Episode 95: Getting Started in Combat Sports Nutrition with Paul O'Neill

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. 

In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Carl Langan-Evans and Dr. Reid Reale discuss the review paper 'Nutritional Considerations for the Female Athlete in Weight Category Sports' which we all published in the European Journal of Sports Science at the beginning of the year. We discuss what the evidence really says and how accurate the statements are that female athletes should change their diet and training at different stages of their cycle. We finish with what we know to be true in the evidence and what actually makes a real difference in practice. 

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. 

Paul O'Neill is a Performance Nutritionist from England who since 2013 has been the Founder of ProNutrition Clinic where he consults many of the UK’s most elite boxers.  Paul started his own journey in boxing at just 9 years old and as he got older and gained more experience, he became the go-to guy in the gym for Nutrition advice. He quickly realized his passion lay not in the competitive ranks but in helping his teammates navigate the confusing world of Nutrition. He then went and completed further study to formerly start helping fighters with their performance nutrition.Paul has been doing this for a long time and in this episode, we get into some great discussions around how other practitioners can get a start in the field, the biggest learnings in his own career, and where he sees the field going. This is a great episode so let's get to it. 

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.  

Matt Ulawksi is a movement coach from Southern California who works with a myriad of athletes from a number of different sports where he helps them better understand how to move their body in the best way for their given activity.  Matt has some great insight into just how important correct movement, breathwork, mobility, and flexibility are to performing at your peak in your given sport.  In this episode we go over Matt’s personal history with coaching, his philosophy on coaching, the types of training athletes should be doing to improve their range of motion and he squashes a few long-held myths about flexibility and strength. 

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. Amy is the Director of Clinical Sleep Science at Cerebra in Calgary Canada. Sbe has a PhD and Masters of Science in Experimental Psychology from Washington State University, specializing in Sleep EEG.  She is a former athlete herself, notably a hall of fame basketballer, keen mountaineer and has completed in 2009, completed an ironman. Dr. Amy's interest in sleep crosses over both health and performance and she is the go to Sleep Science consultant for many elite-level teams including Team Canada who are about to head off to the Olympic Games in Tokyo.  In this episode Dr Amy breaks why we sleep, how our body regulates it, what the stages of sleep are, and answers a few age old myths with a big dose of science. 

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.

Patrick McKeown is a world-renowned author and breathing practitioner who specializes in optimal breathing for health, well-being, and fitness. Originally trained in the famous Buteyko Breathing Method at the Buteyko Clinic in Moscow, Russia, Patrick has developed and refined his own method of performance breathing across his more than 20-year career. He currently has 8 books in publications, two of which are consistently in Amazon's top ten best sellers list, ‘close your mouth’ and ‘asthma-free naturally’. His latest book Oxygen Advantage is based on exercises for people seeking to improve their fitness and sports performance. This book has revolutionized the performance of thousands of athletes worldwide and Patrick now has an expansive team of Oxygen Advantage instructors in virtually every country worldwide.