🥋 JIUJITSU.WTF

INTRODUCTION

This document outlines various lifestyle practices that may enhance and prolong your jiujitsu practice from a hobbyist perspective. We will go over, with some opinion, required and optional equipment, personal hygiene, diet, body conditioning, recovery and general advice for training. While anybody of any rank should benefit from the content, those newer to the hobby will benefit the most.

No technique will be discussed.

EQUIPMENT

Fortunately, the equipment requirements for jiujitsu are low. While your school will have it's own uniform requirements for gi and no-gi training, you can get by with one or two uniform sets depending on how often you attend class. The listed safety equipment is optional depending on your level of comfort. Extra stuff, grouped last in this section, are items which are nice to have and make the training session more comfortable.

Uniform

Gi — This will consist of a kimono top, pants and a belt. Your gym will probably offer a specific brand for purchase with custom patches. If not, some popular gi manufacturers are listed below. You will want to wear compression tops and bottoms to reduce rash from the gi and to keep your respective bits in place.

Sanabul

Break Point

Gameness

Shoyoroll

I feel comfortable, hygiene wise, wearing short compression tops and bottoms with the gi. Just be sure to get a jiujitsu specific gi. If your gym has a specific method of tying the belt, ask the upper belts for instruction and practice outside of class, otherwise find a tutorial and choose your favorite. Rener Gracie has a good tutorial below on three belt tying variations.

BJJ Gi 101: Weaves

Rener Gracie on How to Tie the Belt
No-Gi — This will consist of a tight-fitting top and snug bottoms of whatever length you feel comfortable. Your gym will probably offer custom-designed rash guards for purchase. If not, some popular manufacturers are listed below. Just be sure to select the correct rank if you purchase a ranked rash guard.

Sanabul

FUJI

Origin

Longer lengths provide more skin protection but can also be hotter during practice. If you wear shorts, they must have no pockets and the drawstring should be internal with have no metal aglets. Gi pants work well for bottoms in no-gi as you can transition between gi and no-gi quickly. Underneath shorts, wearing spats can provide length protection while being cooler, temperature-wise, than gi pants.
Footwear — Sandals, flip-flops, geta, slides, Crocs, whatever. These are necessary to quickly slip on when you leave the mat, especially when heading to the bathroom. You do not want to track anything from off the mat back onto the mat; always step off the mat into your footwear.

Safety

Mouth Guard — A mouthguard prevents damage to your teeth from a wild elbow or knee which is much cheaper than getting a busted tooth fixed. This a requirement for all sparring. A basic boil and bite mouth guard works well and will be inexpensive, but bulky in the mouth restricting speech. You can spend more money on a custom mouth guard with less bulk and slightly better protection.

Everlast

SISU

Impact Custom Mouthguards

Be sure your mouth guard fully wraps your teeth with no room for your tounge to pinch without being too thick.
Braces, Pads and Sleeves — These three are helpful to protect joints during practice. Braces prevent joints from bending in directions they shouldn't. Pads protect the knobby parts of joints from overuse and sudden impact. Sleeves keep all the muscles and connective tissue tight and together near the joint. The market contains many combinations and styles of braces, pads and sleeves. However, if your joints require a hard mechanical bracing, you shouldn't be practicing. Sleeves can also protect bandages that need to cover wounds.
Athletic Cup — You can wear an athletic cup to protect your crotch bits from getting smashed. Although I've had my share of accidental groin strikes, I don't wear an athletic cup and I've only known a few people to wear them consistently.
Ear protection — A possible condition, cauliflower ear, described later, can be prevented by wearing ear protectors when sparring. Few people wear these. However, if you're recovering from cauliflower ear, wearing ear protection is recommended.

Extra Stuff

Water Bottle — Most schools have bathrooms and a water fountain. However, it's a little more hygenic to use your own bottle for water. The bottle can be anything, a fancy Yeti or a left-over gallon milk jug. On days that I visit an open mat with a lot of physical exertion, I add an electrolyte drink mix to the bottle. Be sure to wash your bottle often.
Towel — Useful for wiping the sweat off of you after stepping off the mat or used after a shower if your school has the facilities. This can keep your vehicle from smelling like a locker room.
Toiletries — Depending on your school's facilities and where you go after class, bring deodorant, wet wipes, hand sanitizer, or personal soap to cleanup.
Tape — Athletic tapes are used to shore up a weak joint, provide friction resistance to fingers, or to cover a wound. I keep a couple sizes in my bag to cover any cuts or scrapes I might get during practice. The rolls come in various inch or centimeter widths.
Bag — You might need something to carry all this equipment. Some students carry all their gear and use large gym bags. Others use backpacks or even fanny packs.

