I have been wondering about taking supplements aswell as my training to help with recovery but im unsure about what and if to take any at all as I am only fifteen, any advise would be appreciated thank you

Glutamine is good if your looking for something to aid recovery.
You can generally get it at any health food store.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqT3t8UNLYs&feature=related

As regards protein supplements, I'd recommend watching this interview.

He describes the mechanics of protein absorption.
I never took protein supplements before watching this.

If your feeling burnt out, those multivitamin supplements or a tonic, work pretty well.

For extra energy and to ensure adequate B vitamin intake (ensures full use of energy from carb intake), try wheat grass.


I think the most important thing as regards recovery and performance though, is a good diet and balanced lifestyle - rest in proportion to how you train, mentally and physically.

Hey Jay
You are still very young and growing. my advice would be to spend as much time as you can eating right and researching diet and it's effect as much as you can at an early age. Try to stay away from extremes and train hard, you will get where u want to be.

Thanks for the replies, I have looked at numerous articles about fighters diets since this post and also the effects of protein supplements. For now i think i will stay away from certain supplements and just take natural ones like cod liver oil and cherry juice aswell as a balanced diet. :)

Any more info on recovery would be good, examples of what people take and what it helps with ect, also when to take them

I think the nail has been hit on the head already, good clean diet, low (to no) alcohol consumption, good protein straight after training and pleanty of sleep.
When you go to sleep at night and your body shuts down is when the majority of repair takes place and mentally you are ready to stress the body and learn new technique the next day.
Low sleep levels, alcohol, stress, poor diet all increase your body's cortisol levels and makes you tired, slow, weak, increases weight gain, lots of studies done to prove this and lots of fighters living clean lifestyles are breaking previous performance barriers and personal bests.
Remember with supplements that they are marketed to make you believe that you need them to be better, I can only comment from my experience of taking different things trying to increase my performance and recovery but the best thing i ever did was read a book called "The Palaeo Diet For Athaletes" (reading in general will relax you anyway but if its on nurtitional subjuects you kill two birds with one stone!), I also sleep a lot more, drink a lot less, and eat very cleanly ( which means for me no processed foods, breads, pasta, potatoes - lots of organic fruit, veg, meat).
The best thing to do is experiment yourself and find what works for you but I would personally try to not spend money on supplents (other than good protien shakes,cod liver oil, glucosamine,cherry active - basically natural stuff) before you try just improving the bsics first of your diet, sleep, stress levels ect as you may find that you spent a lot of money without any gains.
Hope this helps

my diet is very good anyway, i still eat bread and pasta but only wholewheat or a low gi value bread like soya and linseed swapped potatoes for sweet potatoes ect, im not old enough to drink either ive just been wondering about other things i can do other than a plain whey protein shake after training, seen stuff about glutamine and bcaa's and just thought i would ask if it works for anyone who trains thai, as i dont want to bulk up unless i grow into it

If it's recovery specifically...

I think there can be a sort of detrimental enthusiasm that takes over sometimes - and we don't give ourselves sufficient recovery time, or push too hard in certain sessions, even if we can almost feel we're not making the same gains



This is a bodybuilder - but the methods as such, I believe, translate into any athletic based activity.

3:50 - his description of fatigue onset, pretty much hits the nail on the head.

I used to get this all the time, but pushed through it, thinking that that is what a hardcore fighter would do or something.
Which was obviously total nonsense, and ultimately very detrimental.

Anyways, I find that video very insightful as regards the avoidance of over training and issues with recovery.

When we get the balance of training to recovery correct, that's when we really get into a flow, and the skies the limit as far as your gains, whatever your aim is, can be - IMO.

Fantastic video, great advice! Cant say anything bad about it, he informed very simply and didnt try and sell you anything even tho he is in the buisness to!
BCAA's - Branch Chain Ammino Acids are the building blocks of muscle, they help transform the protein to muscle, so to take them you need to be having a good protein shake, i usually have one shake in the morning, one after training and take BCAA's before i go to bed with all my other vitamins.
Cant comment on the glutamine as i've never taken it and i dont know wnough about it, sorry.