A guy walks in to a doctors office holding his knee, he walks up to his doctor and says"hey Doc it hurts when I do this." He jumps up and down. His Doctor smiles and says"don't do that."

So a couple of weeks ago I watched one of my favorite workout partners come running back to the gym. She had a grimace on her face. She had been out running around town lake. As she hobbled up, I noticed she had Therapy tape(commonly used by physical therapist) running up and down her calf muscle. Obviously in a great deal of pain and in no mood for my jabs, she gave me the look. You know the look that says ......Don't even open your mouth. I get that look from my girlfriend when I've pushed it just a little too far. Anyway, so it leads me to this whole idea of why we miss the obvious. Listen to your body. Don't ignore that voice that screams................GIVE ME A BREAK!!! STOP RUNNING!!

I see so many people come to me and tell me that they're current running,cycling,lifting etc. activity is starting to cause pain in their bodies. I always try to steer them in an alternate direction. If running hurts, try to swim to break it up. If traditional lifts hurt, try balance and stability work to break it up. This deoesn't mean you can't come back to your previous routine. In fact, I encourage it. Give your body and mind a break. This doesn't mean you have to come to a screeching hault. Just take a different path. If your regular path to work is shut down do you just stop working? No, you find an alternative. Treat your body the same way. I love to mix things up. I use to (and still do sometimes) get serious tunnell vision. I'll turn around and find that I've been doing the same workout for the past 8 weeks. What helps me these days is a group people that I workout with on saturdays. I just come in a throw up a crazy routine and we go for it. I get cursed at, glared at, and laughed at. I'm telling you, I'm a little mental. Anyway , try one day a week to take a a few steps off the beaten path. Trust me. Try this routine that Jackie is doing. Try doing each exercise for 1 minute each(burning it out the last 10 seconds)

13 years ago when I started kickboxing, I walked in to the gym the day after a hard sparring session. I walked up to my coach Maurice Smith(UFC champion) and said "Mo, my head hurts today, what should I do?" He looked at me and rolled his eyes."try ducking" he said.

I love circuit training if you haven't already guessed. I believe whole heartedly that circuit training is one of the most effective ways to design your workouts. Look at p90x....circuit training. Crossfit................circuit training. Bootcamps................circuit training. There are so many differnt versions of circuits that you can do. Jackie once again is my test subject for a miserable circuit. Here she has abreviated a circuit that would normally be done with 1 minute intervals. When performing intervals, have a high and a low. The high can be plyometrics and the low can be abdominal exercises. The high can also be resistance based exercises and the low can be aerobic exercises. More than anything just mix it up. Look at what Jackie is doing and give it a shot. She wanted to kill me after this.

Ok so it's been a while since I've posted. Work,end of Tommys school year, old age.... you name it. Well to update, it has been nearly 5 weeks since I last had meat. And to be quite honest I feel better. I feel healthier. So about this NAGA tournament. There was only one other guy in my division and he deiced to fight up a weight class. In retrospect I realy should have been watching my weight. Dan on the other hand got 2nd place in his division. Dan has been my "frankenstein project" for the past 9 months. The first time I met Dan I thought he looked like a former football player. In reality he played basketball. He can actually dunk. Crazy. On top of that he's actually a gamer. Dan owns Redfly studio. He makes video games for a living. About 9 months ago Dan started training with me. In all of my years of training Dan is far and away the most gifted athlete I've ever trained. When he told me he wanted to grapple, I thought "here we go. Another guy who wants to say he's tough" What Dan became was an incredible student. He consistantly fed his mind the sport of jiu jitsu. He moves like a 135 pounder yet possesses the power of a superheavyweight. Wrap that into 245 pounds of pure agression. We have this saying when we roll. No Dan Smash!!!!!!!!!!!! that's a reminder to him not to kill us. Next up for Dan and I Grapplers Quest in Vegas July10th and 11th. I can't wait. Check big Dan out. I'm just glad he's not throwing me around.

8 days and no meat. I feel good. Honestly the hardest day was the first one. Now it's just a matter of filling up on my greens. Right now I'm 4 days a way from my tournament. We'll see how it goes.

