We are over a month in to training and my life has become a whirlwind of protein, Ice and training. I have not taken this commitment lightly and do not want to step into the ring feeling any more unprepared then I am bound to be after only ten weeks training.

I have re-set my diet and my schedule. Every day begins with a work out, my alarm goes off at 5:30am. Protein shakes are my favourite after work out snack and my training bag is a permanent and very portable medicine cabinet.

There are a million different products on the market that promise to aid and speed up recovery, assist in pain relief, to supplement your diet, to help your body capitalise on the nutrients they provide to make your fitter / faster / stronger. I did a lot of research before investing in anything and settled upon only the tried and tested methods.

I have not been injury free, so far I have managed to damage a least three parts of my body beyond general muscle tears but have been lucky enough to have managed to train through taking it easy on the ‘affected’ muscle to allow it time to heal.

By far the worst one was my right arm – whilst off running one morning I felt a sickening pop, despite, rest, ice, ibuprofen gel and support the muscle just wouldn’t heal. It was the 2nd week when Shemmy, my trainer appeared with a jar of orange oil. I would later find out that this Thai Oil is used by fighters all over the world, not only does it relieve pain but warms up the muscles before training.

This is what got me through the next week, I lathered it on before every training session and revelled in the warmth as I continued to punch the pads with vigour!

I start to realise that training is not all about training and that recovery plays a very important part in ensuring you are at your strongest. I push forward with this idea and set myself up to include recovery as an essential part of my training.