What is the greatest sport supplement?

Imagine this scenario, for the past 6 years you have committed yourself to a sport, train regularly and consistently and really put the time in to learn as much about the sport as you can. So why is it that someone can come in and with less time spent push themselves past you to not only be better than you at the sport but dominate you along the way? Surely something was missed, or maybe they are a pure natural at the sport. What are they doing differently to give them this edge?

I’m going to write this from a personal perspective in my chosen sport of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), but this is applicable to almost every sport. BJJ is on the top of my list when it comes to having fun, socializing and testing myself against other like-minded sport huggers. After a 6-year hiatus from BJJ, coming back to it has brought a much different mindset, being older and ideally more responsible, I need to train with less ego in order to preserve my longevity in the game. This has meant preparing my body with strength work.

Fortunately, my 6 years off was not wasted, a lot of that time was spent training constantly varied functional movements at a high intensity (CrossFit if you haven’t guessed!). This fitness program encompasses many variables, one of them being strength. Strength afforded a lot of advantages in the art of BJJ, so it made sense to work on getting stronger along with learning new skills to put the different energy systems together. Strength takes the longest to improve and requires consistency so doing 3 weeks of strength work won’t get you quite as far as you may like.

Getting back on the mats I realized how much I had forgotten and just how much everyone else had improved. I felt like a child that had just rediscovered an old toy and how to play with it. My only saving grace that kept my head slightly out the guillotine was that I had come back stronger. Having built a decent squat as well as a sturdy core, I was able to get back in without the feeling of complete hopelessness.

Get yourself onto a strength program, even throw in some additional conditioning for good measure. If you don’t know how to go about it then get a good strength coach to help you learn along the way and teach you how to go about it. If you not working with a trainer then find a training partner, it’s safer to train with someone plus having someone there always means pushing a little harder. Don’t wait until you come up against someone that’s much stronger than you to decide to make a change. There is a saying out there “EAT THE WEAK!” don’t let it be about you.