How To Pick The Right BJJ Rash Guard

Material

I recommend going for a polyester spandex or elastane mix. These material combinations feel best on the skin and are sweat-wicking. 85% polyester and 15% spandex seem to be the sweet spot for the soft and cool feeling but 80% polyester and 20% spandex is also a great blend that XMartial uses.

However, other combinations give the rash guard a thicker less stretchy feel such as Hayabusa. Avoid material blends like 80% nylon and 20% spandex, as they can feel like beach rash guards.

Short Or Long Sleeve

Wearing short or long sleeves is a personal preference. If you live in cold or hot climates, that may dictate wearing short or long sleeves. With most BJJ gyms now having air conditioning, you can wear long sleeves all year round if you please.

When competing, I recommend wearing short sleeves. It reduces friction, making it harder for your opponent to control certain positions or submissions.

Waistband

Only a couple of brands I have seen have an anti-slip gel waistband. I would opt for these brands as their rash guard quality is typically better since they went the extra mile for this feature. It saves you from pulling your rash guard down during a roll that you don't want to worry about during competition!

Design

You’ll be hamstrung by design if you compete in IBJJF. Here is what constitutes an IBJJF legal rash guard:

But, if you're training or competing in other BJJ tournaments, the world is your oyster regarding rash guard design. Of the many brands in the BJJ sphere, XMartial has the greatest number and coolest-looking designs I have found.

Brand

Trusted brands are always a safe option when buying rash guards. XMartial has catapulted themselves into this position boasting 4.7/5 stars on Trustpilot. You also can’t go wrong with other well-known brands like Hayabusa.

Some brands are known for creating budget fight gear, like Sanabul and Elite Sports. This doesn't make them bad. They can be great for beginners getting into the sport who are still determining how long they will pursue it.

Frequently Asked BJJ Rash Guard Questions

Are Tatami Rash Guards Good?

Tatami is a well-trusted brand that makes high-quality fight gear. However, I have yet to try the Tatami rash guard, so I cannot say whether they are good. Typically, most rash guards serve their purpose, with cheaper rash guards often being thinner than higher-quality rash guards.

Should A BJJ Rash Guard Be Tight?

A BJJ rash guard should be tight. But there’s a difference between tight and suffocating. I had this problem with the Gold BJJ Camo Rash Guard as it didn’t fit true to size. The large was much smaller than other brands leading to not being able to take it off without help.

You're good to go if the rash guard is against your skin without any loose areas like a t-shirt would have.

Should A BJJ Rash Guard Be Loose?

A BJJ rash guard shouldn't be loose. That'd be like wearing a t-shirt. The problem is getting hands, fingers, and feet caught when rolling. Be a good training partner and wear something skin-tight.

Why Wear A Rash Guard For No-Gi BJJ?

Many submission grappling competitions don’t require you to wear a rash guard and allow you to compete topless (if you’re a male). However, it’s typically best to train in a rash guard out of courtesy to your fellow training partners.

Further, you need to check with your gym owner if you're allowed to train with no shirt. But a rash guard reduces skin-to-skin contact, potentially reducing your risk of infection. Further, if you are a hairy human, it will stop your body hair from being pulled!

And don't forget mat burn. You don't want to feel that on your shoulders and back.

Does BJJ Rash Guard Color Matter?

Rash guard color only matters when it’s IBJJF legal. It should correspond to your belt color when competing and training. So don’t wear a brown IBJJF rash guard as a lower belt.

If you aren't competing in IBJJF, rash guard color typically doesn't matter. But it still doesn't make sense to wear an IBJJF legal rash guard with the belt color you're not. When it comes to design, you can wear anything when training, depending on your BJJ school.

You must check their rules when competing in submission grappling or other BJJ tournaments to see what is permitted. Often, anything goes, so get as fancy with your designs as you like.

What’s The Best Material For Rash Guards?

Rash guards are predominately made from polyester or nylon and spandex. Typically around 80-95% polyester and 5-20% spandex. This gives the stretchy attributes while ensuring it doesn’t rip.

Summary

I recommend your next rash guard to be an XMartial rash guard. They are of excellent quality and have many epic designs to fit your personality. Added features like the anti-slip gel pad and sublimated designs make them worth the price.

Best Strength Training Exercises For MMA

There are hundreds of Instagram and TikTok “gooroos” shilling you entire training programs with “specific” MMA exercises. They don't work.

Specificity exists on a spectrum. I’m not one to say there aren’t more specific exercises than others. But our goal in the gym is to enhance strength, speed, and power (and sometimes muscle mass). Most of these exercises you’re fed on social media don’t have the loading or intent behind them to elicit ANY adaptation.

And that’s all it really is. Are we providing the body with a strong enough stimulus to adapt?

The easiest way to think about exercise selection is to start with the 7 basic movement patterns:

• Squat
• Hinge
• Push
• Pull
• Lunge
• Twist
• Carry

For MMA, I would add:

• Throw
• Jump
• Olympic lift

Should every session have all of these? No. But your training week should cover most of these most of the time. Here's some examples for each category I like to use.

Front Squat

The squat is considered the king of lower body exercises. It targets the glutes and quads but is limited by your back strength. You have many variations to play with, such as back squats, front squats, and even zercher squats.

What you use depends on your injury history, stage of training, and what you feel most comfortable performing. I’m a big fan of the front squat, and here is how to do it:

• Set under the bar and position it across the front of your shoulders. Choose a grip: either a clean grip (fingers under the bar) or a cross-armed grip (arms crossed over the bar), depending on your mobility.
• Keep your elbows high to create a 'shelf' for the bar on your shoulders. Unrack the barbell and step back.
• Begin the squat by pushing your hips back slightly and bending your knees simultaneously to lower your body straight down.
• Keep your chest up and your elbows high throughout the descent.
• Aim to go as deep as your flexibility and mobility allow, ideally until your butt touches your calves in the bottom position.
  

Romanian Deadlift

While the deadlift is great, the Romanian deadlift is a true hip hinge movement. To perform these correctly, always start from the top. So either take the bar out of the rack or deadlift the weight first.

• Slowly push your hips back as far as you can without bending your knees any further.
• Your knees won't be completely straight. They'll be slightly bent. As soon as your hips stop moving backward, stop and thrust the hips forward to return to the starting position. This means you'll only get to just below your knees if you do this correctly.

Thick Bar Bench Press

My advice is to replace all your upper body pressing with the thick bar. You'll thank me later. The way you bench press with the regular barbell is the same as a fat bar. 

• Setup tight under the bar with your feet planted and tension through your legs and hips. Set your shoulders blades back and down into the bench.
• Unrack the bar by performing a pullover motion. Slowly descend the bar to your chest with your elbows 45 degrees from your torso.
• Violently press the barbell to the starting position using your legs to help.

Weighted Pull-Up

Pull-ups should be a staple within your wrestling workouts. For variation, they can be done with an underhand (chin-up) or overhand (pull-up) grip. You can level them up further by using towels to strengthen your grip. Here’s how to do it:

• Use a dip belt to hang plates between your legs. You can hold a dumbbell between your feet if you don't have a dip belt.
• Grip the pull-up bar with palms facing away from you. Your grip should be slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
• Create a big chest from the dead hang position like you’re trying to face your upper chest to the chin-up bar.
• Pull yourself up by driving your elbows to your ribs while maintaining a big chest. If you’re strong enough, your chest should touch the chin-up bar.
• Slowly lower yourself back to the dead-hang position.

Step Up

I wasn't a fan of the step up until recently. It is an epic lower body movement to develop leg strength and power. Having a barbell on your back is better than holding dumbbells in my experience. Here's how to do it:

• Use a box that allows your thigh to be parallel with the floor. Step onto the box and forcefully drive your foot down and extend your leg.
• Perform all reps on one leg before changing legs.

Landmine Rotation

The landmine rotation is easily my favorite rotation exercise when it comes to MMA. Being able to resist heavy loads while rotating and exploding to the starting position will give you some real power in your stand up game. I hate seeing this exercise performed with a stationary body and only the arms moving side to side.

Turn your feet and hips with the exercise so you can load not just the trunk, but the hips and legs. This is where you will get that crazy power.

Sandbag Bearhug Carry

Like sandbag loading, the bearhug carry is a brutal Strongman exercise challenging your entire body from your hips to your hands. You can make incredible endurance improvements with this exercise when done consistently. Here’s how to do it:

• When the sandbag is flat on the floor, you must wedge your hands under each side. You'll need to roll the sandbag back and forth over each hand to get your hands and forearms around the sandbag.
• From this position, squat down so you can use as much of your legs as possible to stand up with the sandbag.
• You will likely have to adjust the sandbag on the way up with a little hip bump and readjustment of the hands. You can use a monkey, seatbelt, Gable, butterfly, or S grip.

Medicine Ball Rotational Throw

MMA fighters need to use medicine balls more in their training. They should be a staple no matter the time of year or how far from a fight you are. There are many variations you can use but this is a great rotational version.

The movement should come from your legs and hips to whip the ball as you throw. Not by making it an upper body only throw.

Jump Squat

Jumping is an excellent alternative to the Weightlifting movements. It has no learning curve, and you can express power with varying loads. You can use a barbell on your back or hold a trap bar or dumbbells by your side.

Jumping improves your ability to produce force quickly, which is a key requisite for MMA performance. Here’s how to do it:

• Dip into a quarter squat position. The faster you can turn the descent into the ascent (eccentric to concentric), the better you will train the ability to produce force quickly. Push through your entire foot and drive with your legs as you do this.
• Continue driving with the legs and onto your toes. Absorb the impact when landing by slightly bending the knees.

Hang Clean High Pull

Olympic lifts are most beneficial for athletes manipulating other human beings. Like MMA fighters. But they can be hard to learn or injuries can prevent some of the positions. The derivatives like the hang clean high pull give you the benefits of the lifts without needing mobility or a steep learning curve.

• Descend into the hang position with your shoulders over the bar and your weight through your full foot.
• Push with your legs and extend into a tall standing position as the bar brushes up your thighs.
• Triple extend your hips, knees, and ankles as you violently shrug and drive your elbows vertically.

MMA Strength Profile

With the birth of the UFC Performance Institute, a greater breadth of research has been done in the sport of MMA.

This means we have access to athletic profiles of fully professional MMA fighters. My article “Strength Standards For MMA” breaks down the strength profiles of UFC fighters.

To sum the article up briefly, MMA fighters need a high level of reactive strength (reactive strength index >2.6), explosive or elastic strength (vertical jump >50 cm), and maximal strength (deadlift > 2.5x bodyweight).

Reactive strength players a large role in striking speed while elastic strength highly relates to powerful takedowns.

This kind of high-velocity strength training can potentially increase the number of Type IIX muscle fibers and improve the ability to produce force quickly.

Maximal strength positively influences all strength qualities. Not to mention maximal strength training can desensitize the inhibitory mechanism that decreases force output. Therefore, greater force can be produced.

Balancing these strength qualities in training is how you can optimize performance. Depending on your athletic profile, you may emphasize one over the other.

To dive deeper into MMA strength profiles, we can compare higher and lower performers. 

If there are no differences between levels, we can conclude that characteristic does not differentiate between high- and low-level MMA fighters. What counts as a high-level MMA fighter? In these studies, it was semi-professional fighters with a verifiable record on Sherdog with a >50% professional win record.

Lower-level fighters had win records <50% or were amateurs. When comparing strength and power, high-level MMA fighters displayed greater 1RM squat strength (1.84 ± 0.23 vs. 1.56 ± 0.24 kg/BM), but no differences were found for 1RM bench press ^[3].

This highlights the importance of lower body strength in MMA, which differs from BJJ, where upper body strength seems more important ^[4]. The difference is likely due to pure grappling vs. mixing striking and grappling.

Higher-level MMA fighters also possessed greater peak force, velocity, and power during the squat jump with loads of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of body weight. This indicates MMA fighters must be able to express high forces and velocities over the entire force-velocity spectrum.

When breaking down the kinetics of the jump, higher-level MMA fighters produce greater concentric force, velocity, and power. Further, they display a greater modified reactive strength index due to less time in eccentric contraction ^[5].

Sounds like a lot of scientific jargon, I know! But essentially, they could produce greater strength, speed, and power in shorter time frames. High-level fighters, utilizing superior elastic qualities, didn't dip as low when jumping. This is vitally important in MMA as you have limited time to execute techniques before an opponent can react to defend or evade.

Legendary Russian sports scientist Yuri Verkhoshanksy has an excellent visual representation of this concept he calls the “working effect.” It’s a force-time graph representing impulse, which is the product of force and time.

I go into more detail in my “Physics of Fighting” article. But to keep this simple, Verkhoshanksy defines the working effect as “the amplitude of the impulses of force overcoming the external resistance force.”

This could be bodyweight, external opposition, or external implement. But what you need to know is this:

An increase in the working effect requires increasing maximal force output and/or increasing time (T1-T2 in the diagram above) of the force generated to overcome the external resistance (P).

However, increasing the time to produce force is not advantageous to the MMA fighter. Taking longer to punch, kick, or shoot makes it easier for your opponent to slip, block, or sprawl.

Therefore, MMA fighters must develop the ability to produce maximum force in shorter time frames, as demonstrated by the high-level MMA fighters in this study. There are many ways of doing this through various eccentric training modalities. Professor John Cronin covered them in our podcast episode below.

Further, the program examples at the end of this article will give you an idea of how this can be developed with simple training methods.

But should all MMA fighters train like this? Potentially not. It may be better for weaker fighters (defined as having squats <1.6 relative to bodyweight) to focus on heavy strength training before emphasizing power movements.

For a 70 kg fighter, that would mean squatting at least 112 kg. Once you’ve achieved a decent level of strength, continuing to develop maximal strength with lower volume and increasing the volume of various power exercises will help build qualities across the force-velocity spectrum.

Strength Assessments For MMA

Just because you reach a certain testing benchmark does not mean you’re suddenly a better fighter. However, becoming stronger and faster with better conditioning can help realize your skillset.

Here’s some basic thresholds that can be helpful for dictating the direction of your training.

