Does a Ketogenic Diet Make Sense for Fighters?

Extremely low carbohydrate diets like Paleo and Ketogenic diets seem to be very popular these days. Quite a few crossfitters and other "hardcore" fitness folks espouse the benefits of significantly cutting your carbs.

I've noticed that there are a lot of martial artists and combat athletes who are jumping on the bandwagon too. Some of these guys swear by it. But is a ketogenic diet really the best dietary approach for fighters?

6 Painful Things Nobody Tells You About Fighting.....

Found this on Cracked.com today:

6 Painful Things Nobody Tells You About Fighting

It's a decent read. You can tell it was written by a person who hasn't been in too many fights, but they still make some good points.

Be warned: the article mentions the now cliched, "MMA Fighter's can't fight in the streetz" argument.

Let me know what you think.

Train Hard,
Josh Skinner

4 Reasons Meditation Will Make You a Better Fighter

I found an amazingly insightful article on Huffington Post today:


How Meditation Affects the Gray Matter of the Brain


This article, written by David R. Hamilton PhD, describes many ways in which meditation affects the brain.

Now, most of us who have been practicing meditation and meditative exercises (like Qigong) have known for a while that meditation is beneficial for you. Hamilton really drives this point home and cites several important studies.


Hamilton lists several benefits of meditation and all of them can help make us better fighters:


1. Improved nervous system function – This means stronger muscular contractions, quicker muscular contractions (specifically when going from relaxed to tense and back again), and better coordinated muscular contractions.


2. Improved Blood Flow – More blood flow means more nutrients to the working muscles. This means better performance and quicker recovery.


3. Increased Ability to Focus – This means quicker reaction times and the ability to ignore distractions (and self-doubt).


4. Protection Against Aging – Now this may not immediately seem as though it can make you a better fighter. But because meditation slows (or halts) the mental aging process you’ll be able to hold onto those quick reflexes into old age. This makes you less likely to become a victim later in life (Senior Violence).

Again, a lot of us have known that meditation was beneficial for us for quite some time. It’s nice to have this knowledge made more mainstream.



Train Hard,

Josh Skinner (donjitsu2)


Basic Internal Training (includes a section on basic meditation for martial artists)

Pro Fighters Use Qi Too!

If you’ve ever been to sites like Bullshido or, really, any other MMA forum you will get the impression that all MMA fighters (and all combat athletes for that matter) completely dismiss the idea of a universal energy (like Qi) and other related topics such as meditation, yoga, and qigong as being useful in the quest for improved fighting ability. Those who actively participate in the discussion at sites like Bullshido openly mock internal martial artists, qigong/yoga practitioners, and traditional martial artists alike. But do all combat athletes REALLY dismiss “esoteric” practices like yoga or qigong?

Surprisingly, the answer is: No. In fact, a few famous names in MMA are actually quite fond of practices which those at Bullshido consider, well, bullshit.

Lyoto Machida – This guy is, by far, my favorite Mixed Martial Artist. He also happens to be an avid practitioner of various form of meditation (1). Machida’s father even attributes much of his son’s success in and out of the ring to the more spiritual side of his training (1).

Rickson Gracie – Here is a BJJ guy who is really into meditation/breath control, yoga, and developing and maintaining a strong connection with nature (especially water) (2). I’ve seen some videos of this guy working out and it is clear he has fantastic tan tien control (2).

Cung Le – Le is one of the best strikers in the world and recently made the move to MMA from the San Shou circuit. Le has a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as part of his training/coaching team and attributes much of his success to the Medical Qigong sessions he and his TCM doctor work through(3).

So, I guess what is important to take away from this post is that, despite what certain promoters of “bullshit” want everyone to think, the relationship between real combat athletes and more metaphysical or “esoteric” practices (like meditation, Yoga, and Qigong) isn’t exactly always one of animosity or derision. Perhaps what we should learn from these elite level fighters is that we should all be looking for ways to further enhance our martial skills even if it means taking up practices that aren’t exactly mainstream.

Train Hard,
Josh Skinner


Works Cited:

1. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/josh_gross/05/22/machida.dad/index.html

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB_KRHXU1BA

3. http://morningcrane.com/clients/


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