world at that point. All that was missing was Beata, my second half, and I wished she could be there to see me.
We chatted a bit with everyone, got changed, and made our way back to the hotel room to our beds as we were practically sleepwalking at that point. We first stopped off at the gas station and bought over twenty vitamin-infused waters to keep us hydrated and then crashed for the night. I could not remember when I had slept so well; I started snoring the minute my head hit the pillow.
In the morning, we were all aching and sore to the point that it was hard to walk straight, as the lactic acid invaded our muscles. Our legs were as stiff as wood as we tried to bend them to walk. We learned another lesson about what most of us take for granted: simply walking! One of the guys decided not to go for breakfast in order to remain in bed, but I was hungry and I knew my body needed fuel for another day, only this time it was going to be an entire day of fun that awaited us.
At the gym we found that everyone else was hurting too, even the tough muscle guys. Day two started off with anatomy work, which was good, as I had not brushed up on my anatomy knowledge since my school years. We learned about the skeletal system, tendons, ligaments, articular cartilage, and articular fibrocartilage and their functions. We then moved on to neurological anatomy and the nervous system, which was more up my alley. I could shine at this, as I had studied it extensively for my Abnormal Psychology Degree and the other classes I had taken in college. It really is fascinating how our bodies are built and how every aspect of the body is linked to everything else. Have you ever asked yourself how is it that your body tells you that your joint is bent in a way it shouldn’t be? Well, that would be your kinesthetic receptors in the joint capsules, which respond to mechanical forces such as pressure or overextension, letting you know where your limbs are. So, next time you are tapping in class due to an arm bar, you can thank your kinesthetic receptors for letting you know to tap before you end up with a broken arm to nurse.
To keep us on our toes after learning some theory, we did some physical training and took breaks. I thought it was brilliant since it made the day move by faster and was more exciting. We proceeded to our dead lifts and their variations in the weights section of the gym. I never knew there were so many different variations of doing squats. We meticulously went over proper technique to prevent injury and learned what we should look out for in others while watching over them. Scott hammered into us that “Perfect form and perfect training makes for perfect results.”
I had seen the sumo squat before but never tried it, and it ended up being my favorite type of squat. It is similar to a regular squat but your stance is not shoulder width apart; it is much wider, making you look like a sumo wrestler when squatting. The second difference is that you have the dumbbell or kettle bell in-between your legs rather than above on your shoulders.
For the shoulders, there was a lot to cover, as they house so many strands of muscles and as their organization makes it a very complex part of the body. We learned that on the bench press and shoulder press, maintaining a narrow grip will help build the cuff and make you stronger in the wrestling “shrimp” defensive maneuver.
We then received exercise instruction in “cleans.” I only knew the regular power cleans before my API experience, but yet again we covered many variations. I enjoyed the cleans from the lap, as that way only my upper body was working twice as hard, instead of receiving help from my legs.
That day, Scott and Matt actually took us all out for lunch, which I thought was a really generous gesture. After lunch, we moved onto the physiology of training, which really intrigued me. We went over the motor units and muscle fiber types: slow twitch and fast twitch. We went into great detail, and I must admit a lot of what we learned was directly applicable to my workout routines. I really took to heart that it is possible to use lactic acid for energy more efficiently when the body adapts to resistance and cardiovascular training. This was important to me, as I was known to have unbelievable lactic acid build-ups that brought agony to my muscles and anguish to my brain.
I even learned why I threw up the day before, which had never happened to me before. The lactic acid is toxic, so if it accumulates, the body gets rid of it. Hard training can increase the lactic acid threshold, meaning less pain and higher capabilities. We finished the lesson by learning about biomechanics such as force, torque, weight, mass, inertia, acceleration, center of gravity, strength, power, and endurance.
It was again time for the exercise instruction portion, and we learned about the “snatch.” I had seen Sean Sherk doing this on television and thought it was great, as it uses your entire body to explode with power. The weight, whether it be a dumbbell or a kettle bell, starts on the floor and gets shot up straight into the air above your head. I really liked this as it taxed me after the first couple of repetitions and I was feeling my legs and shoulders pumping blood as I exploded each rep.
The nutrition portion was next, and I followed it closely as we dove into short and long chains of glucose, simple sugars, complex carbs, glycogen, and what to look out for. For your information, stay away from high-fructose corn syrup, trans fats, and alcohol!
We also covered vitamins, of which athletes need a surplus to sustain good health and optimum performance. The best sources are brightly colored fruits and vegetables accompanied by a good multi-vitamin supplement. Vitamin B and C are water-soluble, meaning that if you take in too much, the body will excrete the excess in your urine. The fad now is for exotic berries that have antioxidants such as acai (“asaee”) and goji berries. They are really healthy and pumped full of goodness, but finding them is a little harder than looking in your local grocery store since they are usually shipped from Brazil. Green vegetables should be the staple in everyone’s diet.
The need for water is no big secret, but many athletes neglect the fact that they need a lot of it each day. Our body is comprised of sixty-five to seventy-five percent water, while our muscles are compromised of seventy percent water, bones twenty-five to thirty percent, and blood at ninety percent. We lose water through sweat, urination, and breathing, but as an athlete we lose a lot through sweat. So what does this mean to you as an athlete? If dehydration exceeds two percent body weight, physical performance is limited, which has been evident in many UFC fights to date. The last one I can remember was Jake Shields against Martin Kampann, as even though Jake Shields won that fight, he really slowed down throughout the fight and later admitted that the weight cut and water deprivation affected his performance.
Going back to antioxidants, an important note is that through emotional stress, environmental stress, and training, we produce free radicals that attack our muscles. Our antioxidants eliminate them, which is a good thing. So, the more we train, the more free radicals we produce, and thus the more antioxidants we need to stay healthy.
We learned about the digestive system and meal planning. Eating balanced foods and eating a variety of foods that offer amino acids, vitamins, etc., is key. Our metabolism is like a fire, and if we dump a lot of food at once and then wait six hours to eat again, it responds like a rollercoaster. By eating six to eight smaller portions each day, metabolism burns on a straight line, and, under the right circumstances, your body can burn fat without you doing anything—a win-win situation.
The time had finally come; we had to take a written exam covering a lot of what we had learned, followed by the notorious circuit test during which we would be pushed to our physical limits, which would conclude the test. No one from class knew what to expect, and that was enough to bring butterflies to our stomachs. I did not bother asking Scott or Matt about what they called the “final test circuit,” as it would add to the nerves. I was sure it was something along the lines of “The Death Gauntlet” or “Dungeon of Doom.” You get the idea—the less I knew the better. All I could do was to prepare my body with an adequate night’s sleep and mentally get myself into the zone, and I did just that.
The written test went well; I’ve trained my mind to relax during tests through a lifetime of testing in schools. It was easier to absorb the information, as it was fun and actually useful to learn about body mechanics, anatomy, and exercises; it was a passion. After the exam, we found that the API gym had been fully transformed into a super-circuit with pro fighters at some stations to determine whether we had proper form; each station had a set amount of either time or repetitions; if a rep was done incorrectly, it did not count.