Tag Archives: shower

The Day-to-Day of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Judo

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bjj-judo-laundryWhen I first started grappling, I thought I’d just show up once or twice a week, get my ass kicked, and then go home happy. But the more I trained, the more I learned that there are things that I have to do off the mat in order to improve my game or even just to make the whole experience pleasant and feasible as part of a busy life:

  • Laundry. A gi should never be worn for two practices without being washed in-between (unless you did zero work, but even then). Also it should be thoroughly air-dried.
  • Diet.
    • I used to think that diet was about losing weight. It is. But it’s also about eating stuff that can keep you energized throughout the day and through training. Also, my digestive system is pretty screwed up, so a big part of a diet for me is figuring out what to eat in order to avoid getting sick or having a stomachache in training. If I fail in this aspect, it definitely makes training less fun.
    • Drink water (to counter-balance the pots of coffee I consume)
  • Shower. Right away after every practice.
  • Medical Tape. Most of the taping I do is to cover cuts and mat burn so as to help avoid infection. This is really a major pain in the ass.
  • Transit
    • Learn the public transit system (the subway and rails are hard enough, but the bus system is a chaotic mess of routes and schedules)
    • Learn how to stay productive while riding or waiting for the bus/train
  • Learn
    • Watch competition footage
    • Watch instructional videos
    • Read instructional books
    • Keep notes

The above, to me, is the “jiu-jitsu lifestyle”: doing laundry, taking showers, and riding the bus. It’s not as glorious as sex, drugs, and surfing, but I still love it.

Wash Your Gi

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A not insignificant part of the judo/jiu-jitsu “life-style” is spent in transit to/from training, showering, and doing laundry. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s at least true for me.

Suppose you want to be serious about training judo and jiu jitsu. Suppose even that you want to train every day or twice a day. As a friend of mine, Eric, reminded me yesterday with his blog post, infection is also a big part of training. Or rather preventing and fighting infection.

I get mat/gi burn on my feet and hands quite often. It’s incredibly frustrating and leaves me vulnerable to infections, both minor (ringworm) and major (e.g. staph). I think that’s a problem (a.k.a. pain-in-the-ass) everyone has to deal with. Here are some things I do to help prevent infection:

  • Always train in a clean gi. Even if I didn’t sweat at all while wearing it last time, I still wash it.
  • Spray my gym bag with Lysol. I just recently started doing this based on advice some other blog gave.
  • Invest in good tape, lots of it, and tape all open “wounds” like mat/gi burn, scratches, etc.
  • Shower as soon as possible after practice, with antibacterial soap. Some people recommend Defense Bar Soap, but at $6 a bar, it’s a little steep for me. I hear that a good alternative is Super Soap, that’s more reasonably priced. I’ll have to try it.
  • Drink a shot of cold cheap vodka right after every training session. It’s a well known fact in Russian medical journals that bacteria hate vodka, especially the cheap crap that comes in plastic bottles. I recommend Gordon’s or Smirnoff for the individual with a refined taste.

It’s funny but most academies I’ve attended don’t stress these ideas in class, or maybe I just don’t notice it. The higher ranks learn it through word-of-mouth, but I often find beginner students not wash the gi more often than every several practices as long as it dries in-between.

If you want to see something disgusting, google “staph infection” and click on “Images”. Here’s a link. It should serve as a good reminder to follow the steps above.