For everyone who trains Jiu Jitsu, whether you are a competitor who trains everyday, or a hobbyist who trains 3 times a week Jiu Jitsu training takes its toll on your body. Therefore we are always looking at more efficient and effective ways to recover from training. 

In this blog we go through different methods we can use to recover from training, this is especially needed as we come back to proper training after the long lay off most of us took during the pandemic. 

Cold therapy - There are many ways to practice Cold therapy. Throughout the lockdown I've seen people buy themselves Wheelie bins and fill them with ice water, they've then sat in that bin for a few minutes. Or people will go to their local reservoir, lake or river and sit in the water for a few minutes at a time.

Some of the benefits seen in studies include, 

• Reduces inflammation and speed recovery for muscular injuries. 
• Stimulate your immune system helping you fight illness. 
• It has also been noted to help improve your mood.
• Reduce muscle soreness. 

Sauna - A favourite of Jiu Jitsu Black Belt and UFC commentator Joe Rogan who has his own Sauna at his house. Sauna's are widely available to the general public as they are available at most Gyms. 

Some of the benefits of the Sauna include - 

• Saunas post workouts have been shown to boost the immune system, increasing white blood cells. 
• Helps to cleanse your skin, the sauna helps our skin clean itself therefore enabling it to better protect us. 
• Saunas have been shown to help stimulate Muscle growth as Heat therapy, or “hyperthermia,” has been shown to increse the production of heat shock proteins which repair damaged proteins in our bodies and protect us against oxidative damage. The same study also showed an improvement in muscle growth after saunas. In short, sauna therapy may help reduce muscle breakdown and increase muscle building.
• Heat also helps dilate blood vessels and promotes blood flow

Diet - Diet is often overlooked when thinking of recovery, it is so much easier to order in a takeout and not make a meal yourself, a lot of us also are short for time or on a budget. 

A good diet though has many benefits for recovery - 

• After hard exercise your body needs to rehydrate and appropriately refuel so you can recover. 
• A good diet can support your immune function 
• It can also promote muscle repair and growth

Sleep - Last but not least is sleep, many people get nowhere near the correct amount of sleep required to recover from training. It is one of the most overlooked aspects of recovery, sleep allows your body to rest allowing your tissue and cells to recover. Lack of sleep also makes your susceptible to illness, you are more likely to catch common colds and flu's along with you becoming more susceptible to injury which as Jiu Jitsu athletes we want to avoid. 

To try and get the best possible sleep recovery - 

• Ideally you need around 8 hours of sleep to adequately recover
• Try and create a sleep routine that you stick to, try and stick to the time you go to bed and wake up. 
• avoid blue light an hour before bed. 
• Try and limit caffeine to earlier in the day.