• Back squat >1.6 x bodyweight
• Vertical jump >45 cm (17.7”)
• Reactive strength index (40 cm box) >2.5
• Maximal aerobic speed >4.2 m/s

These are what I’d consider absolute minimum thresholds to hit for most fighters based on research and my own experiences. Here’s how a decent range will look:

• Back squat: 1.6 - 2.0 x bodyweight
• Vertical jump: 45 - 50 cm (17.7 - 19.6”)
• Reactive strength index (40 cm box): 2.5 - 3.0
• Maximal aerobic speed: 4.2 - 4.5 m/s

Does this mean your physical training tasks are done? No, these are within the average range of most UFC fighters.

But it gives a few basic benchmarks to aim for. How do you measure each one?

Back Squat: Multiply your bodyweight by 1.6 - 2. It should equal or be under the load you squatted. For example, if you weigh 200 lbs, you should be able to squat between 320 - 400 lbs.

Vertical Jump: Stand against a wall and reach your hand marking the wall with chalk. Jump and mark again. Measure the distance. Not an error proof exercise but an easy no equipment field test. The My Jump Lab is the best phone app for this.

Reactive Strength Index (RSI): Stand on a 40 cm box, step off. When you hit the ground, jump as high as you can as quickly as possible. Ground contact time should be minimal. I like to aim for <250 ms on the ground which you can measure with the My Jump Lab app. There’s a learning curve to this exercise. Here’s what it looks like: 

How Do Testing Results Influence Your Program?

Most people test then forget about it. Testing must influence your training. Here’s some general guidelines you can follow:

• Under strength/power thresholds: Focus on maximal strength with low-volume extensive plyometrics.
• In range: Blend of maximal strength and power-based exercises.
• Above thresholds: Minimal/low volume of maximal strength with higher volumes of power-based exercises.

You may have a 2 x bodyweight squat but lack reactive strength. In this case, you’d perform most of your training towards various plyometric exercise with less maximal strength volume as an example.

Fundamentals Of Strength Training For MMA

Everything we do in the gym to prepare for MMA hinges on this simple graph (and other adaptations, but I like this visual):

It’s taken from a research paper by Paavo Komi [6]. It shows the change in force by change in muscle length. Essentially, the force produced during a muscle contraction. 

For a given change in muscle length (e.g., a bicep curl), we have an increase in force generated from circle 1 to circle 2. We then have the length feedback component known as the muscle spindles.

It is sensitive to the rate of stretch and "excites" the muscle to increase force production to circle 3. But the force feedback mechanism, known as the Golgi tendon organ, doesn't like this.

It pumps the brakes as a protective mechanism to dampen force production, leaving you at circle 4 for the final force output. The goal is to raise circle 4 as high as possible for a given change in muscle length.

How does heavy strength training and jumps/plyometrics help?

• We can enhance the sensitivity of the muscle spindles through plyometric training. Improving sensitivity increases excitation and, therefore, force generation.
• Maximal strength training desensitizes the Golgi tendon organ so it doesn't pump the brakes so early.

Untrained individuals have the Golgi tendon organ kick in too early, and this is why beginners can't express their maximum outputs in the gym. Desensitize this response by lifting heavy loads.

This is one of the adaptations showing why you MUST perform heavy resistance training AND high-velocity strength training.

Here’s another graph by Kraemer and Newton, further illustrating my point and why I’m constantly preaching you can’t follow a bodybuilding or Powerlifting program for MMA [7].

All sporting movements are constrained by time. As mentioned earlier on the “working effect,” we must improve the ability to generate high forces in short time frames. Now, this doesn’t apply as greatly to grappling actions where slow, grindy movements give almost infinite time to apply forces compared to striking actions.

Boxing and Muay Thai techniques occur within 50 - 300 ms [8]. Hence the importance of high-velocity strength training and plyometric exercises.

The graph shows different training types.

• The solid line represents untrained subjects.
• The dashed line represents heavy resistance-trained subjects (e.g. Powerlifters).
• The dotted line represents light resistance power-trained subjects (e.g. track athletes).

While heavy resistance-trained subjects display the greatest force, they don’t display the greatest force generation at lower time points, as denoted by the 200 ms mark.

Again reinforcing the point of performing heavy resistance training AND power training. But can’t you just lift the bar faster as many strength coaches will say?

Moving the bar faster is not the same as leaving the ground when jumping or projecting a medicine ball when throwing.

The black squares represent a bench throw while the white squares represent the bench press performed as fast as possible. Depending on the load, you can spend 40 - 50% of the concentric phase decelerating the barbell.

Whereas throwing the barbell allows you to continue accelerating, which powerful sporting movements mirror.

What exercises show this kind of velocity curve?

• Plyometrics
• Jumps
• Throws
• Olympic lifts

There are many other muscle architecture and neuromuscular adaptations to each type of resistance training but this overview gives you the most important bits of information about why.

Why Full Range Of Motion Is King

Muscle fiber contractile velocity is proportional to its length. Meaning how quickly your muscles contract is determined by the number of sacromeres (blocks of muscle fibers) are in a row. Muscle fiber type also plays a role here.

Sarcomeres shorten at 2x the muscle fiber length per second [9]. For example, having 10 sarcomeres in a row would shorten at 20 fiber lengths/second, whereas 5 sarcomeres would only shorten at 10 fiber lengths/second.

How do we add more sarcomeres? Eccentric training is a potent stimulus for this. Think Nordic curls for the hamstrings and weighted negative pull-ups for the upper body.

But full range of motion lifting is another method that has been shown to be superior to partial ranges of motion lifting [10].

Contractile velocity isn’t the only benefit of increasing sarcomere length. You shift the angle of peak torque up and to the right, meaning you produce more force at longer muscle lengths [11].

This has the potential to reduce your risk of injury in susceptible muscle groups like the hamstrings.

It’s why full range of motion resistance training IS mobility training. And no amount of static stretching will get you there (effectively).

Strength Training Program Design For MMA

For a busy MMA athlete, twice a week in the gym is more than enough. It’s all you have time for anyway. If you’re a recreational MMA athlete who goes to class for the cardio and social benefits and wants to look good, then three to four days in the gym is potentially better.

But I’m going to assume most of you reading this fall into the first camp. MMA fighters who’s main focus is getting better at MMA.

Since you’re in the gym twice a week, they should be full-body sessions. Upper/lower splits can work and, in my experience, can be quite good for older athletes (if you’re careful with the volume).

But full body sessions allow you to hit muscle groups twice a week, which is generally superior for strength development.

How should these sessions look? Here’s a template you can follow:

1. Warm-up circuit
2. Jumps/plyometrics/throws (don’t have to do all 3)
3. Full body power exercise
4. Heavy lower body
5. Upper push
6. Upper pull
7. Core/carry/grip (don’t have to do all 3)

This is a basic template that can change depending on the main goal of training. However, you can use this if you’re after speed and power or maximal strength.

Just reduce your volume of speed and power exercises if strength is your goal and vice versa if you’re going after speed and power.

You can also make one day more heavy strength orientated and the second day more power orientated. Both work, up to you how you want to plan your training. I like the way I presented as if you can only get into the gym once that week, you’ve covered most of your bases.

You’ll notice I haven’t blocked strength training into only strength, or only hypertrophy, or only speed and power. It’s because I don’t believe in block periodization for mixed sports like MMA.

Yes, you can target one quality to maximize training effectiveness. But you blunt and diminish other important qualities you need for MMA. By the time you get to your 6th week of power/speed training, it’s been months since you’ve done any strength or hypertrophy exercise.

Yes, there is carryover between them all. But you need more than carryover. It’s why I take a vertically integrated approach to training. It means you cover all qualities within a training week.

It doesn’t mean you perform maximum-volume jumps and heavy squats. It means you prioritize the quality you want to improve and reduce the volume of the others. But they are always there.

If you spend 8 weeks in a hypertrophy phase, then 8 weeks performing maximum strength, you can’t hit the ground running in week 17 performing intense plyometrics and jumps. That’s a recipe for injury.

2 Day Strength Training Program For MMA

This strength training program is designed in two phases. Phase 1 is more of a general strength and power training program.

It has been developed to lead into the next phase which has more advanced exercise variations.

Phase 2 brings into the program the use of complexes. A complex is when you pair a strength movement where heavier loads are lifted, and therefore higher forces are produced, with a lighter loaded velocity exercise.

The most common example you may have seen before and performing squats then box jumps or bench press then clap push-ups.

The soviet researcher Dr. Verkhoshanksy explains it best in my opinion. He says to imagine what would happen if you lifted a half-full bottle of water when you thought it was full. There would be a mismatch between the force needed to pick the bottle up and the actual force required.

The idea is that the half-full bottle will move twice as fast as intended due to this mismatch. That is the theory behind performing a complex which you will find in Phase 2.

The scientific term is post activation potentiation or PAP for short.

Holistically, this MMA strength and conditioning program is a well-rounded program covering both high-velocity and maximal strength pretty evenly.

If you know you have a deficit in maximal strength or explosiveness, you may want to emphasize your weaker area which will likely carry over to all facets of your overall MMA strength and conditioning.

Phase 1

Day 1

Day 2

Phase 2

Day 1

Day 2

3 Day MMA Weight Training Program

I would highly advise not to perform three days of MMA weight training. Strength training for fighters is to supplement technical MMA training. Meaning spending too much time in the gym can take away from your MMA sessions whether that is time or energy.

If you are in a training block far away from competition or you are trying to move up a weight class, then a third day in the gym may be warranted. This day however should be single joint isolation exercise emphasis as it is easy to recover from and designed to help build extra muscle.

While this wouldn't be considered specific MMA strength training, it allows you to get extra weight training volume without taking energy away from MMA workouts. Here is an example of how this extra day could look.

MMA Injury Profile

Two sets of data are in agreement with facial cuts, bruises, and altered mental states being the most common injuries during MMA fights ^[1,2].

Hand and wrist injuries were the next most common followed by knee injuries during MMA fights. Training tells a different story.

Knee injuries were the most common in training followed by shoulder and hand and wrist injuries. All of these injuries occur mainly when striking.

Grappling has a very low injury rate in both training and competitive fights.

How Many Days A Week Should You Strength Train For MMA?

It doesn’t take much to get stronger. As long as you’re consistent you will make progress. Juggling strength training and MMA training can be more complex than other martial arts.

MMA training has to juggle multiple striking and grappling disciplines within a week’s training. By the time you’ve covered all of your skills, finding the space to fit extra strength work is tough.

Depending on your phase of training, strength training should be performed 1-3 times a week. Two times a week will be the sweet spot.

Does MMA Training Build Muscle?

When you see big, jacked MMA fighters such as Yoel Romero, Paulo Costa, or even guys in the smaller weight classes like Henry Cejudo, you may come to the conclusion that MMA training helps to build muscle.

Sadly, this is not the case. The large amount of muscle mass seen on most fighters is from years of weight training and well-performed weight cuts before the fight.

MMA doesn’t provide adequate loading of the muscle through a full range of motion which is needed to maximize the hypertrophic response.

Instead, MMA mainly focuses on quick striking and isometric contractions when grappling. These are not enough to build muscle no matter the size of the opponent you’re training with.

Should MMA Fighters Lift Weights?

100% yes. There are no reasons why an MMA fighter shouldn’t lift weights. The old myths of lifting making you slow are gradually dying out of combat sports.

Strength training for MMA fighters has far too many benefits that cannot be ignored. From reducing the risk of injury, increasing the power of striking, and helping make you more dominant during grappling exchanges.

When MMA weight training is well designed, you will develop the ability to use it in the cage effectively against your opponents.

References

1. McClain, R., Wassermen, J., Mayfield, C., Berry, A. C., Grenier, G., & Suminski, R. R. (2014). Injury profile of mixed martial arts competitors. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 24(6), 497-501.

2. UFCPI “Cross Sectional Performance Analysis And Projection Of The UFC Athlete.

3. James, L. P., Beckman, E. M., Kelly, V. G., & Haff, G. G. (2017). The neuromuscular qualities of higher-and lower-level mixed-martial-arts competitors. International journal of sports physiology and performance, 12(5), 612-620.

4. Marinho, B. F., Andreato, L. V., Follmer, B., & Franchini, E. (2016). Comparison of body composition and physical fitness in elite and non-elite Brazilian jiu-jitsu athletes. Science & Sports, 31(3), 129-134.

5. James, L. P., Connick, M., Haff, G. G., Kelly, V. G., & Beckman, E. M. (2020). The countermovement jump mechanics of mixed martial arts competitors. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 34(4), 982-987.

6. Komi, P. V. (1986). Training of muscle strength and power: interaction of neuromotoric, hypertrophic, and mechanical factors. International journal of sports medicine, 7(S 1), S10-S15.

7. Kraemer, W. J., & Newton, R. U. (2000). Training for muscular power. Physical medicine and rehabilitation clinics of North America, 11(2), 341-368.

8. Turner, A. N. (2009). Strength and conditioning for Muay Thai athletes. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 31(6), 78-92.

9. Cormie, P., McGuigan, M. R., & Newton, R. U. (2011). Developing maximal neuromuscular power: Part 1—Biological basis of maximal power production. Sports medicine, 41, 17-38.

10. Pallarés, J. G., Hernández‐Belmonte, A., Martínez‐Cava, A., Vetrovsky, T., Steffl, M., & Courel‐Ibáñez, J. (2021). Effects of range of motion on resistance training adaptations: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports, 31(10), 1866-1881.

11. Bagley, R. J., Arevalo, A. J., Malyszek, K. K., Spencer, A. J., Rosengarten, J., Barillas, S. R., … & Galpin, A. J. (2016). Skeletal muscle phenotype and performance of an elite mixed martial artist. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins: Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Before going and buying hundreds of dollars’ worth of supplements, remember that supplementation is at the top of the performance pyramid.

If you don’t have everything else in order such as sound training, nutrition, and sleep, supplementation won’t get you that extra performance edge.

Combining supplementation on top of an already outstanding competitive boxing lifestyle will give you a competitive edge. These are the supplements that I recommend for a boxer.

Whey Protein

Whey protein is the most bioavailable, complete protein you can find in powder form. Meaning your body can digest, absorb, and utilize the protein to make new proteins better than the others.

