Social proof is a powerful influencer. We’re wired to think whatever is common is normal and, therefore, can’t be all that bad. Pop-Tarts for breakfast? Why not?
Quit being such a buzzkill, Shane.
Read A Guide to Proper Footwear Selection for Athletes at its original source Breaking Muscle:
https://breakingmuscle.com/fitness/a-guide-to-proper-footwear-selection-for-athletes
In the culture of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, it is encouraged for the athletes to train more and more. Athletes are training Jiu-Jitsu every evening, lifting weights every morning or vice versa, and doing two sessions a day at least five to six days a week.
If you are training this way, yet feeling like you are not necessarily progressing because you:
Then most likely, you are overtraining.
Many chronically overtrained athletes come my way feeling like this, and to top it all off, they are frustrated because they can’t lose weight even with all the training.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a complex sport that is very taxing on the nervous system.
It involves the constant activation of multiple muscle groups with both significant movements and small, subtle movements.
The rolling around at the gym can be up to eight minutes long, and black belt matches are ten minutes long, so muscular endurance and cardio fitness are necessary to be explosive within that timeframe. Hence, BJJ requires all energy systems to be firing at one stage or another.
There are methods for increased recovery, such as ice baths, meditation, and good nutrition.
Deep sleep is one of the best ways to deal with overtraining because it allows the central nervous system to relax and begin the repairing process. Many people don’t understand that the nervous system takes much longer to recover than other systems, such as the muscular.
Due to the nervous system affecting slow muscle firing, which then may influence:
Ironically, once our nervous system is fried, it’s hard to sleep, yet it’s what our body needs the most when we continually train to recover.
Even though ice baths, meditation, and good nutrition will help mitigate some adverse effects of chronic overtraining, it will eventually catch up if we do two intense sessions a day.
Bazilian, Jiu-Jitsu training needs to be periodized and structured for long-term success.
Perform with purpose.
In the bodybuilding culture (why gyms came about in the first place), lifting started with the purpose of building big muscles.
This way of lifting is not necessarily conducive to performance athletes who need to work the compound movements of multiple muscle groups at one time for coordination or core strength for balance, power, speed, and muscular endurance.
Getting creative is the key, so try and mimic the movement patterns of BJJ as closely as possible. Think outside the box.
Here are some great exercises to perform back to back that will benefit any performance athlete.
Performing the workout in a circuit-based format with little rest is ideal while building muscular endurance and cardiovascular fitness.
Aim to do significant full-body movements that activate the core to build overall full-body strength, then spend the remainder of the day resting if you can or doing technique and flow rolls. Limit these effective and intense strength sessions to only about two days per week.
Once a week, allow a full day of rest to allow your muscular system and your nervous system, and joints to recover and recharge.
Start the following week strong and repeat. By adding rest, it reduces your stress levels which will help to keep you lean.
Athletes who chronically overtrain are highly stressed, and as a result, they are holding onto body fat and water.
Train intensely with less overall volume, rest to recover and de-stress, and you will be leaner in the long run.
For most of us to embark on this beautiful Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu journey, we want to be in it for the long-haul. You want to keep progressing and keep your body healthy and strong by training smarter and not necessarily harder.
To sum it up, aim for three hard BJJ sessions a week, two intense strength sessions a week, and one full rest day a week.
This schedule will give you the recovery you need to keep working towards your goals without fatigue or burnout. It will also keep you progressing and on track to a black belt.
After 11-plus years of coaching, I have learned that pretty much every single person who shows up to train with me has some pain.
Pain is something to which we can all relate. For some, it’s an emotionally-rooted pain, and for a vast majority of adults, there’s a certain amount of physical pain they deal with every day.
It can be tempting, as a coach, to want to fix this pain by writing the perfect training program. The OPEX Coaching Certificate Program (CCP) enlightened me to another idea. The training program is only a small part of helping your clients live without pain.
Most people are impatient and want results now. It’s why people try muscle ups when they can’t even do a strict Chest-To-Bar (CTB) pull up. It’s not their fault.
We have all been told we can:
Get abs in seven minutes.
Lose 30 pounds in 30 days.
Unfortunately, the path to improved fitness and decreased pain is a slow one.
The key is to help our clients shift their mindset to embrace a long-term, patient approach to fitness and pain-free living.
Here are three steps you may not have considered to change your mindset and get out of pain long-term.
“Meet them where they’re at” is how OPEX CEO Carl Hardwick, a man with almost 20 years of coaching experience, often puts it.
The basic idea is to get to know as much as you can about your client’s:
Then, you can design an effective program for them that considers their entire life and ultimately “meet them where they’re at” in all areas of their life.
However, one of the issues with this is that many people don’t know where they are. They don’t even know what it is they want to achieve from working out.
Somewhere along the way, they decided that snatching and learning a muscle up sounded like a cool idea. Still, some clients have ignored the fact that they can’t put their hands overhead without extending their spine (or maybe they don’t even realize this is the case) and that they’re in physical pain every time they snatch.
