How
to reduce soreness.
What is the biggest limiting factor on how
often you train?
Time?
Money?
Or the ability to recover from your
training?
For most people (especially when they pass
that 30 year mark) it’s the latter. There is no doubt that BJJ can be harsh on
the body. Many people get sore from most training sessions, especially when
they contain hard sparring.
So how can you reduce or even eliminate the
soreness and pain that you get in muscles and joints?
In this article I will look at certain
foods, supplements and tactics that you can use to limit the amount of soreness
that you get and improve your over all recovery. After all, the better you
recover, the more you can train, the better you get!
Before I go any further, this is the part
of the article where I tell you that good nutrition beats everything. If your
nutrition sucks then your recovery and training will suck. Nothing that I
mention in this article will make up for poor nutrition. In many cases having a
well thought out nutrition plan will sort 90% of recovery issues. If you’re not
sure on how to set up a good nutrition plan then please speak to your coach or
a professional.
Ok, with that in mind, let’s look at how we
can maximise recovery and reduce soreness.
I’m going to split this into two articles.
One that looks at specific recovery techniques while the other on diet and
supplementation (coming next month).
Firstly let’s look at specific recovery.
Recovery is hard for BJJ athletes. If they
aren’t training then they want to be doing kettlebells, running hills,
drilling, jogging, doing hot yoga etc etc. The fact is that most athletes would
benefit from doing nothing in between sessions and making sure they get the
right amount of sleep. There are however a few things that you can do to
maximise recovery.
While I know that many of you will already
know about the following things mentioned, I would bet that you don’t do it
with any kind of regularity. Hopefully this article will serve to remind you to
do these things, rather than giving you some new knowledge that will change
your life forever (cool if it does though lol).
Baths
There are many baths that fall under this
heading from ice baths, contrast showers, Epsom salt baths and just hot baths.
In my experience the best two that I have
found are contrast showers and hot baths. Most people choose not to do contrast
showers (no one likes the idea of standing under a freezing shower for a few
minutes) however they are by far the most effective in reducing soreness and
lactic acid build up in the muscles.
The second is just lying in a VERY hot bath
then taking a short nap. I’ve found that this technique works better for the
slightly older BJJ athlete however women also seem to favour it.
Foam
Rolling.
I don’t think that there are many people
out there that don’t know about foam rolling and it’s benefits. However those
benefits are so great that it is well worth repeating.
Do your damn foam rolling!
Foam rolling is one of those things that
you only realise works when you stop doing it. Get into a habit of doing it
(ideally) every day or at least after every session.
A quick youtube search will yield the best
movements for your tight areas.
Stretching
and Mobility work.
For some strange reason stretching seems to
have fallen for favour in the BJJ world.
I have no idea why.
Being able to move better and being more
flexible is a massive advantage in a sport where you end up looking like two
pretzels trying to kill each other. Not to mention that if your muscles are
supple and flexible, they will be able to perform better and therefore recover
better.
For Mobility work I recommend doing DeFranco’s
agile 8, and for stretching I would recommend on focusing on the hips,
hamstrings, groin, chest and back.
Massage.
Lastly I will mention massage. Not the one
with a happy ending but a proper sports massage.
While a well done sports massage will be a
little painful to get, most people will confess that they feel ten years
younger after one. Having one of these done every month or so will keep you in
good shape to recover quickly and will help keep your muscles feeling supple rather
than tight or achy.
Chances are there is already someone in
your gym that does this for a living. However if there isn’t, then other
members of your gym will probably be able to recommend a local one.
This is a very short list of techniques and
practices that will help you recover quicker and help reduce soreness and pain
that normally follows hard training.
Next month we will look at certain things
that you can add to your current nutrition plan to help the recover purpose
further.
Stay healthy,
Mike
