Written by Matt D’Aquino, a multiple Australian and Oceania Champion and a 2008 Beijing Judo Olympian. He has been studying Judo for over 23 years. He is a 3rd Degree Judo Black Belt and a  Black Belt in BJJ. Matt is also known worldwide for his excellent website Beyondgrappling.com .

Every week I received a ton of emails and Facebook messages from people asking me questions about all things Judo. If you are on my Newsletter list I thought I’d let you know that I am trying to email one once a week with an answer to a question that I get asked from one of my followers.

This week I received the following question from a Judoka named Ken.

“Hi Matt, I have been following you and your Beyond Grappling videos for quite some time and you have helped answer a lot of my Judo questions. I am a 40 YO father who is having difficulty recovery between training sessions. I am waking up extremely sore after practice. Is there anything I can do to improve my recovery?
Thanks for all your help.
– Ken

Here is my reply email.

Hi Ken thanks for your message. First off I am happy that my videos and online stuff has helped answer some of your Judo questions. Here are the 6 best ways to recover from a Judo workout.

1 – Cool down and stretch
Make sure you cool down and stretch. This will help relax your muscles, reduce the amount of adrenaline in there and and prevent blood pooling. Stretching also helps stretch out your muscles which will avoid any injuries (hopefully)

2- Rehydrate
When you are dehydrated your body gives several warning signs including, headaches, dizziness, fatigue, overheating, loss of concentration, muscle fatigue, irritability, muscle cramps. Make sure you rehydrate really well after training. Experts say that you should rehydrate with 1.5 X more than you sweated. So if you sweated 2kg worth of water, then rehydrate with 3 kgs of fluid.

3- Post workout Nutrition
The period directly after training has been coined “the anabolic window” by fitness trainers around the world. This window is the thirty minutes after you finish training. In this time you need to re-fuel your body with glucose, protein as well as vitamins and minerals to begin rebuilding and restoring your body back to normal. Your post training meal is once again personalized to you and your lifestyle but it needs to be include nutrient dense foods, carbs, protein and some good fats.

4- Sleep
Your body does most of its recovery and rebuilding when you are asleep so make sure you sleep as much as you need to. It is important to know how much sleep your body needs as we are all different.

Bonus tip – Have a rest day between workouts
As you are getting older it might be wise to have a day or two off between hard Judo sessions. This can be tough if you Judo club runs on consecutive nights but if you can have a day off between sessions I highly recommend it OR the other option is to participate in randori at a lighter intensity.