I've been doing Judo/jujitsu for a year now. I had my first competition over the weekend. At practice I will remove my pump for the entire class (2 hours). I will check my bs halfway through and do a correction, if needed. It's such intense exercise that I'm usually fine afterwards, if not just a little bit high. Never hard to correct. At the competition, I had a major adrenaline dump during my first fight and my blood sugar actually doubled in about 5 minutes to almost 400. I talked to some of the guys and the adrenaline dump is very common in martial arts. The more experience I get, the less intense the adrenaline will be. It took me over an hour to recover from the dump. Elevated heart rate, shaking, muscle cramping, etc. It took even longer to get my bs down to normal. Anybody have any adrenaline/glucose control suggestions (if there is even anything you can do)? I need to set up an appoinment with my doc.
this is tough to do...but i have heard of some diabetic athletes knowing this rise is going to come and actually bolus for this...but i would only do this using a cgm if possible..do you know how much EXACTLY your blood sugar drops from one unit of insulin??, not just a guesstimate number but something that has more data points behind it..i have tried this doing speeches, becauase i know i get nervous, and i will add about a half unit to at least cover a portion of the rise, but now i am constantly wearing a cgm so it is easier giving more insulin...also, if my sugar is 400, and I know that 1 unit knocks me down 100 points, i would take 2 units of humalog and give the shot in my leg muscle adn then during my running the insulin will react much faster and get me down from 400 to 200..and then the exercise will drop me the rest of the way..the problem is i dont think your doc will recommend these things unless he understands diabetic athletes,...you should try getting the book called The Diabetic Athlete by Sheri Colberg..has great info
Bike races did that to me until I got more comfortable with it.
I would take some electrolytes for cramps and water.
A brand new infusion site for competition would be good.
Try a mock competition against a friend.
I would race friends and try to act like it was a real race.
The more you do it the better it should get.
Hi Jewels. I don't have too much insight for you at the moment as I am still new to Diabetes. I do BJJ as well and, at least for now, I'm on MDI. I'm still in my honeymoon period and I'm not quite sure what I am going to do down the road. I'm thinking of sticking to injections instead of a pump just to keep things simple for training but I'm not really sure how great an idea that is. It helps to hear your story as BJJ as still kind of a niche sport and I haven't found much info out there for guidance.
At least for me, for now anyway, I find that lightly drilling BJJ moves drops my BS like a rock. Doing guard pass drills, hip escapes drills, etc. I can drop a 100 points or more in 20 minutes. You might even want to do some of these drills on a heavybag or just an empty spot on the mat instead of training with a person so that you are totally relaxed and not thinking about how your partner needs to get his/her reps in or whether you just kneed them in the head, etc. Maybe this could help you after your matches to quickly stabilize your BS.
Thanks a lot. I'll look that book up. :)
Thank you so much. All great suggestions! Thanks for your help!
That is a good idea to get the bs down, but I was SO drained of energy, all I wanted to do is go lay down. :) I've never felt anything like it in my life! We do randori during practice but it is nothing compared to a competition.
I too find that my bs drops during practice some of the time. Just depends on what I had to eat before practice. Lots of protein is good. There's nothing worse than getting low during practice. If you are still in your honeymoon period, I would lay off of bjj for awhile. You could easily go into insulin shock during practice if you're not careful. Have you educated your club members on what to do if that happens? They need to know. I'm so glad to find another martial artist on here. I actually do what is called Shin gi tai jujitsu. It is kind of a combination of judo and jujitsu.
There is another competition at the end of March I may do. I need to improve my conditioning before then tho. My husband and I bought RUSHFIT to do. THat will help a lot.
My son has the same problem with ice hockey. When he was first diagnosed, we were getting his BS up to 185 and setting a temporary basal on his pump (per most books on exercise) thinking that he was going to drop from the exercise but what happened was the adrenaline during a game was elevating him to the high 300s and then he would crash after the game.
He now goes into a game at about 125 (as low as he dares due to warmups, etc pregame), takes a gatorade on the bench just in case he drops if the game is not too intense (not likely at his level), keeps insulin flowing through his pump and sets a temp basal after the game to lessen a big drop at 6 hours.Our goal is to keep him 200 or lower because the higher his BS, the worse his reaction time as a defenseman.
You may actually need the insulin during the match if that is possible with your pump.My son has Omnipod so he cannot disconnect but wears compression shorts to keep the pod in place during checks, etc. Stay safe!
That happens to me when I play dodgeball! I am very active with the gym but that's always very controlled exercise. I got used to having to set a temp basal and/or eat something so I don't go low, but when I play dodgeball I go to the 200's and stay there, he activity doesn't bring me down! So I think it does have something to do with the adrenaline (I am very competitive) during the game. I am scared to bolus in advanced for it, I hate going low. I could use some suggestions about this problem, too.
It's true I do have to be careful about going low so I never train without eating something like a CLIF bar beforehand. If I am going to work out for a long time I find a little bit of strength-training helps to keep my blood sugar up. It took me awhile to figure that all out. I've been in this honeymoon/inbetween stage for a year and a half. So I am pretty good about most things but I don't truly know how my body will react when the honeymoon is over. Also, I probably do need to be more explicit about what people should do if I start acting strange. I've been a little slack there, thanks for the reminder.
Good for you for getting out there and competing. It's a challenging sport. It's a bummer that you had a rough time with the blood sugar but I am sure you will refine your routine and work all those kinks out. I haven't heard of Shin gi tai but I love both Judo and BJJ so it sounds good to me. :)
Hey Jewels, let me know how you guys like RUSHFIT. I hadn't heard of it before but it sounds pretty cool.
I imagine being a pump probably makes the problem a bit worse since you have to DC from your basal at the same time that you are experiencing your most intense adrenline rush.
I always spiked back in my competition days back when I was on MDI, but nothing like yours, never higher than the 200s.
I don't know if this is even possible, but maybe dialing back your basal rate from your pump and incorporating an injection with something like NPH which will cover the time you are off the pump?
We love RUSHFIT. It was developed by George St. Pierre and his crew. It is very tough but it is amazing. It has 8 workout DVDs. I bought it mainly for the fight conditioning DVD, but it has an 8 week workout schedule that goes with it. It is a good home workout.
Shin Gi Tai has been around for about 20 years. It was developed by John Saylor and Steve Scott (my coach). Both have decades of experience in judo and jujitsu. I love it. Freestyle Judo Nationals is in March but not sure I'm gonna be ready for that one.
I wish I could give you some info on what will happen after your honeymoon period is over. But I've had diabetes for 27 years now, so I can't remember what it was like. Your doc can definitely help you there. But not every person reacts the same either. This disease is so wierd sometimes. It's a wonder any of us know what to do. Just gotta keep plugging along. :)
I've thot about an injection before a fight, but I hate the thot of going low. I'll ask my doc what she thinks about that. It is so hard to figure out bcuz it will probably change the next time around. I can't wait until I have enough tournaments under my belt (haha) that I won't get the intense adrenaline anymore.
If I recall correctly GSP is in pretty god shape. Understatement of course. :)
Thanks for the great info and good luck preparing for Nationals.