Nutritional Advice for Better Joints

By Idai Makaya

Martial Arts Illustrated April 2009

Many of you will be aware of the fact that I recently interviewed the American bodybuilding and physical conditioning guru Clarence Bass and discussed issues related to the protection of our joints by training correctly (MAI March 2009 issue). Building on that discussion, there is another aspect to protecting our joints which should be considered too - our nutrition. This month’s article will look more closely at my recent research into nutritional support for improving the durability and performance of the joints and boosting their general flexibility. I will explain my findings from a recent period of investigation and trial usage of glucosamine, chondroitin and cod liver oil supplements – substances which (I am reliably informed by orthopaedic surgeons and various related sources that I consult regularly) can make a marked improvement in the function, performance and conditioning of your joints.

 Joint-strength is the basis of all performance conditioning.

It is important to view this sort of nutritional approach from a PREVENTIVE perspective rather than from a corrective one. If we get chronic injuries and worn-out joints there will often have been a previous (but probably unnoticed) history of repetitive damage, occurring over prior months and years. It is this “stealthy” damage we need to be aware of when we consider the preservation of our bodies over our full natural lifespan. The results of poor conditioning practices are often only manifested years later and many people will not even be able to correlate the joint problems and injuries of later life to what they may have done many years before.

As I previously mentioned, I have spoken at length to a number of orthopaedic surgeons, “fitness gurus” and physicians about physical wear and tear and I have also done a lot of research into the studies about it recently. These discussions - alongside more than 25 years of my own training experience - have convinced me that the human body will eventually wear out if the individual lives for long enough (regardless of one’s conditioning or training history). The silver lining to all this is the fact that the majority of the “wearing out” will occur nearer to the end of your life, IF the body has been well conditioned in its more youthful years (because it will be considerably more resistant to wear and tear than if it had been “left to nature” since a young age).

 Without robust joints, the rigors of martial arts and physical training will take their toll.

An understanding of the natural development cycle of the human body is crucial at this stage of the discussion. Note the following:

• People are genetically programmed to live for a specific length of time (80 to 100 years typically) and will go through different developmental stages along this lifespan.

• The first 25 years - or so - are naturally inclined towards growth and development (of one sort or another).

• The next 10 to 15 years are the ones during which peak physical conditioning and maximum performance are usually attainable or sustainable – certainly in the martial arts.

• The remaining years of the lifespan are a grey area - which can either see a general sustenance of good (but sub-peak) physical condition, under ideal circumstances, or a steady decline from peak performance until life is no longer sustainable.

• I believe that the genetically programmed lifespan cannot be greatly extended by any practice currently available at the time of writing this article, but it can certainly be dramatically shortened by less-than-ideal lifestyle experiences and practices.

• However, if (at the right time during the first 25 years) an individual focuses on optimising physical performance and development, it will serve them greatly over the next 10 to 15 year period when peak performance is possible and it should also improve physical condition for the rest of the natural lifespan. But be careful in interpreting this statement because if the body is inadvertently abused during this early period (through incorrect/excessive training and conditioning practices) you will set yourself up for a difficult, injury-prone and painful old age.

Advanced strength trainng is impossible without healthy, strong joints to support it. 

These being the facts, training inevitably puts us on a collision course with injury if we don’t take the right precautions. To avoid such injury we must know how to balance our intensity with adequate recovery and we must perform all exercises and training drills with 100% perfect form - at all times. We must not practice speed-work and power training without firm targets (such as punching bags, pads - or sparring partners, perhaps?) and we must ensure our nutritional inputs are sufficient to sustain our lofty goals. There is no getting away from these facts.

Athletes who use regular high-impact training as a norm (such as martial artists) must preserve the integrity of their bodies for the future by consuming the following foods in the correct proportions:

·        Complex carbohydrates - to fuel training, performance and development.

·        Proteins - to build up the biological structures necessary to perform well.

·        Small amounts of fat - to maintain and repair cells and for energy to fuel longer exercise durations when necessary.

·        Vegetable and fruit - for fibre, vitamins, minerals and trace nutrients.

The bulk (perhaps two-thirds) of your food intake should consist of almost equal proportions of the first two food groups listed above.

Advanced flexibility is impossible for adults without impressive muscle and joint strength. 

I am often asked if people should use dietary supplements in addition to a healthy, appropriate diet. My response is, unfortunately, somewhat complex – although I tend to suggest that healthy people are generally unlikely to benefit from MANY forms of nutritional supplementation.  To answer the question more meaningfully the following points need to be taken into account:

• General supplementation with multivitamin/multi-nutrient products is probably useless for healthy individuals because the amounts of the various vitamins in such products are usually too small to be significant (and many multivitamin supplements are formulated in such a way that your body is unlikely to take them up unless they are taken with specific foods).

• Many vitamins will not actually be taken up by the body in the form of additional supplementary capsules/tablets unless the individual is actually deficient (as a result of inadequate diet, heavy training, illness – or any mixture of such factors).

• If you do take vitamin and mineral supplements, you probably need to take high-dose versions of individual nutrients (not generalised one-size-fits-all, multi-nutrient types) and you need to know the dynamics of their uptake in the body. You must avoid nutrients which can build up to toxic levels in the absence of deficiency (such as vitamin A, which will reach toxic levels if taken in high quantities by non-deficient individuals).

• After a number of months of research and personal trials I have come to the conclusion that it IS a good idea to take specific supplements (namely glucosamine, chondroitin and cod liver oil) to fortify and repair the joints - as well as to reduce the typical microscopic inflammation of the joints caused by high-impact and flexibility training. This sort of wear and tear is inevitable if you are to train for a long enough period and at a sufficient intensity to develop to your genuine potential.

