Here's a naturopathic look on improving mma training:
Dr. Navi Badesha: MMA’s naturopath
Everyone’s trying to get the edge in the competitive world of MMA these days, and among the newest innovative techniques to hop ahead of the pack is the usage of the principles of naturopathic medicine. Dr. Navi Badesha has carved a niche for himself in this world as he has taken his work as a naturopath and aided many fighters including Denis Kang, Kaleb Starnes, Bill Mahood, Kultar Gill as well as well as Brazilian star Pele.
Food for Thought
“We’re basically trying to eliminate any roadblocks or obstacles that they may have that could prevent them from reaching their maximum potential”, comments Badesha of his work. One of these roadblocks which often remains unnoticed is food allergies. From a naturopathic perspective food allergies are vital, so Badesha has fighters get food allergy tested and they find out that they’re allergic to a many items in their diet. “Once they get off that food they feel a lot better because their immune system’s not hyperactive all day long and their recovery times improve and endurance improves”, notes Badesha. Dairy has been found to be a big allergy thus Badesha talks to his fighters about milk alternatives. Similarly if wheat shows up in the allergy test he can talk about wheat alternatives. “A lot of guys don’t know that there are other types of grains out there, other types of breads out there”, says Badesha. “Education is the main thing I do on a visit, educate people about biochemistry, about diet and how to improve their performance and endurance.”
Stress Relief
Training hard for months to fight in a ring and cage can lead to loads of stress on many fighters’ minds. If a fighter has an anxiety problem, the doctor may use homeopathic or supplements to take the edge off. It’s a comprehensive approach that includes lifestyle change and minimizing stress is part of that adjustment. “The way these guys train they put their body through a lot of stress and a lot of these guys find they’re getting sick all the time and get injured”, comments Badesha. “Because when your body’s stress hormones are high, your recovery times go down.” Thus the doctor looks to see how fighters can better equip their body to deal with the stressful situations of their daily training regimen. This can include supplements such as Rhodiola and Valora, getting proper recovery post recovery drinks, supplements, as well coping with stress, practicing breathing exercises, relaxation and meditation.
Custom made Vitamins
Badesha has embarked on a pretty involved and intricate process that includes individualized testing to see what amino acids or vitamins a fighter is deficient in. From that information, custom made formulas, molasses formulas or custom made vitamins are created. “A multivitman for you can is made that’s not just off the self generic to everybody, it’s a specific vitamin for you”, notes Badesha of the customization. Intravenous vitamins are also available and were utilized for UFC fighter Kaleb Starnes and Pride FC competitor Denis Kang.
Moving with the times and constantly innovating, the doctor is continually coming up with new protocols to evolve with what is needed by the fighters. “You hear about certain thing and start incorporating them and take out what doesn’t work”, explains Badesha of his evolution. “The more athletes I treat the more I get to know what works and what doesn’t.” So Badesha’s list of supplements he recommends is always changing depending on what feedback he receives from fighters.
That innovative spirit has led to much functional lab testing by the doctor where he will do heavy metal testing, hormonal testing, as well as individualized testing to see what vitamins, minerals and amino acids a person is deficient in. From there, custom made vitamin and amino acid formulas can be developed. Fatty acid levels are checked to see which ones a fighter is deficient in and a formula can be created to increase Omega-6 or Omega-3 levels, depending on what’s needed. “So it’s all personalized, no cookbook medicine”, says Badesha. “If you go to conventional doctors, 10 people come in with high blood pressure and they all walk out with the same medicine.”
Prolotherapy for Injury Management
Personalization on individual needs lends itself to individualized testing, individualized treatment protocols as well as individualized IVs for injury management. Prolotherapy, and injection technique for repairing damaged ligaments and tendons is used to help fighters get back into the gym and training. An irritant solution, typically a mixture of dextrose and procaine is injected and has become an increasingly popular method for ligament and tendon injuries. “It’s one of the most effective ways of treating ligament and tendon problems”, asserts Badesha. “It’s gaining a lot of momentum and a lot of doctors are starting to recognize it.”
