Written from firsthand experience with a deviated septum and checked against clinical sources. We make Ventriq Nasal Strips, so we are always upfront that a strip relieves symptoms rather than fixing the structural problem. Read our methodology or our editorial policy.
For MMA fighters, the best nasal strips are the ones that hold under sweat and grappling and open the airway wide enough to matter between exchanges. A strip will not raise your gas tank or fix a shot nose, but it lowers the resistance your nose creates on every breath, which is exactly what you need in the ten or fifteen second window between a scramble and the next exchange. If your nose tends to collapse under hard breathing, or you carry a structural issue like a deviated septum from years of getting hit, a strip compensates for that restriction before you ever touch gloves.
I started using nasal strips for sleep after a Consultant Otolaryngologist at a private hospital in Dublin diagnosed me with a significantly deviated septum and recommended septorhinoplasty. My nose took the damage playing rugby for over a decade, broken more than once in collisions, so the shape of the problem will be familiar to anyone who trains MMA. I put the surgery off to keep playing and built Ventriq to give myself a way to breathe properly in the meantime. The difference showed up at night first, then in training. Anyone who has gone hard for a full round will know the exact moment I mean: your nose cannot keep up, you switch to your mouth, your mouthguard gets in the way, and your breathing turns ragged just when you need it calm.
Why Nasal Breathing Matters in MMA
MMA asks more of your breathing than almost any other combat sport. A single round mixes striking, clinch work, takedowns and ground exchanges, so your effort swings from short violent bursts to grinding positional battles and back again, often inside the same thirty seconds. Your aerobic base is what keeps you composed through the grinding stretches, and how you breathe has a direct effect on how quickly you recover in the scramble before the next exchange.
Nasal breathing slows your breathing rate, warms and humidifies the air before it reaches your lungs, and triggers a calmer autonomic response than mouth breathing does. The nose also produces nitric oxide as air passes through it, which acts as a bronchodilator and a vasodilator, opening your airways and relaxing your blood vessels to improve oxygen uptake at a tissue level. When you are forced onto your mouth because your nose cannot move enough air, all of that is lost, and your heart rate tends to climb faster than the pace of the fight really demands.
The problem is that the nose struggles to move enough air once you are working hard, and that is a normal limit almost everyone shares. It gets worse for fighters with a structural issue. A deviated septum reduces the cross sectional area of one nasal passage, and a lot of fighters pick one up the hard way, from a bad shot, an elbow in the clinch, or years of accumulated damage. Combine that with the nasal cycle, where the tissue inside your nose alternates which side is more congested on a roughly four hour rotation, and the restricted side can feel almost completely shut during a hard round.
How Nasal Strips Help MMA Fighters
A nasal strip works on the outside of the nose. It spans the lower cartilage and uses a spring action to lift the lateral nasal wall outward, widening the internal diameter at the nasal valve, which is the narrowest point in your entire airway. You can feel exactly where that is if you press gently on the side of your nose while breathing in hard.
For a fighter with a deviated septum, the strip helps most on the side where the deviation crowds the valve area, which is often the same side that took the original impact. For a fighter with no structural issue, the main benefit is stopping dynamic valve collapse, where the cartilage gets pulled inward under heavy breathing load, something that happens to almost anyone once they are working at fight pace. In both cases the practical payoff shows up between exchanges and in the recovery seconds after a takedown attempt or a scramble, when holding nasal breathing keeps you calmer and thinking clearer.
I use the Ventriq Sport Nasal Strips for training and sparring. They are stiffer than a standard sleep strip, built to stay put through sweat, and the adhesive holds through a full session without lifting at the edges, which matters when you are drilling takedowns, rolling, and hitting pads back to back.
What to Look for in an MMA Nasal Strip
Not every nasal strip holds up to a training session, and for MMA a few things actually matter:
- Adhesive strength: a standard strip gives up as soon as you sweat. You need one made for sport, with an adhesive designed to grip wet skin through rolling and sparring.
- Spring tension: more tension means more lift and a more open airway. A soft strip made for sleep will not give you the same airflow under a heavy breathing load.
- Fit and position: a strip that sits too high on the bony part of your nose does nothing. It has to sit across the lower cartilage where the nasal valve actually is.
