Paul-M

Does anyone else find it hard to train alone?
With a friend to push me I can train as hard as anybody but on my own I get bored and unmotivated. Does anyone have a similar problem or any advice on how better to push myself while trianing alone?

FitnessRubber

I've been there before, but sometimes it's tough to find others who can actually get me motivated too - different interests and different goals. Usually leads to changing music, changing routines and just sucking it up and doing it anyway

Paul-M

lol thats good advice....I guess it's because I was 16 when I started martial arts and the only sport I had done before that was swimming, so never been that good at training, looks like I'm just gonna have to take the "sucking it up and doing it anyway" route =D

Michael Wright

Big time. For someone who can’t sit still and focus on one thing for more than 30 seconds, solo training has always been an uphill struggle.

In the world of JKD and Kali, variety was my greatest ally. If kickboxing wasn’t holding my attention or motivation I’d move to the dummy, if that wasn’t floating my boat I’d work some weaponry, or hit the mat.....you get the idea.

My life at present is monopolised by Boxing, which in one sense is good because of the focus, but in another sense the variety has been lost. Run, skip, shadowbox, hit the bag, conditioning. That’s pretty much your lot, over and over again, day in day out. What personally keeps me motivated and focussed is knowing that there is going to be a guy in the ring waiting to take my head off. Fear is a great motivator, and what gets me through my solo training is my imagination. I try to go through every motion, scenario, and emotion of the fight. Its not just a run, its not just skipping, I’m not just hitting the air or a bag, and its not just sit ups – its all me against him.

If you don’t fight, or maybe even spar in your art or gym, there are still other ways to get this emotion. We all have our demons, we all have our stresses and pressures, we all have our buttons that can be pushed. It can always be you vs whatever is inside you.

Funkasaur

Paul-M, that's cool that you do swimming, i used to as well. And good advice all around by the other. To add to the discussion, what I try to do is train until I'm overly exhausted, then train some more, with in awhile, indorphin start kicking in and you get that runners high, you feel like you have boundless energy and feel no muscle pain anymore. After doing that sort of training, you feel amazing.

Paul-M

That's a good idea, another thing is if you're used to training when you're exhausted, you'll probably be much more effective when you're not tired so that's good too.
Yeah swimming is great for breath control and it's good cardio for the whole body, the only reason I quit is because I tend to get bored just doing lengths, the most I ever did of a 25 metre pool was 5000 lol but normally I would only do about 100, I guess it's the same problem as training alone, I just got bored. Still interested in swimming though, I was thinking on taking up something like open water swimming for a challenge lol.

FitnessRubber

A pool, swimming yeah - that just might be where I learned the suck it up and do it anyway: a swimming coach I had a long long time ago. I think if I had access to a pool with the new waterproof MP3 players I could easily get back into it.

leeman17

I suffer from the same problem m8. Think of it as another part of your training in that it is teaching you to focus. The way i do it tho is by planning what you are going to do, i dont know much about shaolin kung fu (apart form some of what originated in the shaolin about a thousand years ago developed into a part of what i train in now) but try practicing the basics over and over again as it is a sure way to progress as with all things you can not do the advanced movements and techniques well until your basics are honed to near perfection. A way of motivating myself is that whenever i train alone i think that evertime i practice my body is learning somthing that it didnt know before so no matter how small of a degree it may be i am still progressing. hope this helped.

mtc_dave

for that last year or so i've been training in Muay Thai and Boxing. I don't train to compete but love the intensity of the training. I also train alone. Its me time. Time to get my mind straight after a long day sitting behind a computer writing code, then coming home and spending time with my wife and kids.And my extra money goes to soccer camps, gymnastics and other stuff for the kids.I usually get up around 4 am and run a couple of miles and around 8:30 pm I start my MTor boxing workouts. If i don't feel like running i do Bas Ruttens Allround workouts. It's a fight just to keep my weight and making sure my clothes fit. But when i do, i just pick someone i can't stand, both of my bro-inlaws, and pretend to kick thier asses. lol.

FitnessRubber

Everyone has their own form of meditation - and their own motivation to keep going. This is a good thing

Anti

Ihad trouble for a while, and now I solo train and then train with friends on some weekends, etc. Basicallywhat gets me motivated is to think "at some point someone or some situation is going to test your progress, so make that progress" Now I solo-train alot, but my friends do aswell. When we get together its like we are there to see what progres everyone else has made, and to learn from their progress aswell. It helps alot.
-Anti

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"Feel no Pain; Fear no Man"-Anti
"Calm, Aware, and under Control. Manipulate your body as a whole and believe you control the very water in your hands. Let everything flow around you as though it flowed within you. This is your stance in a fight and your stance in life. Live it, don't force it." -Anti
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