However, when you hit your daily protein target of 0.8-1 g per lb of bodyweight, the protein source has less of an impact. As an example, beef protein can allow you to build lean body mass similar to whey protein and even lasts longer in the bloodstream [17].

Whey isolates are higher quality than whey concentrates since they provide more protein per serving size and contain less to no lactose perfect for anyone who's dairy sensitive.

How Should You Take Whey Protein?

You don’t actually have to use whey protein supplements. If you are reaching your daily protein requirements (between 0.8-1 g protein per pound of body weight), then protein supplements are irrelevant.

However, if you struggle to reach your protein intake or find protein powder convenient, then protein powder serves its purpose.

Use it any time, one scoop of your tub. Now, when choosing your protein powder, there are many different quality brands. Price can be an indicator but often some of the most expensive protein supplements are trash.

To pick the best quality protein supplements, you should look for these three things:

• The least number of ingredients
• Protein content per serving to be as close as possible to serving size.
• Informed sport tick (if you're competitive and drug tested).

For example, a 30g scoop of protein should ideally contain close to 25g of protein. Many protein powders contain closer to 20g meaning you’re paying for a lot of filler. Transparent Labs ticks all these boxes and tastes like a chocolate milkshake.

Creatine Monohydrate

Creatine… the most well-studied sports supplement EVER. Yet, the media is still labelling it a steroid and as a cause of muscle cramps, bloating, and even death.

Don’t believe anything that is reported by the media regarding creatine (or supplements in general). Creatine is a supplement you should be taking no matter if you are a boxer or not.

First, let’s address some creatine myths:

Creatine Causes Muscle Cramp

Nope, nope, nope! A muscle cramp is a multi-factorial problem. It's caused by overexcitation of the nerves.

In fact, treating muscle cramp acutely can be done by stretching which "turns on" the inhibitory mechanism of the tendon to reduce this excitation, or by drinking vinegar and hot sauce to excite the nerves in the mouth taking away the electrical signals from the cramping muscle ^[6].

Cramp often comes about from bad preparation and fatigue. And no, electrolyte depletion through sweat causing cramp is also a myth. But that’s another topic.

Creatine Causes Digestive Issues

Again, taking 5g of creatine a day is very, very unlikely to cause any digestive issues. Digestive issues are usually only reported when loading creatine (taking 20g a day) which is not necessary to benefit from creatine supplementation.

Creatine Alkaline Is Better Than Monohydrate

Monohydrate has been proven over, and over again to be effective. It is dirt cheap and works. Any other form of creatine is great marketing.

You Can Get Enough Creatine From Natural Sources

Let's not even go down the natural source's path as it's a fallacy on its own. But sadly, you cannot get the amount of creatine needed from food to boost your performance.

You'd have to eat 1kg of beef (uncooked weight) every day to get 5g of creatine each day.

A cheap powder gets you there without the sheer amount of meat each day.

Creatine Makes You Bloated

While you may hold more water, you hold this water within the muscle tissue. And often not at a noticeable difference.

This water retention is due to creatine saturating the muscle. This is the effect you want. Why is this important? Now it’s time to dive into how creatine works.

How Creatine Works

Without going too deep into energy systems and physiology (rather check out my “What Is Conditioning” article), the body uses energy for muscular contractions in the form of ATP.

The P in this instance stands for phosphate. The T stands for “tri” meaning 3. So, there are 3 phosphates. This is important. So, remember this.

As you likely know, there are three main energy systems. The aerobic, the anaerobic lactic, and the anaerobic alactic. While all energy systems work together during exercise (meaning you can’t isolate one), some energy systems will contribute more energy depending on the activity being performed.

For example, a boxer predominantly uses the aerobic energy system with the alactic energy system for quick bursts. During maximal activity, the alactic energy system provides energy the fastest. Other energy systems will contribute, but they won’t be able to keep up.

The power of the alactic energy system is defined as how quickly the energy system can produce ATP (energy) while the capacity is how long the energy system can maintain this level of energy production or regeneration.

Cool, so that’s a very, very brief rundown. So how does creatine fit into this?

Remember the phosphate molecule I mentioned earlier? The creatine molecule is what binds to this phosphate.

The more creatine floating around, the more phosphate floating around.

When ATP is used, the phosphate is burned and ATP becomes ADP (D meaning “di” or 2). Now there are only 2 phosphates attached (it goes further than this but we will stop here).

To regenerate energy, more phosphates must be attached to turn ADP back into ATP.

The greater and faster this can happen, the longer the energy system can maintain its energy regeneration or capacity.

So, by supplementing with creatine, you can increase the power and capacity of the alactic energy system providing you with more “explosive” energy during your boxing training or fight.

This means you can perform higher quality training, and therefore, make further gains.

Benefits Of Creatine

We’ve covered much of the performance benefits by describing the physiology above. But creatine has more benefits than just increasing power output. In fact, those taking creatine may see on average an 8% increase in strength ^[7].

Also, creatine may even have a neuroprotective mechanism that prevents neurodegenerative disease ^[8]. A very important potential protective mechanism that is rarely mentioned when it comes to combat sports.

As it gets studied further, creatine could become a supplement that is recommended to all boxers due to the head trauma that is associated with boxing.

Further, creatine may enhance your memory if you are deficient which is common among vegetarians ^[9] and even in young adults ^[10].

How To Take Creatine

Take creatine at any time of the day. Whenever you remember. I find it easiest to mix in my protein smoothie. 5g a day, every day. That’s it!

Which Creatine To Get

Transparent Labs makes a creatine with the informed sport tick so is banned substance free and high-quality.

Vitamin D

Those who train and play indoor sports are more susceptible to Vitamin D deficiency as Vitamin D is mainly synthesized from being in the sun.

Elite Spanish boxers and other indoor sporting disciplines were all moderately deficient in Vitamin D levels or worse ^[13].

Why does this matter? Vitamin D concentration has been associated with bone mineral density, influences muscle growth especially Type II muscle fibers, improves strength and performance, may accelerate rehabilitation, and strengthen the immune system ^[14].

If you live in an area that doesn’t get much sun, or you don’t spend much time outside, then supplementing with Vitamin D is a good idea.

Further, Andrew Marley's PhD research in combat athletes has shown 50,000 IUs of vitamin D per week improved aerobic and anaerobic exercise performance compared to placebo ^[18][19].

You can listen to how he conducted and the results of his research on the Sweet Science of Fighting podcast below.

How Should You Take Vitamin D?

Take Vitamin D any time of the day. Whenever you remember to take your supplements. When buying Vitamin D, make sure you buy Vitamin D3, not D2.

You can take 50,000 IUs once per week or a daily dose that totals 50,000 IUs weekly. The great thing is Vitamin D is dirt cheap. NOW Foods brand has a 2000 IU bottle of Vitamin D that is good quality.

Beta-Alanine

Beta-alanine is a common ingredient in pre-workout and is known for creating a tingling sensation, called paresthesia ^[22]. This effect is safe but you don't gain a tolerance to it.

To lessen these tingles, divide your dose throughout the day instead of taking a large amount at once.

Beta-alanine boosts carnosine levels, which help neutralize the acid by-products of intense workouts, thereby improving performance in activities lasting 1 to 4 minutes ^[23][24].

Recent review studies on beta-alanine in martial arts reveal improvements in strength, power, overall exercise capacity, recovery perception, muscle gain, and fat loss ^[25].

For example, amateur boxers consuming 5-6 grams daily show an increase in punch frequency and force, reduced fatigue, and improved peak power in their lower body, outperforming those taking a placebo ^[26][27][28].

Based on this data, I recommend daily beta-alanine intake for enhancing boxing performance.

Aiming for a total of 179 grams over 3 to 10 weeks can boost endurance ^[23]. Taking 4-6 grams daily, split into 2-4 doses, is an effective strategy.

Transparent Labs offers a competitively priced beta-alanine supplement, tested for banned substances by a third party.

Fish Oil

Unless you're frequently eating oily fish such as salmon and not constrained by a student budget, you might not need extra fish oil. However, for those who don't include such fish in their diet, supplementing with fish oil can be beneficial.

For instance, consuming a total of 4.2 grams of EPA and DHA has been shown to enhance vertical leap abilities and reduce muscle pain up to two days after exercise ^[29].

Additionally, taking 3.2 grams of EPA and DHA can lower heart rate during both intense and moderate exercise, and decrease the overall oxygen requirement of the body without impacting performance ^[30].

When picking out a fish oil supplement, choose one with a high EPA/DHA content relative to the capsule size.

Often, you'll find 180 mg of EPA and 120 mg of DHA in a 1-gram capsule, which means only 30% of the capsule is actually fish oil.

A better choice is a high-strength option like Sports Research Triple Strength Fish Oil. This is the product I use, and for those in the USA, it's available at Costco.

Electrolytes

Boxing sessions can be grueling involve extensive sweating. Despite popular advertising claims, the average person training three times per week doesn't need electrolyte supplements.

However, for boxers training frequently, sometimes twice a day, replenishing electrolytes is crucial for recovery and performance.

Many sports drinks fall short in providing adequate sodium, the primary electrolyte lost in sweat. It's misleading when these drinks emphasize potassium over sodium, given that our sweat is predominantly sodium.

Therefore, choose an electrolyte supplement with a significant sodium content. The exact requirement varies as individuals lose sodium at different rates, and some boxers might lose more sodium known as "salty sweaters."

A good rule of thumb is to look for supplements offering 500 - 1000 mg of sodium per serving. Transparent Labs offers an electrolyte formula with 500 mg of sodium that not only tastes good but also carries the informed sport certification.

You can listen to Danny Lennon talk about electrolyte drinks on the podcast below:

Brain Supplements For Boxing

Cognitive enhancers, often referred to as "nootropics" are a fascinating segment of nutritional supplements. Their effects range from negligible to mildly enhancing mental capabilities.

This group of supplements is somewhat experimental, but if you're into that, here are two suggestions I recommend.

Braini

Braini is a unique brain booster with the only patented formula that's gone through peer reviewed research.. They tested how it works by giving it to people for 28 days. People took Braini every day and did a special brain test at the start and end to see how their thinking skills changed.

They found, on average, a 7.8% increase in cognitive flexibility, executive function, and Executive Function Shifting Attention Test (SAT-RT) compared to placebo ^[20].

Cognitive flexibility is being able to switch your thinking fast helps in making correct decisions, especially in sports like boxing.

Executive function help with focusing, following steps, moving between different tasks that need remembering things, and being creative, all useful in boxing training.

SAT-RT is the thinking and speed test shows how quickly and well you can shift your attention, like when facing someone in boxing.

NFL players are already using Braini, so it's likely to become more popular soon.

Real Mushrooms Lions Mane

Mushroom extracts have become hugely popular as health and wellness supplements. I had Jeff Chilton on the podcast to speak about his lifetime of research on the topic.

Many mushroom extracts are speculative at best. Little hard data supports the benefits, but as a potential upside, it may be worth taking the plunge.

Lions Mane, in particular, is known for its cognitive benefits. A recent systematic review found Lions Mane may improve mental processing speed and reduce stress in healthy adults ^[21].

Importantly, you must look for high-quality Lion's Mane, which Jeff's company provides. Take 2-3 g daily to see potential benefits which shows how underdosed most brain supplements are.

Other Supplements You May Want To Take For Boxing

Pomegranate Juice

This is a supplement that has flown under the radar. Maybe it’s not sexy enough for the mainstream media to talk about. Luckily for you, that means fewer people are using it potentially giving you a competitive advantage!

There is plenty of evidence backing the use of pomegranate juice for endurance performance and recovery.

Endurance athletes who consumed 6.7 oz (200 ml) of pomegranate juice daily for 21 days decreased markers of oxidative stress compared to the placebo group ^[1]. Excess oxidative stress is thought to potentially contribute to muscular fatigue ^[2].

1000 mg of pomegranate extract taken 30 minutes before exercise dilated blood vessels, which increased blood flow and delayed fatigue when running to exhaustion ^[3].

Additionally, in elite level Weightlifters who were training at least 5x a week, 48 hours before their "test" training sessions, athletes were given 1.5L of pomegranate juice which was drunk in 8-hour intervals (250ml x 6) ^[4].

Additionally, 1 hour before the session, subjects drank another 500ml of pomegranate juice (2L total).

These Weightlifters showed better performance in total lifted amount and maximum amount lifted. They also showed reduced muscle soreness and training felt easier for them compared to the placebo group.

A second study in elite Weightlifters used the exact same protocols and found pomegranate juice enhanced recovery compared to the placebo group ^[12].

How Should You Drink Pomegranate Juice?

It seems that you need to drink the juice either consistently from 48 hours to 21 days before your big training session or fight. The more days you drink the juice, the less of it you may need to drink each day.

Consuming pomegranate extract 30 minutes before exercise seems to be another option that works well.

Even if you don’t want to drink pomegranate juice in this quantity, drinking some every day may be beneficial to your health due to increased blood flow and is, therefore, great for your heart health ^[5].

Where To Get Pomegranate Juice

Ideally, you would drink the juice as that is what was used in these studies. Juicing your own is the best. But if you can’t do that, reputable brands at your supermarket will suit you.

Two servings of this extract mixed with water in the morning and evening would give you the approximate dose used in these studies.

If you can see the polyphenols on other products, you want to aim for approximately 650mg per day.

Sodium Bicarbonate

Sodium Bicarbonate, aka baking soda, is something you probably associate with baking cakes. Not with enhancing your boxing performance.

Well, sodium bicarb has been studied specifically in the boxing population and the results look very promising.

10 national and international level amateur boxers ingested 0.3g per kg of body weight of sodium bicarbonate an hour before sparring ^[15].

The boxers progressively increased their work rate over 4 rounds compared to the placebo.

This was due to increasing the blood buffering capacity which meant the boxers could delay the onset of fatigue by clearing waste products from the energy regeneration process.

Further, 7 professional boxers consumed the same quantity of sodium bicarbonate 10 minutes after a high-intensity running protocol that imitated the demands of a 3x4 round boxing match with a 4^th round of running to exhaustion ^[16].