Injury Prevention
While having a toolbox of naturopathic aids to help a fighters body recover, prevention is a big cornerstone of naturopathic medicine. Badesha feels overtraining is one of the biggest roadblocks to success for many fighters. He has witnessed fighters pushing themselves too hard, not giving their body a chance to recover and leaving themselves more prone to injury and becoming sick. The grueling grind for many fighters training and also working to pay the bills is a key component to overworking the body. “A lot of these guys train all day and some of them hold down jobs as bouncers at night so they’re burning the candle at both ends and don’t give body a chance to recover and regenerate”, comments Badesha. Many fighters don’t get good enough sleep and Badesha feels getting to bed before midnight and getting at least 8 hours of sleep is important. “It all hinges on your body’s natural production of cortisol”, notes Badesha. “So the longer you stay up, you’re kind of throwing that whole balance out, so that’s your stress hormone and that can lead to a lot of other problems.” From Badesha’s standpoint, knowing when to listen to you body and step back and know that done enough training for day is also something that is important for many fighters to develop.
Doc’s tip on how to Avoid Stress on Your Body
Get on a good antioxidant formula. A core list recommend by Badesha for everyone to be on includes a good multivitamin multimineral and a good omega-3 fix, like essential fatty acid formula. And thirdly a full spectrum antioxidant and a good protein formula. That’s the core for Badesha. When a fighter is training really hard they’ll be producing a lot of free radicals in the body there’s a lot of oxidative damage going on which can suppress the immune system. So then a fighter wants to be on a good antioxidant formula that one can take after a workout session. You can obtain these from a naturopath or at health food stores. The one recommended by Badesha is “Aces Plus Zinc”, which is a vitamin A, C, E, selenium and zinc and it comes in a compound formula. So you can find all of those vitamins in one supplement, in one capsule.
Vitamins and Minerals
“I think you’ve got to be taking a good multivitamin, there are a lot of garbage supplements out there that have a lot of added fillers or preservatives or dyes that your body can’t really process and doesn’t need. You want to be on a supplement that doesn’t have any of those additives or preservatives in it. A lot of times people are wheat sensitive or dairy sensitive so supplements that I carry are wheat-free, dairy-free and yeast-free, plus they don’t have any preservatives, filler or dyes that anybody can react to.”
–Dr. Badesha
Some Injury Management Pointers
. Increase all the vitamins and minerals that help support collagen production, help support wound healing
. Crank up your vitamin C if you’re injured, that helps with connective tissue repair
. Crank up zinc which is really important for connective tissue repair.
. There are specific formulas that provide all the co-factors you need to help prepare their ligament damage—one is called Ligaplex that Badesha uses, which is specific and one can’t find it at health food stores, only a naturopath carries it.
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Pre-Workout Notes
. The most important thing is having a good meal, at least an hour and a half to 2 hours before
. Have omething with some slow burning carbs, proteins
. Maybe 45 minutes before your workout you can have some proteins
. Once you’re working out, Badesha doesn’t really recommend people sip on any of these carb drinks or anything like that
Post-Workout (recovery) Notes
. Branch chain amino acids, glutamine, are recommended
. Replace any of the carbs that you’ve burnt, you’ve depleted all the glycogen or carbohydrates in your muscles
. You need to replace those carbs or when you come and workout the next day you won’t have the energy or endurance to go through the workout properly
. Recommend post workout supplement is Endurox r4, which has carbs, proteins, branch-chain amino acids all in it, plus it has electrolytes in it to replace electrolytes
WHAT IS NATUROPATHIC MEDICINE?
. Naturopathic medicine incorporates lifestyle changes into treatment programs. A big part of naturopathic medicine is looking at individual’s lifestyles, habits, exposures, emotional health, physical heath, mental health, it’s a just a combination of the whole thing.
. Emphasizes disease prevention as oppose to disease management which typical medicine comes in and looks at what they can do once the person already has the problem.
http://www.themmadigest.com/2008/04/dr-navi-badesha-mmas-naturopath/