Don Frye is a mixed martial arts legend, known as "The Predator," and was one of MMA’s earliest well-rounded fighters. While he had a diverse fighting skillset, Don Frye never trained Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In a recent episode of the “Dan and Don’s Toxic Masculinity Podcast,” when asked why he never learned BJJ, Frye explained that he had judo, wrestling, and boxing.
This article delves into the training and diet strategies employed by fighters like Don Frye, examining both historical approaches and modern nutritional science. It also explores various dietary considerations relevant to MMA athletes, drawing from a range of sources and expert opinions.
Historical Approaches to Strength and Conditioning
Historically, strength athletes relied on simple principles, often without the advanced nutritional science we have today.
Marvin Eder: Strength Through Natural Means
Marvin Eder, considered by some to be the strongest man pound for pound, achieved incredible feats of strength at 198 lbs on a 5’7″ frame, all while maintaining a natural approach without steroids, drugs, or supplements.
Classic Wrestlers: Strength and Power
Ivan Putski, nicknamed “The Polish Hammer” and “Polish Power,” was known for his strength, although detailed information on his specific training regimes is scarce. Bruno Sammartino held the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship for over 11 years, with his first reign being the longest in the promotion’s history at 2,803 days. Aleksandr Karelin, a Greco-Roman wrestler for the Soviet Union and Russia, was renowned for his capabilities.
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Modern MMA Nutrition: A Comprehensive Guide
Modern MMA nutrition is a complex field. Nutrition may primarily support consistent intensive training, which leads to improved performance.
Foundational Principles
Talking about nutrition has become like discussing politics and religion - everyone has an aggressive opinion. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Diets should ideally be customized according to an individual’s genetic makeup.
Carbohydrates
High carbohydrate diets, particularly high sugar diets (and other high glycaemic carbohydrates) can in some individuals, cause high levels of inflammation. If you feel great, and you are full of energy and focus on a high carbohydrate diet, then great, carry on.
Removing Food Groups
Removing whole food groups from your diet, like diary and/or wheat is controversial, and many doctors would be against it.
Inflammation and Gut Health
Inflammation is linked to almost all modern diseases and often starts in the gut, leading to low energy levels, injury, and burnout. Strategies to combat inflammation include:
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- Apple Cider Vinegar: Drink organic apple cider vinegar - a tablespoon (or more, assess your tolerance) in water, drunk about 15 minutes before a meal improves digestion dramatically in most people.
- Probiotics: Consume fermented foods like sauerkraut, which are rich in enzymes and help increase the amount of good bacteria in your intestines.
- Avoid Inflammatory Foods: Avoid refined carbohydrates and vegetable oils like sunflower oil. They are high in omega 6 and have been heated so much during extraction that they become carcinogenic.
Macronutrient Balance
Protein
Athletes should consume between 0.6g and 1.2g of protein per pound of bodyweight. Whey protein has the highest concentration of leucine. Hemp seeds, blended with other whole-foods make a great alternative to protein powders. The Biological Value or protein, is a measure of the protein quality. Whey protein & egg are among the highest quality sources of protein.
Fats
The easiest way to adjust this balance is to supplement with fish oil and cook with coconut oil, instead of vegetable oils. Look for fish oil with a high EPA content. This is the element of omega 3 that has anti-inflammatory properties.
Carbohydrates
Include sweet potatoes, buckwheat, quinoa and oats. Avoid sugar and High Glyceamic carbs, as sugar is highly inflammatory. If you are struggling to consume enough calories try adding coconut milk to a smoothie with hemp seeds and fruit.
Supplements for MMA Fighters
Athletes sometimes use dietary manipulations in the period around competition. Supplements are ingredients you add to a smart eating and training program.
- Multivitamin: Helps fix small decencies of vitamins and minerals and enhance energy metabolism.
- Protein Powder: Makes eating large quantities of protein easier.
- Vitamin D: Can lead to loss of muscle strength and mass and low levels of immunity.
- Creatine Monohydrate: Helps regenerate muscle energy stores and can improve strength, boost performance, and increase muscle mass.
- Liquid Fish Oil: A key source of omega-3 fatty acids that helps improve mood and motivation while boosting fat-burning and dampening inflammation.
- BCAA Capsules: Helps reduce the chance of muscle tissue breakdown while stimulating protein synthesis, leading to better recovery and preservation of lean muscle mass.
- Greens Powder: Veggies, fruits, algaes and/or grasses that have been compacted and distilled into powdered form and contain vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytonutrients.
- Peri-Workout Drink: Supplies essential amino acids to help re-build muscle and acts as a performance-enhancing stimulant.
- Post-Workout Drink: A mixture of high-quality protein and fast-acting carbohydrates that helps your body recover and rebuild quickly.
Additional Supplements
- Magnesium: Magnesium is required for muscle relaxation.
- MCTs: Found naturally in coconuts, MCTs can provide extra calories when required and possess many health benefits.
- Caffeine: Great caffeine free supplement for enhancing mental power and physical energy.
- Beta Alanine: This amino acid raises carnosine levels, which helps to buffer the influence of H+ ions which cause acidity and fatigue.
