The Fight Science Podcast

Dr. Scott is an Assistant Professor at the University of Brandon in Manitoba, Canada and this is his second time on the podcast. He is widely regarded as one of the worlds leading researchers and experts when it comes to everyone's favorite supplement; creatine. In this episode, Dr. Scott and I are going to answer all of your questions about creatine. We discuss dosages, timing, cycling, who it's useful for, what the latest research is suggesting, creatine for brain health, and much more.

This is a very different episode to what I normally put out, but I think there will be immense value in this for a lot of you guys. If you guys follow me on social media you will know that I have gotten into endurance running and am currently training for an ultra marathon. This past weekend I had possibly one of the toughest training sessions I’ve ever had, not physically but mentally. The volume of my training schedule combined with running my Businesses and general life is really starting to show me just how brutal this training can be. I basically walked in the door in not a very good frame of mind, I got the training session done but I just did not feel great about it afterwards. So I called the person who I would deem as one of the best mental performance coaches in the southern hemisphere, David Niethe. You guys would be familiar with him as I have had him on the podcast before. Niethey basically dropped everything he was doing and got me in for a session so we could go over what happened, reflect on it and learn from it and he also allowed me to film it. I understand you go through high’s and low’s with training but this is a cool example of why it is important to have someone like Dave in your corner to help you handle situations like this.This is a bit different from our normal podcast content, but I think a lot of you guys will get a lot of value from this.

Dr. James Morehen is a Performance Nutritionist with a Bachelor's in Sport and Exercise Science, a Masters's of Science in Sports Physiology, and a PhD in Sports Nutrition. He is also the founder and owner of Moorhen Performance and currently works as the Head of Performance Nutrition with the Bristol Bears Rugby Club. James is a returning guest to show and today we are going to be talking about a brand new paper that he released where he assessed the weight cycling habits of a professional boxer over a five-year time period.

Many of you will be familiar with Tyler and his work with many of the greatest UFC fighters to ever do it including, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Daniel Cormier, Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, and many more. Tyler is also the owner of Tyler Minton Nutrition, a highly successful nutrition business that looks to cater to not just athletes, but people from all walks of life to get the best out of themselves with Nutrition. In this episode, Tyler and I discuss his role as a father and how he makes nutritional decisions for his kids, but then we get to the really good stuff where we take a deep dive into what it really takes to make it in this industry of Sports Nutrition. If you are a student, new grad, or practitioner looking for a career change this is the episode for you.

Dr. Heather Linden is the Director of Physical Therapy at UFC Performance Institute Las Vegas and is the go-to Physical Therapist for many of the worlds leading Combat Sports Athletes. In this episode, we are going to be breaking down Dr. Heather's contributions to the UFC PI's latest journal and talk about how the UFC Performance Institute is implementing state-of-the-art Sports Medicine in order to keep their athletes in peak physical condition.

Clint Wattenberg is the Director of Performance Nutrition at the UFC Performance Institute Las Vegas, he is one of the most prominent figures in the area of Combat Sports Science and is well and truly leading the charge when it comes to Nutrition for Combat Athletes. In this episode, we are going to be breaking down his contributions to the UFC PI's latest journal and talk about what it is exactly that the top Nutrition professionals in MMA are doing with their athletes to make them the best athletes they can be.

Dave Wood is a former intensive care paramedic turned Performance coach. He is fast becoming one of the most sought after coaches in the Australia and New Zealand and this can be credited to his deep understanding of the integration of the different systems of the human body, and the incredible results that he has seen with high profile athletes such as UFC Middleweight Champion, Israel Adesanya. Dave specializes in Performance Breathing, a type of training that aims to teach athletes, businesspeople and everyday folk how to become more mindful, learn correct breathing mechanics and to improve their carbon dioxide tolerance. In this episode Woody and I are going to deep dive into the theory behind his practice and have an in depth discussion about why breathing is not something you do to be one percent better, it is the 99% difference in performance.