HYGIENE

Paramount to your practice, ensure the safety and comfort of your fellow students by maintaining proper hygiene before and after class. We're all in close proximity to each other which encourages the communication of ailments. If an ailment pops up, take care of it as soon as possible. Please visit a medical doctor for more serious illnesses.

Before Class

Arrive clean. At a minimum use a wet wipe on your under areas to remove any excess smell. Please don't attend class fresh from work with swamp-ass.
Trim your nails. Each person's nails grows differently, so use your best judgement. If you have any sharp corners or edges, smooth them down. The goal is to not scratch up your partner.
Brush your teeth. Even a quick brush to knock the fuzz off your teeth is appreciated for class. More is better for close drills and sparring.
Apply deodorant. Everyone should be able to do this by keeping a spare deodorant bar in their bag or vehicle.
Cover wounds and secure. If you have a wound of any kind, even a small pimple, bandage and secure it with either athletic tape or a compression sleeve to prevent exposure.
Spray feet and bits with anti-fungal.

During Class

Don't touch your face or rub your eyes.
Address any scratches or wounds.
Slip into your footwear as you leave the mat.
Wash your hands if you go to the restroom.

After Class

Wash your uniform. Machine wash your uniform as soon as possible in cold water and then hang dry. Even the belt should be washed. If your stripes fall off the belt, you are allowed to reapply them. This is required. If you wash your uniform in this manner it will last a long time and remain hygenic. While running the uniform through the dryer on high temperature settings will provide additional antiseptic properties, this will be at the expense of reducing the uniform's lifetime. For instance, some kimonos contain EVA foam in the lapel that can warp under high heat.
Shower, use soap and scrub well. To prevent bacterial and fungal infections from setting in, shower within an hour or two of class. Use soap, any kind will work but some soaps, such as Dr. Bonners and Defense Soap claim antifungal properties. Soaps containing tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil and tolfinate may help prevent fungal infections. Be sure to scrub and rinse well.

Dr. Bronners

Defense Soap

Truremedy Naturals
Touch up wounds and rashes. Whether you have prior or new skin wound, now is the time to touch it up with ointments and dressing to prevent infection.

Neosporin

Blue Star Ointment

Truremedy Naturals
Healthy skin is resilient skin. After a soap and scrub in the shower, remoisturize with lotions or salves. Pay special attention to the hands, elbows and knees as they take quite beating during practice. Additionally, I like to rub a tea tree and eucalyptus salve into my finger and toe nails to keep them healthy and ward off nail fungus.
Spray feet and bits with an anti-fungal.

Ailments

Ringworm, Jock Itch, Athlete's Foot and Nail Fungus — All four are caused by some form of fungus which lives on the skin and eats the keratin found in the outer layer of the skin or in the case of nail fungus, the nail material. Usually, the skin varieties are cured within a couple weeks of anti-fungal cream. Nails take longer to cure. If the infection site is large or has not responded to over-the-counter creams, visit a doctor for prescription anti-fungal creams. Do not attend class if the site has ruptured or is oozing. Otherwise, bandage and secure the site while continuing the treatment.

Wikipedia - Dermatophytosis

Lotrimin

Tinactin

Bleach Bath
Staph, Impetigo and MRSA — While there are a few types of skin infection from Staph, they are usually all a wound surrounded by a big red spot and probably oozing or puss-filled. See a doctor as soon as possible and get antibiotics. The MRSA strain of Staph moves fast and exhibits greater symptoms than a normal Staph infection. Both can kill you if not treated. Become familiar with the symptoms and catch it early.

Wikipedia - Staphylococcus aureus

Wikipedia - Impetigo

Wikipedia - Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
General Illness — If you are sick, stay at home. You would want your training partners to do the same.
Cauliflower Ear — Occasionally, one of your ears can get smashed during practice and will experience trauma. As fluid builds up, it must be drained and pinched to prevent further fluid from entering the site. The market provides many kits, magents and braces to help treat cauliflower ear. If fluid is allowed to build up it will harden over time and create lumpy bits in the ear, somewhat resembling a cauliflower. At the worst, you have an ugly looking ear.

