Best Post Recovery Drinks & Supplements for BJJ - How to Feel Great After Hard Training Session

We all been there, going to Jiu Jitsu training and we are feeling great! At the end of the class it’s a different story. Destroyed, and struggling with complete and utter exhaustion. Or even worse… the rest of the day is a blur because you are mentally fatigued and your body is drained.

What can you do to recover from a super hard training session? How can you recover the rest of your day or sleep better at night?

Read on because we will share in the post ways to recover quickly so you get back on the mats.

We’ll look at the following to what works to actually recover and reclaim the rest of your day without feeling like an exhausted zombie.

Table of Contents

What your body needs to Post Workout
Do Post Workout and Recovery Supplements Work?
Which Post Workout Supplements work for BJJ?
What else works to recover faster from a hard BJJ training session.

Why do we feel like we’ve been runned over by a truck post training?

I don’t know of a single Jiujiteiro who trains BJJ who is not releasing a massive amount of sweat during training. If you ever been trapped in mount and had your partner drip sweat onto your face or even worse into your mouth you will know this intimately! The nature of the grappling is that it is an intense sport and our body is working overtime keeping us in the game longer.

In fact you could be seriously dehydrated and not even know it.

The symptoms of dehydration are the following:
Increased thirst.
Dry mouth.
Tired or sleepy.
Decreased urine output.
Urine is low volume and more yellowish than normal.
Headache.
Dry skin.
Dizziness.

We all have definitely felt those symptoms after rolling a bunch hard rounds. So it make sense drink water during and after training.

However it’s not just water we are losing but valuable essentials minerals and organic compounds that fuel our body. If we were to look at the the nature of sweat composition we will see that it contains electrolytes, amino acids and water.

So we pretty much exhausted and lost a bunch key compounds our body needs to function…. so how do we get it back?

How to Recover Faster… What Your Body Needs Post Workout

So to recover from training our bodies need to replenish those very same organic compounds and minerals. We need to fuel up with electrolytes, amino acids and water.

Different studies have shown certain supplements do aid in the recovery for other high intensity sports. Although the nature of grappling will be a little different than other sports, we can take inspiration from these studies to gain an edge in recovery.

Physically active individuals should refuel (ie, eat and drink) within 2-3 hours (sooner the better) of physical activity to replace fluid, electrolytes, carbohydrates, and protein.

Athletes participating in exercise sessions lasting longer than 1 hour or including intense intervals may benefit (ahem grappling) from adding carbohydrates or electrolytes (or both) to rehydration fluids, especially in extreme environments. Endurance athletes may be aided by fluids containing carbohydrates and electrolytes during extended training bouts and competitions.

Also athletes with much greater than average sweat sodium concentrations (greater than 60 mEq/L) and high sweat rates (greater than 2.5 L/h) may benefit from sodium supplementation in the fluids consumed during activity. [1]

One study looked at high level soccer (or football for our international readers) and post recovery strategy.

The study found that a good recovery strategy immediately after a match is to replenish both liver and muscle glycogen stores through ingestion of adequate carbohydrates. For optimum glycogen resynthesis it is a prudent strategy to consume carbohydrate immediately after a game as glycogen-synthesising enzymes are most active during this time. [2]

Immediate Recovery Rehydration should occur as soon after exercise finishes. A player should aim to intake a volume that is approximately 150–200% of the estimated deficit to account of ongoing losses (e.g. urine output) with a rough guide of 1 kg weight lost = 1.5 l of fluid required.

They should aim to replace the volume lost within 2–4 h post exercise over regular time period to prevent the gastrointestinal distress associated with large fluid intakes.

Do Post Workout and Recovery Supplements Work?

Yes post recovery supplements can work, when containing the appropriate levels of organic compounds our bodies need. Specifically electrolytes, sodium, aminos, carbohydrates and water and when taken at the right time.

One study found that key electrolytes needs to be replaced – principally sodium – and this can be achieved either through electrolyte containing drinks or consuming fluids with ‘salty’ foods. [3]

Adding carbohydrates or electrolytes (or both, especially sodium) to the rehydration drink can help maintain blood glucose, carbohydrate oxidation, and electrolyte balance [4]

Another found that when exercise lasts more than 1 h and especially as duration extends beyond 90 min, athletes should ingest glucose/electrolyte solutions (GES) to maintain blood glucose levels, prevent dehydration, and reduce the immunosuppressive effects of intense exercise [40, 123–128].

Notably, this strategy becomes even more important if the athlete is under-fueled prior to the exercise task or is fasted vs. non fasted at the start of exercise [5].

Which Post Workout Supplements Work Specifically for BJJ?

We took a look at what products exist in the marketplace. Although tempting to swig a Gatorade or Powerade after a hard training session we want to take a look at more healthy options which contains less sugars and more electrolytes.

Pedialyte

A lot of grapplers swear by this baby formula. The taste can be a little “syrupy” but for most this gets the job done.

Vega Sport Post-Workout Recovery Accelerator

Great post workout with natural ingredients

Evlution Nutrition Recover Mode Post Workout

Muscle Pharm Re Con Sport

What else Works to Recover Faster from a Hard BJJ Training Session?

Post Workout Yoga
Use a massage gun to get the knots out and for myofascial release
Foam Roll and Lacrosse Ball trouble or sore areas
Ice Baths
Epsom Salt Bath
Fight Inflammation Part 1 – CBD oil
Fight Inflammation Part 2 -Wobenzym Z
Fight Inflammation Part 3 – Turmeric

Reduce inflammation and muscle soreness

Immediate Recovery During intensified fixture congestion antioxidants and anti-inflammatory food components or supplements can modulate the inflammatory reaction may prove beneficial in the acute recovery phase.

Concentrated tart cherry juice and omega-3 fish oil supplements are two supplements which may have accelerate recovery time but further research is warranted in elite team sports.

Optimising short-term recovery is an important consideration for both athletes who train and compete with limited time to recover and recreational exercisers who would benefit from the avoidance of residual fatigue, which could negatively influence their sustained participation in physical activity.

The notion that muscle glycogen is central to recovery is based on the plethora of experiments demonstrating a causal relationship between muscle glycogen depletion during an initial prolonged exercise and the onset of fatigue.

Thus, previous research focused on the effects on different nutritional interventions to increase the availability of this substrate, albeit the precise nutrient amount/composition remains debatable.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5852829/

Post Workout Yoga

Here is a great free post training stretching routine from Sebastian from YogaForBJJ.net

Best Post Recovery Drinks & Supplements for BJJ – How to Feel Great After Hard Training Session