Victor Conte Talks Cryotherapy And Pre-fight Abstinence
When looking at a highlighted segment of a population, it’s easy to see when new trends are introduced and when they phase out of use. In regards to training and recovery in boxing, longtime nutritionist and owner of SNAC Nutrition, Victor Conte, would love to see cryotherapy go the way of the dinosaurs, as he told EsNews.
FROZEN SCIENCE
For the celebrated and once controversial figure, the use cryotherapy sounds and looks really good, but has no functional purpose. According to his remembrance, the cryotherapy industry received a sudden and lasting surge after former five-division world champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather (50-0, 27 KO’s) gave them a crucial endorsement. Ever since that time, Conte has watched countless boxers throw away their money chasing what he claims is a fraudulent science.
“So let’s talk about that for a minute because its a bunch of nonsense that’s going on out there in boxing that was started by Floyd Mayweather where he went to the subzero place in Vegas. And this cryotherapy, the nitrous vapor, that absolutely does not work and here is the reason:”
“Guys are paying $50, $70 a session and they think they are so hi-tech when they come out of there. Because there is no displacement by your body weight like there is in a real ice bath, the penetration is one centimeter.”
“So if you have pain in the first quarter inch on your skin, go ahead and try it out. If you’ve got inflammation, pain and swelling anywhere near the inner bone area, or connective tissue or muscle, it’s not doing anything for you besides emptying your pockets.”
NO NUT RULE
While in the mood to poke a hole in what he felt was a modern fallacy, Conte went on to try to debunk an age old adage in boxing. When one of his clients, four-division champion Mikey Garcia (40-1, 30 KO’s), asked if it were safe to have sex in the weeks approaching a fight, Conte was happy to provide his expertise. Historically, this has been regarded as a cardinal sin. However, Conte doesn’t believe this to be the case.
“One of the first questions Mikey asked when he came is, ‘is it really true that you’re not supposed to have sex, there is supposed to be abstinence before a fight?’. I said no, what happens is that the highest concentration of zinc in a biological fluid in your body is of course semen, right? So what I told him is as long as he takes ZMA and puts it back he can have all the sex he likes!”
This should certainly come as great news for an army of fighters! Although it would be interesting to see how many fighters would still go with tradition over supplements.
By: Bakari Simpson
