fight and, more importantly,
being active during this time.
You don’t have to spar hard
during this period but you
should be drilling, moving or
doing some light sparring — or,
as Coach John Kavanagh says,
“Updating the software without
damaging the hardware”.
Notable fighters who have
reportly employed this strategy
include UFC stars Conor
McGregor, Michael Bisping and
Nick and Nate Diaz.
ARE YOU LARK OR OWL?
Assessment of your normal
‘chronotype’ should be
considered, too. Most people
fall into one of three categories:
owl, lark or neither. As the
names suggests, owls like to
go to bed late and get up late,
and larks like to go to bed
early and get up early, whereas
those in the ‘neither’ camp
can switch easily as social
and environmental factors
demand. So, while you may be
forced into a lark chronotype
depending on your training
regime, you may, in fact, be
more of an owl. So, if you’re an
owl and your fight is at night,
great. If you are neither, you can
adjust with not many issues,
but if you are a lark, you are
going to have to make some
considerable changes.
How can I change my
chronotype for a fight? Let’s
look at a lark-to-owl transition.
To change from owl to lark you
will need to increase the sleep
opportunity in the morning.
If you are aged 17-to-25, this
should not be much of a
problem, as younger adults
generally like to sleep in due
to what’s called ‘delayed sleep
phase syndrome’. If you do
wake early in the morning, try
to stay in bed. If you are hungry,
have a small snack and return
to bed. It is advised not to
get out of bed until 8am. You
may wish to consider blocking
natural light in your bedroom
and using cooling with a fan
or air conditioning. Staying in
bed until this time of day may
take several days or weeks to
adapt to.
“But I’m an amateur fighter
and I have to be at work at
7am,” I hear you say. In that
case, early morning sessions
or pre-work training sessions
are out for you. Not only will
early morning training sessions
truncate your sleep duration,
they will also reduce your time
spent in rapid eye movement
(REM) sleep, which is important
for cognitive performanceand decision-making. REM
sleep mostly occurs between
3am and 6am, and can have
significant short- and long-term
effects. If you are an amateur
fighter who also works, then
two-a-day training sessions
may not be appropriate for you.
If you do want or need to do
two sessions daily, you should
consider a high-intensity session
at lunchtime to augment your
training, or extending your
evening training session. ‘Rise
and grind’ should be replaced
by ‘sleep in, and win’.PEAK TIMES
What is the best time of day
to spar, drill, run, lift weights or
develop a fight strategy?
Studies show that we are
generally at the peak of our
cognitive performance between
9am and midday, so this is the
best time to work on things
such as footwork, striking
combinations and technical
jiu-jitsu or wrestling. Physical
conditioning should ideally be
done between 4pm and 7pm,
with aerobic best done between
4pm and 5.30pm, with strength
training to follow between
5.30pm and 7pm. Light sparring
and fight conditions should bereplicated at the same time as
the fight, and employing this
strategy from at least three
weeks out from a fight should
be considered.SUPPLEMENTS & DIET
When there is stress on the
body and immune system
(as there may be pre-fight), a
vitamin B supplement each day
is recommended to support
the nervous system. Vitamin C,
which is as an antioxidant, and azinc tablet to support repair of
skin may also help.
Magnesium supplementation
has been shown to increase/
support stage-three sleep (deep
sleep), which supports physical
repair and growth. Magnesium
in the form of powder (chelated
form citrate, ascorbate, orate,
glycinate) or a dissolvable
magnesium tablet mixed in water
(to support absorption through
the gut) is recommended prior to
sleep, but be warned: ensure you
take it on a full stomach or with
some food — if you don’t, you
may develop stomach cramps
and diarrhoea.
Caffeine is, of course,
widely used among Australians
generally. A psychoactive drug,
it is predominately used by
athletes in response to acute
sleep loss following travel,and for acute performance
improvement to combat fatigue
during training and competition.
Caffeine recommendations for
performance improvement range
from 2-9 mg per kilogram of
body weight. When consumed,
peak plasma levels for caffeine
are reached one-to-two hours
after ingestion, with its half-life
ranging from four to six hours
after consumption.
Caffeine use can result in
an improvement in reaction
time, increase in alertness and
increases in speed, endurance
and agility — but its performance
benefits may be overshadowed
by its tendency to impair sleep,
especially when ingested before,
during or after an evening
training session. Caffeine
consumed within four-to-six
hours of the proposed time of
sleep has been shown to have
negative effects on sleep duration
and sleep quality, mainly due to
an increase in sleep latency (time
to fall asleep). It can also increase
the number of sleep disturbances
(waking after sleep onset). The
result overall is a reduction in
total sleep duration (i.e. sleep
loss) and impaired performance
and recovery the following day.
Caution is advised when
consuming pre-workout caffeine
supplements especially, as the
level of caffeine in these can
be the equivalent to four-to-six
shots of coffee, depending on
how many serves you consume.
While you may get a buzz out of
it, excessive levels of caffeine can
lead to tremors, poor decision-
making and lack of accuracy
— not to mention the next day
if you’re trying to get through
training on minimal sleep!Ian C Dunican runs Sleep4Performance and is a Phd student at the
University of Western Australia. He is also a BJJ Purple-belt, a 3rd Degree
Black-belt at the Academy of Mixed Martial Arts and a competitor in
mountain ultra-marathons (50–100 km). Dunican’s research is focused on
proactive management of sleep for recovery and performance
for elite athletes. With 20 years of international experience,
he has worked with the Australian Institute of Sport,
the Perth Lynx and Wildcats pro basketball teams
and Western Force rugby league club, as well as UFC
ü#$0!./Čƫ
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via http://www.sleep4performance.com.auSTUDIES SHOW THAT WE ARE GENERALLY AT
THE PEAK OF OUR COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE
BETWEEN 9AM AND MIDDAY, SO THIS IS THE
BEST TIME TO WORK ON THINGS SUCH AS
FOOTWORK, STRIKING COMBINATIONS AND
TECHNICAL JIU-JITSU OR WRESTLINGON THE MAT |ƫ333ċ (%06) #ċ*!0ƫđƫ^67