75 minutes after this, boxers were put through a boxing specific protocol of pad work consisting of 3x3 minute rounds followed by a-second-high intensity run.

Sodium bicarbonate could potentially be considered one of the ultimate pre workout supplements. It could be just sitting in your pantry as you read this.

How To Take Sodium Bicarbonate

Based on the data, taking 0.3g per kg of bodyweight of baking soda between 1-2 hours before boxing is sufficient for improving your boxing performance.

For example, as a welterweight at 152 pounds, divide your body weight by 2.2 to find kilograms. At 69 kg, you would need to consume 20g of sodium bicarbonate.

Be sure to mix it in something that tastes good otherwise it won’t go down very well. About 4ml of water per kg (approximately 280ml of water for our 69 kg example) with some sugar-free flavoring at around 1ml per kg of bodyweight.

If you want to start taking sodium bicarbonate for your boxing performance, be sure to trial it before a training session and not competition.

Preferably a training session you perform on your own so you don’t waste your money on coaching that you can’t complete.

Depending on the amount being ingested, it may cause some stomach discomfort. At these levels of 0.3g per kg of body weight, you should be okay but it is always good to see how you respond.

Caffeine & L-Theanine Stack

One of the original, most accessible nootropic stacks. Nootropics were the buzzword a few years back. Nootropics, aka brain supplements, are touted to increase cognition.

Meaning improvements in concentration, focus, among others. Caffeine is already a well-known ergogenic aid. You may even be drinking some right now as you read this!

But have you ever had too much caffeine? Where you start to feel jittery? Or almost anxious?

L-Theanine is an amino acid that has the opposite effect of caffeine. It provides stress reduction and helps you relax. This doesn't sound like a great supplement to take with caffeine then? You want to be amped for training!

But it seems when L-Theanine is paired with caffeine, an interesting phenomenon occurs.

Meaning it can help you have better focus during your trainings.

How To Take Caffeine L-Theanine Stack

2:1 of L-Theanine to caffeine is a common dose. This means if you take 100mg of caffeine for training (for ease of example), then you should take 200mg of L-Theanine. But I've tried many combinations and they all work.

You want to take this around 30 minutes before training. Transparent Labs has an informed sport pre-workout that contains caffeine and L-theanine with many other potentially performance enhancing ingredients.

L-Citrulline

L-citrulline has emerged as a trending supplement for endurance, potentially acting as a vasodilator to improve blood flow. It boosts nitric oxide production by being converted into l-arginine in the kidneys, which then forms nitric oxide.

While studies on this process have yielded mixed results, there is evidence suggesting it enhances endurance performance ^[31][32].

Nowadays, L-citrulline is a staple in most pre-workout formulas. Taking it consistently for over a week seems to amplify its performance-boosting effects, though a single dose of 6-8 grams can also offer immediate benefits.

For regular use, a range of 3-12 grams is effective, but aiming for a daily intake of 6-8 grams is generally recommended.

Transparent Labs provides a third-party verified L-citrulline supplement, guaranteed to be free of banned substances.

Supplements To Avoid For Boxing

The supplements to avoid are not because they are dangerous. But because they do absolutely nothing and are costing you hard-earned cash that can go into your food budget.

BCAAs

BCAAs are wasting your money. Total protein intake trumps all, and protein sources matter less when reaching the 0.8 g per pound of bodyweight target. Consuming BCAAs confers no further benefit when eating adequate daily protein ^[33].

Additionally, your whey protein and meat all contain BCAAs, so you don't need to load up on these three amino acids.

L-Glutamine

Despite the marketing, Glutamine provides no athletic performance or recovery benefits ^[34]. However, it may help with digestion issues for people with IBS, along with a low FODMAP diet ^[35].

Frequently Asked Boxing Supplement Questions

Is Creatine Good For Boxers?

Creatine is great for boxers. It provides extra energy instantly and all you need to do is take it every day. You will improve strength and power to a greater extent than training without it. It is near impossible to get enough creatine straight from your diet.

Should Boxers Take Protein Powder?

Boxers don't have to take protein powder. It just depends if you can reach your daily protein targets without it. Many athletes struggle with this so supplementing with protein powder can make it easier. Further, protein powder is very easy and versatile so it can sit in your gym bag to be had straight after training instead of trying to reheat a meal.

How Much Protein Should A Boxer Get?

Boxers should aim for 1 g per pound of bodyweight on average. If you are cutting weight, then opt for slightly higher protein intakes of 1.05-1.1 g per pound of bodyweight to retain as much muscle as possible. If you are going up a weight class, then protein as low as 0.8 g per pound of bodyweight can be enough.

References

1. Fuster-Muñoz, E., Roche, E., Funes, L., Martínez-Peinado, P., Sempere, J. M., & Vicente-Salar, N. (2016). Effects of pomegranate juice in circulating parameters, cytokines, and oxidative stress markers in endurance-based athletes: A randomized controlled trial. Nutrition, 32(5), 539-545.

2. Finaud, J., Lac, G., & Filaire, E. (2006). Oxidative stress. Sports medicine, 36(4), 327-358.

3. Trexler, E. T., Smith-Ryan, A. E., Melvin, M. N., Roelofs, E. J., & Wingfield, H. L. (2014). Effects of pomegranate extract on blood flow and running time to exhaustion. Applied physiology, nutrition, and metabolism, 39(9), 1038-1042.

4. Ammar, A., Turki, M., Chtourou, H., Hammouda, O., Trabelsi, K., Kallel, C., ... & Driss, T. (2016). Pomegranate supplementation accelerates recovery of muscle damage and soreness and inflammatory markers after a weightlifting training session. PloS one, 11(10), e0160305.

5. Roelofs, E. J., Smith-Ryan, A. E., Trexler, E. T., Hirsch, K. R., & Mock, M. G. (2017). Effects of pomegranate extract on blood flow and vessel diameter after high-intensity exercise in young, healthy adults. European journal of sport science, 17(3), 317-325.

6. Schwellnus, M. P. (2009). Cause of exercise associated muscle cramps (EAMC)—altered neuromuscular control, dehydration or electrolyte depletion?. British journal of sports medicine, 43(6), 401-408.

7. Rawson, E. S., & Volek, J. S. (2003). Effects of creatine supplementation and resistance training on muscle strength and weightlifting performance. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 17(4), 822-831.

8. Beal, M. F. (2011). Neuroprotective effects of creatine. Amino acids, 40(5), 1305-1313.

9. Benton, D., & Donohoe, R. (2011). The influence of creatine supplementation on the cognitive functioning of vegetarians and omnivores. British journal of nutrition, 105(7), 1100-1105.

10. Rae, C., Digney, A. L., McEwan, S. R., & Bates, T. C. (2003). Oral creatine monohydrate supplementation improves brain performance: a double–blind, placebo–controlled, cross–over trial. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 270(1529), 2147-2150.

11. Giesbrecht, T., Rycroft, J. A., Rowson, M. J., & De Bruin, E. A. (2010). The combination of L-theanine and caffeine improves cognitive performance and increases subjective alertness. Nutritional neuroscience, 13(6), 283-290.

12. Ammar, A., Turki, M., Hammouda, O., Chtourou, H., Trabelsi, K., Bouaziz, M., ... & Bailey, S. J. (2017). Effects of pomegranate juice supplementation on oxidative stress biomarkers following weightlifting exercise. Nutrients, 9(8), 819.

13. Valtueña, J., Dominguez, D., Til, L., González-Gross, M., & Drobnic, F. (2014). High prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency among elite Spanish athletes; the importance of outdoor training adaptation. Nutricion hospitalaria, 30(1), 124-131.

14. de la Puente Yagüe, M., Collado Yurrita, L., & Cuadrado Cenzual, M. A. (2020). Role of vitamin d in athletes and their performance: Current concepts and new trends. Nutrients, 12(2), 579.

15. Siegler, J. C., & Hirscher, K. (2010). Sodium bicarbonate ingestion and boxing performance. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 24(1), 103-108.

16. Gough, L. A., Rimmer, S., Sparks, S. A., McNaughton, L. R., & Higgins, M. F. (2019). Post-exercise supplementation of sodium bicarbonate improves acid base balance recovery and subsequent high-intensity boxing specific performance. Frontiers in nutrition, 6, 155.

17. Naclerio, F., Seijo, M., Larumbe-Zabala, E., & Earnest, C. P. (2017). Carbohydrates alone or mixing with beef or whey protein promote similar training outcomes in resistance training males: a double-blind, randomized controlled clinical trial. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 27(5), 408-420.

18. Marley, A., Grant, M. C., & Babraj, J. (2021). Weekly Vitamin D3 supplementation improves aerobic performance in combat sport athletes. European Journal of Sport Science, 21(3), 379-387.

19. Marley, A., Grant, M. C., & Babraj, J. (2022). Vitamin D3 supplementation combined with sprint interval training improves aerobic and anaerobic exercise performance over sprint interval training alone in recreational combat sport athletes. Science & Sports, 37(3), 217-e1.

20. Lanou, A. J., Mast, A. C., Hill, B. D., Kim, S. S., & Hanaway, P. (2023). A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial of a Novel Dietary Supplement on Standardized CNS Vital Signs Cognitive Performance Parameters in Adults. Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine, 29(5), 303-312.

21. Docherty, S., Doughty, F. L., & Smith, E. F. (2023). The Acute and Chronic Effects of Lion’s Mane Mushroom Supplementation on Cognitive Function, Stress and Mood in Young Adults: A Double-Blind, Parallel Groups, Pilot Study. Nutrients, 15(22), 4842.

22. Huerta Ojeda, A., Tapia Cerda, C., Poblete Salvatierra, M. F., Barahona-Fuentes, G., & Jorquera Aguilera, C. (2020). Effects of beta-alanine supplementation on physical performance in aerobic–anaerobic transition zones: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrients, 12(9), 2490.

23. Hobson, R. M., Saunders, B., Ball, G., Harris, R. C., & Sale, C. (2012). Effects of β-alanine supplementation on exercise performance: a meta-analysis. Amino acids, 43(1), 25-37.

24. Saunders, B., Elliott-Sale, K., Artioli, G. G., Swinton, P. A., Dolan, E., Roschel, H., ... & Gualano, B. (2017). β-alanine supplementation to improve exercise capacity and performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 51(8), 658-669.

25. Fernández-Lázaro, D., Fiandor, E. M., García, J. F., Busto, N., Santamaría-Peláez, M., Gutiérrez-Abejón, E., ... & Mielgo-Ayuso, J. (2023). β-Alanine Supplementation in Combat Sports: Evaluation of Sports Performance, Perception, and Anthropometric Parameters and Biochemical Markers—A Systematic Review of Clinical Trials. Nutrients, 15(17), 3755.

26. Donovan, T., Ballam, T., Morton, J. P., & Close, G. L. (2012). β-alanine improves punch force and frequency in amateur boxers during a simulated contest. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 22(5), 331-337.

27. Alabsi, K., Rashidlamir, A., & Dokht, E. H. (2023). The effect of 4 Weeks of strength training and beta-alanine supplementation on anaerobic power and carnosine level in boxer players. Journal of Science in Sport and Exercise, 5(1), 62-69.

28. Kim, K. J., Song, H. S., Yoon, D. H., Fukuda, D. H., Kim, S. H., & Park, D. H. (2018). The effects of 10 weeks of β-alanine supplementation on peak power, power drop, and lactate response in Korean national team boxers. Journal of exercise rehabilitation, 14(6), 985.

29. VanDusseldorp, T. A., Escobar, K. A., Johnson, K. E., Stratton, M. T., Moriarty, T., Kerksick, C. M., ... & Mermier, C. M. (2020). Impact of varying dosages of fish oil on recovery and soreness following eccentric exercise. Nutrients, 12(8), 2246.

30. Peoples, G. E., McLennan, P. L., Howe, P. R., & Groeller, H. (2008). Fish oil reduces heart rate and oxygen consumption during exercise. Journal of cardiovascular pharmacology, 52(6), 540-547.

31. Gonzalez, A. M., & Trexler, E. T. (2020). Effects of citrulline supplementation on exercise performance in humans: A review of the current literature. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 34(5), 1480-1495.

32. Gonzalez, A. M., Yang, Y., Mangine, G. T., Pinzone, A. G., Ghigiarelli, J. J., & Sell, K. M. (2023). Acute Effect of L-Citrulline Supplementation on Resistance Exercise Performance and Muscle Oxygenation in Recreationally Resistance Trained Men and Women. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, 8(3), 88.

33. Plotkin, D. L., Delcastillo, K., Van Every, D. W., Tipton, K. D., Aragon, A. A., & Schoenfeld, B. J. (2021). Isolated leucine and branched-chain amino acid supplementation for enhancing muscular strength and hypertrophy: A narrative review. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 31(3), 292-301.

34. Ahmadi, A. R., Rayyani, E., Bahreini, M., & Mansoori, A. (2019). The effect of glutamine supplementation on athletic performance, body composition, and immune function: A systematic review and a meta-analysis of clinical trials. Clinical nutrition, 38(3), 1076-1091.

35. Rastgoo, S., Ebrahimi-Daryani, N., Agah, S., Karimi, S., Taher, M., Rashidkhani, B., ... & Hekmatdoost, A. (2021). Glutamine supplementation enhances the effects of a low FODMAP diet in irritable bowel syndrome management. Frontiers in Nutrition, 8, 746703.

Taking Vitamin D3 serves two purposes:

1. Reduce Vitamin D deficiency
2. Improve aerobic and anaerobic performance

Athletes who train predominantly indoors most likely have sub-optimal vitamin D levels. For example, of 488 indoor Spanish athletes, 82% had sub-optimal vitamin D levels, with 45% being deficient ^[1].

This leads to many issues, as vitamin D levels are associated with bone mineral density, strength, muscle size, and immune system strength ^[2].

But what's more interesting is Andrew Marley's PhD research in combat athletes. His two recent studies have shown that 50,000 IUs of vitamin D per week improved aerobic and anaerobic exercise performance compared to placebo ^[3][4].

You can listen to how he conducted and the results of his research on the Sweet Science of Fighting podcast below.

