WHY MUAY THAI FIGHTERS MUST TREAT THEIR DIETS LIKE A SCIENCE

By Andrew Bryan

Nutrition is one of the most overlooked aspects of being a fighter, yet it's also something every serious hobbyist or competitor needs to be serious about - not only for performance in the ring but to keep healthy in general.

Unfortunately, the world of nutrition is the "Wild West," and much of what you will read is misinformation, or something positioned as "science" but with little substantive research.

Today, we will be talking about common fad diets, bad eating habits and, most importantly, having a healthy relationship with food, in order to be the best fighters we can.  

1 SMOOTHIES & PROTEIN SHAKES

I have seen, more and more often, potential athletes turning their attention away from proper eating and on to vegetable/fruit smoothies and protein shakes.

The idea behind these fruity fads is that you are "detoxing" your body and getting your nutrition in an easy way,...

MY BEST MUAY THAI DIET ADVICE TO IMPROVE YOUR TRAINING & LIFE!

By Sean Fagan

Any dumbass knows that the nutrition and diets for Muay Thai fighters are almost completely different than the eating habits of everyday people.

Having a solid nutrition plan for your training camp can mean the difference between winning and losing your next fight!

It is way too common for people to underestimate the importance of eating healthy.

Are you one of them?

If you are, then my advice, tips and guidelines will help you develop healthy eating habits that will give your mind and body the energy and focus it needs to compete at it’s highest level.

If you are already on top of your shit and know all about dieting, cutting weight and eating right, I’d still recommend reading through the tips to see if there is anything you can add to make your Muay Thai nutrition even better!

“To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.” -La...

NO B.S. REVIEWS ON THE MUAY THAI SUPPLEMENTS I PERSONALLY USE FOR MY TRAINING!

By Sean Fagan

I’m not huge into workout supplements by any means… but there was was a time (prior to my Muay Thai career) where I did my fair share of experimentation just because I wanted to look ripped and jacked as hell.

Needless to say, I made my fair share of mistakes trying some not-so-safe bodybuilding supplements that may have given me short-term results, but did more harm than good in the long term.

Now that I’m not worried about looking like a testosterone junkie, I’ve focused more on living a healthy life and putting natural, healthy things in my body. I’ve learned from my mistakes and made sure to study up and do some research before putting anything into my body. Below are some of the best supplements I found that have noticeably helped with my Muay Thai training, recovery, strength, endurance and overall health.

Note: Supplements should only be...

HOW TO KNOW WHETHER OR NOT YOU NEED TO SUPPLEMENT PROTEIN

By Angela Chang

Everyone is obsessed with protein and getting enough of it. Almost any person who is health or fitness -oriented has a tub of protein powder in their house. We are often told by our friends and training partners that we need to take protein powder if we are active, especially in an intense sport like Muay Thai. Protein, protein, protein!

Setting all the hype aside, guess what? Generally speaking, if you are:

1) eating enough calories, and;

2) eating a balanced diet

…then you do not need protein powder! A balanced diet that takes into account your Muay Thai sessions will provide you with the protein you need to recover and grow your muscles. Having too much protein will put stress on your kidneys. Similar to how extra carbs turn to fat, it’s the same with protein.

Moreover, if you’re getting enough protein from eating actual food, why waste money on buying...

WHY CARBS ARE CRUCIAL FOR A FIGHTER'S ENERGY & RECOVERY

By Sean Fagan

There has been a recent increase in the popularity of high fat, low carb diets, and as a direct result, carbohydrates have become somewhat demonized within the health and fitness industry.

Carbohydrates have been described as the cause of cardiovascular and metabolic disease, as well as immune system disorders, and of course, the current obesity epidemic plaguing the nation.

Interestingly, this is not the entire story.

While a low carbohydrate diet may be beneficial for your everyday office worker as a way to lose weight, I am here to tell you that for anyone trains, competes, and works hard towards athletic endeavors of any kind, low carb diets are detrimental to success.

