Boxing history has had a handful of fighters who were able to, not only compete, but reach a high level of success into what most would consider past their prime. The “Ole Mongoose,” Archie Moore, fought late into his forties, George Foreman won the heavyweight title at age forty-five and, more recently, forty-seven year old Bernard Hopkins has gained a great deal of attention for being able to tap into a virtual fountain of youth and show some of today’s young guns, that age really is only a number.  Were these boxers genetically gifted?  Did they have a secret to success for fighting into their golden years? Were they just well-preserved because of their lifestyles outside of the ring?  The answer may be…all of the above?

Regardless of how each of them were able to personally prolong their boxing careers and experience the best of themselves at a time when most fighters are riding off into the sunset, there are things YOU can do to ensure that you have a long, healthy career by the choices you make now.  Or, if you’re already up-there in age, just beginning, or well into the twilight of your boxing career, it’s never too late to do what you can to slow the aging process down and turn back the boxing clock on your internal timer.

One of the most important contributors to aging is Human Growth Hormone.  The presence of it reduces the effects of aging, helps build muscle and improves your general health.  You can improve your natural levels of HGH by getting plenty of sleep (at least 8 hours) and reducing stress. Too little sleep and too much stress produce a reaction from your body that releases hormones from your pituitary gland that, in turn, decreases HGH levels. Yeah, accomplishing both of these in this fast-paced, demanding world is easier said than done, but worth striving for, as they are major contributors to the aging process.

On the other hand, it has been proven that intense exercise, such as interval training or boxing training, actually increases testosterone output.  Since your levels of testosterone and HGH begin decreasing substantially once you hit your 30s, it’s more important than ever to increase your intensity and the level at which you train.  Those days of casually going in the gym and meandering from bag to bag, getting a few rounds in and just getting by are over.  The days where youth is on your side has to be replaced by a concerted effort to use every minute you’re in the gym.  Shorten your rest periods, eliminate idle chit chat, don’t let your mind wander and push yourself every minute of every round.  It may sound like common sense or pretty basic advice, but you might be surprised at how many gyms house a slew of fighters who are skating by on raw talent and depending on their natural physical gifts.  Guess what?  Their days are numbered.  So are yours, so start counting them now.

Your ability to maintain muscle mass peaks between twenty and thirty years old, but declines by one percent every year once you hit forty.  You lose up to sixty-eight percent of your bone density by the time you reach sixty.  To offset that, compound weight-lifting movements have been proven to increase muscle mass, bone density and overall strength.  You may have been hesitant to incorporate weightlifting in the past, but you might want to reconsider adding some multi-joint movements to supplement your boxing routine. These types of exercises focus on explosiveness and power, not building muscle so “no” it won’t slow you down and “no” it will not make you muscle bound.  What it will do is help you keep what muscle you do have, prevent your body from deteriorating and prevent your power from diminishing.  If you’ve hit that magic number in age, you might want to consider if it is worth holding onto that old belief that boxers shouldn’t lift weights or, instead, realize that it’s time to move some iron and pump up your boxing routine.

Every decade after the age of 25 your aerobic capacity declines by approximately 10 percent.  The answer isn’t running an extra 5 miles every day or increasing your time on the stationary bike, but maybe mixing up your aerobic routine.  Try swimming.  It can help fight-off aging by increasing your blood pressure, helping build muscle mass through resistance training and has been shown to improve your blood chemistry.  Most importantly, when approached with an intensity and sense of focus, it will increase your lung capacity.

Lastly, your diet is crucial…maybe even the most important contributing factor.  The ins and outs are too vast to get into many specifics, so let’s just say this…if you can’t catch it with a net, shoot it with a gun, pull it from the ground or pick it from a tree, consider not eating it.  Most likely it’s not good for you.  If it comes already prepared, pre-packaged, frozen, boxed, preserved or canned, in most instances, its health benefits are going to be questionable.  If the cavemen didn’t have it or couldn’t get it, you don’t need it.

It really is true when they say age is only a number.  You can be every bit as fit at forty years old as you were at twenty, if you make the right choices and adjustments to your training.  It’s never too late to start living right, eating right and training right to have a boxing career that keeps you young at heart.

