When I'm training, I cater a little bit to my opponents.
You're just trying to work on things in Spring Training, try to put the barrel on the ball and not peak too early.
I find 12 P.M. as the best time to work out. During training, I do two body parts a day: chest-back, back-triceps or chest-biceps so that my body doesn't get used to a pattern.
A gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics is what I'm looking for. I have to pace my training in such a way that I'm at my best in Rio, and when I'm in form, no opponent can come in my way.
I like to have a lot of time to be able to format what I want to do, and how I'm going to do my training camp. When you're doing a camp on short notice, it makes everything else suffer.
My idea is to have two bases. I keep my family in Rio, and when I have a fight scheduled, I will come to Vegas to train here at Xtreme Couture, which I consider the best place for a MMA fighter to be.
I sat down with my trainers to check my past seasons and to see what could be done to keep me motivated and in good shape. I had to find a new motivation, a new momentum.
Jumping isn't as important to my training as you might think; I'm only in the sandpit once a week. There's a high risk factor of injury doing it, so instead, I rely on my progress in the gym to judge how far I'll jump on the big day.
I didn't train for powerlifting. I trained as a bodybuilder. I had to train to stress the muscle and not because of what was on the bar. I think my strategy was a good one because I have no aches, pains, or lingering injuries from training today. I feel great.
We always train with heavier sparring partners to make it harder so the fight will be easier.
To train a national team, you have to know what team you have at your disposal and what this team is capable of. You need to get the best out of them and take them as far as possible. Yet, sometimes, you can't achieve your goals.
It's all about training smart.
You can't really plan for how that training session or competition is going to go. You have to see what your horse is giving you to work with, and then you tailor all your training around that.
I think the body responds to more reps better than heavier weight. As long as I got those reps in three or four sets, it didn't bother me and I could come down on the weight. Teams didn't want me to do it as much, but that's just the way it is.
My most frequent admonition to athletes and coaches is: train, do not strain.
I usually listen to my body and train the body parts that I feel are strong for that particular day.
The offseason is when you try to gain strength. You have 162 games during the year, so you've got to pick and choose the times work out.
Every training session, I try to simulate the conditions similar to where I am racing.
