Episode 767 - Nutrition and hydration for Martial Arts training
In this episode, Andrew and Jeremy talk about the importance of Nutrition and Hydration for Martial Arts Training.
Nutrition and Hydration for Martial Arts Training - Episode 767
The fuel that we take is as important as the skills that we learn in a martial arts training. Nutrition and Hydration can be consumed before, during, or after a session to get the most out of a martial arts training. In this episode, Andrew and Jeremy talk about the importance of Nutrition and Hydration for Martial Arts Training. Listen to learn more!
After listening to the episode, it would be exciting for us to know your thoughts about it. Don’t forget to drop them in the comment section down below!
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hey, what's happening everybody, welcome. This is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio. And on today's show, Andrew and I are going to talk about nutrition, hydration, the things you can do before, maybe during or after to get the most out of a training session. I feel like we should have had sandwiches ready to go for this one.
Oh, that was good. But we didn't do that. That's okay. If you want to go deeper on this, or any other episode that we've ever done, because there's a whole bunch of them go to whistle kick martial arts radio.com, there's a search function. If you're interested in something related to martial arts, we've probably done an episode or seven on it. So go ahead and search. You can also find people that have been on the show.
And if there's someone that you are interested in us having on the show that hasn't been on the show, you should recommend there's a guest submission form over there the Burgess little and we'll talk about that in a minute. They're really excited. So whistlekick.com is the place to go. It's our online home, you're gonna find all kinds of stuff over there. Everything that we do, and we do a whole bunch of things.
All those things are linked there it was ok.com. For example, if your martial arts schools interested in growing, adding students, increasing profitability, improving culture, any number of things, we have a consulting offering myself others will help you grow your school in a sensible, economical, culture appropriate, whatever, you know a bunch of words their way, you can also use the code PODCAST15 to save 15% on anything in our store. It's pretty windy, very windy today. Lots of distractions going on. So let's cut that intro and let's jump into this episode. Because otherwise we're never gonna get there. Oh, man. All right. Andrew.
Andrew Adams:
Hey, Jeremy.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hi, how are you?
Andrew Adams:
I'm great. We can do that if we're in the same room as tinycam. While recording this together.
Jeremy Lesniak:
People don't tend to think of martial arts training in the way that they would think of quote exercises. Right? If we asked someone nutritionally, what should you do when you're going to go for like if as a runner or weightlifting people understand, like, if you're going to lift weights, you probably need to eat more food, protein, things like that.
Andrew Adams:
But yeah, so many martial artists will say one of the reasons they train is to get into better shape. Right?
Jeremy Lesniak:
And despite that, I see very few people are approaching nutrition, hydration, et cetera. From that mindset Are you someone who eats before you train?
Andrew Adams:
I try to eat very little before I train. We used to work at the high school, a private private school, and had its cafeteria as a boarding school. So I could have breakfast, lunch and dinner at the school every day. And I used to go to the cafeteria and then have dinner and then go to class. And I would just. And I started realizing pretty quickly. But like, obviously, this is not good for me to be so bogged down when I'm training. So I would typically go and have a salad or something really light, but I tried not to work out on a completely empty stomach because that also did not work well for me.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Now, longtime listeners, viewers of the show yourself, you know that I spent a bunch of time really deep into CrossFit. And one of the things that's really cool about CrossFit, there's so much synergy with martial arts.
One of the major differences is that everything is up for debate, everything is up for discussion, research for testing, everything you could imagine. And so one of the things that I did, I got really deep on timing meals related to my workouts. Now a really intense martial arts training session is very similar to a really intense kind of exercise. Sure, they're similar, I mean, come out, you're dripping with sweat, you know, you're dying.
It takes the average person about three hours from the time they eat, for food to move through enough that your body's not devoting a significant amount of energy to digestion. And that's a big thing to consider. If you're not planning when you eat, and you go to class and you want to get the best out of your class. Right. And that's, I think that we can use that as a blank and umbrella term, right? Most of us want to get as much as we can out of our training. Why else would Yeah, good training, right?
