This is a touchy subject. Most athletes need to tread carefully with what they take. Tainted supplements have wrecked promising careers overnight. Once you test positive for a banned substance — even if it’s a trace amount you unknowingly ingested — your reputation takes a hit you might never recover from. In fight sports, your name is everything. Once tarnished, good luck getting it back.
Supplements aren’t magic pills, but for serious athletes, they’re essential. The workload can be brutal, and recovery doesn’t happen by accident. To regenerate as hard as you train, you need to meet high nutritional demands. But remember: supplements will never fix a garbage diet. If your nutrition isn’t locked in, don’t expect anything you swallow from a bottle to save you. Before giving any supplement protocol, you need to ask the right questions — your evaluation will set the tone for the months ahead. And your honesty will determine your results.
Start with the basics. Always. Fish oils (EPA/DHA) reduce inflammation, support brain health, and improve recovery. A high-quality multivitamin and mineral formula will fill nutritional gaps from even the cleanest diet and keep your body’s metabolic processes running smoothly. Studies show omega-3s don’t just lower inflammation; they improve exercise efficiency and muscle function over time, especially for athletes with high training volumes.
If you’ve got your nutrition right, protein intake up, and your basic supplements covered, the next step is to support the body systems that get hammered most in combat sports: muscles, nerves, immune system, and gut health. Magnesium glycinate or bisglycinate is crucial for muscle relaxation, stress management, and sleep quality. Many athletes are deficient, especially those sweating buckets during training. Vitamin D3 combined with K2 supports immune health, hormone balance, and bone density — all vital for anyone getting slammed on the mats or in the ring. Zinc monomethionine boosts immune function, supports testosterone production, and speeds wound healing.
A good probiotic formula containing lactobacillus and bifidobacterium strains can enhance digestion, support gut health, and improve nutrient absorption — because your recovery is only as good as what you can digest. Curcumin with Bioperine is a potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant that helps reduce joint pain and inflammation from hard sparring.
And let’s talk about creatine monohydrate — arguably the most researched and proven-effective supplement for athletes, period. Creatine boosts ATP regeneration, increasing power output and performance in high-intensity, short-duration activities, exactly what you need during grappling, wrestling, and striking exchanges. It supports muscle hypertrophy and strength gains during resistance training. Recent research, including a 2022 meta-analysis in Nutrients, confirms that creatine improves repeated sprint ability, muscle endurance, and training volume, which is critical during fight camps. It reduces inflammation and muscle damage, speeding up recovery between hard sessions, and it supports brain energy metabolism, translating to better focus and mental clarity — essential when you’re tired and trying to stay sharp in the later rounds. I recommend 3-5 grams daily, every day. No need to cycle off or do a loading phase for most athletes. Take it with a meal to aid absorption, and make sure you stay hydrated since creatine draws water into your muscle cells. Don’t waste your money on overpriced fancy versions; plain monohydrate works perfectly.
If you’ve already covered these basics and symptoms like bloating, constipation, or undigested food show up, suspect digestive issues first. I use the HCL challenge, which Charles Poliquin taught extensively. Start with 200mg of betaine HCL mid-meal. If you don’t feel a burning sensation within 30 minutes, increase by 200mg at each subsequent meal until you reach 1200mg or feel mild warmth. Once you find your threshold — where you feel warmth but not discomfort — you know how much you need to take to improve digestion. Combine this with good eating habits: chew food thoroughly, avoid water during meals (since water dilutes stomach acid), and eat in a calm state. Those three habits are very often the culprit of digestive issues. Make sure you get that in line and you probably won’t need those HCL tabs.
Gut health should always include asking if you feel bloated after meals, experience constipation or loose stools, see undigested food in your stools, or have irregular bowel movements. These are signs something’s off. Suspect food intolerances first, especially dairy or gluten. I’m not on an anti-gluten crusade, but I’ve seen countless times that removing these foods can resolve issues quickly. Try pulling them out for at least four weeks and reassess. If symptoms improve, great. If they come back when you reintroduce these foods, your choice is clear.
Remember what Chinese medicine teaches: “Sickness enters from the mouth, disasters emerge from the mouth.” Chewing food thoroughly, eating mindfully, and making sure your gut works as hard as you do are among the simplest, yet most powerful strategies to improve performance.
And don’t forget the nervous system. The parasympathetic system — the rest-and-digest branch — conserves energy, reduces heart rate, and stimulates digestion. Combat sports keep athletes in constant fight-or-flight mode. If the workload, meaning acute accumulated stress, isn’t paired with nutritional and supplemental support, you’ll eventually crash, weaken your immune system, and stall your progress. Chronic stress without recovery leads straight to burnout.
Lastly, don’t overlook sleep. You can’t supplement your way out of bad sleep. Magnesium, zinc, and good habits can help, but you need to respect your body’s need to rest and regenerate. Get to bed on time, unplug from screens, and give your body the chance to adapt, recover, and get stronger.
Supplements should be targeted, not trendy. Evaluate first, don’t guess. Nail your nutrition first, for a short while, then add what’s missing. This approach will keep your body — and your reputation — bulletproof.
Stay tuned — in the coming months, we’ll cover how to supercharge immune health so you’re always ready to train and fight.
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