I like working with my own body weight, and I just do the best job I can to be healthy and strong, both before and after a fight.
I want to be more than prepared for the game, for the preseason, for the season.
Anytime you think about ring rust and travel and camps back-to-back, it helps not having any bad injuries and being able to train consistently.
Back in Oakland, we have a lot of food in the locker room, but on the road, it's mostly just fruit. So we have to prepare differently. But really, once you get to the gym, everything on the road is pretty much the same.
Hey fellas! This is what you work all off season for. This is why you lift all them weights! This is why you do all that!
Every time I'm in training mode, I've had to monitor what I'm eating. I'll break 210 and be around 215 pounds. I know what it takes to compete with the best guys at 205. I've trained with them.
I worked with my coach to develop some new spiral variations to make my program more interesting. Each one is different and you'll have to wait until January to see them.
We have to stay in shape to compete against so many great players. You want to give your franchise, your team's owner, the best chance to win every Sunday.
When I'm not on the ice, I do interval work on the bike or the elliptical, trying to mimic a four-minute routine. But it doesn't come close.
Before I fought Adonis Stevenson in 2013, I had 4lbs to shift in a morning before weighing in. I had zero energy left to train, so the nutritional adviser said the only way was to drag it from my body in a hot bath full of salts.
We can only control what we do on the pitch and what we do on the training ground.
I really tried to play more intensely in practice and not play like maybe two, three hours just like that. I just go to court and spend a lot of hours as well on gym, or just make a lot of sprints and movement.
The big thing is hydrating the day before the race. I will have 20 ounces of water right when I get up in the morning the day before, and I'll drink throughout the day.
I've been training like an Olympian.
What you see is what you get. I'm the real deal. That's why I can step into the ring after having many months off and not have any rust. I'm still working out, stretching.
You know me, I play basketball. I just try to take care of that part, make sure I'm ready coming into the workouts. Make sure I'm ready, sharp, things like that.
I spend around two and half hours on the track every day running and another 2 hours in the weight room lifting weights with my strength coach.
I remember when I first started playing tennis, it was always my sister dressing me. She wanted me to look good. And then it really became a routine for me. It doesn't consume too much of my day, but it's something I always pay conscious attention to.
I think, in football, everything goes fast, and as fast as you can go up, you can go down. So basically, every day you work to be ready.
Before a big event, I usually go to church and light a candle for St. Sebastian, who is the patron saint of athletes.
Seven-thirty to five, every single day. Getting up, eating breakfast, lifting weights, going outside on the turf, doing movement and agilities and things like that. Then I take a little break to eat lunch and come back to work out again.
I have to pray before I play, and I gotta eat right before I go out there. For a while when I was younger, I would always eat chicken tenders and fries no matter what.
You got me: I do Pilates. I love Pilates because we do very specific training in soccer for the same six or seven muscles, but we neglect so many other muscles. So when I do Pilates, it helps get all the rest of the muscles in shape and gets them working together.
I need to eat a large meal before I play, and the one thing that was kind of consistent in every single clubhouse at least in the minors was a roast beef sandwich. So that kind of stuck there, and it just kind of stuck in the big leagues as well.
The American professional schedule gives players a six-month off-season, so many of us have become pickup regulars while training without an organized team.
