At the beginning of the new year, reflecting on the changes and trends of the past few years serves as a valuable compass for guiding our goals and actions moving forward.
Today, we turn to Dr. Reid Reale, whose journey spans from the octagon at the UFC Performance Institute to the lecture halls, as he shares his insights and recommendations for 2025.
Dr. Reid Reale, CISSN
UFC Performance Institute Shanghai – Director of Sports Performance Nutrition / Registered Dietitian & Advanced Sports Nutritionist
Dr. Reid served as the lead nutritionist for Olympic combat sports leading up to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, specializing in short-duration events, strength and power sports, particularly combat sports. Reid has worked with world champions and Olympic athletes in judo, boxing, as well as MMA and K1 kickboxing (and everything in between), and has also collaborated with some of the world’s top national teams and organizations.
What an incredible year 2024 was. It was so good to see familiar faces and new ones upskill themselves in the field of sports nutrition through the many education offerings available online and in person, not least of which was the variety of GPNi course taught throughout China and abroad.
Personally, I had the pleasure of lecturing at the CISSN workshop, which was supercool to see the level of students compared to the PNE courses. The students taking the CISSN course displayed an obviously higher level of understanding evidenced by the engagement, and questions generated throughout. Specifically, I was impressed with those who were already experts in other fields, taking the time to learn more about sports nutrition. We had business owners, physique competitors, and even a cardiologist in attendance – who not only learnt from us – the lecturers, but also shared valuable insights from their professions.
Outside of my work with the GPNi, some of my highlights from 2024 included the continual service of China’s best MMA fighters, travelling the world servicing the global UFC roster, the publishing of our first longitudinal nutrition study from the UFCPI, and big wins for Chinese MMA at the UFC Fight Night event in Macau.
As we move into a new year, it’s always useful to look back over previous years, and see which direction the trends within the sports nutrition industry are headed. Personally, what I’ve noticed over recent years is the trend for more research in historically under-researched areas (such as women, sports nutrition in clinical situations, niche sports), more personalized nutrition both in research and practice, and more niche professionals (e.g. working specifically with combat sports, cross fit, physique, or even unique sports such as surfing or golf!). Furthermore, there is an overall increase in interest in sports nutrition worldwide, which is great.
For 2025 and beyond, I am planning to continue to service athletes in the combat sports arena, and crucially, aim to collect, analyze, and publish more empirical data to contribute to the literature in this space, to empower others to build upon this foundation. I also aim to broaden my engagement in academia and industry, by attending more scientific conferences, and strengthen relationships with industry experts outside of academia.
For those earlier on in their careers than me, advice I would give is to think about a niche area that you can specialize in, as I truly believe the desire for specialization is only going to increase. With more and more people being interested in improving their nutrition, the market is going to expand, and people will be looking for experts who can tailor nutrition interventions and solutions to them specifically.
Additionally, continuing to upskill yourself remains more important than ever, not only to deepen your own knowledge, but also help you standout from the ever increasing crowd.
So, with 2024 already behind us, and 2025 is here, best wishes to all past, present and future GPNi students!
Thanks to Dr. Reid for sharing his career achievements and development direction. We also welcome you to leave your New Year goals and messages in the comment section, as we step into 2025 together!