Wikipedia - Cauliflower ear

DIET

Your diet provides the foundation for your conditioning and recovery. Since everyone will have a different macronutrient, medical and ethical requirements for their diet we describe general guidelines to maintaining a healthy diet for your practice. The supplements, by their nature, will violate the first guideline of being heavily processed. You may find it to be a suitable trade-off for the benefit gained. Sometimes it is not feasible to obtain the necessary nutrients from food alone.

Food and Drink

Harvard's School of Public Health has a great website for getting started with general nutrition. We'll reference sections within it exclusively for the following important items.

Harvard School of Public Health - Nutrition Source
Determine your body's macronutrient requirements based on your personal goals, medical needs, and ethical position. If you are unsure where to start, an easy target to keep in mind is to consume 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram, or 0.36 grams per pound, of lean body mass. Aim to meet these macronutrient requirements as a minimum each day while trying to observe the guidelines below. Naturally, additional strength and endurance training will have a higher requirement. Adjust as necessary.

Nutrition Source - Protein
Limit the consumption of heavily processed foods. Subjective, so this is a comfort and judgement call. Example: grilled salmon vs. smoked pork sausage.

Nutrition Source - Processed Foods and Health
Limit the consumption of artificial sweeteners. Aspartame, Sucralose, Acesulfame K, Saccharin, Xylitol, etc.

Nutrition Source - Low-Calorie Sweeteners
Limit the consumption of alcohol. When your liver has to metobolize alocohol, it's not able to metabolize other things. Everything has to get in line. While not totally scientific, it's an easy way to think about drinking booze as hinderance to your recovery and progress.

Nutrition Source - Alcohol: Balancing Risks and Benefits
Drink a lot of water.

Nutrition Source - Water

Supplements

Water Mixes — In order to maintain a steady pace during practice, especially during sparring, add a sport electrolyte mix to your water bottle. Be sure to wash your bottle afterwards to avoid mold growth. The market contains no end to electrolyte mixes.

Nuun

LMNT
Protein Powder — Obtaining enough protein through food can be difficult, especially if a class runs late into the night. Supplementing your diet with protein powder may be helpful. Use whatever protein powder supplement fits your diet and helps satisfy your macronutrient requirement. It may be difficult to find an inexpensive protein powder without artificial sweeteners. Personally, I find drinking a whey protein powder shake with creatine after every class helps considerably with recovery.

Cellucor

Optimum Nutrition

Common questions and misconceptions about creatine supplementation: what does the scientific evidence really show?
Multi-vitamin — A basic multi-vitamin can fill micronutrient gaps in a diet. Maybe you're allergic to Kale and need a little help getting extra nutrients? A big bottle of multi-vitamins may be purchased inexpensively from any grocery or drug store. However, if you take other supplements ensure you're not consuming too much of a single micronutrient in total.

NIH - Multivitamin/mineral Supplements
Vitamin C — Essential in the creation of collagen which is used to repair skin and other soft tissues. Supplementation up to 1,000mg/day is helpful. Past that your body cannot absorb much more and will excrete it through the urine.

Wikipedia - Vitamin C

Efficacy of Vitamin C Supplementation on Collagen Synthesis and Oxidative Stress After Musculoskeletal Injuries: A Systematic Review
Fish Oil — Supplementing your diet with fish oil, a good source of omega-3 oils, has been shown to improve recovery as well as prevent many other potential issues. The recommend dosage is between 250mg and 3g. A can of sardines may contain up to 2g of omega-3 oils. Be sure to source your fish oil from a reputable company. Rancid fish oils are a known problem in the industry. Flax seed oil can provide an animal-free option.

Wikipedia - Fish oil

CONDITIONING

You might need to do some additional conditioning outside of class. Many gyms do not participate in much conditioning prior to class, leaving the task up to the student. No end exists to the styles, methods and advice for conditioning your body, far outside the scope of this document. Just try to improve endurance, flexibility, or strength. A good focus for each would be HIIT, yoga and isometric exercises. Below are some resources to get started:

Youtube Playlist - Yoga for BJJ

Youtube - 10 Minute HIIT Workout - CARDIO Workout // NO EQUIPMENT | Cobrinha BJJ

Youtube - 20 Isometric Exercises Anyone Can Do (With No Equipment)

RECOVERY

In between classes these things are important for a speedy recovery. This will be different for each person based on many factors. In general, relaxation and blood-flow are the goals. The body uses blood to transport nutrients to recovery areas and waste products away from recovery areas.