Carbohydrates are absolutely essential to the production of energy. This holds particularly true when we discuss energy produced at a high intensity (during anaerobic exercise), such as that seen during a single bout...

MUAY THAI FIGHTER DIET, NUTRITION & WEIGHT CUTTING PLANS

By James Bee – JBFS

The following post is by James Bee who works with professional Muay Thai fighters as nutritional coach.

I get a lot of emails from people asking questions about what to eat and drink during fight week preparation. So I felt it was necessary to write some advice answering these important questions about Muay Thai diet and nutrition to help optimize performance for your big week. If you’re cutting weight, there are some essential weight cutting tips in this post to help reach that goal too, so keep reading.

Below you’ll find a breakdown of the important macronutrients like proteins, fats and carbohydrates. I’ve also added 2 different meal plan strategies, one plan is for fighters who are weight cutting and one is for maintaining weight. I’ll talk about water intake, important supplements, and sauna strategy for shedding those last couple kgs if...

 HOW TO MAINTAIN YOUR TRAINING WITH CLEAN NUTRITION 

From Muay Thai Guy

Practicing your Muay Thai technique is only half the job done. If you really want to optimize your strength, you need the right diet.  Mind you, “diet” here does not mean going on some sort of temporary health regimen to lose weight. Here, it means bringing about solid lifestyle changes that you can stick with for the rest of your life.

Training and practicing Muay Thai demands a lifelong dedication, which means what you eat is directly correlated with how your skills develop. Read on to know all about what sort of nutrition you should be following for effective training:

#1: Don’t Diet, Eat Clean

The most important thing to remember is that if you want to really dedicate yourself to Muay Thai, you need to treat it as an irrevocable part of your life. This means that any changes you make for it must not be for the moment, but quite long-lasting.

Holding...

Muay Thai Diet Tips To Improve Your Training Output

 By James Bee

I saw a need to optimize the Muay Thai diet because there are a lot of people training and fighting at an elite level who don’t know how to eat to improve performance and recovery, or how to eat to cut weight properly. For some reason proper nutrition strategies get over looked in Muay Thai and I’m here to put an end to it!

My philosophy for a fighter’s diet is simple: Plenty of fresh, whole foods. Clean air and clean water, combined with hard training and genuine rest.

In this post I want to show you some things you can do to change from an average diet, to a performance diet for athletes. These may seem like simple tips, but you’ll have to trust me – they give the biggest return for your efforts. These steps help fighters make improvements to their performance and recovery every time. If you’re training or competing, these 4 Muay Thai diet tips will do the same for you.

Muay...

How To Prepare For The IFMA World Championships and Other Muay Thai Tournaments

By James Bee

With the IFMA world championship games only weeks away, I hope everyone attending has been eating and training well. No doubt most of you have to meet at a weight class.

In this post I’m going to list the foods you should be eating and how to calculate your calories to get your weight spot on by the time you’re in Langkawi. With this goal in mind, you know you’re going to have to cut and monitor daily calorie intake. The strategy – consume all the nutrition you can get in as few calories as possible.

If you don’t need to lose any weight and just want to maintain your current weight, your formula for daily calorie intake is this:

To maintain current weight: Body weight in lbs x 13 Cal

Don’t worry about getting it...

 IF YOU CAN’T RECOVER, YOU CAN’T TRAIN & IMPROVE

From Muay Thai Guy

We’ve all had those weeks when our bodies are aching for days on end after a single hard session.

When you go back to the gym, you’re not able to give 100% because you’re still sore or your joints ache.

The bad news is that there’s no way to prevent soreness or accidents from happening.

The good news that is that on your end, you can do some things to help speed up recovery between each session. Here are some tips to keep your body in tip-top recovery form:

NUTRITION: YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT

What goes into your body will always show during your training sessions. The quality of your food matters as well as the quantity(caloric intake). If you eat a lot of processed foods or unbalanced, it won’t give you the type of sustaining energy you need. It also won’t help you recover. And if you do have a...