Why Do You Need a Rash Guard shirt for MMA Training?
You know that you need to have a wealth of MMA apparel and gear when you are training and fighting. However, those who are still relatively new to the sport might not have realized just how important it is to have a rash guard. This isn’t like boxing. In MMA or Brazilian jiu-jitsu as another example, there will be a lot of takedowns and rolling around and grappling on the mats, and this can get painful without the right gear to protect your skin and your body.
Before they adopted rash guards from surfers, fighters would typically just have on cotton shirts during their training sessions. This often meant hours on the floor, rolling around and tearing up the skin and getting rashes more often than not. Fortunately, these guards helped to reduce that problem. In fact, they can provide the user with quite a few benefits. Let’s get a closer look at some of those benefits now.
For starters, when you are using this type of MMA gear, it helps to provide muscle compression, and this can help to prevent injury. It works similarly to other types of compression wear, such as those for the elbows or knees, and it can reduce risk to the muscles during training and fighting. This doesn’t mean that it eliminates the possibility of injury, of course, but it can provide that added layer of protection.
Speaking of protection, this type of gear is very important when it comes to preventing mat burn – something that anyone who has trained for a while can attest to as being painful. You want to avoid these friction burns as much as possible, and these guards help with that immensely. Even if you are training in BJJ and you are wearing a gi, it’s possible to have these friction burns occur unless you also have a rash guard on underneath. After all, the material of the gi tends to be quite rough.
Many of the quality rash guards also help to wick away sweat, which means that sweat is less likely to get on your hands and that it is less likely to cause an issue when you are grappling. Of course, another great reason to use these – and to require that those who are training in any gym use them – is that they have the potential to help reduce the spread of bacteria from one person to another, and from the person to the surrounding environment.
Do you absolutely need one of these rash guards? If you want to be safer and more comfortable, the answer is yes. Now, you just need to think about how you are going to choose the right rash guard for your needs.