Doug Ward is the President and Trainer for the Underground Boxing Company.

Three rules for boxing – Defense:
1) Keep your hands up,
2) Keep your elbows in and
3) Keep your butt off the canvas.

Doug Ward is the President and Trainer for the Underground Boxing Company.

For most fighters and coaches, it comes natural to focus on increasing arm and upper body strength when you want to increase punching power, muscular endurance and overall ring performance.  The only problem is, in reality, that’s only one part of a bigger equation.

Fighters who are intent on enhancing their punching power and muscular recruitment should be targeting their glutes and lower back as much as they are their upper body.  These are the support muscles that help to stabilize your core, generate force, and also help you to absorb punches.

The glutes are an integral part of building a solid foundation.  They help produce well-grounded power by allowing you to sit down properly on your punches and drive off the ground to generate leverage/force in your delivery.  When you build your butt muscles and your lower back together, you are utilizing two of the largest muscle groups in your body and it affords you the ability to call on your leg strength when you’re getting tired.

There are a number of exercises you can incorporate into your routine to improve in both of these two areas. One is the single leg dumbbell squat.  To perform this movement, balance on one leg and with a dumbbell in the opposite hand, bend at the knee.  With that opposite hand, touch the dumbbell (use a weight that is manageable) to the ground on the inside of the foot. Return to a standing position.  Be sure to bend with your leg and not your waist.  This is effective because it requires stabilization, single leg strength, balance and coordination.

Another exercise is forward squat jumps.  To perform these, you simply rock forward onto your toes, bend your knees into a deep squatted position and propel yourself upward, forward and out away from where you started. These can be done in succession, covering some distance, or singularly, doing one and then returning to the starting position and doing another.  This is not only geared towards developing leg strength, but can also help in gaining explosiveness.

In either case, with the single leg dumbbell squat or squat jumps, you’re on your feet when performing both of these exercises, so they simultaneously enhance hip, knee and ankle strength. They also involve recruitment of the lower back muscles and that will help create a solid connection between those and your core.

You can also focus exclusively on the lower back with hyper-extensions.  You can do these by lying on the floor, face down, with your hands clasped behind your head.  Keeping your toes planted on the ground, bend backwards in an arching motion so that you are looking upwards at the wall or ceiling. Try to extend backwards as far as you can and perform the movement in a methodical, controlled fashion.  You can build up to doing a number of high repetitions of this exercise or add a moderate amount of weight as the exercise becomes easier to perform.

By adding a few simple exercises into your routine, that focus primarily on the larger muscle groups – your glutes and back, you will be creating a more solid foundation.  Whether it’s for maximizing your punching power or standing your ground, there’s no substitute for making the most of your biggest assets…no ifs and or butts about it.

Doug Ward is the President and Trainer for the Underground Boxing Company.

Some of the most crucial aspects of boxing, what fighters should be paying attention to, are also the most obvious.  When fighting is your business, you should be examining every detail that will allow you to be physically and mentally prepared and, ultimately, more profitable.  You should be constantly taking inventory to be sure you have all of the equipment you need and secure that you have your business is in order.  All of this starts at the surface…what’s most obvious to that guy who’s looking at you in the mirror when you’re shadowboxing, as well as that one in front of you on the other side of the ring.  It can be part of making a first impression, but your skin can also leave a lasting impression on your boxing career…depending on how you care for it.

The largest human organ is skin.  It covers a surface area of approximately twenty-five square feet and, just like the rest of your body, it needs to be kept in shape.  You need to work to maintain its tone and flexibility as much as any other part of your body.  If it fails you in training or in the ring, it can lead to injuries, cuts, abrasions and general poor health that could sideline you indefinitely. Obviously your skin guards and protects the underlying muscles, ligaments, bones and your internal organs so it’s important to take a few precautions to be sure it remains intact.

Clean it.  Because it is one of the main barriers between you and the environment, your skin plays a key role in protecting your body against disease and excessive water loss (temperature regulation) so keep it clean. This will eliminate most bacteria and toxins so that it can function properly and meet the demands that come from intense training.  Body odor is going to happen as a result of a strenuous workout, but if you stink from having poor hygiene, you are exposing yourself and your skin to a host of bacteria that is unhealthy.

