For UFC fighter Gunnar Nelson, MMA places extraordinary demands on the body. Fight camp means hard training, often twice a day, while maintaining the physical and mental energy to come back and do it again. For Gunnar, recovery is what keeps that rhythm going.
From Iceland to the UFC
Gunnar's journey into MMA started long before the sport had established itself in Iceland. After discovering karate and then grappling, he knew he had found what he wanted to pursue. He had his first professional MMA fight in 2007 at age 19 and went on to compete at the highest level of the sport.
Over the years, training also taught him the importance of nutrition, routine and finding what genuinely works for his body. Gunnar says he had tried many performance and nutrition products before discovering Unbroken, but rarely noticed a meaningful difference.
"I never found anything that I felt really worked until I did Unbroken. It's the only thing that I really felt a difference from."
Keeping the pace through fight camp
For Gunnar, the difference becomes most noticeable during fight camp. Training twice a day, day after day, creates accumulated fatigue. By later in the week, soreness builds and finding the motivation for that second session can become harder.
This is where he says Unbroken has made the biggest difference.
"The biggest change I found was I could keep a higher pace for a longer time."
He uses Unbroken around his training, sometimes sipping it during a session and taking it afterward. What matters to him is how he feels between sessions.
"It keeps my muscles a lot fresher. I just felt a lot better going into that second session. I had more energy in my sessions."
For an MMA fighter, that ability to recover isn't only physical. Gunnar describes how even a small improvement in how his body feels can affect his mindset. When soreness and fatigue are lower, there is less mental effort required to get yourself ready to train hard again.
Light when the body is under stress
After a hard MMA session, Gunnar doesn't always want something heavy. One of the things he likes about Unbroken is that it dissolves in water and feels light, allowing him to rehydrate and then eat a proper meal soon afterward.
"It's super fresh as well, so it doesn't take up space, it's just clear liquid."
That fits his wider approach to nutrition. Gunnar describes his diet as eating "close to nature" most of the time, while still keeping life balanced.
Because it works for me
Ultimately, Gunnar's reason for continuing to use Unbroken is much simpler than the science.
"Because it works. It works for me, that's all I know, really."
After years of being offered different products and approaching many of them with low expectations, he says the difference with Unbroken was clear.
"The bottom line is that I felt a difference, and I felt a big difference as well."
For Gunnar, recovery is not what happens when the work stops. It is part of what allows the work to continue.
