Elite athletes are always looking to get a leg up on their competition and one way they do so is with the use of supplements, either performance enhancing or muscle development. Not all supplements are bad or banned by the athletic commissions. Whey protein powder is a pretty common supplement that helps build muscle, makes a great recovery drink, and is legal to use for competition. While it is a great product to use when you are training it is quite easy to get carried away and consume more protein than your body needs or can handle. If you choose to add whey protein powder to your routine then make sure you know both the benefits and pitfalls as well as know just how much your body needs.

Benefits of Whey Protein Powder

By Jillian Bullock

There’s no denying that mixed martial arts fighters, males and females, are some of the toughest athletes in the world. When they prepare for a match it’s like they are going to war. To match the intensity their body will have to endure to prepare for a fight most MMA practitioners also realize that nutrition is a vital part of their training process and proper foods, along with vitamins and supplements, will help repair muscles, strengthen joints, reduce injuries and illness, and help them with recovery.

Why Nutrition Is Vital

Guest Post From: Sean Kennedy

In order to be the best, you have to beat the best. This old adage has a lot of truth to it, but the truth is: in order to be the best, you have to train better than the best. The only way to train to your full potential is by eating right. You need to have a diet that is lean, healthy, and will allow you to compete successfully. MMA fighting is a very competitive sport, so anyone who hopes to succeed will need to have a diet that gives that person a fighting edge.

A fighter’s meal planning is very important to success, so why not try the Paleo diet?

Over at Yahoo sports Maggie Hendricks has written a great article on MMA nutrition, peak performance and Mike Dolce.

Mike Dolce

What is your job like on a day-to-day basis?
“I’m running multiple training camps from afar. Right now, in Vegas, I’m running Vitor Belfort’s training camp and Mike Pyle’s.”

Thiago, for example, you set his day?
“With Thiago, I literally set up his 24 hours, seven-day a week schedule.”
What is a fight week like for you?
“I try to get to town a day prior to the athlete, then I set up the hotel room and do the food shopping. For Chris Leben, he got into town on Monday night, and before he even got here, I packed a huge cooler with the proper foods that Chris was going to need.”

The Paleo Diet has hit the MMA scene and exploded but there are still a lot of us out here that don’t understand exactly what it is.  So, we looked around and found some information about this hot diet and how someone can apply it to their lifestyle.

This diet is all about the wild natural foods to help achieve great health. The human body evolved for more than 2 million years with the food found in nature: game meat, fish, vegetables, wild fruits, eggs and nuts.

Can you believe in the ‘Hard Nosed’ sport of Mixed Martial Arts there are actually some fighters that don’t tear into the flesh of animals for their diet.  When you think of the best fighters in the world you image them sitting around a table filled with steak, lamb, potatoes, and beer but that just isn’t the case.  There are actually fighters who don’t partake of meat while at the dinner table.  Some of the more notable and  ‘out of the closet’ MMA Fighers that are Vegans are:

Current MMA Fighters who are Vegetarian’s

MMA Fighters have a lot to think about when it comes to being the best at what they do.  They must treat their bodies as machines, well taken care of and provided with the best of everything in order to get maximum performance out of it.  That is why nutrition, and proper eating play a large roll in their failures or successes.  This article will highlight some areas and ways that athletes can make sure to gain the advantage over the competition.

A balanced diet is different for everyone.  Those who lead a sedentary lifestyle need to eat a different diet than those who run marathons.  It’s just that simple.  Athletes need energy.  Lots of energy that can be burned off during a workout, training session, or even sitting on the couch, as their metabolisms are so high.  In order to get this, they need to eat lots of carbohydrates.  These carbohydrates should NOT come in the form of sugar or refined flours though.  They should be acquired through whole vegetables, fruits and whole grains.  Processed sugar should be avoided at all costs.

Whether you are an athlete, or just live a very active lifestyle, you certainly have different nutritional needs than someone who is not very active. If you want to be as healthy as you can while being active you need to know what foods you should be eating. Continue reading this article to learn the basics about eating right for an active lifestyle.

No matter what your activity level is it is important to get a balanced diet of fruits and vegetables. They are essential for proper body function and superior health. If you are very physically active it is even more important. If you do not get enough nutrients in your diet your body will be forced to leach them from the stores you have in your body. The various parts of your body that can be affected includes, but is not limited to your muscles, eyes, bones and skin.

There is always talk about “good” and “bad” carbs. It’s an overly simplistic approach, but can certainly be a helpful foundation for the fighter looking to make healthier food choices.

1. Learn about the Glycemic Index from www.glycemicindex.com. Simply put, the Glycemic Index rates carbohydrates based on how quickly or slowly they elevate blood sugar levels.
2. Save fruits and other quick energy carbohydrate sources for the morning and try to avoid them directly before going to bed. If you are going to spike your blood sugar, use the spike to start your day or workout strong.
3. The fewer ingredients the better. 100% Durum Whole Wheat or Steel Cut Oats are two smart carbohydrate choices that contain just one ingredient.

Becoming a great martial artist is about far more than just packing a great punch. Just ask Kimbo Slice. Becoming a true champion in the octagon takes dedication to training and learning techniques, building strength and developing an elite level of conditioning as well as strategy. However a huge part of the equation is diet. Without the right diet you will find it much more difficult to achieve and realize results from your gym workouts and cardio.

In fact the best mixed martial artists know that getting to the top requires as much dedication to diet as it takes in training time. Great fighters must stay on top of the latest developments and medical discoveries for foods and nutrition. Not only knowing what foods are good to eat and which ones need to to be avoided, but knowing which foods can be combined or eaten within certain times of each other, knowing how much and how often to eat and drink and developing the discipline to stick to what is best for them. There is definitely a lot of science to be learned in the mission to become an elite fighter in peak shape and it is a constantly evolving process that needs to be constantly built on and tweaked.