How you take 50,000 IUs of vitamin D is a personal preference. Andrew states he takes one 50,000 pill weekly. But you can take 10,000 IUs five times per week if you prefer taking your supplements daily.

I take one 50,000 IU pill per week and got an entire year's supply for $10. It's stupid cheap, so there's no excuse not to take it.

I've linked the vitamin D I use below:

Whey Protein

Protein powder is not a necessary supplement. But there are three main reasons I recommend protein powder be part of your diet:

• You struggle to hit your daily protein from whole foods
• You’re always busy and don’t have to have a proper meal
• You’re on a tight budget

Your goal is to hit 0.8 - 1 g per pound of bodyweight protein daily. If you're 180 lbs, this can be challenging for some who don't eat as much meat or eat fewer meals. Supplementing with protein powder is a simple way to reach your protein target.

Further, if you’re going from training straight back to work, downing a protein shake in the car doesn’t require heating a meal in the microwave or sitting somewhere to eat.

Finally, protein powder is the cheapest protein source per serving, so you can buy less expensive meat to stick within your food budget.

How do you know which protein is best? As long as you’re hitting your daily protein target, the type of protein doesn’t matter.

However, there are other features you must consider as a wrestler. Third-party testing with the informed sport tick is the MOST IMPORTANT badge to look for.

You want a protein powder tested for banned substances so you don't get popped from tainted protein.

I recommended Transparent Labs 100% Grass Fed Whey Protein as they are third-party tested, tastes great, and has one of the highest protein-to-serving size ratio of any brand.

This means most of the scoop is protein and not cheap filler content. If you're sensitive to dairy, whey isolate is your best option other than non-dairy protein powders, as it's been processed further and has little to no lactose.

Creatine Monohydrate

Creatine is the most misunderstood supplement all wrestlers should be taking. It’s thought to cause weight gain, stomach issues, muscle cramping, hair loss, dehydration, and kidney damage.

Yet none of these are supported by research ^[5]. Yes, you will initially gain weight. But it’s water weight saturating your muscles with creatine - the desired effect you want to provide more energy for explosive tasks.

If you're a creatine responder, you can expect to gain approximately 1.2% of body weight ^[6]. Non-responders may see no weight gain at all.

Taking creatine will increase strength by approximately 8%, increase the reps performed at a given load by 14%, and enhance anaerobic power, an essential quality for wrestling conditioning ^[7][8].

Regarding creatine type, stick with monohydrate. Other forms of creatine show similar or worse rates of muscle saturation yet cost more due to marketing. Monohydrate is 100% effective, and you can't bet better.

You don’t need to load it unless you’re in a rush to see performance benefits. 5 g daily is all you need to see full muscle creatine saturation in 28 days.

It's a no-brainer supplement for wrestlers. But the same rules apply regarding third-party testing for banned substances if you're competing in the NCAA or other tested competitions. Look for the informed sport tick.

Transparent labs have an excellent flavored creatine that’s been tested.

https://www.transparentlabs.com/products/strengthseries-creapure-hmb-creatine-supplement

If you're not competing in a tested competition but still looking for a high-quality, tested for impurities and unflavored creatine, then Lift Big Eat Big does an excellent bundle deal to save you money.

Fish Oil

If you're not on a college budget and eating fatty fish like salmon regularly, you don't need to supplement with fish oil. But taking fish oil is important for others who don't eat fatty fish regularly.

For example, taking 4.2 g of EPA/DHA combined led to greater vertical jump height and less muscle soreness following training up to 48 hours ^[9].

Further, 3.2 g of EPA/DHA reduced heart rate during maximal and sub-maximal exercise and reduced whole-body oxygen demand without reducing performance ^[10].

When choosing a fish oil supplement, look for a high ratio of EPA/DHA to the capsule size. For example, the common dose is 180 mg of EPA and 120 mg of DHA in a 1 g capsule.

Meaning only 300 mg of 1000 mg is actual fish oil. Instead, choose high-potency fish oil like Sports Research Triple Strength Fish Oil.

I use this one, and if you're in the USA, get it from Costco.

Electrolytes

Wrestling is known for grueling practices lasting 2-3 hours. That’s a lot of sweating. The average person who trains three times a week doesn’t need an electrolyte supplement despite what recent marketing tells you.

But as a wrestler training multiple times per week and potentially twice daily, electrolytes become necessary for recovery.

Sports drinks typically don't have enough sodium to be useful electrolyte replenishers. Some are disingenuous enough to load their drinks with potassium and no sodium, yet you sweat predominantly sodium.

So, look for an electrolyte supplement with a high sodium concentration. There is no general rule, as everyone sweats sodium at different rates, with some wrestlers being "salty sweaters."

Regardless, look for 500 - 1000 mg of sodium in the serving. Transparent Labs has a 500 mg sodium electrolyte formula that tastes great and has the informed sport tick.

You can listen to Danny Lennon talk about electrolyte drinks on the podcast below:

Beta-Alanine

Beta-alanine is the familiar pre-workout ingredient people associate with it "working." It's the tingles that run from your face to your extremities called paresthesia ^[13]. This side effect is harmless and is not something you can build a tolerance to.

One way to reduce the tingles is to spread your dose throughout the day so you’re not taking a heap at once.

Beta-alanine works by raising carnosine levels that buffer acidic waste products associated with high-intensity exercise, increasing the ability to perform high-intensity bursts in the 1-4 minute range ^[14][15].

In a recent systematic review of beta-alanine supplementation in combat sports, athletes showed increased strength, power, total work capacity, better perception of recovery from physical exertion, increased lean mass, and decreased fat mass ^[16].

Specifically to wrestlers, 4 g a day for 8 weeks led to a 1.1 lb increase in fat-free mass while losing 0.43 lbs, increased flexed arm isometric hang time by 1.5 sec, and decreased 300-yard shuttle time by 0.3 sec compared to placebo ^[17].

Amateur boxers who take 5 - 6 g daily increase punch frequency and punch force, reduce fatigue and enhance lower body peak power compared to placebo ^[18][19][20].

This evidence is enough for me to suggest taking beta-alanine daily is beneficial for wrestling performance.

You want to accumulate 179 g over 3 - 10 weeks to see endurance improvements ^[21]. Supplementing with 4 - 6 g daily split into 2 - 4 doses is a good way to do it.

Transparent Labs has a third-party banned substance tested beta-alanine for a great price.

Other Supplements You May Want To Take For Wrestling

This section contains supplements you may want to take but aren't entirely necessary for performance. However, using some of these can help when proper nutrition, sleep, and training habits are consistent.

Pre-Workout

Relying on stimulants to get through your workouts typically indicates problems elsewhere. Not enough sleep, too much training, not enough quality food, or too much stress.

However, stimulants can be useful when used strategically since caffeine is the most potent legal performance enhancer.

Other ingredients in pre-workout can potentially improve performance, but caffeine is the reason for most performance improvements.

The important features to look for are adequately dosed ingredients, informed sport tick, and moderate caffeine dose.

Transparent Labs Bulk is my recommended pre-workout since it ticks all these boxes.

Be wary of pre-workouts with ridiculous doses of caffeine and sub-optimal doses of other ingredients.

L-Citrulline

L-citrulline is the hot new endurance supplement that theoretically works as a vasodilator, increasing blood flow. It increases nitric oxide production by converting to l-arginine in the kidneys and then nitric oxide.

However, the research is inconsistent when studying this mechanism, even though we see improvements in endurance performance ^[11][12].

Regardless, all pre-workouts now contain this popular ingredient. Chronic doses over 7 days seem to show greater performance benefits, but 6-8 g can provide acute performance-enhancing benefits.

When taking chronically, doses between 3 - 12 g are adequate, but taking 6-8 g daily is your best bet.

Transparent Labs has a third-party tested L-citrulline that is banned substance-free.

Sodium Bicarbonate

This is a supplement you must be careful with. Most people should avoid it as it'll cause stomach discomfort. So try it before a training session, before using it before sparring or competition.

The premise resembles beta-alanine, where you can buffer acidic waste products to improve endurance.

For example, 10 national and international level amateur boxers ingested 0.3g per kg of body weight of sodium bicarbonate an hour before sparring. They progressively increased their work rate over 4 rounds compared to the placebo ^[22].

7 professional boxers showed similar results, increasing time to exhaustion compared to the placebo by over double the time.

The recommended dose is 0.3g per kg of bodyweight of baking soda between 1-2 hours before training. It's a lot to ingest, hence the common stomach discomfort, so try it before committing to it.

Nitrates

Increasing nitric oxide may boost blood flow to the working muscles to deliver oxygen during exercise. Beetroot juice and extract are common forms of dietary nitrates in supplement form.

Either 140 ml of beetroot juice or 1 g of beetroot extract taken daily improved strength and endurance in a range of combat athletes ^[23].

Bulk Supplements is a trustworthy brand with large bags of beetroot extract.

Brain Supplements For Wrestlers

Brain supplements, or the new age term "nootropics," are an exciting area of supplements. They either do nothing or give small changes to cognitive function.

They are a speculative category, but if you have the money to invest and experiment, these are the two I recommend.

Braini

Braini is one of the only brain supplements with third-party peer-reviewed research on their patented formulation. They used a 28-day intervention, taking Braini daily and performing the validated CNS Vital Signs test before and after to measure cognitive function ^[24].

They found, on average, a 7.8% increase in cognitive flexibility, executive function, and Executive Function Shifting Attention Test (SAT-RT) compared to placebo.

Cognitive flexibility supports adapting to complex instructions and translates to decision-making skills, which is important during wrestling competition.

Executive function translates to paying attention, sequencing instructions, switching focus between activities requiring memory, recalling details, and thinking creatively, which are needed during wrestling practice.

SAT-RT translates to more efficient, accurate, and quick responses in shifting attention environments like dealing with an opponent in wrestling.

NFL players are currently using Braini, so it's only a matter of time before it goes mainstream.

Real Mushrooms Lions Mane

Mushroom extracts have become hugely popular as health and wellness supplements. I had Jeff Chilton on the podcast to speak about his lifetime of research on the topic.

Many mushroom extracts are speculative at best. Little hard data supports the benefits, but as a potential upside, it may be worth taking the plunge.

Lions Mane, in particular, is known for its cognitive benefits. A recent systematic review found Lions Mane may improve mental processing speed and reduce stress in healthy adults ^[25].

Importantly, you must look for high-quality Lion's Mane, which Jeff's company provides. Take 2-3 g daily to see potential benefits.

Supplements To Avoid For Wrestling

The supplements to avoid are not because they are dangerous. But because they do absolutely nothing and are costing you hard-earned cash that can go into your food budget.

BCAAs

BCAAs are wasting your money. Total protein intake trumps all, and protein sources matter less when reaching the 0.8 g per pound of bodyweight target. Consuming BCAAs confers no further benefit when eating adequate daily protein ^[26].

Additionally, your whey protein and meat all contain BCAAs, so you don't need to load up on these three amino acids.

L-Glutamine

Despite the marketing, Glutamine provides no athletic performance or recovery benefits ^[27]. However, it may help with digestion issues for people with IBS, along with a low FODMAP diet ^[28].

Summary

Don't rely on these supplements to make you a better wrestler, but use them in conjunction with maximizing training, diet, and sleep. Only a few dietary supplements have significant performance-enhancing or recovery effects, with most being speculative.

If you’re on a budget, stick with supplements known to work. If you have more cash to play with, experiment with supplements with less evidence.