Regarding the particular data under discussion, I found the internet to be a minefield (in relation to studies around glucosamine, chondroitin, cod liver oil and related supplements). You will come across a number of different viewpoints on the internet - all claiming to be backed by clinical research and all with financial motivations of different sorts. You will even come across conflicting interpretations of the same clinical studies on the internet!

However, I settled on two major pieces of clinical research information to decide whether this investigation was worth making. The first is a big clinical trial called the GAIT Study - looking at supplementation for people with arthritis. The other is one of the world’s most respectable clinical journals called Bandolier - which gives guidance on all the scientific evidence available on any clinical topic.

Both Bandolier and the GAIT Study suggest that supplementation with glucosamine, chondroitin and cod liver oil IS very effective and the analysis of people’s joints when using these substances suggests that joint wear and tear is halted - or sometimes even reversed - through their use. This recommendation was enough to convince me to commence my personal trials of these substances despite my usual reservations about supplements in general.

Performing stretches like this one requires perfect joint condition to support the musculature for full flexibility development... 

I always advise readers that the data from large-scale clinical studies usually carries more validity than the experiences of just a handful of people. In this particular investigation, the larger scientific studies do seem to agree with my personal experiences, which is encouraging. Specifically, I undertook the use of a product called Seven Seas Jointcare Sport (containing Glucomega, glucosamine and chondroitin), in conjunction with high-strength Seven Seas Cod Liver Oil. I also asked my volunteers to try the different nutrients - either alone, or all together (I used them all together).

In addition, I asked the athletes to use Comfrelieve Cream (comfrey root extract) to alleviate aches and pains, if they had existing injuries or developed new ones. All these products are part of the “Jointcare Range” developed by the well known healthcare supplements company, Seven Seas (which, incidentally, is one of the oldest manufacturers of joint-health products - cod liver oil in particular - and was confident enough in the benefits of its products to unconditionally offer all its joint-health supplements and study data for my evaluation and assessment).

My findings, the large scientific studies and the feedback I got from a handful of people who have incidentally used these products for inflammatory joint conditions, seem to suggest that fortification of the joints using the Joint Care supplements is genuinely beneficial to athletes. But different circumstances may call for different uses of such supplementary nutrients. For instance, I believe that people WITH injuries - or existing joint damage - will probably do best to ensure they use both glucosamine and chondroitin (alongside cod liver oil for enhanced mobility).

The exact mechanism by which these substances improve joint conditioning has not been precisely defined - to my knowledge – but it is well known that they form the constituents of our joint tissues and it could well be that they simply rebuild the worn out areas. Some of the studies I read used imaging techniques to measure the amount of joint “cushioning space” in order to gauge progress of wear and tear in the individuals being studied.

The constituent nutrients contained in these supplements seem to collect in the joint spaces between different bones, encouraging these joint spaces to hold more fluid in order to dissolve the nutrients (this should improve cushioning and smooth, frictionless movement of the joints by keeping the moving surfaces further apart).

Orthopaedic surgeons whom I’ve spoken to tell me that these nutrients certainly do reduce inflammation and joint pain, thus increasing mobility. But they were not sure why this occurs and they also said the supplements don’t work for everyone with damaged joints (although they do work for many).

Martial arts training requires an array of coordinated movements - which are impossible without robust, durable, well-developed joints.

If this is true, the reason such supplementation will improve flexibility is because weakened, impaired joints cause wastage of the supporting muscles around the joints. Weakened muscles generally tense up to compensate for their weakness and to prevent tearing during exercise. This causes a lack of flexibility and also explains why frail people, or people with injured muscles, are invariably very stiff and immobile. It also explains why many athletes are not very flexible if they neglect certain aspects of strength conditioning.

I suspect that for those of us who do NOT currently carry any injuries, nutritional supplementation (as described here) may still be a good idea. From my findings and experiences during this trial I feel the use of cod liver oil alone is probably reasonable for the young and/or uninjured. But I suspect the stealthy, long-term nature of joint wear and tear warrants the supplementation of glucosamine and chondroitin supplements - combined with cod liver oil (which is what I have been doing for the last few months) - rather than the alternative of waiting to see whether or not your joints will actually hold up as time goes by. I recommend this because of the clinically observed joint-cushioning effect of this nutritional regime (as mentioned earlier).

Injured athletes will probably require more than just cod liver oil supplementation and should probably use glucosamine and chondroitin alongside cod liver oil - judging by the feedback I have received from the surgeons and clinical studies. From my own personal perspective (as an uninjured athlete) a feeling of enhanced robustness in the joints certainly became apparent when I trained for just a few months using these nutrient supplements - as alluded to earlier.  The positive effects seemed most apparent after almost 3 months of supplementation, but they persisted from then onwards. The main things I noticed were faster recovery of the joints from hard training or stretching sessions and a noticeable absence of the small niggling discomfort which often occurs the day after heavy contact-sports training.

Idai Makaya uses isometric training to maximise flexibility. This training requires robust joints.

Despite the nutritional possibilities discussed this month please remember that the strongest joints in the world will not be able to withstand bad technique and overtraining for very long. So make sure you are doing all your training with ideal form and without any discomfort in your joints. Keep training hard and smart and my next articles will continue to shed more light on conditioning practices to help you stay healthy while improving your performance at the same time. Happy training until then!

To learn more about martial arts conditioning or to contact Idai Makaya please click here. 

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