This may sound a little unusual, but one study found that wearing a mouthguard while training could actually give athletes a boost of power.  A study published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research found that participants who trained while wearing a mouthguard performed better on all explosive movement tests than those who didn’t have anything in their mouths.  The researchers believe that the act of clenching your teeth with the mouthguard increases blood flow to certain areas of the brain associated with motor control and timing.  An increase in those skills could explain optimized power during training.

What do you think?  Have you tried this yourself?  If so, we’d like to hear from you.