References

1. Valtueña, J., Dominguez, D., Til, L., González-Gross, M., & Drobnic, F. (2014). High prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency among elite Spanish athletes; the importance of outdoor training adaptation. Nutricion hospitalaria, 30(1), 124-131.
2. de la Puente Yagüe, M., Collado Yurrita, L., & Cuadrado Cenzual, M. A. (2020). Role of vitamin D in athletes and their performance: Current concepts and new trends. Nutrients, 12(2), 579.
3. Marley, A., Grant, M. C., & Babraj, J. (2021). Weekly Vitamin D3 supplementation improves aerobic performance in combat sport athletes. European Journal of Sport Science, 21(3), 379-387.
4. Marley, A., Grant, M. C., & Babraj, J. (2022). Vitamin D3 supplementation combined with sprint interval training improves aerobic and anaerobic exercise performance over sprint interval training alone in recreational combat sport athletes. Science & Sports, 37(3), 217-e1.
5. Antonio, J., Candow, D. G., Forbes, S. C., Gualano, B., Jagim, A. R., Kreider, R. B., ... & Ziegenfuss, T. N. (2021). Common questions and misconceptions about creatine supplementation: what does the scientific evidence really show?. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 18(1), 13.
6. Branch, J. D. (2003). Effect of creatine supplementation on body composition and performance: a meta-analysis. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 13(2), 198-226.
7. Rawson, E. S., & Volek, J. S. (2003). Effects of creatine supplementation and resistance training on muscle strength and weightlifting performance. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 17(4), 822-831.
8. Mielgo-Ayuso, J., Calleja-Gonzalez, J., Marqués-Jiménez, D., Caballero-García, A., Córdova, A., & Fernández-Lázaro, D. (2019). Effects of creatine supplementation on athletic performance in soccer players: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrients, 11(4), 757.
9. VanDusseldorp, T. A., Escobar, K. A., Johnson, K. E., Stratton, M. T., Moriarty, T., Kerksick, C. M., ... & Mermier, C. M. (2020). Impact of varying dosages of fish oil on recovery and soreness following eccentric exercise. Nutrients, 12(8), 2246.
10. Peoples, G. E., McLennan, P. L., Howe, P. R., & Groeller, H. (2008). Fish oil reduces heart rate and oxygen consumption during exercise. Journal of cardiovascular pharmacology, 52(6), 540-547.
11. Gonzalez, A. M., & Trexler, E. T. (2020). Effects of citrulline supplementation on exercise performance in humans: A review of the current literature. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 34(5), 1480-1495.
12. Gonzalez, A. M., Yang, Y., Mangine, G. T., Pinzone, A. G., Ghigiarelli, J. J., & Sell, K. M. (2023). Acute Effect of L-Citrulline Supplementation on Resistance Exercise Performance and Muscle Oxygenation in Recreationally Resistance Trained Men and Women. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, 8(3), 88.
13. Huerta Ojeda, A., Tapia Cerda, C., Poblete Salvatierra, M. F., Barahona-Fuentes, G., & Jorquera Aguilera, C. (2020). Effects of beta-alanine supplementation on physical performance in aerobic–anaerobic transition zones: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrients, 12(9), 2490.
14. Hobson, R. M., Saunders, B., Ball, G., Harris, R. C., & Sale, C. (2012). Effects of β-alanine supplementation on exercise performance: a meta-analysis. Amino acids, 43(1), 25-37.
15. Saunders, B., Elliott-Sale, K., Artioli, G. G., Swinton, P. A., Dolan, E., Roschel, H., ... & Gualano, B. (2017). β-alanine supplementation to improve exercise capacity and performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 51(8), 658-669.
16. Fernández-Lázaro, D., Fiandor, E. M., García, J. F., Busto, N., Santamaría-Peláez, M., Gutiérrez-Abejón, E., ... & Mielgo-Ayuso, J. (2023). β-Alanine Supplementation in Combat Sports: Evaluation of Sports Performance, Perception, and Anthropometric Parameters and Biochemical Markers—A Systematic Review of Clinical Trials. Nutrients, 15(17), 3755.
17. Kern, B. D., & Robinson, T. L. (2011). Effects of β-alanine supplementation on performance and body composition in collegiate wrestlers and football players. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 25(7), 1804-1815.
18. Donovan, T., Ballam, T., Morton, J. P., & Close, G. L. (2012). β-alanine improves punch force and frequency in amateur boxers during a simulated contest. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 22(5), 331-337.
19. Alabsi, K., Rashidlamir, A., & Dokht, E. H. (2023). The effect of 4 Weeks of strength training and beta-alanine supplementation on anaerobic power and carnosine level in boxer players. Journal of Science in Sport and Exercise, 5(1), 62-69.
20. Kim, K. J., Song, H. S., Yoon, D. H., Fukuda, D. H., Kim, S. H., & Park, D. H. (2018). The effects of 10 weeks of β-alanine supplementation on peak power, power drop, and lactate response in Korean national team boxers. Journal of exercise rehabilitation, 14(6), 985.
21. Hobson, R. M., Saunders, B., Ball, G., Harris, R. C., & Sale, C. (2012). Effects of β-alanine supplementation on exercise performance: a meta-analysis. Amino acids, 43, 25-37.
22. Siegler, J. C., & Hirscher, K. (2010). Sodium bicarbonate ingestion and boxing performance. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 24(1), 103-108.
23. Delleli, S., Ouergui, I., Messaoudi, H., Trabelsi, K., Glenn, J. M., Ammar, A., & Chtourou, H. (2023). Does Beetroot Supplementation Improve Performance in Combat Sports Athletes? A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials. Nutrients, 15(2), 398.
24. Lanou, A. J., Mast, A. C., Hill, B. D., Kim, S. S., & Hanaway, P. (2023). A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial of a Novel Dietary Supplement on Standardized CNS Vital Signs Cognitive Performance Parameters in Adults. Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine, 29(5), 303-312.
25. Docherty, S., Doughty, F. L., & Smith, E. F. (2023). The Acute and Chronic Effects of Lion’s Mane Mushroom Supplementation on Cognitive Function, Stress and Mood in Young Adults: A Double-Blind, Parallel Groups, Pilot Study. Nutrients, 15(22), 4842.
26. Plotkin, D. L., Delcastillo, K., Van Every, D. W., Tipton, K. D., Aragon, A. A., & Schoenfeld, B. J. (2021). Isolated leucine and branched-chain amino acid supplementation for enhancing muscular strength and hypertrophy: A narrative review. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 31(3), 292-301.
27. Ahmadi, A. R., Rayyani, E., Bahreini, M., & Mansoori, A. (2019). The effect of glutamine supplementation on athletic performance, body composition, and immune function: A systematic review and a meta-analysis of clinical trials. Clinical nutrition, 38(3), 1076-1091.
28. Rastgoo, S., Ebrahimi-Daryani, N., Agah, S., Karimi, S., Taher, M., Rashidkhani, B., ... & Hekmatdoost, A. (2021). Glutamine supplementation enhances the effects of a low FODMAP diet in irritable bowel syndrome management. Frontiers in Nutrition, 8, 746703.

Critical Points to A Powerful Punch

Best Exercises To Punch Harder And Faster

Typically, these should be done in the 3 – 6 rep range, as increased muscle size is not usually the desired outcome. Each exercise mentioned is in the video below.

Jump Squat

The jump squat is an epic exercise for blasting knockout power. You can load it in many ways to target specific parts of the force-velocity spectrum. For example, loading >80% body weight targets the quality of strength speed.

<10% body weight targets speed-strength quality, while training at loads between 30-45% 1RM squat targets the load that maximizes power output.

Band Assisted Jump

No one talks about this exercise. It is the most effective way of training pure speed. Strong legs are great, but you need to be able to produce force very quickly. Jumping with less than bodyweight is your ticket to developing game-changing speed.

You will need to tie a band to the top of a rack. Like in the video above, you can hold or wrap the band under your arms. I prefer it this way.

Squat

You can't go past the squat for pure strength development of the legs. Front squat, back squat, split squat, doesn't matter. As long as you can load it relatively heavy, you will build stronger legs that can carry over to punching power.

Landmine Rotation

My favorite trunk exercise for boxers. Do you want to improve your ability to rotate hard and fast with your trunk and hips?

You need to perform the Landmine Rotation. Make sure you turn your hip and pivot your feet. Don't stand like a stiff statue, which you often see in other videos.

Bench Press

Less informed people will tell you the bench press makes you slow. Sure, if all you did was bench press heavy and never did anything at speed.

But we know that the speed at which you move the barbell while benching is highly correlated with punching power. So, it would be silly not to use this exercise in your quest for knockout power.

Medicine Ball Punch Throw

Easily my favorite upper-body ballistic exercise for strikers. Sure, you can perform plyometric (clap) push-ups. But they don't give you the sequencing of the punch that the medicine ball does.

Keep these light. A 2-3 kg (4-6 lb) medicine ball is more than enough. Try to replicate your punch exactly.

Punch More!

Boxing experience is associated with how hard you can punch. So it goes without saying the more time you can spend practicing your punch technique, the better you will get at punching. Resulting in a harder and faster punch.

Here are some example programs that can be used and tinkered with for someone trying to punch harder. These are general and provide a framework for those looking for guidance.

Remember, with strength & conditioning training, certain capacities that aren't trained while doing the sport should be touched on during strength training. For example, generating very high levels of force rarely occurs (depending on the martial art).

Theoretically, submaximal force outputs become easier when you increase the maximum level of force you can produce, increasing work capacity or conditioning.

Factors Of Punching Harder & Faster

One of the earliest studies, if not the earliest, looked at contributions to punching forces in different levels of boxers (experienced, intermediate, and novice) and in different styles of boxers (knockout artists, players, and speedsters) ^[3].

They identified 3 different components of an effective punch:

Table adapted from ^[3].

Experienced boxers had more significant contributions from the legs (38.46%) compared to other levels of boxers and compared to arm (24.12%) and trunk (37.42%) contributions.

They also showed less arm musculature involvement compared to other boxer levels (advanced = 24.12%; intermediate = 25.94%; novice = 37.99%) and compared to trunk and leg contribution.

In regards to the different styles, knockout artists had more significant contributions from the legs (38.65%) compared to "players" (32.81%) and "speedsters" (32.55%), along with a higher contribution than the trunk (37.30%) and arms (24.05%).

More recent research has investigated the strength and power qualities of elite amateur boxers from the Brazilian National Team ^[2]. As the research above indicated about legs being a primary contributor to punching power, this study observed very high correlations between jumping performance and punching harder.

Furthermore, upper body propulsive forces in the bench press and bench throw showed very high correlations with punching harder. These correlations indicate that jump performance could potentially explain 78% of a hard punch.

A correlation indicates how 2 different variables interact with each other. If the correlation is 0, then both variables are independent and have no relationship with each other. If the correlation is 1, the 2 variables share a mutual relationship.

Another study investigating the Brazilian National Team found short-term jump squats and half squats performed at optimal power load (load that maximizes peak power) transferred to punching impact force
^[7].

Interestingly, this study did not find the bench press at optimal power load to transfer to punching impact. Perhaps the load was too light as bench press velocity at 80% 1RM has been highly related to punching velocity.

One of the most telling studies published recently correlated physical testing with punch impact forces and compared how low, medium, and high force National amateur boxers differed among these tests ^[8].

They found countermovement jump (CMJ) and isometric mid-thigh pull (IMTP) peak force and peak power significantly correlated with peak punching force.

Indicating lower body strength is an essential quality to punch hard and fast. When comparing low, medium, and high punch force boxers, rate of force development (RFD) during the IMTP was significantly greater in the high punch force boxers compared to medium and low.

These brackets were calculated as follows:

Further, peak force during the IMTP and CMJ were significantly greater in the high force cohort. Peak power during the CMJ and force generated in 5 ms followed the same trend.

It is suggested from the data presented that boxers who punch harder have greater contributions from their legs based on greater strength and power outputs of the lower body.

This indicates these combat athletes better coordinate the various body segments ^[3].

The impact forces from the punch are the resultant sum of forces applied simultaneously by the upper and lower limbs ^[2][3]. In essence, effective coordination of the body links increases “hitting mass” ^[3]. Why is “hitting mass” important? We can look at Newton’s 2^nd law.

Force = Mass x Acceleration. The size of an athlete does not always equal a harder punch.

If we can increase the mass behind the punch while maintaining the same acceleration, the impact force of the punch increases.

Furthermore, suppose you throw a punch as fast as possible at an intended target, but contact is only made halfway through the punch.

In that case, you cannot maximize mass due to the musculature being relaxed and the summation of forces from the ground not being applied appropriately ^[4].

This is where the concept of "effective mass" comes into play and could be a pivotal component to punching harder.

What Is Effective Mass & How Does It Relate To Harder Punches?

Seth Lenetsky and colleagues reference anecdotal evidence from the one and only Bruce Lee. He emphasizes the importance of relaxing the body as you strike, tensing at the last possible moment before impact.

Similarly, Jack Dempsey (a world champion boxer) states that punches should be thrown as relaxed as possible, only becoming 'frozen, steel-hard' at impact.

Both elite martial artists (without them knowing) were referring to increasing the effective mass of their strike, improving the ability to transfer momentum throughout the body to the intended target.

“If an athlete is able to relax their arm throughout a strike, and then stiffen their arm at the last possible moment, theoretically that strike would impact with greater force than one thrown with constant activation or stiffness”
^[4].

If an athlete were a solid uniformly block of mass (e.g., a fridge), then the calculation of punching impact force would be easy. The uniform mass would just be plugged into Newton's 2^nd law above.

However, athletes are made of multiple moving segments with both rigid (bone) and soft (muscle) structures ^[4]. This is important as soft structures can deform at impact, coined as "wobbling mass."

"Wobbling mass" cannot transmit impact forces as effectively as a rigid mass, so your ability to punch hard is directly affected. The greater the rigidity of the impact mass (arm, trunk, and legs), the less elastic the collision is.

The less elastic the collision, the greater momentum (Momentum = Mass x Velocity) imparted on the target ^[4]. Take, for example, swinging two different objects at someone.

Firstly, a pool noodle is swung as hard as possible. Due to the soft mass of a pool noodle, at impact, the noodle wraps around the target, and at the point of impact, the noodle deforms slightly and creates a slight indent.

Now, take a wooden stick or bat with approximately the same mass as the noodle. When swung at the target at the same velocity as the pool noodle, the stick is rigid and can transfer more momentum to the target due to its greater effective mass. Effective mass is used to quantify the impacts of this "wobbling mass" in humans ^[4].

Referring to Lenetsky et al., previous research has found that increasing muscle contraction and co-contraction (opposing muscle groups both contracting simultaneously, increasing joint stability) around a given joint can reduce the deformation during impact, allowing for a greater effective mass and a more brutal punch.

You can listen to Seth talk about this in his podcast appearance below:

Additionally, the more segments involved in a movement, the greater the potential to enhance effective mass
^[4]. For example, stepping forward during a jab would increase the impact force compared to just throwing the arm.

At the start of the impact, two aspects of the punch need to be satisfied to transfer momentum. Firstly, all joints supporting the impact need to be stiffened (as mentioned previously) to prevent the collapse of the joint or "wobbling mass."

Secondly, it is theorized that to maximize the effectiveness of a punch, an additional force needs to be added during the time of impact
^[4].

The authors state that force needs to be timed carefully to coincide with the deceleration of the impact, as this is the only time force may be effectively applied.

Force applied after impact could be theorized to push at the target rather than deform it. This leads us to a critical neuromuscular phenomenon thought to cause changes in effective mass ^[4].

Double Peak Muscle Activation Phenomenon

This striking technique has been found in elite mixed martial artists ^[9].

Double peak muscle activation refers to the involved muscle groups activating, relaxing, and then re-activating (hence the double peak).

The first peak occurs as the punch is initiated, and the relaxation period occurs throughout the movement until the second peak in activation moments before impact.

It has been claimed to occur because of the velocity needed to appropriately interact with an opponent ^[4].

The force-velocity relationship shows that velocity and force are inversely related; as velocity increases, the force decreases during multi-joint movements ^[6]. However, appropriate levels of impact force are also needed for the punch to be effective.

What is interesting to note is that double peak activation occurs in trained and non-trained individuals. However, the second peak occurred much earlier for non-trained individuals and lasted much longer
^[4].

Therefore, non-trained individuals will intuitively stiffen the joints to brace for anticipated impact and protect the limbs. The early activation will tend to slow the velocity of the punch, thereby reducing the effective mass.

A high-level martial artist will tense at the moment of impact and continue to push through the impact to deliver a harder punch. This is believed to separate the novice from the expert ^[4].

What Does Data From Elite Fighters Say?

Wes Elliott from Striketec was kind enough to provide me with data and graphs from the hundreds of thousands of punch data he’s collected with his StrikeTec punch sensors.

