The Best Contact Lenses For Combat Sports

The following article on The Best Contact Lenses For Combat Sports was submitted by Jericho Gonzales, a Content Marketing Specialist at Lens.com.

Do you train or fight Muay Thai, boxing, kickboxing, or mixed martial arts? Engaging in any fight sport is tough as it gets — even with zero vision problems. You risk injury every time you train, spar, or fight. However, combat sports get even more challenging if you have vision issues like nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism. 

Contact lenses and combat sports

If you have any problems with your visual acuity, the good news is that you can wear contact lenses while training, whether it’s boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, or any other sport. In the professional setting, though, the rules on contact lenses can vary depending on the promotion and athletic commission.

In MMA, most athletic commissions that oversee fights allow contact lenses. Professional organizations like the UFC allow fighters to wear contact lenses when fighting. However, wearing contact lenses is banned in boxing. Most, if not, all amateur and professional boxing promotions don’t allow boxers to wear contact lenses.

The best contact lenses for Combat sports

Whatever combat sport you’re into, wearing contact lenses while training or fighting will give you clear vision and better peripheral vision. This will allow you to perform better. While you can’t wear contact lenses in an amateur or professional boxing match, you can still wear them whenever you train.

If you want to know what contact lenses are the best for fight sports, here are some things you need to remember.

1. Wear soft contact lenses.

If you engage in any sort of fight sport, then soft contact lenses are the way to go. From the name itself, soft contact lenses are made of soft hydrogel or silicone hydrogel material. They’re more comfortable and more breathable than rigid gas-permeable (RGP) contact lenses. Compared to RGP contact lenses, soft contact lenses don’t require a long adjustment period, which means it’s easier to wear them when you’re training or fighting.

In general, soft contact lenses are also more affordable than their RGP counterparts. If ever the soft contact lens gets dislodged from your eye while training, it is much easier to replace. 

Keep in mind, though, that it’s very rare for a contact lens to fall off the eye. Soft contact lenses are perfectly moulded to the shape of the eyeball, so it’s highly unlikely that your contact lenses will get dislodged from your eyes even during hard training sessions or fights.Whatever brand of soft contact lenses you’re wearing, always practice strict contact lens care and safety. Doing so will prevent you from getting eye infections or any other serious eye issues.

2. Daily disposable contact lenses are ideal.

When it comes to training or fighting, daily disposable contact lenses (dailies) are your best bet. You discard them after each use, so they’re suitable for short-term wear. After your training session or fight, you can choose to discard the dailies you’re wearing.

Dailies are also convenient to wear because they don’t require cleaning or any after-care. You insert them in the morning, go to the gym to train, and then remove them at night before going to bed. 

If you prefer not to wear contact lenses every day, then you don’t have to worry about buying contact lenses all the time because your dailies will last longer.

3. Consider orthokeratology (ortho-k) contact lenses.

Orthokeratology is the use of specially designed RGP contact lenses to temporarily reshape your cornea and improve your vision. You wear these contact lenses at night and they do their work on your eyes while you sleep. You remove the ortho-k lenses in the morning after they’ve corrected your vision.

Keep in mind that the vision correction is only temporary. Your cornea will return to its original shape and you’ll experience the same refractive error if you don’t keep wearing the ortho-k contact lenses each night. 

The advantage of orthokeratology is that it allows you to engage in fight sports without the need to wear contact lenses while training or fighting. Just wear them each night before you sleep, remove them in the morning, and then train or fight as you usually do. It’s convenient because you don’t have to worry about what’s in your eyes when you’re sparring or fighting. All you have to think about is how to perform to the best of your ability and win.

Conclusion

Engaging in any combat sport when you have vision problems can be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. Eye care technology has come a long way, and you now have a variety of eye care options to correct your vision while pursuing your passion for boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, or MMA.

If you’re looking for the best contact lenses for combat sports, the advice in this post can help you. Just remember to consult with your eye care professional first before making any decision. Your eye care professional will work with you to provide you with the best possible option and ensure that your vision is corrected and that your eyes stay healthy and safe.

About the writer

The views and opinions in this article are those of the guest author and may not represent Fight Quality’s own. We welcome guest posts from knowledgeable and passionate writers, but have no affiliation with the author or connected companies/products.