gallons of water, we're talking electrolytes, sodium, potassium, magnesium. Get it into you. That's what you need there. It is Alright. Thanks, folks. Now, if you would like more information like this, if you would like more information like this and you would like also to kind of go a bit deeper on this kind of thing, we have a community on Facebook. We talk this stuff. It's part of being a member of our app. If you go and you download the app, you do the free trial you get to unlock access to our community group, access to Joe and myself, raylene, and we talk that good talk and we help you get better for jujitsu. So take the free trial, get in there on the app store, play store, get a piece, you'll love it. See you in there, you.