Andrew Adams:
Like we have no reason to be going if you're not hoping to get something out of it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right? And if I can do a few simple things and get more out of it. I think most of us would want to do that. So if I've got a six o'clock class, I want to make sure that maybe I eat my lunch a little bit later. So I don't go from, you know, finishing lunch, thank you. Smash them, like finishing lunch at 12:32. Now I get home at 8:39, and I'm ravenous. Or I'm stopping on the way home and eating something that maybe doesn't serve me as well. So I might have a snack. I mean, that's kind of what I heard when you talked about your salad. But I think it's important to experiment and to see what works for you. Most people are not going to do better eating before they train. But I have known people who struggle with having an empty stomach and getting the most out of their training. So you got to try to.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, and, and it also depends on the kind of the high level intensity training that you're doing. I watched a video recently, where someone took the time to eat like a sumo wrestler does for a couple of days, and sumo wrestlers are consuming like, I don't remember the exact way, something like 4000 calories per day, which is huge. But then you look at the high level of intensive workouts that they're doing. It's very different from when this person was training. It was much different than the high, the high level, the core high level intensity training that I get very, very different. And so you know, it depends on what you're doing. about water.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We should drink it.Here's one of my pet peeves with a lot of martial arts classes. Water breaks. If you are properly hydrated, you should not need a water break and a 60 minute class even a 90 minute class. If I gave you a glass of water, and you drank it right now, would you be instantly hydrated?
Andrew Adams:
I might not be thirsty. But I wouldn't. I would not say that I was then hydrated, right?
Jeremy Lesniak:
It takes time, it takes at least 20 minutes for that water that you consume to do anything. Which is why for a lot of people, their water breaks or just breaks. Yeah, it's become an excuse. And it's something that I see in a lot of martial arts schools as an opportunity for kids to take a break, reset without getting in trouble. Because as an instructor of saying, Well, you know, I don't want you to drink water, right? Like that doesn't go over? Well, yeah. I can't tell you what to do with your kids in your school.
But I can tell you that for you, the best thing you can do is just like your food, time, your water. I grew up in a martial arts environment where if you had to use the bathroom during class, you were allowed to. But it was your own fault. Yeah, you know how water works. You know how drinking fluids and having to use the bathroom works, you understand that there's a delay between I drink some water, and I have to pee. And if you're a functional adult, you should be able to make that happen. And most people can.
And most people can, you know, if you figure out that timing, if you front load your hydration in the day, which is what I do if you if you've read called wants to help. The first chapter is on water. And the very first thing is drink a big glass of water first thing in the morning, right? If you can front load your hydration, it becomes less critical to consume fluids through the rest of the day. And you can get to the end of class so then, you know, chug a bunch of water if that's what you need to or whatever.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, so yeah, so cool. I hate this so much.
Jeremy Lesniak:
He’s so sloppy up that sloppy is the wrong word. This is such an authentic episode. Raw, uncut.
Andrew Adams:
Let's talk about after. Okay, right. I mean, we, okay, let me backup. Before we talk about after I have friends that have done MMA fights and after their way in there, like cars, cars, cars, give me pause on the law. What, what's the benefit of that? Like, is there something to that?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, so carbohydrates are First off, not necessary. To the body protein and fat is necessary you'll die without carbohydrates are not necessary. But they're cheap, easy, and they're really tasty. Not going into the eye that I love pretzels. It's all the food groups you want. It's crunchy and it's solid. I mean, those are really all you want. But Most people process glucose as fuel. Carbohydrates are a really quick way for your body to translate food into glucose. Why do all the sugars fall from trees just before winter?
So we can build up those stories, right? Like, this is a real thing. Animals before they hibernate, they eat a bunch of carbohydrates. But carbohydrates, also one gram of carbohydrate, requires four grams of water for digestion, which is why we eat a bunch of carbs. We feel bloated, interesting.
