Champion Insights from the Octagon: How to Train & Recover, Be a Parent, and Run a Business

… you’ll learn why many professional athletes, especially fighters, are some of the top biohackers in the world. They hack their bodies, minds, and environments to achieve an incredibly high level of performance. Every hack they do has to be effective—and means the difference between winning and losing.

Professional MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter Miesha Tate knows and does just that while adding being a parent and entrepreneur into the mix. Miesha is a former UFC and Strikeforce Bantamweight champion, ONE Championship vice president, and winner of Celebrity Big Brother Season 3. She always draws on her experiences, whether from home birth or competing on the world’s biggest stages as a pro athlete as proof that when the mind and body are functioning with synchronicity, you are capable of great things. 

She’s also aware of her limits. “I think I was addicted to adversity,” she says. “It had to be hard because that’s how I knew how to operate. But I’m telling you, there’s a way better way, a more efficient way, a more fulfilling way to go about being in athletics.”

After more than a decade of wrestling and MMA competition culminating in her UFC World Championship in 2016, she says her life came tumbling down. Years of relentless training, a toxic relationship, and overwhelming burning-the-candle-at-both-ends stress wore her out. So, she stepped out of the octagon and took a step back to reassess how she’d been approaching her life.

“I retired from the sport and it took five years to figure out who I am other than Miesha Tate, the fighter,” she says. “So not only did I go soul searching, but I also went wellness searching.”

• She found red light to help her recovery and healing, hyperbaric oxygen therapy to restore and protect her brain, and breathing techniques to keep her present and grounded.
• She learned, too, the importance of mindfulness and attention to self—“to just be alone with your own thoughts.”
• She says there’s reward and fulfillment in doing something every day that pushes you and makes you a little bit uncomfortable. No pain required.

She came back to professional MMA fighting after having two children and changed up nearly everything about her training. This included moving from Bantamweight to Flyweight, which meant reducing her already lean frame by another 10 pounds. It’s a change that better suits her natural build, redefines her fighting style, and allows her more power and reach.

She now looks at her body and mind as a comprehensive unit: the big things like hormones, nutrition, sleep and brain health; flow state during her fights; and she even takes on the more elusive soul work.

“When I walk into the octagon, I’m working on incorporating my soul more to be honest,” she says. “I don’t feel like it has been a very mindful part of my fighting. A lot of people say, “you’ve got that warrior spirit.” It probably is my spirit, it’s just not on a conscious level. I would like to bring it on a conscious level, and I’m a work in progress, just like everybody.”

Miesha focuses on empowering women through martial arts, with a particular emphasis on self-defense and building confidence. She’s become an advocate for women in combat sports, using her platform to promote equality and opportunities for women in the sport. She also helps others heal, recover, and discover their potential at Desert Moon Wellness, which she co-founded with two women partners.

In addition to her business and professional ventures, Miesha’s also involved in various philanthropic endeavors. She lists her three most important things in life as: 1) Family and friends, 2) time, and 3) goals and dreams.

Watch this episode on YouTube!