Creatine and MMA

The demands of mma training are no joke.  I doubt many other sports even compare to the wear and tear mma athletes experience day in and day out.  If I had to guess, the only comparable training in my opinion would be that of high level wrestlers and football players.  Aside from the actual training in the striking and grappling arts, there is weights, the cardiovascular aspect, watching your diet, etc.  In order to promote proper growth, maintenance, and recovery it is vital that you provide your body with the right fuel.  This can be accomplished by combining healthy eating habits with proven supplements.

The dietary requirements for everyone are different.  As a fighter you’ll have to figure out what works for you.  Try and purchase the highest quality, most fresh food and vegetables you can.  I lean towards the fruit and vegetables side but I also don’t fight mma.  I do train bjj but that has both different training requirements and intensities.  I like to follow the 20/20/60 guideline when I am motivated enough to pay attention to it.  That’s 20% of your diet coming from fat, another 20% from protein, and the remaining 60% from carbohydrates.  Vegetables, fruits, and grains all provide excellent carbohydrates.  Try to get them as unprocessed as possible, from sources like brown rice, quinoa, and whole grain pasta.  Protein you can get from meat, fish, eggs, and dairy.  Personally I do not eat eggs or dairy, and not much beef, but some fighters swear by these protein sources.  Fat – you can get from pretty much anywhere.  You need fat so don’t swear it off or really even try to minimize it.  If you eat healthily using the above sources of protein and carbohydrates as your primary fuel, you should automatically be getting enough fat.  It is important to determine what your daily caloric needs are by first determining how many you expend through mma training and your normal daily life.  Take that daily intake requirement and then using the 20/20/60 formula, figure out how many of those calories need to come from each category.  If you up your training intensity in ways like strength training make sure you up your protein intake maybe so that you can recover and rebuild quickly.  Not only will you reap huge benefits from eating properly, you can get additional positive results from using proper supplements.

Being as how this website was made to try and get you to buy creatine by using one of the links on this page, I’m not going to tout too many of the benefits you’ll more than likely see from using the supplement.  Not only are there physical benefits such as an increase in maximal power, there are mental ones as well.  Supplementing with creatine has been shown to assist with cognitive function when fatigued.  What that means is if you are tired during training or are in the 3rd round of a fight, it will help a little with your decision making which is huge when trying to follow a game plan or win a fight.  You can read about those study results here and here.  Also if you are like me and minimize your consumption of red meat because you are concerned with the negative impact it might have on your overall health, creatine is a definite need as the main source of it in nature is meat.  Another supplement I take and recommend for fighters is carnitine.  Not a very popular supplement, it definitely has its place in the fridge of an mma fighter.  Carnitine has been shown to probably help with muscle growth and recovery.  It accomplishes this by increasing the number of testosterone receptors.  By having more of these, testosterone can then land there and make its way into our cells, promoting growth and healing.  I also notice an increase in aggression while I am taking it which makes a huge difference when I am going for a pass or choke.  The last one I’d like to recommend is whey protein.  Whey protein has the highest biological value of any protein meaning per gram of whey protein, more protein is available for use by your body.  It has more than eggs or milk.  It contains the amino acids you need, that your body can’t produce, in sufficient quantities.

To make your path to becoming an mma fighter more smooth, your diet and supplements should be tailored to your goals and training regimen.  Find out approximately how many calories, and of what, you should be consuming for recovery, for growth.  Determine which supplements you think you could benefit most from.  As a fighter, creatine, carnitine (doesn’t that just sound mean?,) and whey protein should be staples in your pantry or fridge.