Sometimes the greatest battle in MMA is balancing your time outside of the cage so you can end fights in an instant when you step inside it. Stop killing time and start destroying your opponents with advice from the sport’s elite.

It isn’t easy being Uriah Faber. The multi-talented bantamweight and former WEC featherweight champ keeps as frenetic a pace outside of the Octagon as he does in it.

Training for fights amid managing companies, websites and media obligations, Faber is arguably one of the most successful businessmen among today’s MMA fighters.

So it should come as no surprise that he needs his own personal assistant to keep his schedule tidy and on time.

He is just one of a growing crop of elite mixed martial artists whose day-to-day lifestyle is just as exhausting as slugging it out in the cage.

Now being a fighter is much more than simply stepping into the gym; it encompasses a whole range of responsibilities and obligations that – if not managed properly – can affect their performance come fight time. 

Yet Urijah’s template for success comes from a balance of time and energy, and he is precise in his decision-making.

There is no time to hem and haw about things – he just goes.

Don’t mistake that for impulsivity. Haste does indeed make waste, and Uriah Faber does not waste any time. 

“My day’s pretty action packed,” Faber says. “I stay pretty busy from the moment I get up. I only get about five to seven hours of sleep a night. But it’s all stuff that I love to do. Juggling everything only happens by building good relationships with people I trust and delegating a lot of stuff.” 

Those relationships include a nucleus of friends and family who work for him and business partners he absolutely trusts. Only with those kinds of bonds does Faber feel like he can then concentrate on the most important task at hand – training. So before anything happens, he has to know his team surrounding him has all of his various interests taken care of. If those responsibilities aren’t organized, his training can suffer.

“When I do business, it’s with partners who really know what they’re doing and bring a lot to the table,” Faber says.

“So a lot of it comes down to good delegation so I can do what is most important to me, which is train.”

Indeed, a cluttered mind leads to a slow body, something Faber cannot afford. Consider Faber’s considerable list of non-fighting endeavors: he is the founder of fight team Team Alpha Male, FORM Athletics clothing line (which was recently purchased by K-Swiss shoes) and also MMA Inc., a mixed martial arts management company.

He also has the added responsibilities of being the owner of Ultimate Fitness gym in Sacramento, California, a burgeoning real-estate mogul in Sacramento, the co-author of a self-help book with ESPN writer Tim Keown, which is due out in 2012, and to top it off he is also the founder of nutrition-advice website.

Appropriately enough the motto is: “Plan, Pursue and Achieve Your Goals.”

“I’m a pretty good judge of character, and I know what my strengths are and I’m pretty good at identifying where I need to fill in the blanks,” Faber says. “I wouldn’t be able to do any of this on my own except for the fighting. Except for actually stepping foot into the Octagon, everything else is teamwork.” 

For Faber, training and nutrition actually is the easy part.

He splits his daily workouts into two, sometimes three sessions, depending if he is training for a fight. No matter where he is or what he’s doing, Faber makes sure he gets into a gym.

It doesn’t matter if it’s the crappy hotel gym – somehow he’s squeezing in a workout. He’s made it his lifestyle.

“Oh, I’ve had to use the hotel gym quite a bit,” Faber laughs.

“Honestly, I just don’t feel right if I don’t get a workout in. Sometimes when you’re traveling it’s difficult, but you always have to budget time for that. My training camp is not about getting in shape.

It’s about peaking for a fight. Creating a lifestyle for yourself and that’s what you do. You just put yourself that much further back if you don’t. Leading up to a fight, I’m never getting back into shape; I’m trying to peak right before a fight.

“There are always guys to workout with,” Faber adds.

“Guys are just looking for a workout. When you’re on these tours, you’re usually with other fighters, so you can get a workout in with them.

I even worked out with Brian Bowles one day.”

Bowles and Faber reportedly will fight at UFC 139 in November. 

Faber must also juggle an onslaught of media requests and responsibilities. It is a far cry from the early days of MMA when fighters begged for media attention. Now stars like Faber have so many requests they often must turn them down, or at the very least be judicious in those they choose to engage.

However, Faber says he never turns away an opportunity.