- Beetroot Juice: Research suggests drinking around 140ml (2 shots of ‘Beet-it’ shots of beetroot juice, 2-3 hours before an endurance ‘event’ can significantly decrease blood pressure, and increase endurance, thanks to the nitrites.
- Taurine: If you ‘suffer’ from pumped up muscles, stiff shoulders when striking and/or pumped forearms when grappling, that weaken your grip, then taurine may very well help.
- Sodium Bicarbonate: Great supplement and cheap, just start with a small amount like 5g in a large glass of water, as too much makes you poo your pants.
Adaptogens
- Ashwagandha: Studies suggest that this herb not only reduced stress and cortisol levels, it also ‘fights’ cancer. It is also a strong anti-inflammatory, suggesting that it will help enhance recovery.
The Glycemic Index and Load
The Glycemic Index (GI) is a measure of how quickly carbohydrates raise blood sugar level following consumption. Generally an athlete should look to consume foods with a GI of 60 or below. The Glycemic Load (GL) is a number that estimates how much a food will raise a person’s blood sugar level by.
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Meal Timing and Composition
High carbohydrate meal-plans on training days and the day before a game or competition are recommended. Some nutritionists and recent research suggests that eating fats from nuts, fish and hemp for example, may be a more healthy way to reach calorific needs day to day. Then 2 days before a fight or competition increase carbohydrate intake and decrease fat intake to load the muscles and liver with glycogen (carbohydrate).
The 28-Day Weight Gain Experiment
Nate, with guidance from GSP’s nutrition coach, Dr. Berardi, gained 20 pounds in 28 days.
Key Strategies
- Incremental Improvements: Making a big change is all about small incremental improvements.
- Caloric Surplus: Dr. Berardi started me off with a lot of food, enough to where I’d be in a caloric surplus and gain muscle. But he didn’t overload me as much as he could have.
- Strategic Calorie Adjustments: In both Weeks 3 and 4 we strategically added more calories to help push me past a plateau when my weight stalled at 178 pounds.
- Eat More Food: My weight-gain nutrition plan called for way more food than I was used to eating. When you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight.
- Supplements: For this experiment, however, Dr. Berardi decided I should use a few supplements strategically to maximize the amount of muscle I could build on such a short time-frame.
- Fasting: Every Sunday I did a 24-hour fast to offset the inevitable fat gain that would normally come with an eating plan like this.
Sample Menu
The menu on Weeks 3 and 4 followed the same base menu as above but we strategically added calories. In Week 3, we introduced a Super-Shake (basically a fancy protein shake) because by this time I was tired of chewing.
Training Program
The workout program is important. An intense total-body workout that promoted rapid fat burning and power development.
Week 1
Complete each station of the circuit for 1 minute for 5 total minutes. Rest for 3 minutes and repeat.
- Begin standing holding one end of the rope in each hand. Start by performing 10 double arm swings by bringing the arms up and down as violently as possible. Then perform 10 alternating swings by bringing each arm up and down one at a time. Then perform 10 rotations by bringing each arm up and out to the sides and back down.
- Begin standing with the kettlebell in both hands. Swing the bell between the legs. Extend at the knees and hips and swing the bell forward to shoulder height. Repeat for 10 reps. Then perform 10 more reps using each arm (single-handed swings).
- Begin holding the medicine ball in both hands overhead. Fire the ball into the ground as hard as possible.
- Begin facing the tire with both feet forward holding the hammer. Bring the hammer back and over one side of the body and hit the tire as hard as possible.
- Begin standing inside of the ladder with both feet. Jump and land with your feet outside of and forward one box. Jump your feet back into the box and repeat for the length of the ladder and back. Once completed, begin running with high knees using one foot in each box, down and back the length of the ladder.
Week 2
Complete each station of the circuit for 1 minute for 5 total minutes. Rest for 3 minutes and repeat.
- Begin standing holding a heavy dumbbells in each hand with the elbows extended.
- Begin facing the sandbag while gripping the bag with both hands. Drag the bag backward for 20 yards, using a toe-heel foot contact.
- Begin standing with the single rope in each hand. Pull the rope to the hip with the far hand and then grab further down the rope with the opposite hand.
- Begin using the high grip on the Prowler. Taking as big of steps as possible, push it 20 yards. Run around to the other side and push it back using the low grip.
- Begin facing the tire. Bend down and grab both hands under the bottom rim. Using the legs, lift the tire onto one side while keeping the elbows extended. Turn the hands over and push the tire down as hard as possible. Run to the opposite side of the tire and flip it back to the other side.
Week 3
(I used mini-bands. Warmup set of 8 reps. Do second set with 25 pounds for 8 reps. Perform 4 sets of 8 reps with 8RM. Same exercises as Week 1 but with different time parameters Complete each station of the circuit for 30 seconds for 2.5 total minutes. Rest for 1 minute and repeat.
Week 4
Same exercises as Week 2 but with different time parameters Complete each station of the circuit for 30 seconds for 2.5 total minutes. Rest for 1 minute and repeat.
Results
Nate expected to gain more body fat than this (but was pleasantly surprised that he didn’t). Also, while most of my individual sites increased, there were a few that went down (ab, knee, calf).
Weight Manipulation and Performance
The article raises the question of what would happen to Georges St Pierre's performance if he gained 20 pounds to move up a weight class to fight Anderson Silva.