Dr. Duncan French

Interesting.

you use cold?

Should you be using cold for recovery in periods of high training load when you're actually pursuing, it might be general preparatory work, we're actually trying to pursue muscle growth.

Well, that's usually where you get the most sore.

It's usually where you feel the most fatigued, but it's probably not the most beneficial approach to use an ice bath in that scenario because you're dampening, you're dulling the mTOR pathway and the hypertrophic signaling pathway.

Whereas in a competition phase where actually quality of exercise and quality of execution of skill and technical work has to be maintained, you want to throw the kitchen sink of recovery capabilities and recovery interventions in that scenario because you now, you know, the muscle building activity should be in the bank.

That should have been done in the general preparatory work.

And now you're focusing on technical execution.

So you're absolutely right.

absolutely yeah you have to be strategic about when you use some of these interventions and you know the the time when you're preparing for a competition is the appropriate time when you want to drive recovery and make sure that your body is optimized um you know when you're far away from a a competition you know date or you know out of season or whatever it may be and you're really trying to just

tear up the body a little bit to allow its natural healing and adaptation processes to take place.

Well, you don't want to negate that.

You want the body to optimize its internal recovery, and that's how muscle growth is going to happen.

There's a time kind of consideration that you need to make with these interventions, for sure.

Well, it's not just the UFC.

And again, I talk about my personal experiences with different sports.

I think just education around where scientists are and our understanding of concepts like the use of cold exposure for recovery, ice bath, you know, everyone wants to jump in an ice bath.

But I think as we've stepped back and scientists have started to figure out and look at some of the data,

you know we're now more intuitive about well actually that might not be the best or the most optimal approach and i think that's that's any given sport so yes certainly here at the ufc we're trying to educate our athletes around you know appropriate timing and it's the same with nutrition it's the same with an ice bath intervention it's the same with lifting weights it's the same with going for a run or working out on the bike you know the the there's there's tactics to when when you do things and when you don't do things and i think you know stress and cold exposure

We have to have a consideration around that as well, but it's not just MMA fighters, that's any athlete.