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.