Sleep — Sleep is the number one (and least expensive) tool for a proper recovery. For the normal person, the recommendation is 6-8 hours a night. However, that may vary based on work and family obligations. Even a twenty minute nap on the floor after a class during the day will work wonders. Sleep brings increased blood flow, the release of growth hormones and a reduction of inflammation.
"And between trainings, you have to recover. A lot of people don’t understand what recovery is. A lot of people call it, like: massage, supplements… [But] for me, recovery is sleep." — Khabib Nurmagomedov
Stretching — Establish a pre and post training stretching regimen. As much as you can stand. Stretching encourages muscles to relax which increases blood flow.
Listen to Your Body — Pay attention to the aches and pains present in your body during recovery. If something persits through your recovery period, give consideration to skipping or lightening your training load until fully recovered. A weak joint, muscle, or tendon will be more susceptible to injury. Obviously, this depends on the person and will require practice.
MEAT, RICE, PEACE, LOAD, POLICE, et al. Methodolgies for Injuries — Many injury recovery methodolgies exist, some conflicting. Fortunately, there exists some common themes. Preferably as soon as possible, begin resting the injury with ice applied. Compression has benefits, if the site can be effectively bound. Later, apply non-NSAID analgesics, if applicable. Once rested begin mobility and loading exercises.
Balms, Creams, Patches, Oils and Ointments — All manner of things to approve blood-flow to an area, dull pain or remedy a wound. I've found the products below to be helpful for various things.

Dr. Bronners - Organic Magic Balm

Battle Balm

Aspercreme - Lidocane

Neosporin

Blue Star Ointment

Truremedy Naturals
Massage — Self-massage can further encourage muscles to relax. Foam rollers, muscle hooks, massage guns and sports balls are good tools to assist with this. Personally, a basic hard foam roller combined with a lacrosse ball have been the most effective.

Foam Roller

Muscle Hook

TRAINING

During training, understand these concepts to get the most out of each class. These items are presented in no particular order of importance, more miscellanous than anything else.

Ask Questions — As with any learning environment, ask questions to the instructor or a more senior student encourages discussion and exploration of the idea. Most likely, someone else has the same question or will learn from the answer given.
Drilling — They say drillers make killers. Attending class implies participation in drilling. Dont half-ass it by talking or sitting around when you could be working out the details of a technique with your partner.
Sparring — From positional sparring to hard sparring, this is where your technique becomes honed by pressure testing. The more sparring you participate in, the better you will become. Try your best to stay for open rolling, usually at the end of class and to attend open mats at your gym or other gyms if available.
Respect each other — Without our training partners, we would have no progress. Treat their motivation, progress and safety as your own.
Go Slow on Locks — When we have a chance for joint or limb breakage, go slow, look at your partner and give them ample time to tap. Ripping an arm bar or heel hook to win a submission increases the risk of injury and serves nothing but ego.
Tapping Out — Tap early, tap often, and tap hard with multiple mediums. Make sure your training partner knows that you are submitted by giving a firm tap and if possible saying 'tap'.
Spend Time in Disadvantage — Learn to fight from bad positions. We will not always be able to maintain a top or dominate position. By training in a lesser position we learn to escape or work within.
Setting an Intention for Practice — Try to focus on the weaknesses in your game. Which positions or submissions are you consistenly getting caught in? For each period of practice, focus on resolving that weakness. Usually, this requires spending time in disadvantage.
Taking Notes — Write about your training sessions in a diary. Review past entries to understand your progression and identify weaknesses in your game.
Communicate — Use your words like an adult. Talk to your training partner about injuries, something you would like to try or maybe skipping this round because they stink.
"Comparison if the Thief of Joy." — Theodore Roosevelt
Regardless who first penned the quote, the meaning asserts that comparing yourself to others progress or skill in your school ruins your own enjoyment of the practice. There will always be someone who learns faster, has more time, can spend more money on privates, etc. Your joy of the practice must come from within.
Comparison Is the Thief of Joy - Quote Investigator