- Skin tolerance: if you train most days and fight on top of that, you want a strip that does not leave the skin raw after you peel it off, especially with a mouthguard and headgear also rubbing against your face.
I have tried a lot of strips over the years. Most were fine for sleep but failed the moment sweat and friction got involved. The Ventriq Sport strip holds better and keeps lifting the airway open through a full session.
Does It Actually Improve Performance?
I will be straight about this. The research on nasal strips producing measurable performance gains in trained athletes is mixed. Some studies show small improvements in perceived effort and breathing efficiency. Others show no meaningful change in VO2 max or power output under laboratory conditions. A strip is a breathing aid, not an engine upgrade, and it will not turn a gassed third round into a fresh one.
What I can tell you from my own experience is that the subjective difference is real. Breathing through your nose during the calmer stretches of a round, in the clinch or between exchanges, feels less effortful and less drying, and it is easier to stay composed when you are not gasping through your mouth around a mouthguard. Whether that turns into measurable output in the cage depends on the fighter and the fight. If you want the deeper look at the evidence, I have covered it in Boost Your Workout: How Nasal Strips Enhance Athletic Performance, Benefits of Nasal Strips for Sport and Do Nasal Strips Improve Athletic Performance.
Nasal Strips if You Have a Deviated Septum
A deviated septum is common in MMA, whether you came into the sport with one or picked one up along the way. If you train and compete regularly with a restricted airway, nasal strips are probably more useful for you than for the average fighter, because you are starting every round with less room to work with. External strips work best when the restriction sits at the nasal valve rather than deep inside the nasal cavity, which is the pattern you usually see after a broken nose that was never fully reset. I have written more on this in Best Nasal Strips for a Deviated Septum.
If your breathing also wrecks your sleep and slows your recovery between camps, How to Sleep Better with a Deviated Septum covers what has worked for me overnight.
My Recommendation
For MMA, get the Ventriq Sport Nasal Strips. They were built for sport and they stay on through a full session of sparring, wrestling and pad work. If your main need is breathing and recovering better overnight during a hard camp, the Ventriq Sleep Nasal Strips are the right pick for bedtime, and plenty of fighters use both: sport strips for training, sleep strips overnight. If you also strike or grapple in other combat sports, the same thinking applies to boxing and rugby, and if you cross train I have covered running and cycling too. If hard camps leave you snoring or struggling to sleep, have a look at Do Nasal Strips Stop Snoring and Best Nasal Strips for Sleeping.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are nasal strips allowed in MMA?
Yes. Nasal strips are a mechanical breathing aid with no drug action, so they are not on the USADA or WADA prohibited list and no major promotion or athletic commission bans them. You will see fighters wearing them in training, and some wear them on fight night as well.
Will a nasal strip fall off during grappling?
A sport strip is built with a stronger adhesive designed to grip through sweat, but heavy friction against the mat or an opponent's skin during grappling can work an edge loose faster than in a sport without that contact. Wiping the skin clean and dry before applying it gives the adhesive the best chance of holding through a full round.
Can a nasal strip help if my nose is already broken?
It depends where the damage sits. If the restriction is at the nasal valve, the area a strip lifts, it can genuinely help. If the break has narrowed the nasal cavity further back, a strip will not reach it and the improvement will be smaller. Either way it is not a substitute for seeing a specialist if breathing through your nose has become a real problem.
Do nasal strips help stamina in MMA?
They help you keep breathing through your nose for longer, which makes the recovery seconds in a clinch or scramble feel calmer and less rushed. They will not raise your aerobic ceiling, but reducing airway resistance can make your breathing more efficient at the intensities where you spend most of a fight.
Where exactly should I place a nasal strip for training?
Position it across the fleshiest part of your nose, over the lower cartilage rather than the bone. If you feel the spring tension lifting your nostrils when you breathe in, it is in the right place. Sit it too high and it does nothing.
Do I need a deviated septum for nasal strips to work?
No. Dynamic nasal valve collapse, where the side of the nose pulls inward under hard breathing, is common even in people with a perfectly straight septum, and it happens to a lot of fighters simply from working at fight pace. A strip prevents that collapse and improves airflow either way.