So this week on top of preparing myself and "big Dan" for NAGA, I've got my sparring partner Nick"The Ghost" Gonzales in town getting ready for Bellator fighting. I have this theory on"active rest" that I have always believed in. Rather than take a break in between your exercise sets, keep your body active and moving . There are varying degrees of this theory. Take something as simple as running. Let's say you go on a 3 mile run. At mile 2 you are completely fatigued. Would you stop running and just sit down? Or would you stop running and walk for a while? I know I would probably walk a little and then go back to running. So why not train your body in a similar way? During Austin Fitness Extreme, I tend to go from a circuit of high intensity exercises to a small circuit of abs to bring their heartrates down a little. This repeats several times over the course of an hour.

with my own personal training and with Nicks fight preparation, I take the concept of "active rest" to a different level. 3 minutes of grappling ,sparring, or bag work with a 1 minute break of plyometrics or abs. Performing my workouts like this has always amped up my caloric burn as well as my overall muscular endurance. When I train fighters, I prepare them for the intensity of combat and the reality of a small break. To do this I keep their bodies moving during their breaks. They find it easier to pace themselves when they compete.Nick is demonstraing 1 round of intense bag work followed by an active rest of box hops. During our sparring rounds, aside from treating my body like a human pinata, Nick performed jumping squats or "full body plyometric" pushups. Check this round out and think about the variations you can perform at home or at the gym.

CORRECTION!!!

Rips websites are www.engine2academy.com  this will offer recipes and videos that you can follow along with for free.  and www.theengine2diet.com is a great sight that you can actually purchase the book from. 

Call me a skeptic by nature. I've always thought if it existed, then we would have seen it or found it by now. I hate to "I'm going on a diet". That very phrase implies a short term venture, and if you truly want to change your life you need to change your lifestyle. That  includes your diet. I've read a million diet books. I always get asked about them. A little over a month ago I heard that local Austin athlete, Rip Esselstyn had written a book called "The Engine 2 Diet" . I had met Rip several years ago when my ex-wife was pregnant with my son. Having not grown up in Austin, I had no idea who he was. What was very apparent, was that he was highly respected. I later found out he was 3 time All American swimmer and an Olympic trial qualifier, and a professional triathlete.  The book he wrote,  proposed a diet consisting of nothing but fruits,vegetables,whole grains,legumes,nuts, and seeds. Now before I go on, let me say I am a meat eater. I love steak. I love pepperoni pizza, bacon, eggs, cheeseburgers. I could go on. But, I have a great deal of respect for Rip. So I contacted him, and asked him if I could interview him regarding his book. He agreed and we set a time. As  preparation, I purchased and read his book. I was impressed. Very impressed.  One thing that impressed me the most was that Rip kept it very simple and wasn't quick to bash any other diet. What he offered was facts and case studies and recipes. He started off with a very inspirational story that captivated  you and then turned it into a book of health and awareness. But I still had to talk with him.

     First, I must say I got lost. Got there  about 10 min late for a 30 min interview. Rip , as always was very understanding. We caught up real quick and I proceeded to the interview. Our 30 min interview turned into nearly and hour and a half talk about the book. Rip could tell I was concerned about the concept of not eating meat. "if it has a face or a mother, it has muscle, which always contains fat and cholesterol" Rip pointed out that plants contain antioxidants and phytochemicals. Meat contains 0. Of course plants contain fiber which will keep you regular and take toxins and carcinogens out of your body  through your intestines. To  be honest Rips book points out so many benifits of plants that I would literally have to write several pages for this blog to accurate. I did ask Rip to give me his top 3 fruits and vegetables and sources of omega-3 fatty acids

Fruit

Banana

blueberries

mango

Vegetables

Kale

Sweet potato

Broccoli

Omega 3 fatty acids

ground flax seed

walnuts

soy beans

leafy vegetables

One thing, I do want to point out was that I crossed referenced everything I could in Rips book as well as everything he told me in our talk. Rip is dead on accurate.  Our talk went on to compare how a plant based diet could be applicable to the performance based athlete. Again, not only did Rip give me several examples, he also "practices what he preaches". A crazy thing happened at the end of our talk. Rip, having had a long day himself, prepared a plate of food for me. I was hesitant but..............boy I could have had three plates it was so good. beans,corn,peppers,squash,onion,and sweet potato. No meat! None! And you know what? I didn't want any afterwards. So I did a little experiment  of my own. For the past 5 days I have eaten 0 meat. None. How do I feel? BETTER! I've lost 6 pounds. How's my energy? As high if not a great deal higher. My stomach feels better. No headaches. On the 9th I am competing in a jui jitsu tournament. I will keep everyone posted how this affects my performance. 

   I hope you all consider the benifits of this lifestyle. Check out 2 websites www.theengine2academy.com  and www.theengine2.com  I am a big believer in Rip and his book. Sometimes you miss the forest for the trees. I always wanted to say that!

   Rip, you have made me a convert. Now I'm working on my son. I'll tell him that Spiderman eats plants. It could work. Thankyou so much for taking time to talk with me.