Month: November 2017

Metabolic adaptation how to prevent it

A few weeks ago I received a message asking to write a blog post about metabolic damage (AKA starvation mode). The term “metabolic damage” is a bit misleading and it would be more correct to use the term “metabolic adaptation”. Nature gave us the ability to adapt to difficult situations. In this case, the body can alter its energy metabolism to function more efficiently during a period where nutrition is scare. Altering energy metabolism is a life-saving skill where food is not all the time available, but in most first-world counties the problem is the opposite: there is too much […]

Open Weight Judo World Championships – Day 2

Yesterday was a fantastic event and proved us that it’s not always the athletes coming from +100kg winning the Open weight events. Toma Nikiforov, from -100kg, fought his way through to the finals winning every fight on his way by ippon. In the final he was defeated by the legend Teddy Rinner. The players Toma defeated were in average 20kg heavier than him, which proves that techniques and tactics can overcome power and weight. There was a clear difference in fighting styles and pace between the +100kg fighters and the -100kg fighters. Players of -100kg are moving and jumping a […]

Open weight Judo World Championships – Analysis of weigh-in

The Judo World Championship Open weight is a standalone competition, where anybody form any weight category can compete. In theory athletes of -60kg would be allowed to compete against the giants of +100kg, but practically the lightest athlete came from -90kg weight division. Surprisingly enough, even though there is no weight limit, the athletes had to get their weight checked. The IJF has published the list of weights and it can give an interesting insights of how competitions would look if athletes didn’t cut weight. I believe that the competitors who had time to prepare, focused on getting their body […]