Now in the context of fights and wins, we can use that to our advantage or disadvantage. I would imagine that the vast majority of weight cut coaches, they're actually coaches who have a high level work with pro fighters and help them get lower because it's such a specialized thing. There are fighters just as an aside, there are fighters who are dropping 30 pounds.
Andrew Adams:
Which is such an insane thing to do.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And I don't mean like a few weeks before they lose weight. No, I mean, they remove so much hydration from their body, that they are 30 pounds underweight. So if you are fighting an 185 pound fight, you might actually be fighting at 200 plus, yeah, which that's an advantage. Anybody who's ever fought anything with weight classes knows, I don't care how good you are. 20 pounds is a really big thing to overcome.
Okay, go watch them early UFC as you can see what I'm talking about. So as they work that timing in water plus carbs, plus whatever they can, you know, walk back up and feel better. Because their whole their whole thing that water which maybe you feel bloated, maybe you feel gross, but maybe also feel better.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. So now let's talk about after you're done with a big class.You sweat a bunch, you hydrate ahead of time, you ate ahead of time, you have your great class. Good, intense workout, you're done. dripping with sweat. Oh, so tired.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, it's gonna depend on timing, I think some of us have no problem eating a big meal and going to bed. Some of us do. Some of us, you know, if we don't have a several hour window between when we finish eating, and we go to sleep, we feel pretty lethargic. And most of the studies that I'm familiar with show that leaving at least a couple hours for again, that two to three hour window beforehand.
That same thing after before you go to sleep, because when you go to sleep, your body doesn't digest and doesn't put as much attention on digestion. So the food is kind of sitting there. Now, if you're sleeping for eight hours, slower digestion might not be a big deal. But you know, something to consider. But I think the two main things to consider are protein and water. Protein, because no matter what you're doing, you were probably having some manner of muscle breakdown.
Whether you're doing some push ups and some calisthenics as part of your class yet, or maybe there's some isometric stance training, there's probably something going on, we're having some protein would be good. Protein gets broken down into amino acids, which become the blocks that your body uses to build and repair muscle. It's not just building, it's not just oh, I need to eat protein because I want to get jacked. If you do want to get jacked, you need protein, but just to be healthy. Now as an aside, you may find some benefit with amino acids essential, especially essential amino acids, it's the nine the body doesn't produce. There's a lot of really cool stuff going on studying that I'm experimenting with myself, I'm not going to come out and say everybody should be taking essential amino acids but if you do, by all means I'm not telling you not to. The other one is water.
Hydration really is a big deal. And I think the easiest thing for most people is to have a big bottle of water in your car for the drive home. Drink it on the drive home. That's probably 95% of what you might miss is right there. If you're going to add some salt to it or or some flavoring or whatever, just something with some electrolytes. You know that's not a bad thing. If you sweat water there are some gyms that have scales in the bathroom way before and after. If you want to know how much water and then okay, I sweat three pounds of water out. I need to drink three pounds of water. I forget what the conversion is. But there you go. I should be drinking three pounds of water to replenish that.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah for me. I will typically eat lunch at a regular time, like, when I have a class day, I typically eat my lunch a regular noon ish time, actually somebody, it's usually around one actually, because my wife takes her lunch break at one and we will often have lunch together. But then around, you know, five o'clock or so I'm usually making dinner for my wife and daughter, and they will have dinner at 5:36, but I don't because I've got class at 6:30.
But I'll usually eat peanuts, I eat a lot of peanuts, I love cats. So you know, grab a couple handfuls of peanuts, whatever, eat those hydrating, you know, drinking water ahead of time, our school does not give a water break in the middle of class, you know, an hour long class. So like you said, it's not really that needed.
And then after class, when I get home, at you know, eight o'clock or whatever, I will have a full dinner. But I'm a night person. And I don't typically go to bed until 11 at night. So you know I'm eating at eight, I've still got a number of a few hours for my body to handle the food that it is just again. So you know, and then I go to bed late. And you know, sleep for seven, eight hours
Jeremy Lesniak:
So let's talk about the digestion piece. Because I think it's important, if you have not done this, if there are people who are genuinely afraid of going into a workout class without some food in their body, they're, oh, I just feel better. Whatever. Anything you do that is new, your body will be a little resistant to, if you don't generally go for five hours without eating food to go five, six hours without food, your body's gonna give you some signals then might be a little foreign. There is a difference between being hungry.
