Getting ready to wrestle is like getting ready for a car crash. Getting ready to work with Brock Lesnar is like knowing you're going to get hit by a bus and the bus is going to back over you. If I'm going to work 'WrestleMania,' 16 weeks out I have to start training like I'm Mayweather getting ready for a fight.
I say that I'm genetically gifted. In a weight-governed sport, I don't put weight on because of my Polish 'heritage, it's genetic. Even when I am not in training, I don't put on weight. When I start training, I don't need to take a lot of weight off.
Unfortunately, our sport has a weight limit, so every season, I have to lose weight. You just get tired of not eating the way you want to eat, so in the off-season, I'll binge and gain a few pounds and then have to lose them back.
I don't have a problem putting on or cutting weight. I would adapt my training if I'm training for a Light Heavyweight fight by using different techniques and by wearing a weight vest to get used to the extra fighting weight.
As you get older, the summer is less of a vacation and more of a training period by yourself away from the team. It's exciting for me. I felt like I've been really getting better as far as my conditioning every single season as I get older.
I really enjoy everything about this profession. From the training I do preparing for my matches, to the time I spend in the dressing room getting ready, right up until I make my entrance to the ring and the final bell rings.
The biggest thing I will miss is 4 July when Everton are due back for pre-season training. I loved that day. I lived for it, getting back with the lads.
Being in the weight room has helped me. Defensively, it helps because I'm not getting backed down easily. My legs are stronger, so I can move my feet better.
I would eat 300 calories a day - a lot of Jell-O and no-sugar everything, of course. I was doing Pilates, weight-training, circuit training; over lunch I would run on a treadmill in my dressing room with a fan on my face so I wouldn't sweat my makeup off.
The more minutes you play and the more grind and physical play you endure through the course of a season, you have to re-charge and get your body right for the next season. Be in that weight room and conditioning and that kind of deal.
I have been true to the principles of nonviolence, developing a stronger and stronger aversion to the ideologies of both the far right and the far left and a deeper sense of rage and sorrow over the suffering they continue to produce all over the world.
I get bored. We seem to have been having a little bit more time off this winter than last winter. I'm always itching to get back in the car. It's going to get harder, so I've got to make sure that I'm doing everything I possibly can do to make sure I can start next season how I ended this season.
I will wait for Cleopatra, for I know my time must come. And I'm getting ready for wherever she'll be at-tra, cause I'm getting stronger now and not so dumb.
There's always that training camp feeling that comes back to you when you're getting ready to go.
Being sick allows you to check out of life. Getting well again means you have to check back in. It is absolutely crucial that you feel ready to check back into life because you feel as though something has changed from the time before you were sick. Whatever it was that made you feel insecure, less than, or pressured to live in a way that was uncomfortable to you has to change before you want to go back there and start over.
It was going to be really tough to juggle the two as far as rehab and strength training, getting the shoulder back to where it needed to be and also worrying about the weight cut. We thought as a team that the best option for me right now with the recovery was to stay at middleweight, for this fight at least. We'll see what happens after this.