Hydrate it.  Like the rest of your body, your skin needs H2O and moisture.  Let it dry out and it can make you more prone to cuts, cracking and bleeding, which can, in turn, lead to infections and surface injury.  Busted and bleeding knuckles may look cool, but hitting the bag with an open wound on your fist can become painful, so protect your hands by keeping them moisturized.  No guys, that doesn’t mean lathering on so much baby lotion that you can’t grip your gym bag, but a little moisturizer isn’t unmanly if it allows you to keep punching, especially in dry climates or through the winter season.

Protect it.  Wrap your hands, wear headgear, cover your body, be sure you have good, well-maintained gloves and avoid the outside elements.  Anything that will help reduce extraneous contact, like good wraps and protective headgear is healthy.  Anyone who says that “Wrapping your hands doesn’t allow them to be toughened” or that “Wearing a headgear gives you a false sense of protection”, has just plain taken their macho attitude too far.  A smart fighter uses whatever tools he has available to protect himself properly.  It will ultimately make your career last longer and allow you to reduce unnecessary wear and tear on your body.  Toughing yourself and properly preparing your body for hard battle is one thing, abusing your body is another.  Try not to confuse the two.

Another component that comes into play during actual combat is the use of Vaseline.   When it is applied liberally to the cheekbones, the chin, forehead and the bridge of the nose, it can help prevent cuts and abrasions that come from contact.   It helps keep the skin pliable and makes your opponents gloves slide off more easily. When the glove makes contact with dry skin, it causes friction and can more readily produce cuts and small tears in the skin.  A little Vaseline reduces contact and irritation.

After good technique, your skin is the second line of defense against the elements and your opponent and you should do all you can to keep it in good working order.    Take it for granted, assuming that it will just take care of itself and you might be disappointed.  Considering that it’s your livelihood, your body requires time, attention and a little TLC (tender-loving-care.)  It may go against your instincts as a fighter, as a warrior, for you to think like that, but consider this…your skin is your shield of armor.  Shine it, buff it, hammer out any dents and prepare yourself for battle.  It’s not about vanity.  It’s more about honor and self-respect and those go much farther than skin deep.

Doug Ward is the President and Trainer for the Underground Boxing Company.

Its inevitable, heading into training, that you’re going to slip up, that you’re going to make mistakes.  Sometimes temptation can get the better of you, even though your intentions are good. In reality, if you are training the way that you should be, and adhering to a solid meal plan a majority of the time, those slip-ups won’t make or break you. Its when they become habitual and turn into a recurring problem that they can spell your downfall.

One of the biggest challenges, in regard to eating healthy, is your mental attitude towards it. When most people hear the word “healthy” or “diet” they immediately relate that to foods that taste bad and, the idea of suffering or depriving themselves of something enjoyable. Most people, by the way, are also out of shape and likely overweight. Maybe these two concepts are related?  Maybe this negative attitude towards the idea that healthy foods can’t also be enjoyable, plays an important role in food choices. Your point of view or the preconceived notions you hold, may be a major contributor to sticking to good food habits.

So let’s start by looking at the way you view things. If you are able to maintain good eating habits by occasionally rewarding yourself after a week of hard training and remaining disciplined with the food you eat most of the time, there may be a better way to approach that strategy.  Many dieters call those “cheat meals.”  How about changing that terminology into something positive?  What if, instead, you call it your Reward Meal or your Reward Day (if you’re able to afford an entire day of relaxing your diet)?  If you’re going to strive for something, framing it as a positive outcome feels better, sounds better and is more motivating.  You might find it to be more successful by simply referring to it in more reward-based terminology, rather than something bad that you’re indulging in.

Next, try to avoid using the word diet.  I know how hard that is, when we are inundated with that word and use it so frequently in reference to almost any eating habit we have, but the word DIET has developed such a negative connotation that applying it to your athletic goals may be holding you back, without you even realizing it.  By applying such a loaded, heavy word in reference to what is really just a positive, lifestyle, training choice you might be suffering for it.  The mental baggage that comes with sticking to a diet may be making it a difficult part of your regimen to be disciplined in.  Maybe instead you can more frequently use the phrase meal plan to evoke images and feelings of a more structured, well-thougtht-out and desirable approach to what you eat.  The word diet feels restrictive and punitive, but meal plan sounds like it is a structured approach to achieving a goal.  Meal plan also doesn’t feel like it is something being forced on you.

