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Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a sport that requires a lot of your body. If you decide to stick with this sport for the long haul, you will have to change your habits completely. Food and nutrition are the backbones of building a lean, strong, and efficient body we must make sure that the things we put into it are fueling the progression of our lifestyle. Choosing to put the best supplements to practice while doing BJJ will make all the difference in your progress.
What you put in your body, especially as you get to higher levels, will make or break you. To be top-tier you must do what top-tier individuals do. Even if your goal is not to become top-tier, choosing the right things to put in your body will increase your overall mood and get you looking your absolute best!
Healthy Lifestyle Choices
When you choose to start your Jiu-Jitsu journey healthy lifestyle choices happen naturally.
Getting good rest, nutrition, and exercise start to become habits. Up until we started practicing jiu-jitsu, we never cared too much about nutrition. We were eating junk food, felt tired, and were sitting at an unhealthy BMI for our size/weight. I always thought that the eating part of fitness was too complicated to get down. We made every excuse under the sun to not take it seriously.
Changing lifestyle habits and choices will carry over and impact other aspects of life. Living a healthy life is one of the four pillars we must focus on to achieve our personal goals.
Best Supplements (Updated List)
- Best For Hydration: BPN Electrolytes
- Best Creatine Supplement: BPN Creatine Monohydrate
- Best Protein Powder: BPN Whey
- Best Mass Gainer: Mass Gainer (Amazon)
- Best to Boost Testosterone Levels: Boron, Tongkat Ali, Fadogia Agrestis
- Best Sleep Aid: PleSleep (Full Review)
- Best for Management: cbdMD (Review)
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Best Supplements for BJJ Athletes
Using supplements will help take your body to the next level and help you recover faster. Without our routine, we would be dealing with all kinds of nagging injuries.
We saw an excellent thread on Twitter for supplement recommendations by Andrew Huberman. If you do not know who he is he is a world-renowned neurobiologist who studied at Stanford. We took the recommendations from this thread AND did independent research to find some great things all people should be taking.
Here are some of the things we use to be at our peak:
Creatine
This miracle substance helps with muscle recovery and getting shredded. Creatine has been a proven supplement that helps increase muscle output and helps you get more out of your lifts. When training Jiu-Jitsu it is still important to be weight training.
Drink lots of water while taking this, cramping is more common when on creatine.
Creatine supplementation can be taken in two different ways. The pill form or the powder form. We recommend taking it in powder form. Originally we bought the pilled version and got sick of having to slam down six pills to get the recommended dosage by Huberman (about 5 grams daily).
You can find some great options on Amazon!
Creatine is the most tested and proven supplement in the world. Every athlete should be taking creatine to help improve recovery and boost overall strength.
Best Supplement for Sleep Aid
Sleep is one of the most important factors in all sports. While we sleep we give our bodies the must needed break to recover from what we put it through.
Lately, with all the screen time I am having, I have found it extremely hard to sleep and wind down. Recently, we connected with the founder over at PreSleep to test and try out their product to see if it would help.
The results have been incredible. Since taking PreSleep, we have gotten restful and deep sleep all the while waking up the next morning feeling rejuvenated from the nights’ rest.
PreSleep is a non-habit-forming melatonin-free sleep supplement with clean ingredients designed to help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake up feeling refreshed.
- Proven to increase Sleep Quality
- All Natural Ingredients
- Perfect Flavor Profile
CBD Cream
CBD has been a game changer in solving our issues with muscle and joint soreness. At first, we were skeptical about the stuff but now that we have ample amount of mat time under our belts it would be really hard for us not to say this is an essential item for those that train.
Jiu-Jitsu is very tough on the body and to stay healthy enough to keep the mat time consistent we use CBD creams on sore areas. CBD cream lasts a while because you don’t need to lather your entire body with it to feel the effects. For anything from muscle soreness to bruising, we are applying CBD cream from cbdMD.
CBD Oil and Gummies For Better Rest
CBD cream is not the only CBD-based product that we use. Because we work on a computer for our day job and have this website we spend a lot of time getting exposed to blue light. If you are unaware, too much exposure to blue light messes with our body’s natural sleep cycle known as the circadian rhythm (source). We were having a huge problem with our sleep which led to several issues that we fixed through supplementation. Taking cbdmd Sleep Gummies and having hot tea with our Life Cykel Reishi Mushroom extract have been game changers for us on the quality of sleep we were getting.
Winding down has been challenging for us for almost 4 years now and now that we understand the power of proper supplementation, the issue is pretty much fixed.
Whether you're looking for a natural way to support wellness, manage stress, or address specific health concerns, CBDmd's products are designed to meet various needs.
- Product for almost every need
- Easy to buy with quick delivery times
Vitamins & Minerals
The food we eat in most cases is not filling our bodies the way we need it to. If you look at the labels of today’s food unfortunately you are going to find a bunch of ingredients you cannot pronounce and that do not add any nutritional value.
This is why we supplement and take the things we do. We know that it can be very difficult to get everything we need just from the food we ingest so adding these supplements to your routine will enhance the fact that you are fueling your body with what it needs.
The vitamins and minerals we take are the following (the people who showed us the benefits are listed next to the supplement):
- Magnesium Glycinate (Grimhood)
- Boron (BowtiedLoon)
- Vitamin D (only in winter times. Trade out for sun exposure when warm out)
- Calcium & Zinc (we use a blend from Trader Joe’s)
- Vitamin C
- Fish Oil
When we find more beneficial things, we will be sure to return to this list and provide you with updated information.
Why are vitamins and minerals important?
