What Is The Effect of the USA Climate On Your BJJ Training?

Amongst all the factors of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the factor which is taken too lightly and often goes unnoticed is the weather. The weather or climate is undoubtedly one of the most important factors that can affect your training a lot. If you have newly moved to America, then you might face a lot of difficulty training due to the weather. Sometimes, there is cold weather or too cold, whereas on other days you can experience hot or too hot weather, but it all depends on the location in the United States you are living in and the time of the year you are training BJJ. Let's explore how the climate in the US can affect you and how you can cope with such weather to continue your Brazilian Jiu Jitsu journey.

Both cold weather and hot weather affect your body and your ability to train BJJ differently. The following are some of the effects that cold weather can have on your body:

The most common effect cold weather can have on your body is muscle stiffness. Muscle stiffness refers to muscle contractions. In normal days, when the weather is not too cold, your muscles relax and you can make movements easily and as many times as you want. In cold weather, your muscles don't relax and remain contracted. And for movement, you need to relax. So you cannot make movements easily due to contracted muscles. This also impacts your ability to train BJJ as well. It is not like you cannot train at all. You can, but it will be difficult for you, and you cannot train normally and smoothly as you like to do in normal weather.

The second effect of cold weather is decreased efficiency. When the weather is normal, all of your body parts are warm and ready to take action. But if the weather is too cold, your body parts are not warm, and any action they need to make becomes very difficult for them. So, ultimately, the result is reduced efficiency in training BJJ. When there is reduced efficiency, you cannot learn any technique easily and execute it effectively.

As we discussed, the muscles become still in the cold weather. So the contracted muscles are more prone to injury than the relaxed muscles because you cannot easily make movements.

Another effect of cold weather on your BJJ training is the increased energy expenditure. When there is cold weather, your body spends more glycogen to convert into glucose and ultimately provide energy to adjust the core temperature of the body according to the room temperature. So much of your energy will be wasted in this temperature adjustment. The energy you will have will be low for your BJJ training. Ultimately, the low energy will result in reduced ability to do BJJ training.

Not everything cold weather does to your body is bad. There are some benefits, also. The following are some benefits that you need to keep in mind as well.

You can do better weight loss during cold weather. This is because, as we discussed, the energy expenditure increases in a cold climate. When more energy is required by your body, then your body will utilize more glycogen stores, and after their depletion, your body will start consuming the fat stores in your body. So this will ultimately reduce your weight, and this is done better during cold weather.

You need to recover your body after the BJJ training, and this is best done in a cold climate. The cold weather stimulates the recovery process of your body. This is because your blood vessels remain constricted, and so your soreness and body inflammation also reduce. So this leads to faster and better recovery.

It is often said that you need to do ice baths to stimulate and improve your mental strength and toughness. But in cold weather, you don't need to do this because there is much coldness surrounding you. This increases the strength of your mind and helps you keep focused on your work or any other thing you do, such as your BJJ training.

The cold weather is an effective remedy if you are suffering from circulation problems. The coldness increases the flow of blood in your body. This improves your blood circulation in the body. Better blood circulation is a treatment for many types of diseases. This also helps you to remove your waste products from the body.

The following are some of the effects that hot weather can have on your body:

The hot climate makes it difficult for you to recover after the BJJ training. Also, the inflammation and soreness take more time to recover. So it halts your motivation.

In hot weather, particularly if you do BJJ training, you need to drink more water to keep your body hydrated. The more training in hot weather results in more sweat produced by your body, and this sweat causes dehydration in your body. So you need to take more care of your hydration.

The hot weather causes more sweat to be released while doing a little bit of training. Your body becomes dehydrated, which leads to more fatigue.

While doing the BJJ training, if the weather is too hot, it will not be easy for you to focus on your game because there will be sweat on your body. You will be dealing with the sweat and also bearing the hot weather, which is not easy. You will also need to focus on your hydration. So it all affects you in your comfort zone, and keeping focus on your game.

To continue your BJJ training journey, make sure you adopt the following strategies to deal with the harsh weather:

The first strategy to deal with the hot or cold weather is to keep yourself hydrated. This is very important for you. Ideally, you should hydrate yourself properly before training. Moreover, throughout your training time, make sure you are drinking water after specified time intervals. After you have completed your training for the day, make sure you drink water after resting for some time. He helps you keep yourself hydrated, which is very necessary to continue your BJJ training smoothly.

The second strategy is to train during those hours of the day when the weather is not harsh. For example, if it is cold weather, then you should train during afternoon hours because the cold weather is not as cold as the morning or night. If you are training in hot weather, then you should prefer training in the morning or night because at this time of day the weather will be less hot than at other times of the day.

The minerals, electrolytes, and nutrients that are very important for your body are lost in the sweat during your training. So it is important for you to replenish them. Besides fulfilling the water requirements of your body, you should also focus on the electrolyte requirements of your body. For this, you should drink any electrolyte drink during or after your BJJ training of the day.

The fourth strategy is to avoid burdening your body. If you are noticing that you cannot do training or it is becoming very difficult for your body to train due to very harsh weather, then don't train. Don't stress yourself. Not doing training for once a month will not affect your BJJ journey. Because if you don't rest on that day, then it is possible that you might get a serious injury, due to which you will have to wait for many days to resume your BJJ training.

Another strategy is to wear lightweight Gis. There are many brands that manufacture the Gis that feel very heavy when you wear them. If you wear heavy Gis, you cannot train efficiently; therefore, it adds a hurdle. So, to counter this, you should choose the brands that offer lightweight Gis, such as Elite Sports. This will help you counter your harsh climate conditions and train smoothly.

The most important factor that many people ignore is hygiene. People often don't keep themselves, their fightwear, and their workspace clear, and this leads to various problems, particularly infections. So always keep yourself hygienic.

The last strategy in our list is warming up before the game. You should not go all in at the first second of your martial arts training. Instead, you should try to do everything slowly and step by step. Take one step at a time. Don't rush. Keep it slow but consistent. This will help you a lot.

The weather or climate plays a very important role in your BJJ training. This is the most important factor that is ignored by many BJJ practitioners. You have now realized that there are both positive and negative effects of climate change in the USA on your BJJ training. You should know how you can utilize the positive effects and counter the negative effects of the climate. Some of the strategies for this are discussed in the article. Implement these strategies in your BJJ training routine to have an efficient and effective output.