There are also several foods that have, historically gotten a bad wrap.  Kids supposedly hate broccoli.  Cabbage stinks when you cook it.  Lettuce is considered rabbit food.  We’ve been somewhat conditioned to hate greens and yet they are one of our top two most valuable food sources.  If eating your veggies is a challenge for you, it might even be worth changing the way you talk about them.  Maybe it would be beneficial to say greens instead of vegetables.  Green is the color of money, spring and many other positive images.  It might help you make better choices in the produce aisle just by associating your vegetables with good experiences rather than your Mom making you eat your spinach.

The list is virtually endless when it comes to word association and your food choices.  Think about some of the words you use on your own and how you can develop better thought patterns in relation to what you eat.  If you feel like you drink enough water to hydrate the Mojave Desert, then start referring to it as fuel.  Get creative with your word substitutions.  Even if it sounds corny at first, as long as it brings a smile to your face or a chuckle from those around you, instead of a host of negative feelings and dread, then do it.  Do some self examination and if words or phrases you are using have a negative connotation or bring along bad feelings, then avoid using them.

When it comes to maintaining a healthy meal plan or approach to weight-loss, your attitude has more to do with it than most people imagine. Remember that Words have Power and you should never, never underestimate that. Whether you are fighting, eating or competing you should always strive to keep your internal dialogue positive and the words you speak working FOR you. They say that talk is cheap, but when it comes to what we say to ourselves, unless it’s good talk, it isn’t cheap…it comes at a high price.  One you don’t want to pay.

Spencer Ward is a Nutritionist with the Acupuncture Center in Overland Park KS.

Fitness traditionalists, old school gym class teachers and every morning workout show that hit the airwaves over the past few decades have pounded it into the public’s heads that exercise should begin with stretching.  Recently however, almost every study is proving that old belief system wrong and the more cutting edge fitness programs are beginning with more sport-specific movements and warming up the muscles that will be most used during that activity.

Whether you’re stretching and holding instead of bouncing or not doesn’t matter.  Stretching cold muscles is the equivalent to taking a rubber band out of the freezer and immediately beginning to pull it.  What happens?  You see slight tears begin to happen in the band and then, as more pressure is applied, the rubber band snaps.  Muscles are very similar in structure to these elastic bands so a better preparation is to warm these muscles up before putting pressure on them and forcing them perform.

Strangely enough, it seems that boxers have always understood that principle.  That’s why they have always shadowboxed at the beginning of their workouts.   They have traditionally mimicked the exact movement they would be performing on the bags and in the ring before making their bodies respond. Every fighter worth a penny to punch starts his workout by shadowboxing and always has.

Another alternative or complimentary pre-exercise warm-up is full range of motion movements, or FRM. These are movements that involve using the same sets of muscles you would use when you get in the ring, throw punches, avoid getting hit and move around the gym.

One approach to achieving this is to take a set of dumbbells and run through a series of single and multi-joint exercises.  Lie in the ring and slowly, but consistently, perform a standard weight-lifting routine using only light weight.  Perform 20-30 repetitions of a chest press.  Then stand up, bend horizontally at the waist and do the same number of repetitions of a classic bent row.  From there, stand up and move right into a set of behind-the-head triceps extensions, followed by traditional bicep curls.  Finish the routine off with some overhead shoulder presses.  Then let the weights hang to your side and complete the entire series with some leg squats.  Even with that basic approach, in all, you’ve touched on nearly every muscle group without placing unnecessary stress on them and you’ve started the warm-up process.  Depending on how you feel and how your muscles have responded, you may want to go through the routine again at that same weight and rate, or increase the weight slightly, increase the intensity and get a better sweat going.  Then, move right into or back into another round of shadowboxing for another option.

