Whether you fast for religious or health reasons, plenty of people do this whilst training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Whilst this can be fine to do – there are some health issues that you can run into if you’re not careful. At the same time, there are a number of people who train BJJ whilst fasting and speak openly about the potential health benefits that it can bring.
In this article, we’ll look at both sides – and why it’s good to fast, as well as some of the potential downsides of fasting whilst practicing BJJ.
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Why training BJJ whilst fasting can be bad
Studies have shown that intermittent fasting can improve your physical and mental energy levels. This almost sounds contradictory considering that most people associate eating food with energy. However, it is widely believed that intermittent fasting can make you sharper and feel better.
Supposedly, the science is that eating food uses energy to process. So, this slows down your body and mind. If you haven’t eaten in hours, then you won’t have this to worry about – which allows you to perform better as a result. So, some BJJ practitioners believe that by fasting, they can get better results in the gym.
This could be for anything – such as being able to win a scramble faster due to more energy reserves, to being able to think clearly and remove any brain fog or tunnel vision. For these reasons alone, many people try intermittent fasting when training BJJ.
Why training BJJ whilst fasting can be good
On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who aren’t as easily impressed by fasting – especially when it comes to training such an intense sport as BJJ. In short, the reason is that you could potentially be running on empty by not eating enough – which could make you weaker and perform with less strength or energy.
For some people, they can apparently feel quite a big difference when eating a meal before training and feeling full, compared to eating nothing and feeling hungry and weaker. Arguably, part of feeling the benefits and weaknesses of fasting is down to your own mentality and interpretation of what it can do for you. Ultimately, though everyone has their own preferences and choices.
Fasting as a Muslim whilst training BJJ
If you’ve trained with Muslims then you’ll have probably seen them fast during Ramadan. For some, they will quit training altogether during this period, and for others they will instead train at night and live a more nocturnal lifestyle for a while.
However, some Muslims have been known to continue training BJJ whilst fasting. This also includes not drinking water. Although this sounds pretty extreme and possibly dangerous – it’s up to the individual and their own take on things. For instance, some Muslims will only flow roll whilst doing this, or they’ll mostly drill. Obviously, if you denied yourself water whilst doing hard rounds in the heat, this could cause a bad case of dehydration which can have serious health consequences.
In short, the best advice is to go at your own pace – and if that means slowing things down then so be it. After the first couple of days, your body and mind will probably know how to train anyway – and will eventually adapt to a slightly different form of training. Once again, this is a case of some people training in their own unique way which may differ from others.
Getting used to fasting and training
Speaking of tweaking your training – it’s also important to ease into fasting if you’re going to do it long-term. For instance, if you plan on doing intermittent fasting, then it’s probably not best to start one day before you’re due to compete. Instead, you should ease into it by doing it once or twice per week on days that you train.
Then, you can start doing it more regularly as you feel more comfortable. The last thing you want to do is to starve yourself then jump into sparring which could cause exhaustion. Instead, take your time. Some BJJ practitioners have reported feeling hungry and restless when they start intermittent fasting. However, over time your body should get used to it and it will eventually become the norm. So, before you quit completely, it’s probably best to give yourself a week or so for your body to adjust.
Conclusion
Like many diets and lifestyle choices, fasting has a lot of conflicting information surrounding it. Having said this, there’s still a lot of anecdotal evidence to say that it’s good and plenty of grapplers swear by it. Perhaps the best thing that you can do is try it yourself.
As mentioned earlier, it’s probably best to do thing slowly at first and follow the rules correctly. However, after a few weeks, you’ll know if training whilst fasting is for you or not. On a final note, it’s also crucial to stress the importance of staying safe and fasting properly to avoid any possible health issues if you do it wrong.
