Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Wright
Great topic.
I trained 5 to 6 days a week, for about 10 years. I was so anal about training that I would get massive guilt trips if I missed a session, a class, a seminar etc. I did this training, and all of my teaching, on top of a very busy and accountable job. I was also utterly hopeless at resting, sleeping, eating the right diet, and generally switching off.
Over the course of last year everyone around me kept telling me that I wasn’t looking well, I looked tired, I looked thin, and they were worried about me. I kept telling them I was in great shape, how could I not be well with all the training I was doing. I then found out that there is a huge difference between being fit, and being healthy.
At the start of this year I thought I had just caught flu, and ignored it, until I collapsed and ended up in hospital. My body was so worn down I caught a viral infection and didn’t have the strength to fight it, it nearly killed me. My white blood cell and platelet count dropped so low that I was being fed on drips, on oxygen, and in a bad way. It was my body’s way of saying – enough.
Since I came out of hospital I have changed the way I approach my training, and my life. I now train 3 days a week, and that’s it. If that means I ain’t gonna be the next world champ or the next Paul Vunak then that’s tough, there is more to life than martial arts. I sleep more, I eat more, I rest more and I try to keep things more in balance. The irony is, when I do train, I feel like a different person. More energy, more strength, more stamina, more relaxed, and I’m enjoying it so much more.
Ghost is absolutely right, martial artists can be the most naïve athletes in the game and sometimes, like me, its only when you get hit with a very hard reality that you finally change.
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IMO you will do far better on 3 days of balls to the wall training than you will trianing 5-7 days a week.
Recovery is so important. I spend quite a bit of time reading training manuals for other sports, american football, sprinting, endurance running, bodybuilding etc
They are packed full of science. They have many things in common. One of them being rest and the benefits.
I think the world of weightlifting has the nicest saying "you grow when you rest"
This is very true, in fact if you look in more detail, central nervous system function which affects things like improving technique, improve whilst resting.
I have a real hatred of the twice daily training routine in thailand. IMO they are wasting a hell of a lot of time and if you compare how dutch thai boxers train compared to how thais train then its not hard to see why the dutch have managed to send fighters over that knock thais out left right and center. Do they have better technique in holland? No, maybe they have better boxing, but was is noticeable is that they are much ,much stronger and these days fitter too.
They employ weight training, body weight training, one boxing session only, they separate what they do to different days of the week. one day is padwork, one day drilling techniques, one day sparring.
PLus their diets are better.
Thais have more technique, no doubt and its good training there for that, but i wouldnt train the way they do for fighting as i know i can do better.
In the UK i would train 4 days a week.2 on, 1 off, 2 on, 2 off.
If you imagine someone training monday and tuesday then resting wednesday and then traiing again on the thursday, its even bloody obvious the guy that rested wednesday is going to be able to train harder on the thursday. If you can train harder you get more out of it. Its common sense. More isnt always more.
I actually consider rest and diet to be part of my training. I take a rest day as seriously as a training day because as they say, "when you rest you grow"
EDIT: glad you are better now michael, you told me about this before but it sounds just horrible. Would have been a real shame had we lost you.
Now get back in the gym grrr.