On the Sweet Science of Fighting podcast, he states that the most significant factor for a hard punch is the initial acceleration. This is illustrated in the graph below:

Here are the main points it illustrates from Wes:

A punch with high acceleration at impact and a solid follow-through (hitting through the bag or opponent) makes the force spike last longer, covering more area under the curve (shaded area).

This is known as impulse (force x time = mass x velocity). But if you follow through too long to increase impulse, like the blue line shows, without good acceleration at impact, the force transferred to the opponent won't be as much.

Above is another graph representing the punch. You're seeing a picture of a punch from start to finish. Here's how to make sense of it:

Engagement - The engagement point is where the punch starts getting serious. It's where the acceleration begins to ramp up.

The Plateau - Before the punch reaches its peak, there's a flat, high region on the graph called the plateau. It's like the boxer is gathering up for the big hit.

The Toe - Right before the plateau, there’s a dip on the graph known as the toe. It's where the punch is just about to rev up.

Magnitude of Acceleration - The graph shows how fast the acceleration builds up and cools down. This is the magnitude of acceleration. It goes up as the punch speeds up and comes down as the punch slows down.

Beginning of the Punch - This is where it all starts on the graph, right where the toe meets the time axis. It’s the point where the boxer begins to throw the punch.

This graph lays out the anatomy of a punch. From the moment the boxer decides to throw it, to the point of impact, and the follow-through.

By understanding these points on the graph, you get a clear picture of what’s happening with each punch thrown.

Listen to Wes explain all of this in his episode below:

How To Punch Harder & Faster

Before diving into some training applications to enhance punching power, you should note that the most significant influence on improving effective mass and, therefore, punching harder, is experience.

The more you punch a target, the better you will enhance effective mass ^[4].

However, using an 'energy shout' could help immediately deliver a more brutal punch.

An 'energy shout' made pre-impact of a strike can potentially increase effective mass ^[4]. This could be why tennis players loudly grunt whenever they strike the ball.

When training, there is evidence that choosing your combinations of strikes enhances punching velocity by 6-11% and impact forces by 5-10% ^[5].

When hitting pads or the heavy bag, rather than pre-determined combinations, self-select your own, and you can punch harder and faster in training, which may lead to positive long-term adaptations.

As the initial acceleration of a punch is vital, as determined from Wes Elliot's data, reactive strength is an essential physical quality. But it's more than physical qualities that enable fast initial acceleration.

It’s about anticipation, knowledge of the situation, pattern recognition, and visual scanning—all cognitive factors relating to agility.

You develop these through years of sparring. Not all-out brawls. Sparring under different constraints. It could be tempo, only being allowed to throw certain punches or smaller and bigger ring sizes.

This cognitive work, paired with the physical factors of speed and power, will develop harder punches.

Proper Technique To Punch Hard

Let's start with your stance. Your feet should be slightly wider than shoulder-width to provide you with a solid base to punch from. Your knees will be slightly bent.

As you throw your punch (in this instance, the cross or rear hand punch), your back foot will pivot toward your punch with your heel lifted off the floor.

Rotate hard and fast with your trunk while simultaneously dropping your body weight down like you are "sitting on your punch." Turn your hips in the direction of your punch with this rotation.

Keep your shoulders, arms, and hands relaxed while throwing the punch. Turn your fist over by pronating your hand while punching. You are aiming to make contact with your index and middle finger knuckles.

If you are not wearing gloves, making contact with your ring or pinky finger knuckles will likely cause them to break. Exhale sharply when you punch to take advantage of the 'energy shout.'

Common Punching Mistakes

Not Staying Grounded

To generate and transfer force effectively from the ground to your hands, you must stay on the ground when throwing a punch. This will allow you to develop the greatest effective mass.

Being Too Stiff

Just because you feel you're putting maximum effort into your punches does not mean they will be hard and fast. Stiffness will slow down your punches, as shown by the double-peak muscle activation phenomenon. Fast and loose is your ticket to a harder punch. It should feel almost effortless.

Throwing Wild Punches

Like being too stiff, throwing full-blown haymakers are slow and soft punches and leave you open to getting countered very easily.

Overreaching

Extending too far by throwing your body weight forward will only throw you off balance, not help you punch harder. You should be able to throw with power and return to your boxing stance immediately or after another punch. This is known as "sitting on your punch."

Poor Distance Control

You need to know your range. Making contact with an opponent only halfway through the punch reduces punching impact force because you cannot transfer force effectively to the target.

Punch Harder Workout

Beginner Workout For Harder Punches

Preparing for more intense work in the future. Developing a general strength base.

Day 1

Day 2

Advanced Workout To Punch Harder

Day 1

Day 2

References

1. Lenetsky, Seth, Nigel Harris, and Matt Brughelli. "Assessment and contributors of punching forces in combat sports athletes: Implications for strength and conditioning." Strength & Conditioning Journal 35.2 (2013): 1-7.

2. Luturco, I., Nakamura, F, Artioli, G, Kobal, R, Kitamura, K, Cal Abad, C, Cruz, I, Romano, F, Pereira, L, & Franchini, E., Strength and power qualities are highly associated with punching impact in elite amateur boxers. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2016. 30(1): p. 109-116.

3. Filimonov VI, K.K., Husyanov ZM, & Nazarov SS., Means of increasing strength of the punch. NSCA Journal, 1985. 7: p. 65-66.

4. Lenetsky, S., Nates, R, Brughelli, M, Harris, N., Is effective mass in combat sports punching above its weight? Human Movement Science, 2015. 40: p. 89-97.

5. Halperin, I., Chapman, D. W., Martin, D. T., Lewthwaite, R., & Wulf, G. (2017). Choices enhance punching performance of competitive kickboxers. Psychological research, 81(5), 1051-1058.

6. Andersen, L. L., Andersen, J. L., Magnusson, S. P., Suetta, C., Madsen, J. L., Christensen, L. R., & Aagaard, P. (2005). Changes in the human muscle force-velocity relationship in response to resistance training and subsequent detraining. Journal of Applied Physiology, 99(1), 87-94.

7. Loturco, I., Pereira, L. A., Kobal, R., Fernandes, V., Reis, V. P., Romano, F., … & McGuigan, M. (2019). Transference Effect of Short-Term Optimum Power Load Training on the Punching Impact of Elite Boxers. Journal of strength and conditioning research.

8. Dunn, E. C., Humberstone, C. E., Franchini, E., Iredale, K. F., & Blazevich, A. J. (2022). Relationships between punch impact force and upper-and lower-body muscular strength and power in highly trained amateur boxers. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 36(4), 1019-1025.

9. McGill, S. M., Chaimberg, J. D., Frost, D. M., & Fenwick, C. M. (2010). Evidence of a double peak in muscle activation to enhance strike speed and force: an example with elite mixed martial arts fighters. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 24(2), 348-357.

Creatine Monohydrate

Creatine is one of the most misunderstood supplements on the market. So much so, I had to write a separate creatine for BJJ article to break down what it does and bust the myths surrounding this well-researched supplement.

To give a brief rundown of how creatine works, you have enough creatine to saturate the muscle when ingested as a supplement. What does that mean and do? Our muscles use adenosine triphosphate (ATP) for energy to contract. Triphosphate means three phosphate molecules.

These phosphate molecules bind to creatine to make phosphocreatine (PCr). As a muscle uses ATP for energy, it loses a phosphate molecule turning it into adenosine diphosphate, meaning two phosphates.

To turn back to ATP, it needs to replenish this phosphate. So, the stored PCr is used instantly, regenerating ATP that the muscle can use. This means you now have more energy stored for the alactic energy system.

Resulting in increasing strength by 8%, performing more reps at a given load by 14%, and enhancing anaerobic power
^[23,24]. Highly applicable to the sport of BJJ. Further, if you remember our little science lesson in the pre-training section, the accumulation of H⁺ ions leads to fatigue.

PCr consumes H⁺ ions, delaying the time to fatigue during very high-intensity exercise, hence performing more reps at a given load ^[25]. Creatine also enhances the ability to replenish glycogen, so you have more fuel to create ATP ^[26].

How Much Creatine Monohydrate To Take?

5 g per day is the recommended dose for creatine to see results. It’s as simple as that. It doesn't matter when you take it. Just make it a routine, so you don't forget. For example, with your post-workout shake or pre-workout meal.

Beta-Alanine

Beta-alanine is known for giving a tingly or itching feeling to the skin after ingestion. Many people equate this feeling to their pre-workouts “working.” But that's not the case. It is simply a harmless side effect of taking beta-alanine known as paresthesia ^[1].

Beta-alanine works by buffering hydrogen ions within the muscle extending your time to fatigue. Let me explain. During high-intensity exercise like BJJ, lactate starts to accumulate within the muscles. This is that “burn” feeling followed by the subsequent fatigue. An easy example of this is the leg fatigue you feel trying to hold closed guard too long.

But this "burn" is not caused by the rise in blood lactate but rather the associated increase in hydrogen ions (H⁺). As hydrogen ions accumulate, they turn the muscle environment acidic lowering the pH. This reduction in pH negatively affects the contractile ability of the muscle and, therefore, results in fatigue.

By taking beta-alanine, we can delay the time to fatigue by removing hydrogen ions, so the muscle remains at a neutral pH level for longer. It does this by increasing carnosine levels, which buffers or removes these H⁺ ions.

How do we know this works? Beta-alanine has been shown to extend high-intensity exercise duration in the 1–4-minute range meaning you can hold a higher intensity for longer ^[2,3].

How Much Beta-Alanine To Take?

30 mg per kilogram of body weight 60 minutes before training is the recommended dose. So, if you weigh 70 kg, 2.1 g of beta-alanine is what's needed. Beta-alanine is a supplement you'll want to take daily to increase carnosine levels in the body.

If you can’t handle the tingling sensation with higher doses, you can split your dose throughout the day. For example, 0.7 g three times per day. I always recommend buying the raw ingredients in bulk as they are far cheaper and last you a long time.

L-Citrulline

L-citrulline reports similar benefits to beta-alanine prolonging exercise but through a different mechanism. L-citrulline is a nitric oxide booster meaning it dilates the blood vessels so more blood can flow freely to the working muscles.

The more blood, the more oxygen delivered to the muscles improving endurance performance ^[4].

If you remember the NO Explode days, that product used L-arginine to boost nitric oxide. However, there was one BIG flaw with this product. L-arginine is poorly absorbed in the gut, so the nitric oxide boost is negligible.

L-citrulline is a precursor to L-arginine. Instead of being converted in the gut, it is converted to L-arginine in the kidneys, bypassing the absorption issue. 

Interestingly, nitric oxide may reduce the need for oxygen and ATP during exercise while enhancing the efficiency of the mitochondria to produce energy ^[4]. How do we know it works?

L-citrulline has been shown to increase the number of repetitions to failure in both lower and upper body exercise, improve maximal grip strength, reduce muscular soreness after training, increase time to exhaustion during moderate-intensity exercise, and improve the feelings of muscular fatigue after exercise ^[4,5,6].

All things necessary for BJJ!

How Much L-Citrulline To Take?

You should take L-citrulline every day. Anywhere from 3-8 g per day approximately 60 minutes before training. The research shows doses of 6-8 g to be most effective.

Sodium Bicarbonate

Wait. Isn’t sodium bicarbonate just baking soda? You are right on the money. The ingredient you use to bake your cake is a performance enhancer. In fact, I labeled it the best pre-workout for cardio. The reason no one is recommending this ingredient to you is twofold:

• Not many people know about it, and
• It is dirt cheap, so the affiliate commission for people is not worth the hassle.

But I only care about giving you proven, scientific, and practical recommendations that work. Sodium bicarbonate is one of them. Again, we are looking at similar outcomes to beta-alanine. Where sodium bicarbonate slightly raises the pH levels within the muscle extending the time before acidity gets too high and fatigue hits. It has been shown to increase power output and the time to exhaustion ^[7].

It has been extensively studied in most martial arts. For example, BJJ practitioners found no improvements in isometric leg strength to fatigue after taking sodium bicarbonate ^[8]. Wait, didn’t I say this was a performance enhancer?

It’s important to note that endurance in this study was measured with a test emphasizing force production hence why no improvement was likely seen. But luckily, we have research in Judo and elite wrestling.

We see judoka can perform more throws during the special Judo fitness test and produce greater upper body average and peak power relative to bodyweight after taking sodium bicarbonate ^[9,10]. But that’s not all!

Elite wrestlers could also perform more throws during a specific dummy throw test ^[11]. However, this was exclusive to male athletes.

How Much Sodium Bicarbonate Should You Take?

The recommended dose is between 0.2-0.4 g per kilogram of bodyweight 60-120 minutes before training ^[12]. Using our 70 kg BJJ athlete example, 14-28 g of sodium bicarbonate. That can be a lot to stomach. Some people may experience gastrointestinal discomfort taking this much at once.

So, another strategy is to take the total dose and split it into three doses throughout the day ^[13]. This way, you still get the benefits without the stomach problems.

Caffeine L-Theanine Stack

This is a lesser-known caffeine hack. If you drink caffeine regularly, you'll have vast experience with its performance-enhancing effects. Caffeine improves power and sprint performance by 6.5%, increases the number of reps performed in a set by 9.4%, enhances endurance performance by 2.22%, and power output by 2.9% ^[14,15].

What happens we add L-theanine to the mix? For one, it takes the "edge off" caffeine, so if you are sensitive and get jittery, L-theanine will mitigate this feeling ^[16]. It has a synergistic effect and is one of the original nootropic stacks.

Nootropics, also known as smart drugs or brain enhancers, focus on improving cognitive function. The benefit of the caffeine L-theanine stack is it enhances both physical and cognitive performance. Such as enhanced reaction time, speed of visual processing, working memory, alertness, and reduced tiredness and mental fatigue ^[17,18].

How Much Caffeine L-Theanine To Take?

The recommended dose for caffeine alone is 3-6 mg per kilogram of bodyweight. This is a large dose, so if you are not accustomed to caffeine, start with 100 mg. However, doses can be much smaller when combined with L-theanine.

A 2:1 ratio of L-theanine to caffeine is the optimal ratio, with a standard dose being 200 mg of L-theanine and 100 mg of caffeine taken 30-60 minutes before training.