This person keeps trying to shove a square peg into a round hole—Talk about pain!
Other people set arbitrary goals without really considering what it will take to achieve them. Have you ever had a client who says she wants to lose 20 pounds and get a pull up, but her actions don’t align with her goal?
She never sticks around to do the pulling homework you gave her, and she keeps admitting to her Taco Bell addiction. It’s frustrating as a coach to watch this person continuously fail, and it’s even more frustrating to be the person who feels like a failure.
Much of sorting out of this emotional and physical pain stems from awareness.
Helping clients figure out what they want—their intention or why—is the first step to uncover, work through, and eliminate their emotional and physical pain, explained Firass El Fateh, the owner of OPEX Abbotsford in British Columbia.
You have to, “Dig really deep with their exact reason for doing this whole thing,” El Fateh said. This starts on day one. “It’s about setting expectations right from the start during the initial consultation. Going through the assessment together and giving the client a clear picture of where they stand physically,” he added.
Emotionally speaking, when clients are honest about what they’re genuinely willing to sacrifice, such as losing 50 pounds—they’re more likely to shed emotional baggage and work to fix their problem.
Practically speaking, putting them through a thorough assessment allows your clients to understand their limitations.
For example, if your client knows they failed a shoulder flexion test, they’re more likely to respect the fact that maybe going overhead with a barbell isn’t a great idea just yet. Perhaps it’s even the reason they’re always in pain. From there, you can lay out a path that will help them fix this weakness and get out of pain.
The mindset change starts with awareness of what’s causing the emotional pain, physical pain, and understanding what they want to achieve.
Remember the saying in elementary school: Keep it Simple, Silly (KISS)?
As coaches, we’re always trying to reinvent the wheel to keep people interested and show off our knowledge. Another lesson I learned from the OPEX CCP was about the beauty of simplicity.
This comes down to, as Hardwick calls them, the “Basic Lifestyle Guidelines (BLGs).”
Simply put, “Start with lifestyle,” Hardwick said.
First, you have to look at what the person has been doing for fitness and whether they have been doing “a bunch of inappropriate (for them) contractions and movements,” Hardwick said.
Look at what they’re doing the other 23 hours of the day. How are their sleep hygiene, nutrition hygiene, and stress levels? Teach them how this contributes to their pain, lack of recovery, and fatigue, Hardwick added.
“If the client isn’t sleeping well, drinking enough water, getting enough sun, there is no point of diving deep into the program design part of it,” El Fateh added.
Beyond sleep, stress, sunlight, nutrition, other basic lifestyle guidelines, Hardwick asks coaches to consider how many steps the person is taking each day, how much water they’re drinking, and what kind of bowel movements they’re having.
As OPEX Founder James Fitzgerald put it, if you don’t feel comfortable talking to your clients about their poo, you’re missing out. “It’s an indisputable barometer of health…You need to talk about it with your clients,” he said.
“Identify the lowest hanging fruit lifestyle habits,” Hardwick said, “and tackle them before you bother writing a fancy training program that promises your client the world.”
Anyone can teach someone how to squat, press, hinge, pull. While useful, for people to indeed be on board with a long-term path to better health and pain-free living, they need to understand why they’re doing what they’re doing. Doing this fosters that all-important buy-in explained Hardwick.
“It has to start with having the ability to educate our clients,” Hardwick said, not just through “principles and science,” but also through your own and other clients’ experiences.
El Fateh agrees. Once his clients have a clear understanding—based on the OPEX assessment he puts them through—he can now “tie in how their program will take them from where they are to where they want to get,” he explained.
He added: “Explaining the why behind the program is important…When people know why they’re doing something, they are much more likely to keep doing it.”
The more self-sufficient and autonomous your clients become, the more likely they’re going to make decisions when you’re not looking (which is most of the time) that are smart for them and ultimately help them get out of pain long-term.
Vitamin D is often referenced as the sunshine vitamin since the vitamin’s primary source is attained through sun exposure. Yet, many people are vitamin D deficient.
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble hormone that plays a critical role in bone health, muscle function, adaptive immunity, and many human diseases like cancer, diabetes, and musculoskeletal health.2
In fact, vitamin D deficiency is a global public health issue.
About 1 billion people worldwide have vitamin D deficiency, while over 77% of the general population is insufficient.1 So, what does that mean if you are an athlete who plays an indoor sport, trains indoors year-round, and rarely gets outside during the day?
What if you also live in the northern hemisphere? Odds are you are not getting enough vitamin D. Insufficient sun exposure can dramatically increase your risk of vitamin D deficiency. It can lead to a variety of negative health implications and hinder athletic performance.
