Have you been training for a long time and suddenly hit a slump? It’s hard for you to get to the gym and when you are there you don’t feel like you are pushing yourself? You may have hit burnout and that is ok. It happens to everyone. You have to stop and think about how much training is too much training? Think about what could be possibly making you feel this way? Is it the instructor? Your partner? Time of day? Sometimes you can’t put your finger on it and that’s normal too. All good things come with balance. Overtraining or training when you are not in the right headspace, can cause injury and emotionally damage your love for the arts.
Gyms change, life changes, work life changes, things have gotten in the way. There are always going to be training ups and downs in everyone’s life. But sometimes we take it too seriously and we judge ourselves too much and this is where the fun ends in training for this sport. How do we keep that momentum up for months, even years, of the same sport? We all like to feel that we can keep mustering on and continue to train and then it starts to feel like we are going to a job we hate. We all want to find that sweet spot, where perfect training and recovery is working perfectly but finding that sometimes is like a moving target . We communicate with our fellow training partners saying that we are feeling burnout and don’t really want to continue. We all want to feel invincible but we can’t find that happy place in training. We see it happen many times in martial arts. It has happened to everyone and getting back doesn’t have to be difficult.
Here are some things you can do to help maintain your pace and avoid feeling burnt out:
- Pace yourself
- Come to class one day a week, try it then come two days a week and so on. When you first start a lot of people come 5 times a week, sometimes even twice a day because they enjoy it so much. You start to form an addiction. The problem is you start having low level injuries constant and soreness that won’t let you relax at all and you are constantly exhausted which impairs your continue ldearning. Pace yourself. Slow down and enjoy the experience
- Balance
- We all know we need work/life balance, there also has to be balance in training and personal life as well. Try to find a good time to go to class that doesn’t interfere with your home life. Martial Arts should be a hobby not an obsession. You can absolutely love training but you should also make room and time for other things that bring you joy. When it starts to interrupt things like spending time with your family or doing even the regular chores in life, this will lead to a burnout. Taking a few training sessions off isn’t going to hurt your training but make you better in the long run. Even going on vacation and going to another academy can awaken a new love for the sport.
- Rest & Recovery
- If you are going to sleep in pain and getting up in pain, it is a big sign of incorrect training, lack of warm up/cool down, and not enough time for recovery. Sleeping too little or sleeping too much is another sign of not having complete rest. And of course there are injuries, even the littlest of injury can have people out for weeks, sometimes months. Training on a tweaked knee can end up putting you out for months instead of just letting it rest a day or two. Taking a different class or going to lift weights will give your body a chance to rest while engaging your other muscles.
- Have fun
- You should always have fun. If you aren’t, it’s time to take a break. Don’t force yourself to do something you don’t enjoy. You might need a little break to find that spark again. As the old saying goes “absence makes the heart grow fonder”. You are there to learn something new and workout with people you like and not get frustrated or angry because you can’t figure out the new moves. Just have fun. Laugh at yourself. No matter how long you have been in martial arts, you always can learn something new and you can improve on something you thought you mastered.
Martial arts should be good for your body, mind, and soul. If it’s not, talk to your coaches and see if we can figure out what is going on. Take a step back. Take some time to reevaluate what is happening in your life. Most students hit a burnout and are able to slowly make their way back to the mat.