And not having much food in your stomach, the two are not the same thing. Also, as an aside is the same place in the brain that signals you on being thirsty as hungry. So if you are unsure, or if, let's say, losing body fat as a priority, if you have a history of not drinking enough water, have a big glass of water. When you feel that, come on.
Give it 30 minutes if you are still hungry, then eat. But if you are willing to slowly cut down how much you eat before you go into training, you can condition your body to understand what is happening. And the moment you start training intensively. We've talked a little bit on the show about the sympathetic versus the parasympathetic nervous system. Yeah. Fight or Flight versus rest and digest. Right. It's right there in there. Fight, digest those. That's exactly what we're talking about. So the idea that your body has food that it's making use of while you are fake fighting with your friends.
It doesn't happen that way. Yeah. If you have a very leisurely class, and maybe you're doing some tai chi, and you're chilling out. But that's not what most of you are thinking of when we talk about this subject. The moment your body snaps into that sympathetic state that fight or flight state, digestion shuts off, you're not going to notice that you're hungry. Your body is not going to send you signals.
Hey, Andrew, cheering me on while thinking about other stuff. Go get some food. Can I have a cheeseburger while these people try to stab us? Right? Like that's not happening. So don't be afraid to explore that and see how it feels. I will be very direct. Once I found this and found some comfort with this. The quality of my work, every kind of workout, martial arts, weight training, running, hiking. I'll give you the flip side. How many of you eat lunch? And then you want to go take a nap? Yeah, good point. That's carbs. For a lot of us, by the way. Yeah. Same thing. It's the inverse of what we're talking about. Other things that you might consider stimulants like caffeine or whatever, most of us are probably not going to do well with that since we train at night, but if you do, that's totally fine.
You probably want to avoid alcohol before you train. That's just in general a good rule. Yeah, especially if you're doing weapons classes. There is some interesting stuff about alcohol of all the different calorie sorts of fuel sources that the body can use now calories but alcohol is the longest process first Missing. Hmm. So there it carries its own stash. Yeah, just why, you know, we don't just chug a few beers and then go train.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. So as an aside, kind of a fun, fun little story. You've, you've been to my house and I've got this dojo, my personal dojo in the backyard. And right across from it, we had a shed that wasn't being used.
And so my wife wanted to make it into a Tiki Bar. And so the thought was, you know, you can go from one to the other, but we tried to go from the dojo to the bar, not from the bar to the dojo
Jeremy Lesniak:
Bar to the dojo was tough, it's a tough go. Yep. If you have more specific questions or challenges around food or nutrition, hydration, supplementation, I'm not a doctor, you're a doctor. No, no, my dad didn't play when I was nine. Neither of us plays one in any even amateur context. I just find this stuff really interesting. So I tend to experiment on myself and share what I find works with others. And that's what we're doing here. But if you have questions, don't be afraid to reach out and ask us, Jeremy@whistlekick.com. If you are new, maybe you should follow us on social media. We're @whistlekick Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, MySpace, just kidding. We're not on MySpace.
Andrew Adams:
Half the listeners are like what's that MySpace.
Jeremy Lesniak:
MySpace and the social media platform that taught everyone HTML very badly. If you want all this stuff, go to whistlekick.com. Find all the things that we do. We've got a Patreon you can support us for as little as two bucks a month. We sell some pretty cool stuff. We've got training programs if you want a equipment free strength or speed development or conditioning program, those are available.
We've also got a completely free as in like $0 ever flexibility and mobility program that is put together with honor research. I spent longer on that one than I did any of the ones that we think you have to pay for. So there we go. There are no dead birds on the porch. So we're going to call this a good day. Anything else we should add? No, I think that's good. All right. Until next time, train hard, smile, and have a great day.