Mark Germaine is a Performance Nutritionist and Alumni of prestigious Liverpool John Moores University in Liverpool, England.Mark returns to the podcast to give us a balanced, scientific overview of something that is rapidly flooding all of our social media feeds; CBD.You do not have to look far to see athletes, businessmen, influencers and everyday folk touting the benefits of CBD in its many forms, but where are we really at with the science of it?Mark has given many presentations about his very topic so in this episode we are going to discuss exactly what the research currently says and get his thoughts on what the future holds for this popular substance.

Mike Dolce is one of the most well-known and respected trainers, not just in Combat Sports, but in the Health and Fitness industry. Across his more than 20-year career he has been awarded World MMA Trainer of the Year, not once, but 4 times, he is a best-selling author of his wildly successful book The Dolce Diet: 3 Weeks to Shredded, and is the go-to weight management coach to elite level athletes, business people, and everyday warriors. In the world of Mixed Martial Arts, Mike paved the path for many of us who currently work in Combat Sports Nutrition. He was the go-to Nutrition Coach for the likes of; Ronda Rousey, Randy Couture, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Johnny Hendricks, Vitor Belfort, Chael Sonnen, Duane Ludwig, Michael Bisping, Gilbert Melendez, and many many more. In this episode, we will be discussing his career, his philosophy behind weight management in MMA, how he has seen the industry change in the past 20 years, common mistakes he sees athletes make, and what he believes is the best answer to the weight cutting issue.

Dr. Duncan French is a world-renowned Performance specialist and is the current Head of Performance at the UFC Performance Institute, Las Vegas. He has worked with elite-level Olympic athletes in Great Britain, numerous universities, and is a published author of over 60 peer-reviewed articles. In a nutshell, Duncan is the Beez Neez when it comes to Sports Performance. In this episode, Duncan overviews Volume 2 of the UFC PI Cross-Sectional Analysis and Projection of the UFC Athlete. This episode is the perfect preface for upcoming episodes where I will be breaking down each section with the contributing authors.

Charles Stull is the Performance Nutrition Manager at the UFC Performance Institute, Las Vegas. Over the past 18 months, Charles has been pivotal in designing and implementing the UFC and Trifecta's Fight Week Meal Service in which they assist with the Nutritional needs of fighters making weight during Fight week. 2020 has been a crazy year for everyone, but none more so than the UFC, I have got Charles on to chat about what it has been like coordinating the meals of all the fighters during this time.Charles has also contributed an entire chapter to the new UFC PI Journal all about Nutrition for Traumatic Brain Injury, in this episode, Charles will detail his major recommendations for athletes who have sustained damage to the head.

Taylor is an accredited Sports Dietitian and owner of The Sports Dietitian, one of Australia’s most successful sports nutrition clinic that focuses on strength sports. Taylor predominantly works with athletes from the recreational to the elite in Crossfit, powerlifting, and weightlifting but also works with athletes in team, endurance, and combat sports. Alongside her success in the world of Performance Nutrition, Taylor is a leader in the area of energy availability and makes a real effort to make athletes aware of the negative health and performance outcomes that can occur when they under fuel for prolonged periods of time. In this episode, we discuss everything about energy availability, what it is, why you need to know about it, what low energy availability is, how that can lead to relative energy deficiency and how this affects a number of different systems in the body.

Dr. Oliver has joined us again on the podcast to discuss his latest paper titled Reviewing the current methods of assessing hydration in athletes. In this chat we discuss all of the current methods there are to assess hydration and discuss whether or not they should be used with combat athletes who are making weight. This is extremely interesting given that ONE championship makes all of their fighters pass, a hydration test that assesses that concentration of the athlete's urine to officially make weight.Oliver and I discuss if this is truly a good idea and an accurate measure of hydration and what the flaws are in this system. At the back end of this chat, we also dive into some more philosophical questions behind the entire weight-making process including why we both believe it is an issue, how you would go about solving that problem, and the organizational changes that would be needed to facilitate that.