A similar routine can be achieved with a lightweight medicine ball or a light resistance band…anything that will provide some slight resistance, while allowing for a full range of motion. The most important aspect is to get the muscles moving in a task that is similar to the activity that they will be called on to do through a full range of motion.

Stretching is not taboo.  It is a great way to end your workout, after intense exercise, once the muscles are completely and thoroughly warmed-up. Proper stretching can increase flexibility, relieve muscle soreness and help restore any range of motion that may have been lost through strength building exercises. It will help you be a more flexible, fluid and mobile athlete who will be able to last…just don’t put stretching first.

Doug Ward is the President and Trainer for the Underground Boxing Company.

Throughout the ages, astronomers have shared the belief that the Earth is the center of the universe, because all other objects orbit around it.  The stars, sun, and planets all make their daily revolutions around the Earth, which obviously makes it the center of the solar system.

Similarly, the core could be considered the center of the human body.  By most definitions, the core refers to the torso, (minus the legs and arms) including the belly, the hips, shoulders, neck, mid and lower back.

Just like the Earth is the center of the Universe, the Core can then be considered the center of a Boxers Fighting Range, which is basically his universe.  Because all functional movements are highly dependent on the core, every movement that emanates from it is directly affected by it.  Your boxing universe orbits, along with all of its parts (every punch you throw and step you take) around your core, so your center should never venture outside of it.

An important trait for you to master as a fighter is to be sure to keep your core constantly at center.  You should be shifting your weight forward as you punch, side to side as you alternate punches, and in perpetual motion as you act and react, but your weight should always return to the center.

For one, when you punch, you should never extend your head past your front foot.  It should never go beyond the point of what can be foundationally supported or outside of your Fighting Range.  When it does, your stability is compromised and you take yourself out of the proper position to act or react. When you punch and leave all of your weight on your front foot, you’re out of balance with your universe.

You see fighters do it all of the time.  They jab with all of their weight over their front leg or reach in towards their opponent, without having their feet beneath them.  This takes away most of the power a fighter possesses in his right hand (left cross if you are a southpaw) and, even though it gets a fighter’s left jab closer to his opponent, it makes his jab less effective, from a power perspective, than it should be.

It’s not only important to keep your weight centered from an offensive standpoint, but from a defensive one too.  If the majority of your weight is placed on your front foot, how do you slip a right hand? Try it.  It simply doesn’t work.

This applies to your back foot as well.   Any time, in relation to any moving in any direction, when you let your weight drift outside of your designated Fighting Range you are going to compromise yourself.  In terms of punching power, balance, your ability to move, defend properly and set yourself up to deliver the next shot, keeping your core at the center is vital.

Having your weight equally balanced and distributed between your feet, some bend in your knees and using the shifting of your weight to generate power and momentum will make you feel and react like a more solid fighter.  You will be better prepared for anything that comes your way and ready to move heaven and earth.  From the core of your being, you will have the foundation to be a better fighter and will hold the universe in the palm of your hand.

Doug Ward is the President and Trainer for the Underground Boxing Company.

When most fighters struggle with cardiovascular conditioning and increasing their endurance, they figure the key must be in their roadwork and amount of time they spend getting their heart rate up.  Sometimes that’s the case, but the secret may also lie in another aspect of your training. There are things some fighters do, habits some fighters have that rob them of the oxygen they need.  Like poor conditioning, these habits leave them huffing and puffing for air.  If you’re putting in the right amount of time in the gym, hitting the road often enough and training with the intensity you should, then it may all come down to better breathing.

First of all, you should be breathing through your nose, not your mouth. Yeah, this also helps prevent getting hit with your mouth open and getting your jaw broken, but it is also important to getting the proper oxygen supply to your system.  What it does is it allows you to breath deeper into your diaphragm. When you breathe deeper into your diaphragm, this causes your abdomen to expand, places downward pressure on your stomach and forces more air into your lungs. This increases blood flow to and from your heart, making you more efficient.  Practice this in the gym, especially when you start to get tired and feel the inclination to fight with your mouth open. This will increase the cardiovascular demands on your system and will ultimately help create good breathing habits that you can take into the ring with you.