Getting the right amount of vitamins and minerals is extremely important in order to boost your immune system and overall health.
For example, Vitamin D has some amazing health benefits including the ability to absorb and retain calcium and phosphorus. Both of these materials are extremely necessary to maintain bone structure and strength.
Vitamin C allows for the absorption of Iron and strengthens the immune system!
Omega 3 Fish Oil is a fat that aids in muscle fatigue and recovery after intense training. The fatty acids found in Omega 3 oils help lower levels of inflammation in the body making it easier to recover after tough workouts!
One of the worst feelings as an athlete is not being able to play due to injuries or illnesses. Keeping your immune system high by getting the proper nutrients through vitamins and minerals allows you to continue to do what you love!
Protein Supplements
We have tried almost every protein powder under the sun at this point. The supplement that we have been taking the longest has been this and below are our personal favorites. It just so happens that all three of these brands are from massive fitness influencers whom we admire and have huge amounts of respect for.
The products speak for themselves; we believe you could not go wrong with any of the three options.
1st Phorm
1st Phorm is probably our favorite of the three. The quality of the protein supplements that we have tested out has lived up to the hype. Created by Andy Frisella, 1st Phorm is a brand that offers plant-based protein and whey protein in the form of powder, bars, and other snacks. Their protein powders have all of the essential amino acids needed for optimal function and muscle growth.
It is a bit more expensive, so for those looking for a cheaper option, this one is probably not for you.
But, if you are like us and do not mind spending more money on great quality things, we think you should try this. Orange Dreamsicle is our personal favorite!
Phormula-1® is a premium-sourced whey protein isolate, and is by far the best-tasting, best-mixing isolated protein on the market. Not only will you taste the difference, you will actually feel the difference immediately when you use it!
Jocko Fuel
We love Jocko because he is one of the Jiu-Jitsu practitioners who initially got us introduced to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. His being such a huge advocate of the martial art made us leap in not only trying it out but also his products!
Jocko Fuel has a wide range of supplements and protein flavors for all people who are looking to take their nutrition to the next level. Whether you want on-the-go or powdered options, Jokco Fuel has you covered!
FUEL YOUR BODY. FOCUS YOUR MIND.
You show up every day, even when it's hard – because you know there's no shortcut. You're on The Path - a personal journey to get smarter, stronger, smarter, healthier – better. Nobody said it would be easy. One thing is certain: you need the right fuel.
Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN)
We love BPN’s protein. The protein is priced right around the same price as Jocko Fuel so for people that are price-sensitive, it may be a good option for you!
The supplement that we have taken and can say works great is the G1M Sport. When we go out for long runs, we take this supplement. It keeps us from cramping and allows us to get the most out of our muscles. Getting the most out of our muscles is not only subject to running but also our time spent lifting weights and at our BJJ gym.
Why protein is so important
Nutrients such as Whey protein and other forms of branched-chain amino acids are necessary for human life. Proteins are made from building blocks known as amino acids. Amino acids help repair bones and muscles and can create essential hormones as well. When the body is running low on carbohydrates proteins can be used as an energy source.
Differences between plant-based and whey protein
Energy
We have written longer reviews on the pre-workout supplements that we take from MatFuel. This is a nice little bonus that we need to get our minds focused when we are rolling on the mats.
If you train in the morning or later at night this could be a great supplement to add to your cart to increase exercise performance. It gives us the added push we need to get through training and feel alert while doing so (even in those graveyard early morning classes).
Benefits of Pre-Workout
Pre-workout has many performance benefits that athletes can use to their advantage. To list a few, Pre-Workout
1. Increases energy levels
2. Enhances endurance
3. Increases strength in muscles
We personally love the PreWorkout from BPN. As you may have noticed we are kind of BPN maxies over on these parts and love to use their products. Do not go and take this stuff before rolling you may not have a pleasant experience while doing so. Use pre-workout to help get you that little push you need for your strength training exercise (that you more than likely have been skipping out on).
Testosterone Boosting Supplements
Do not take TRT or any other steroid unless you have at least given what we are going to recommend a try. We suffered from Low T and have been huge advocates for men in our life to get their blood levels checked out (seriously go do it).
It should go without saying that testosterone is a huge factor for male health, it is the main hormone that makes us different biologically. Testosterone levels, from a general standpoint, have never been lower than they are in today’s world.
Benefits of High Testosterone
As stated previously, testosterone is the hormone that makes a man, a man. T is known to allow for easy muscle growth in Type I and Type II Muscle Fibers also known as your slow and fast twitch fibers. A composition with high testosterone will be able to build muscle mass through strength training and resistance training faster than those with lower testosterone levels. Testosterone is also known to lessen muscular fatigue in athletes.
There are a number of options you can go with but they do not come without risks. When putting synthetic stuff in your body you begin to grow a dependence, try a more natural route with things that can be found in nature first before going that route.
Throughout the day we used to have to rely on caffeine to get us through. We were tired of feeling sluggish ad tired halfway through the day at work so we reached out to people on Twitter and watched podcasts to uncover some ways to boost our testosterone more naturally through supplementation.
Here is what we currently take to help boost our T-levels:
We found a great blend of the two from a recommendation from Andrew Humberman. You can find it here on Amazon!
Tongkat Ali and Fadogia Agrestis are herbal supplements traditionally associated with potential benefits for male health, including increased testosterone levels, improved libido, and enhanced stamina.
Tongkat Ali and Fadogia Agrestis are herbal supplements traditionally associated with potential benefits for male health, including increased testosterone levels, improved libido, and enhanced stamina.
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