When I was teaching Jiu-Jitsu & wrestling in India this summer I came up with a few phrases to keep in mind to stay healthy training and teaching in the 90 degree Fahrenheit and 80 percent humidity.

The first re-hydrate before you re-fuel. drink before you eat. This was extra hard in India because we only drank bottled water. I had to make sure to buy bottled water before class started daily to drink during and after class. India did have some great lassie bars (smoothie kinda) places where you could get fresh squeezed fruit with or without yogurt. After a few servings of juice and about a liter of water, I would begin eating food. This ensured that I was going to have replenished my hydration levels before eating. Doing things in the opposite, I noticed I wouldn’t consume as much liquids, and although I was full, I felt dehydrated through the night.

The other slogan was, “hydrate before you caffeinate.” Again, training in the heat and humidity, it was important that I had plenty of liquids in me during the day or morning before a session. Media has such great coffee and tea it would be easy to hangout all day and drink espresso and chai. Instead, we opted for bottled water and fresh coconut water from a coconut. F we needed a little pick me up before class we would opt to have a chai or espresso then.

Taking active steps to stay hydrated and recover / refuel was really important in India. Do it wrong and you could be sick in bed for a few days (which isn’t an option when you’re expected to teach and train with everyone, That’s the job). In fact it’s something I’ve internalized from my time in India. I think it’s a good practice in general if you train frequently. “HYDRATE before you CAFFEINATE” & “RE-HYDRATE before you RE-FUEL.”