With the temperatures hitting way below zero degrees celsius in most of Eastern Europe and North America (-25 in some areas), the question you are probably asking yourself is how am I going to train jiu-jitsu when it’s freezing cold outside?

First of all, even if it’s bloody freezing, you need to keep active. There are many ways of doing that, you just need a positive attitude and also need to protect yourself at all times.

Here are 6 steps for your jiu-jitsu to survive the cold wave:

1.Eat right. Every morning , have a great breakfast with lots of fruits, and vitamins which will protect you for the incoming cold day. I take Multi vitamins, Fish oil(5-15 g daily) very useful in cold months for your joints , Vitamin D (2000-4000 IU daily in the winter, ), and a lot of green tea for Omega 3 and imunity.

2. Shoveling snow is a great workout. Every morning, after a nice warmup at home beforehand, I shovel my front driveway. It takes me a good 15 minutes and is seriously a great workout. Just remember that shoveling is like going for takedowns, you have to use your legs and not your back so make sure to go down low when you pick the snow and use your core (abs, hips, lower back and stomach area) when you throw the snow to the side in a explosive way.

3. When you go training, if you walk to the academy, walk at a faster pace to build up your heart rate. If you drive there, drive carefully and don’t break too hard ;).

4. When the training starts make sure you do a proper and extended warm up. Stretching should only be done once your body is warm, or you may injure yourself.

5. When sparring, dress warm. I wear compression tights pants under my kimono pants and a longsleeve rashguard under my kimono top. It alows me to keep warm.

6. Keep a positive attitude, the cold wave is not going to last forever (They are anouncing a rise in temperatures for next week) and besides what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger right? I always remember Rocky training in the snow old school style before facing Ivan Drago. Snow makes you tougher that’s for sure.

Rocky training in the Siberian Snow