Even though you eat like a boxer and take care of your nutrition, taking supplements for boxers can enhance your performance in the ring even more. They can improve your stamina and your overall training. However, consult a doctor before using any of them.
The supplements for fighters that you will find will have a different efficacy depending on the brand and also the ingredient formulation. Here is a list of the best supplements, suggested by Livestrong.
Best supplements for boxers
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Amino Acid Supplements
Proteins are made up of amino acids. Yes, you will find them in regular food, but also in the form of supplements. By taking them in a free-form, your body can absorb them more easily than in a regular food plate.
“A supplement drink containing amino acids and carbohydrates decreased fatigue in athletes training on consecutive days. This is important for boxing, as you will often perform on consecutive days, with weight training one day and sparring or cardio the next,” you can read in Livestrong where they cited research from the October 2008 issue of the “International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism”.
Whey protein supplement is one of the most common supplements there is. It is a fast way to get protein into your diet effectively. You can take it after you finish your training for the day to help you with muscle recovery.
Consider taking these, according to My Boxing Life:
Caffeine Supplements
For boxers that are training hard and sometimes twice a day, caffeine supplements can be a lot of help. Some boxers even run in the morning and train in the gym in the afternoon, so they need energy that will help them sustain intensive training all day long. Caffeine is perfect for this purpose since it helps promote endurance or resistance to fatigue, especially in long training sessions.
If you do not like to drink coffee, you can consider a supplement. Here are some options on Amazon:
Recovery Supplements
If you are wondering about what supplements boxers should take that can help them recover better from training, the answer is “recovery supplements”. These are essential for boxers because if their muscles do not recover adequately between training sessions, their performance may be impaired.
Recovery supplements combine protein and carbohydrates, which is a more beneficial combination for boxers than just taking carbs.
Antioxidant Supplements
When you exercise, you produce oxidative stress. This, on its part, produces free radicals, which can damage your cells and cause diseases. For this reason, antioxidants are great supplements for boxers, to help protect cells from getting damaged. You will find antioxidants in vitamins A, C and E. Also, as lutein, lycopene and selenium.
These are the best antioxidant supplements you will find on Amazon:
- Nature’s Way Antioxidant Formula
- Spring Valley Antioxidant Formula
- Health’s Harmony Super Antioxidants
Supplements for Muscle Mass
You can also take supplements for increasing muscle mass, such as creatine. This supplement will also help you with your strength performance by increasing phosphocreatine stores within your muscles to help them grow.
According to the website My Boxing Life, it works best with your post-meal after exercising so that your muscles have a better chance of storing the creatine. However, be careful if you are trying to lose weight for a fight because this supplement can increase your weight since it helps increase your muscle mass.
Here are some options to consider that you can find in Amazon:
- Optimum Nutrition Creatine powder
- Optimum Nutrition Creatine Caps
- MyProtein Creatine
- PHD Nutrition Creatine
Supplements for Improving your Health
It is also recommended to take supplements that will help improve your overall health. For instance, fish oil supplements are great for your joints, bones, your skin and also for lowering your blood pressure. You can consider Nutravita Omega 3 Capsules and Optimum Nutrition Soft Gel Fish Oil Capsules on Amazon.
Multivitamins are also a good option for supplements for boxers. You can get a lot of what multivitamins offer from your diet, however, by taking them additionally, you are sure that you are giving your body sufficient amounts of vitamins and minerals. They will help with your energy levels, your immune system and your metabolism. Consider Optimum Nutrition multivitamin capsules and NATURELO Whole Food Multivitamin.
Other great supplements for boxers
You can also consider these four supplements to combine with your boxing diet:
Vitamin D
This vitamin is a fat soluble. It is responsible for increasing absorption of calcium, magnesium and phosphate. If you are a boxer and are deficient in Vitamin D, you are more at risk of bone stress fractures or major breaks. This vitamin will also help reduce the overall body inflammation and improve muscular function.
Beta-Alanine
Beta-Alanine can improve an athlete’s anaerobic threshold. This means that it will help them sustain high-intensity training for longer periods of time. You can take a scoop 20 to 30 minutes prior to training.
Hydroxy Methylbutyrate (HMB)
By taking Hydroxy Methylbutyrate or HMB, you will ensure that you are not losing muscle mass. This is an anticatabolic supplement that can stop muscle loss or wasting. While training it is unlikely that you lose muscle mass, but if you are losing weight for a fight and are in a caloric deficit, it is likely to occur.
Greens Supplement (Athletic Greens)
Greens Supplements, such as Athletic Greens, are natural multivitamins. Plants and superfoods have so many nutritional benefits that you can even use them to replace multivitamins.
What supplements boxers should avoid
You read about what the best supplements for boxers are, and now it is also important for you to know which supplements you should avoid as a boxer. These are usually illegal drugs that many people are tempted to use because of their fast results.
However, anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, weight cutting supplements and testosterone products are not only illegal but can be very harmful to your health and your opponent’s. Can you imagine accidentally ending someone else’s life with a punch? This can happen with the use of these “supplements” we just mentioned since people can lose control of their bodies.
According to the Mayo Clinic, these are some of the consequences that both men and women can experience after taking performance-enhancing drugs like anabolic steroids are:
Men may develop:
- Prominent breasts
- Shrunken testicles
- Infertility
- Prostate gland enlargement
Women may develop:
- A deeper voice, which may be irreversible
- An enlarged clitoris, which may be irreversible
- Increased body hair
- Baldness, which may be irreversible
- Infrequent or absent periods
Both men and women might experience:
- Severe acne
- Increased risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture
- Liver abnormalities and tumors
- Increased low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (the “bad” cholesterol)
- Decreased high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the “good” cholesterol)
- High blood pressure (hypertension)
- Heart and blood circulation problems
- Aggressive behaviors, rage or violence
- Psychiatric disorders, such as depression
- Drug dependence
- Infections or diseases such as HIV or hepatitis if you’re injecting the drugs
- Inhibited growth and development, and risk of future health problems in teenagers
Here are some listed risks of using testosterone in men:
- Acne
- Diminished sperm production
- Shrinking of the testicles
- Enlargement of the breasts
In women, side effects include:
- Acne
- Masculinization, such as deepening of the voice and male-pattern baldness
In both men and women, it can damage the heart and blood vessels, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke.
As for the human growth hormone, these are some of the side effects:
- Joint pain
- Muscle weakness
- Fluid retention
- Diabetes
- Vision problems
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
- Impaired glucose regulation
- Enlarged heart (cardiomegaly)
- High blood pressure (hypertension)
Have you tried combining supplements with your nutrition as a boxer? If so, what has your experience been like and what would you recommend and not recommend? Tell us in the comment section below!