Because L-theanine is being sold in higher doses, I've recently played around with 400 mg of L-theanine with 100 mg of caffeine and got a similar effect. So it is worth experimenting with both doses to find what works for you.

Best Intra Workout Supplements For BJJ

If you’re training hard for over an hour, it can be worth using a carbohydrate supplement to replenish energy. It will help you train harder for longer. While sports drinks are an obvious choice, carbohydrate supplements can also be used and are far cheaper. You will need to add flavor of some kind, however.

Maltodextrin

Maltodextrin is a simple form of carbohydrate. Essentially sugar without the sweetness. It mixes well with whey protein, a great post-workout option, but you don't want to sip on this concoction during training. It'll make you feel sick.

Instead, pure maltodextrin with some form of flavoring will do the trick. It could be some form of tablet fizzy or flavor drops. Depending on your carbohydrate requirements, you can add maltodextrin to your sports drink for a carbohydrate top-up as well.

But why carbohydrates from maltodextrin during training? Glucose is your primary fuel source to replenish energy for your working muscles. It is also the fastest to convert to energy. In contrast, fats and proteins need to go through various conversions to be turned into glucose.

By supplying the muscles with more glucose, we can potentially delay fatigue for 30-60 minutes ^[19].

How Much Maltodextrin To Take?

It seems taking 40-75 g of carbohydrates per hour is enough to enhance performance. If you know you have a tough two-hour BJJ session, starting to sip on carbohydrates after 30-45 minutes will keep you fueled for the rest of the session.

Best Post-Workout Supplements For BJJ

The goal of the post-workout supplement is to help with recovery. Not everything on this list is to enhance recovery directly after training with some of these supplements that you can take any time of the day.

Whey Protein

If there's one supplement to start with on this list, it is whey protein. If you struggle to reach your daily protein target or want a cost-effective and high-quality protein source, you’ve found it.

It has some of the highest essential amino acids (EAA) counts, spiking muscle protein synthesis (the building of new muscle) to the greatest extent. However, not everyone can digest whey protein well due to lactose intolerance, or some may be avoiding dairy products.

In the first instance, opting for a whey isolate ensures little to no lactose within the protein powder, making it easy to digest. For the second instance, beef protein powders make great alternatives.

Even though they don’t give the initial spike in the protein synthetic response, they result in similar improvements in building muscle and increasing performance as in whey protein ^[22].

How Much Whey Protein To Take?

This entirely depends on your bodyweight and protein requirements. 20 g of protein from whey has been shown to induce a muscle-building response, so one scoop of your favorite protein powder will work.

Mass Gainer

A mass gainer is not entirely necessary. But it can be an easy meal replacement after training if you are short on time. For example, hitting the midday class in your lunch break. In this case, a mass gainer makes perfect sense as you can pound a shake on your way back to work and have a full meal from it.

A mass gainer simply has a boatload of carbohydrates and protein with a small amount of fat to create a meal in powder form. But how do you know which one is right for you? Many are on the market, and many are filled with crap.

One of the best I’ve come across is Crazy Nutrition’s Mass Gainer. It’s one of the few that uses natural food ingredients as the carbohydrate source, such as sweet potato and oats, so you get additional micronutrient benefits, and it'll sit better in your stomach.

Further, it has digestive enzymes, so you don't feel bloated after drinking it.

How Much Mass Gainer To Take?

One serving of the chocolate flavor is 695 calories making it a pretty dense meal. If that’s too much, you can halve it giving you an easy 350 calories for recovery.

Fish Oil

Fish oil is not a magic supplement as it is often made out to be. But it is an excellent general health supplement to take. Taking fish oil can reduce triglyceride levels which, in turn, can potentially reduce your risk of heart attack ^[27].

Further, fish oil supplementation can reduce the resting heart rate in those somewhat out of shape ^[29].

You can't go out and buy any fish oil supplement. Most are low quality. You can tell by seeing how much of the fish oil capsule contains EPA and DHA. In a 1000 mg capsule, the most common ratio is 180 mg EPA and 120 mg DHA.

This means the other 700 mg is a filler. Look for double or triple-dose products that contain more than 50% EPA and DHA.

How Much Fish Oil To Take?

The consensus is at least 1 g of combined EPA and DHA per day. I like to be on the higher end, closer to 2 g combined EPA and DHA.

Vitamin D

Don’t sleep on vitamin D. As BJJ is an indoor sport, you may be missing out on this essential vitamin delivered from the sun. For example, indoor sporting athletes in this study were all moderately deficient in vitamin D or worse ^[28].

Supplementing with vitamin D is essential as it's associated with bone mineral density, influences muscle growth of Type II muscle fibers, improves strength and performance, may accelerate rehabilitation, and strengthens the immune system ^[30].

If possible, always opt for getting sun on your skin every day. But this isn’t always possible depending on the season and where you live.

How Much Vitamin D To Take?

1000-2000 IUs per day is the general recommendation. You can take it any time of the day like creatine, so find a time that becomes a routine.

Glucosamine Sulfate

Joint supplements are generally reserved for those suffering from osteoarthritis to reduce symptoms. While glucosamine can be used for this purpose, it may also play a protective role.

For example, soccer players supplementing with glucosamine sulfate reduced the rate of collagen degradation, indicating it may preserve your joints ^[31]. We know as BJJ practitioners that our joints can start to hurt when things have been cranked on!

How Much Glucosamine Sulfate To Take?

High doses of 3000 mg are recommended to slow joint degradation.

BJJ Supplements That Didn’t Make The Cut

Pre-Workout

While pre-workouts can be convenient, they are often underdosed, so you don't reap any of the ingredient's major benefits. For example, there is no way you can fit 10+ grams of sodium bicarbonate within a formulated pre-workout.

It is always better to form your own with pure ingredients so you can dose them correctly. Secondly, pre-workouts can be heavy on caffeine which is problematic for anyone sensitive to caffeine.

L-Glutamine

Glutamine is an amino acid already found in high concentrations in whey protein, meat, and eggs. If you eat these regularly, then you likely take more than enough. Unfortunately, evidence suggests glutamine does not aid in the muscle-building process, but it may improve gut health. This may be in individuals who are protein deficient or vegan, though.

BCAA

You may be wondering why I haven’t recommended branch chain amino acids (BCAAs) as a supplement to take during training. BCAAs serve no further benefit when getting adequate daily protein ^[20]. BCAAs are a waste of money and serve no purpose other than to flavor your water.

Summary

The best supplements for BJJ should directly enhance BJJ performance, recovery or fill gaps within your diet. Remember, supplements are to supplement your diet, and most of your nutrition should come from food sources.

References

1. Huerta Ojeda, Á., Tapia Cerda, C., Poblete Salvatierra, M. F., Barahona-Fuentes, G., & Jorquera Aguilera, C. (2020). Effects of beta-alanine supplementation on physical performance in aerobic–anaerobic transition zones: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrients, 12(9), 2490.

2. Hobson, R. M., Saunders, B., Ball, G., Harris, R. C., & Sale, C. (2012). Effects of β-alanine supplementation on exercise performance: a meta-analysis. Amino acids, 43(1), 25-37.

3. Saunders, B., Elliott-Sale, K., Artioli, G. G., Swinton, P. A., Dolan, E., Roschel, H., ... & Gualano, B. (2017). β-alanine supplementation to improve exercise capacity and performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 51(8), 658-669.

4. Gonzalez, A. M., & Trexler, E. T. (2020). Effects of citrulline supplementation on exercise performance in humans: A review of the current literature. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 34(5), 1480-1495.

5. Bailey, S. J., Blackwell, J. R., Lord, T., Vanhatalo, A., Winyard, P. G., & Jones, A. M. (2015). l-Citrulline supplementation improves O2 uptake kinetics and high-intensity exercise performance in humans. Journal of Applied Physiology.

6. Suzuki, T., Morita, M., Kobayashi, Y., & Kamimura, A. (2016). Oral L-citrulline supplementation enhances cycling time trial performance in healthy trained men: Double-blind randomized placebo-controlled 2-way crossover study. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 13(1), 1-8.

7. Lavender, G., & Bird, S. R. (1989). Effect of sodium bicarbonate ingestion upon repeated sprints. British journal of sports medicine, 23(1), 41-45.

8. Ragone, L., Vieira, J. G., Laterza, M. C., Leitão, L., da Silva Novaes, J., Vianna, J. M., & Dias, M. R. (2020). Acute Effect of Sodium Bicarbonate Supplementation on Symptoms of Gastrointestinal Discomfort, Acid‐Base Balance, and Performance of Jiu‐Jitsu Athletes. Journal of Human Kinetics, 75(1), 85-93.

9. Artioli, G. G., Gualano, B., Coelho, D. F., Benatti, F. B., Gailey, A. W., & Lancha, A. H. (2007). Does sodium-bicarbonate ingestion improve simulated judo performance?. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 17(2), 206-217.

10. Felippe, L. C., Lopes-Silva, J. P., Bertuzzi, R., McGinley, C., & Lima-Silva, A. E. (2016). Separate and combined effects of caffeine and sodium-bicarbonate intake on judo performance. International journal of sports physiology and performance, 11(2), 221-226.

11. Durkalec-Michalski, K., Zawieja, E. E., Podgórski, T., Zawieja, B. E., Michałowska, P., Łoniewski, I., & Jeszka, J. (2018). The effect of a new sodium bicarbonate loading regimen on anaerobic capacity and wrestling performance. Nutrients, 10(6), 697.

12. Peart, D. J., Siegler, J. C., & Vince, R. V. (2012). Practical recommendations for coaches and athletes: a meta-analysis of sodium bicarbonate use for athletic performance. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 26(7), 1975-1983.

13. Rezaei, S., Akbari, K., Gahreman, D. E., Sarshin, A., Tabben, M., Kaviani, M., … & Naderi, A. (2019). Caffeine and sodium bicarbonate supplementation alone or together improve karate performance. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 16(1), 1-8.

14. Astorino, T. A., & Roberson, D. W. (2010). Efficacy of acute caffeine ingestion for short-term high-intensity exercise performance: a systematic review. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 24(1), 257-265.

15. Southward, K., Rutherfurd-Markwick, K. J., & Ali, A. (2018). The effect of acute caffeine ingestion on endurance performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 48(8), 1913-1928.

16. Mason, R. (2001). 200 mg of Zen: L-theanine boosts alpha waves, promotes alert relaxation. Alternative & Complementary Therapies, 7(2), 91-95.

17. Haskell, C. F., Kennedy, D. O., Milne, A. L., Wesnes, K. A., & Scholey, A. B. (2008). The effects of L-theanine, caffeine and their combination on cognition and mood. Biological psychology, 77(2), 113-122.

18. Owen, G. N., Parnell, H., De Bruin, E. A., & Rycroft, J. A. (2008). The combined effects of L-theanine and caffeine on cognitive performance and mood. Nutritional neuroscience, 11(4), 193-198.

19. Coyle, E. F. (1992). Carbohydrate supplementation during exercise. The Journal of nutrition, 122(suppl_3), 788-795.

20. Plotkin, D. L., Delcastillo, K., Van Every, D. W., Tipton, K. D., Aragon, A. A., & Schoenfeld, B. J. (2021). Isolated leucine and branched-chain amino acid supplementation for enhancing muscular strength and hypertrophy: A narrative review. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 31(3), 292-301.

21. Naclerio, F., & Larumbe-Zabala, E. (2016). Effects of whey protein alone or as part of a multi-ingredient formulation on strength, fat-free mass, or lean body mass in resistance-trained individuals: a meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 46(1), 125-137.

22. Sharp, M. H., Lowery, R. P., Shields, K. A., Lane, J. R., Gray, J. L., Partl, J. M., ... & Wilson, J. M. (2018). The effects of beef, chicken, or whey protein after workout on body composition and muscle performance. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 32(8), 2233-2242.

23. Rawson, E. S., & Volek, J. S. (2003). Effects of creatine supplementation and resistance training on muscle strength and weightlifting performance. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 17(4), 822-831.

24. Mielgo-Ayuso, J., Calleja-Gonzalez, J., Marqués-Jiménez, D., Caballero-García, A., Córdova, A., & Fernández-Lázaro, D. (2019). Effects of creatine supplementation on athletic performance in soccer players: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrients, 11(4), 757.

25. Terjung, R. L., Clarkson, P., Eichner, E. R., Greenhaff, P. L., Hespel, P. J., Israel, R. G., … & Williams, M. H. (2000). American College of Sports Medicine roundtable. The physiological and health effects of oral creatine supplementation. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 32(3), 706-717.

26. LOON, L. J. V., Murphy, R., Oosterlaar, A. M., Cameron-Smith, D., Hargreaves, M., Wagenmakers, A. J., & Snow, R. (2004). Creatine supplementation increases glycogen storage but not GLUT-4 expression in human skeletal muscle. Clinical science, 106(1), 99-106.

27. Wei, M. Y., & Jacobson, T. A. (2011). Effects of eicosapentaenoic acid versus docosahexaenoic acid on serum lipids: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Current atherosclerosis reports, 13(6), 474-483.

28. Valtueña, J., Dominguez, D., Til, L., González-Gross, M., & Drobnic, F. (2014). High prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency among elite Spanish athletes; the importance of outdoor training adaptation. Nutricion hospitalaria, 30(1), 124-131.

29. Mozaffarian, D., Geelen, A., Brouwer, I. A., Geleijnse, J. M., Zock, P. L., & Katan, M. B. (2005). Effect of fish oil on heart rate in humans: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Circulation, 112(13), 1945-1952.

30. de la Puente Yagüe, M., Collado Yurrita, L., & Cuadrado Cenzual, M. A. (2020). Role of vitamin d in athletes and their performance: Current concepts and new trends. Nutrients, 12(2), 579.

31. Yoshimura, M., Sakamoto, K., Yamamoto, T., Ishida, K., Yamaguchi, H., & Nagaoka, I. (2009). Evaluation of the effect of glucosamine administration on biomarkers for cartilage and bone metabolism in soccer players. International journal of molecular medicine, 24(4), 487-494.