“It’s a Balancing Act”
People ask me how I balance being a professional MMA fighter with work. Well, to quote my 10th grade History teacher, “How do porcupines make love? … Very carefully.”
It’s difficult to balance between work and working out, but it is doable. Like for example, I’m writing this blog between my workouts. I have 25 minutes till I have to leave for my next training session so I will most likely have to finish writing this blog after that workout but before I spar at 5 p.m.
To give you an idea of my hectic schedule, this is how my last week went. I wake up every morning right around 7:30 a.m. I eat and get my things ready for the gym and I’m in the gym working out by 9 a.m. and I usually don’t get done till a little bit after 11 m.
From here I rush home and grab something to eat and run some errands or do some things around the house. More often than not I have to go grocery shopping and figure out what to make for dinner.
At 1:30 p.m I’m back at the gym either doing strength and conditioning or getting my runs in for the week. That lasts till 3 p.m. and I have two hours to rest before sparring from 5-7 p.m. I try to take a power nap in that time frame, rest is very important.
Once I get done at 7 p.m. I rush home and take a shower and then I start to make dinner for the family. After dinner I usually hang out and let my body recover from that day’s training. I’ll usually unwind by watching a documentary on Netflix or something. Anyways that’s how my week goes from Monday-Thursday.
It’s different once Friday hits though. Now it’s time for work so this is what my Friday looks like. I have to work at 8:30 a.m. so that means that if I want to get a workout in, usually a run, then I have to get it in by at least 7 a.m.
Well why don’t I run after I get off work? Well, I work till 8 p.m. and I’m usually walking around or standing outside the whole time and the last thing I want to do is workout when I just worked almost 12 hours straight, in the heat no less.
When I get off work I usually just go home and take a shower and go right to bed.
Saturday I wake up and it’s a little more relax. I’m in the gym by 10 a.m. to work on some wrestling and I’m usually done by noon or 12:30 p.m. at the latest.
From here I hang out at the house and try to take a power nap before work tonight. I had to be at work at 8 p.m. and I didn’t get off till 4:30 a.m.
Now you would think from here I would go home and rest, right? Wrong! I had to be at work at 7 a.m., so what’s the point of going home to sleep for an hour? I just decided to take a power nap in my car.
From here I worked from 7 a.m. till 5 p.m. So this past week I put in 30 hours in three days which isn’t bad, it was supposed to be 34 hours but I left early Sunday. I couldn’t hang the last few hours.
Now that my fight is exactly a month away I have to take some time off work which is both good and bad. It’s good because I get to focus on my fight, but it’s also bad because well, you don’t work you don’t get paid.
Luckily for me, my sponsors help out by sending me some money. It’s great knowing that they have my back and that I don’t have to bust my tail every day at work, I can save my body for my training sessions.
If it wasn’t for my some of my sponsors like Grappler’s Quest and Brian Vargo of Insulation Industries, then I would have to work and some of my training sessions would suffer.
As the fight gets closer the workouts get longer and more difficult. I have to be sure that I’m 100% there, both mentally and physically for each workout. And with the fight being a month away I can’t afford to cut corners or miss a workout.
So that’s how I balance my work and workouts. It’s difficult but if I didn’t have my sponsors helping me out it would be near impossible. And in case you’re wondering, I didn’t get my blog finished between my workouts. I had to leave midway to go train and come back to finish this blog up.
-Uly
P.S. – You can follow me on Twitter @uselessgomez.
P.S.S. – Here’s some of my trainers that you should follow for more updates and training advice:
- @EricTriliegi for nutrition info
- @Mastermitter for striking
- @SimGo for grappling
“The Ulysses Gomez Experiment” is a weekly ProMMAnow.com blog series written by world top 10 ranked flyweight Ulysses Gomez as he prepares for his Aug. 5 fight at Tachi Palace Fights 10. “The Ulysses Gomez Experiment” is (usually) published each Friday and is part of our ongoing series of exclusive content written by individuals involved in the mixed martial arts industry.