Next, be sure you are not holding your breath. When you hold your breath consistently during sparring or during actual competition, you are likely depriving your body of oxygen.  When this happens, your cells have to get their fuel from an alternate source and that causes what’s called lactic acid fermentation. That’s basically what lactic acid build-up means and it is what causes that burning, sore, fatigued feeling you get as the rounds progress.  That muscle pain and tiredness is the feeling that comes when you try to demand energy from cells that are oxygen-deficient.

Finally…relax. Oh, that’s sounds so easy, but it is really hard for some fighters to do. Having someone hurl punches at you and try to put your lights out is, understandably enough, not everyone’s idea of an enjoyable night on the town.  However, when you fight tense, you breathe shallow and take in less oxygen.  You also become more muscle-fatigued faster and that makes you FEEL more tired. This feeling is partially an illusion, but also relates to the points above as well.  When you are not relaxed, you expend more nervous energy, waste your reserves on staying amped-up at 100 percent and don’t let your body move freely and act naturally.

Once you learn to control your breathing, you will become stronger, you will be able to produce more intensity (fight at a greater pace) with less effort and will have likely tapped into an oxygen supply that you never knew you had. You’ll find new excitement from the simple task of controlling your breathing and it will be like getting your second wind, the first time around.

Doug Ward is the President and Trainer for the Underground Boxing Company.

Although brain power isn’t usually the first thing considered when you talk about training, it is as vital to your success as nutrition, sparring or the way you approach your total boxing routine.

At first, as a beginning boxer, your focus is on the fundamentals and just getting in good enough shape to compete.  However, as you rise in level of competition and gain more advanced skills, the greater role mental performance will play in your ability to compete at that more advanced, elite level.  How you mentally prepare and approach the game will make the difference between you and the other top two or three guys at a similar skill level.

Like physical preparation, your mental practice has to become a daily part of your training in order for you to be able to draw on it when you need it most.  Building your mental physique along with your physical one has to be done so often that it becomes second nature.  Sugar Ray Robinson said, “You don’t think. It’s all instinct. If you stop to think, you’re gone.”  Your subconscious mind has to be able to kick into gear and make the right choices in the ring spontaneously and this only happens naturally when it becomes a part of you.

Mental strength-building is an area that isn’t always explored or discussed about in great lengths in the gym, so most fighters don’t even know how important it is or how to go about developing brain power.  It is a fairly broad subject, but a few tips are:

Use Visualization:  Take time out of your daily routine to imagine where you want to go with your boxing career. If it’s just to get in better shape, then picture yourself there already. If it’s winning a world title, then capture that moment and relive it over and over in your mind. See yourself working towards it. Go through your preparations in the dressing room, all of the way to holding that belt up after your name has been announced as the winner.  The more vividly you can use your imagination, the more likely tangible results will come of it.  Going through these mental pictures help develop positive imagery and is, figuratively, flexing your brain muscle.

Instill Self-Confidence:  Expect to win, always. Put yourself in a frame of mind where there are no alternatives other than achieving the results you want and desire.  Too many people focus on the negative and burden themselves with the what-ifs and the worse-case scenarios.  Instead of mulling over all of the potential negative outcomes, overload your brain with thoughts of what you want to happen.  You might be surprised how your mind kicks into gear to produce the results you expect.  Your brain is working 24/7, even when your body is taking a break, so fill it with all of the positive possibilities and let it clock in the overtime.

Set Goals:  Whether you write them down, commit them to memory, share them with others, it doesn’t matter, but do have them clearly defined.  You don’t have to have all of the answers and a specific roadmap to get there, just know what you want.  The mind can work miracles and it will find a way to get you what you want, but it has to know clearly and colorfully what that is.  If it knows what that goal looks like, how achieving that goal will make you feel and why you want it so bad, your brain’s built in emotional drivers will make it happen.  Human beings are motivated by emotions, so use that natural instinct to get what you want.

Take Action:   All of this has to be followed by tangible action.  Put the necessary work in the gym.  If you want to be a world champion you can’t just talk about it or act like, but you also have to train like it.  Be the first one there and the last one to leave. Take care of business.  How many of you have seen that guy in the gym that walks around for hours talking to everyone in the gym, telling them how great a boxer he is, giving anyone who will listen (even the ones who don’t) his expert advice. He’s also the guy who stops to watch every sparring session, instead of getting his own workout in.  First of all, don’t be that guy and secondly, don’t let that guy distract you.  Work harder than anyone else and you’ll have an advantage over everyone else.