Research has illustrated that vitamin D significantly affects muscle weakness, pain, balance, and fractures in the aging population.1
Vitamin D plays a key role in:1
Vitamin D deficiency occurs as blood levels drop to less than 20 ng/mL (< nmol/L), while vitamin D insufficiency for athletes is defined as blood levels reaching between 20-32 ng/mL (50-80 nmol/L).
Research has indicated that 40-50 ng/mL (100-125 nmol/L) seems ideal for optimizing athletic performance.1
The people at high risk for vitamin D deficiency:1,5
See the previous blog on factors that influence vitamin D levels.
Athletes who play indoor sports are at a greater risk of vitamin D deficiency.
Hockey players specifically spend a great deal of their time training, conditioning, and competing indoors, making it difficult to attain vitamin D through sun exposure. To add to the statistics, another study found that as much as 88% of the population receives less than the optimal amount of vitamin D.3
Several studies link vitamin D status to bone health and the overall prevention of bone injuries in the athletic population.
Studies have illustrated that inadequate vitamin D levels are linked to a greater risk of stress fractures in young men and women published in the Journal of Foot & Ankle Surgery.4
A study published in the journal, Nutrients assessed vitamin D status among college men and women basketball players in the season. The players were either allocated a high-dose, low dose, or no vitamin D depending on their circulation 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels at the beginning of the study to identify the optimal dosage of vitamin D3 supplementation optimal status.
The findings demonstrated that 13 of the 20 participants were vitamin D insufficient at baseline. Another finding was that of the athletes sampled, and the darker skin pigmentation increased the risk of vitamin D insufficiency at baseline.
Researchers found that most athletes who were vitamin D insufficient benefited from supplementation of 10,000 IU to improve their status.5
The study also suggests that professional football players deficient in vitamin D may also have a greater risk of bone fractures.7
Increasing power output is every athlete’s desire as it can translate into improved performance on the field. Your muscle tissues have several key receptor sites for vitamin D, and they will help support power production.1
A study in soccer players found that increasing baseline vitamin D status over an 8-week period leads to increased vertical jump and 10-meter sprint times.9
Of course, we need further research in this area to identify the relationship between vitamin D levels and power output.
Still, the current literature is promising and that, at minimum, baseline vitamin D levels should be desired.
The best vitamin D sources include egg yolks, mushrooms, fortified milk, yogurt, cheese, salmon, mackerel.8
Vitamin D rich food sources:
Athletes who train indoors, consume little vitamin D rich sources and live > 35 degrees north or south may benefit from a vitamin supplement of 1,500 – 2,000 IU per day to keep vitamin D concentrations within a sufficient range.
Athletes who may have a history of stress fractures, frequent illness, pain or weakness, or overtraining signs should have their vitamin D status evaluated.
Vitamin D is best absorbed when taken with a meal that contains fat.
It is important to follow up with a physician to assess vitamin D levels further and meet with a registered dietitian to discuss nutrition intervention further.
1. Ogan, D., & Pritchett, K. “Vitamin D and the athlete: risks, recommendations, and benefits.” Nutrients, 5(6), 1856–1868. 2013.
2. Umar, M., Sastry, K. S., & Chouchane, A. I., “Role of Vitamin D Beyond the Skeletal Function: A Review of the Molecular and Clinical Studies.” International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2018,19(6),1618.
3. Bendik, I., Friedel, A., Roos, F. F., Weber, P., & Eggersdorfer, M. “Vitamin D: a critical and essential micronutrient for human health.” Frontiers in Physiology, 5, 248, 2014.
4. Elsevier Health Sciences. (2015, December 14). “Low levels of vitamin D may increase risk of stress fractures in active individuals: Experts recommend active individuals who participate in higher impact activities may need to maintain higher vitamin D levels.” ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
5. Sizar O, Khare S, Goyal A, et al. “Vitamin D Deficiency.” [Updated 2020 Jul 21]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2020 Jan-.
6. Sekel, N.M.; Gallo, S.; Fields, J.; Jagim, A.R.; Wagner, T.; Jones, M.T. “The Effects of Cholecalciferol Supplementation on Vitamin D Status Among a Diverse Population of Collegiate Basketball Athletes: A Quasi-Experimental Trial.” Nutrients, 2020, 12, 370.
7. National Institutes of Health – Office of Dietary Supplements – “Vitamin D – Fact Sheet for Health Professionals.” [accessed October 19, 2020].
8. Maroon JC, Mathyssek CM, Bost JW, Amos A, Winkelman R, Yates AP, Duca MA, Norwig JA. “Vitamin D profile in National Football League players.” Am J Sports Med. 2015 May;43(5):1241-5. Epub 2015 Feb 3. PMID: 25649084.
9. Close, G. L., Russell, J., Cobley, J. N., Owens, D. J., Wilson, G., Gregson, W., Fraser, W. D., & Morton, J. P., “Assessment of vitamin D concentration in non-supplemented professional athletes and healthy adults during the winter months in the UK: implications for skeletal muscle function.” Journal of Sports Sciences, 31(4), 344–353. 2013.
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