“The media favors those who treat them with respect,” Faber says. “They have a job to do, too. I never turn it away.

And if I respect their requests, they respect my time.

Everyone knows I’m always accessible… but what a lot of guys in our industry don’t realize is that you have to work just as hard outside the ring as you do in it, whether it’s doing these PR tours and looking for different ways to get your name out there.

I think it’s the same with any profession – the hardest working guys out there are working overtime.”

Indeed, just ask current Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Dan Henderson.

At 40, Henderson is clearly reaching the pinnacle of his popularity following his defeat of Fedor Emelianenko back in August.

Henderson, a father of three, must balance his time between training, family and his own impressive array of business ventures.

Not only does he still have his own fight team, Team Quest, he has built his own Hendo and Clinch Gear brands. Clinch Gear has broadened its scope from just fight equipment and clothing – they also have a radio show that features frequent Strikeforce announcer Stephen Quadros.

For Henderson, time is equally of the essence – his body has told him so.

“I’m still always training, but I have to listen to my body a lot more these days,” Henderson says.

“I scaled back my two-a-days to just twice a week now.

More than anything, I have to get my rest and let my body heal. Sometimes it takes a little longer to bounce back these days.”

He also tries to get enough quality time with his kids, which in itself helps Henderson’s state of mind.

“During the school year, it’s a nice relaxing thing to do help the kids get ready for school,” he says. “We’ll have breakfast and talk. It’s a good way for me to start the day.”

Both Henderson and Faber have wrestling backgrounds, so they are experienced enough in mastering their bodies that they know when to throttle up or down. Or else their agents and trainers will tell them. 

For example, before Henderson made his Strikeforce debut against Jake Shields in April 2010, he had not fought since his knockout of Michael Bisping at UFC 100 in July. Now, Henderson’s fights have been spaced out more appropriately and as a result, he’s riding a three-fight win streak. Along with that has come added popularity for him, perhaps not seen since his Pride days in Japan.

That popularity has increased his media responsibilities, too.

“Being in wrestling my whole life, I know what to eat (favorite: broiled chicken breast with broccoli), and how to stay in shape,” Henderson says. “But the media and promotional stuff… I used to think I had to take every single opportunity. And I did. I was gone all the time.

You could count on me being gone at least three of four weekends a month. Now I feel like I can choose what I want to do, which allows me to spend more time with my kids and my wife.

That’s the most important thing.”

“There is no Mrs Uriah Faber presently, nor will there be any time soon,” Faber laughs. He’s been pretty honest with himself and where the social life stands in relation to all of his business dealings and training.

“I have had to be pretty realistic about that,” he adds. “My life just isn’t conducive to that right now. Look, I do alright in that area, but I just can’t get into anything too serious. There’s just no room.”

Sorry, ladies. 

Time to work, time to train

For those nine-to-five desk jockeys who find themselves chained to a computer or working regimented hours, developing a workout routine isn’t the hard part. It’s putting that routine into place.

Follow these tips to manage your warrior lifestyle:

Making something routine takes at least two weeks.

Stick to it and you’ll soon get used to it.

Outsource your chores. Just like Uriah Faber says, delegation is key to time conservation. Does mowing the lawn take two hours?

Give the kid next door 10 bucks to do it and hit the gym instead.

Bring a healthy lunch or several small high-protein meals (hard-boiled egg whites, tuna, granola and nuts) throughout the day and eat at your desk. Then on your normal lunch hour hit the gym.

Or since you’ve ‘worked’ through lunch, leave an hour early and hit the gym. Make a nice time-release snack – like fruit – your last one before you work out. Then you’re body will find the glucose it needs during the workout at a time when it normally would have been tired.

If traffic or commuting is a hassle, don’t head home right away, head to the gym first. 

Need to spend more time with the missus? Join a gym together and have both of you workout at the same place.

Many new gyms offer child care facilities within the complex to allow for the whole family to get their gym time in.

If you can’t get to a gym, try converting that garage into your own gym.

A standard heavy bag costs about $110.00. Throw in some dumbbells and tires and ordinary yard tools, like a sledgehammer, and you’ve got yourself your own makeshift MMA gym.