If you want to reach extraordinary levels, you have to do extra-ordinary things. You can still do what everyone else does, just be willing to do more. Building your metal muscle is a key part of your development as a fighter.  It may not be as easy to measure progress as a bulging bicep is, but this inner strength is every bit as important.  Make the difference between you and the other guy across the ring from you an advantage in belief. It’s made champions out of challengers and determined the outcome of countless fights.  Now, let it make the difference for you.

Doug Ward is the President and Trainer for the Underground Boxing Company.

For anyone trying to lose weight, whether as a professional fighter or your average, weight conscious guy, one of the hardest critters to kick is the Sugar Bug. Yes, the sweet stuff. It’s delicious, enticing and makes you feel good (even if just temporarily). Unfortunately, its incredibly detrimental to your health as well as your waistline and, worse still, it is found in just about every product you see on your grocers shelves. As a fighter it can be frustrating because you need carbohydrates and sugars for your body to use as fuel for energy. So for most people, when they cut back on the sugars and carbs, its usually accompanied by a huge slump in energy. The good news is that there are healthy sources of carbs, sugars, and sugar alternatives available that, not only provide you with energy, but that also satisfy your sweet tooth and do not leave you feeling deprived.

One great alternative to sugar is a product called Stevia. Stevia is small, shrub-like herb that grows in the wild parts of Paraguay and Brazil. The leaves on a average Stevia plant contain glucosides.  This includes 10% Stevioside, which accounts for its incredible sweetness. If purchased in its refined form (which is the normal white powder), it is considered to be 200-300 times sweeter than table sugar. This is a great product for adding sweetness to coffee, tea, protein shakes or even oatmeal. It has zero calories and zero glycemic index (meaning that it won’t cause a rise in blood sugar) and, as opposed to artificial sweeteners such as NutraSweet and Splenda, there have been no reported negative side effects. Some people may dislike Stevia, claiming that it “leaves a bitter aftertaste”, but this is most often due to the way it was processed. Certain brands vary in their processing techniques and and that results in producing inconsistent flavor. So its best to try a few different brands and see which one suits your tastes buds best. Among the most respected Stevia brands, Kal is known for bringing exceptional quality to the table.

Another great sugar alternative is Xylitol. Xylitol is a white crystalline substance that looks and tastes like sugar, but is actually a 5-carbon sugar alcohol. This sugar alcohol can be found in many fruits and vegetables and is even produced in small amounts naturally in the human body. It has the same sweetness as sugar, and can be used interchangeably in any recipe that calls for sugar. The benefits of Xylitol is that it has 40% fewer calories than sugar, has a low glycemic index, won’t cause tooth decay and even has anti-bacterial properties. Since it carries the same mass and consistency as sugar, this is an ideal choice for someone who cooks.  All you have to do is replace sugar with Xylitol to enjoy a variety of recipes you like, but still lose weight.

When it comes to losing weight, cutting calories is essential. Refined sugar is the biggest, most harmful empty calorie there is…meaning that it has all of the calories and no nutritional value. Knowing that, it should be number one on your list of substances to limit, if not all but eliminate. Banning it from your food plan doesn’t have to be hard or painful. Stevia and Xylitol are two fantastic products that are readily available, easily substituted and all natural.  They can still satisfy your sweet tooth…without the negative repercussions.

Implement them into your diet when training starts and when making adjustments to your food choices. If it makes cutting weight easier and lessens the pre-fight struggle wouldn’t it be worth it?  Imagine going into your next fight with more ease, confidence and feeling more full of energy.  Looking forward to not having to use a sauna suit or extreme dieting to get to the scales might be as easy as making this slight adjustment to feeding your sugar craving. This one choice could be the difference in your trip to the ring leaving a sour taste in your mouth or allowing you to savor sweet success!

Spencer Ward is a Nutritionist with the Acupuncture Center in Overland Park KS.