Avoiding sex before competition: Is it a good idea?

Those who are involved in MMA fighting know that this profession can often start very attractive conversations. For instance, many MMA fighters are trying to analyze the period before they appear on some important match. Most of them agree that this is a very stressful period and a period when they return home with many bruises and bumps caused during training and they also lose weight too. But, what’s even more interesting that many of them are avoiding sex for a month or two before the match.

This is definitely something that their partners don’t want to hear. Yet, many MMA fighters claim that after a long period of abstinence, when they are entering the cage they don’t feel just nervous and a little bit scared, but they also feel very aggressive. That’s why they believe that staying away from sex for a month or two is a good idea. It’s also good to know that many MMA pros actually have sex, but they are avoiding orgasms.

Matt Chan, a famous CrossFit Games participant, supports the idea of staying sexually inactive before completion. In fact, he appeared in a Q&A video session after CrossFit Games 2015. In this video, Chan explained that there is a thing known as chi. This thing should not be shared with everyone on a daily basis because we risk losing all the chi we have and if something like this happens we can expect a lot of troubles. That’s why Chan keeps his Chi to himself until the competition is finished and a significant period of the competition.

Of course, Matt Chan is not the only professional fighter that has this opinion. In fact, people who were born in the 1960 and 1970, remember the famous Rocky Balboa and his trainer Mickey who said that women weaken legs and it seems that Rocky respected this advice. At the same time, the real Rocky (Rocky Marciano) restrained himself from sexual activities before fights and as we all know he retired without a single defeat.

Now that we know that this belief is accepted by the majority of fighters, let’s analyze this issue from different angles (both Western and Eastern). In this way, we can be sure whether we should share our qi or chi with others or we should preserve it for the big game. Unfortunately, there is still no scientific study about female MMA fighters and their needs and preferences, so this article is focused only on men.

What does modern science say about sex?

The vast majority of people have probably heard the claims of experienced fighters who say that sex is bad for your legs, but have you ever wondered whether these claims are really true? Scientists from the University Hospital in Geneva, Switzerland have conducted a study. This study has shown that sexual activity doesn’t have a significant impact on the workload reached and the mental concentration of athletes. But, the increased post effort heart rate indicators following a max stress test after few hours has confirmed that the athlete’s recovery rate could suffer if they had sex about two hours before the match. But, as we all know, most athletes don’t think about sex in the last two hours before the game. They are usually trying to focus mentally and use the bathroom for other reasons.

There was another scientific study conducted not while ago that suggested that the results obtained from a randomized crossover scientific study conducted 20 years ago has shown that having sex about 12 hours before the test had only minor effects on the optimal aerobic power, double product or oxygen pulse in athletes.

As you can see, modern science from the West claims that there is no risk in participating in a sexual intercourse before a match. This is the reason why many people are wondering why is there a myth that sex is bad for your performance and is it a myth after all? Maybe there is something that science can’t prove!

Traditional Eastern medicine and sex

Now let’s analyze the comments made by Matt Chan. In order to do this, we will need to check the traditional Chinese medicine and their opinion about qi and its effects on sexual performance. Now let’s define qi or chi first. Truth be told, this is a complex concept, but we will try to explain it in a simple way. For instance, when you wake up in morning and feeling like you are full of energy and you want to get up right away then you’ve got qi. But, when you feel that you would rather stay in bed, you don’t have sufficient amount of qi. Qi may give you a stronger erection and harder erection as well.

This is the simplest explanation you can get. Energy cannot be eliminated and every individual relies on energy to power their activities. It’s easy to tell when we have a lot of energy and when we don’t have energy. To put it simply, qi is the amount of energy we have for one day. So, if we rest we are increasing our energy and we can use more of it the other day. However, if we use more than we have in one day, we will need to take some from the next day. That’s why we will feel so bad for the next day.

So the daily energy accumulation of qi is made available thanks to the jing. Chinese use the term jing to describe the general amount of root energy that every person has. It is believed that this energy is transferred from our parents. If the level of jing becomes dangerously low, we are close to our death. That’s why we should use qi and jing carefully. Jing is superior to qi because it is bolder, richer and stronger. Many people compare precious metals with cash when they want to compare jing to qi.

As we all know, the sperm is where you can find the seed of life. This means that it is full of jing which is why Taoist practitioners say that it is better to use the semen wisely. So, it is quite natural that they believe that ejaculation is a way to release qi and jing. We are losing valuable assets whenever we are ejaculating.

Chinese scriptures provide precise guidelines about sexual frequency and activity related to our health, but they don’t contain much information about athletic performance and sexual activity. But, the scriptures point out that having sex too frequently can lead to certain problems like soft erection. Let’s be clear – the traditional Chinese medicine is conservative when it comes to male sexual power and ejaculation and sex. Herbs like tongkat ali is famous in Asia as an effective herbal sexual enhancer. 

So, what can we conclude? If we take a closer look at all the facts, we can say that it is not dangerous or bad to have sex with your partner a night before the big day. In case you wake up in the morning and feel the lack of qi, then the problem should be found elsewhere. Maybe it’s your general health or your conditioning that’s bad. If you are still not sure what you should do, it is always useful to keep a record of your performance. Maybe you can try avoiding sex to see how you perform and try the opposite for your next match. The same goes for the training process.

Finally, there are numerous scientific studies that have confirmed that good sleep prior has a positive impact on our performance and having sex definitely leads to a good night’s sleep.