By the time I hit purple belt, I'd had ringworm more times than I could count, folliculitis on my legs at least six separate times, and four bouts of staph, one serious enough that the antibiotics tore through my gut for three months after the infection itself had cleared.

I'd done everything I was told to do. I showered the second I stepped off the mat. I used Defense Soap. When that didn't work, I tried tea tree oil, harsh body washes, prescription creams, bleach baths & anything anyone in the gym swore by.

And I still kept getting hit.

Nine years on the mats and one eight-figure micronutrient brand later (Manna Vitality, if you've come across it), the thing I now know, the thing nobody in combat sports is saying clearly is that almost everything grapplers are told about skin hygiene is built on the wrong premise.

Kill everything.

Scorched earth on your skin. Bleach harder. Stronger antibacterial. More antibiotics.

It doesn't work. And the harder you push it, the worse it gets because every time you nuke your skin's microbiome, you make the next infection easier to catch, not harder.