How much is too much?

[cheesefrysamurai]

I've trained a lot this week.

Lots of aches and pains

As time goes on I feel the development, I feel myself getting deeper, scratching the surface of the subtleties and the depth of my system.

Needless to say I'm enjoying it.

How much is too much though?

How much do you people train & think about martial arts? How often do you run through kata even if its slow for form, or thinking about your weeks training.

[sperki]

It depends on what I'm working on. Slow and easy is always fine, and a good way to think about some of the more subtle aspects of kata. But lingering pain (not just soreness) is my body's (and yours) way of saying, "take a recovery day." The idea is to stay healthy, not injure ourselves with over training. Shoot, my knees let me know the next morning when I've hit that point. Soccer does it to me too; I get out of bed and have to hold on while I hobble to the bathroom! But I figure that means I played hard the night before.

[Nidan Melbourne]

It depends on what i'm wanting to work on. But I will take a day off from martial arts and exercise to recover and just relax. Because continuous pain is a bad thing.

[Archimoto]

Totally agree.. I also think it's good to maintain social balance.

As long as you're not in constant pain, and as long as you're not antisocial, then there is no limit !

[Safroot]

I usually do 1 karate class weekly (for work circumstances) and 2 days in the gym. In addition to some push ups, crunches & squats nearly every night at home (except for training nights). It's working al-right for me specially with full time work from 8 am to 8 pm !!!

[Spartacus Maximus]

My dojo time is limited to 2 hours a week but I practise for at least an hour everyday. I made up my own training programme and routine which I follow and change from one week to the next. I also make a point of reviewing anything new I did in the dojo that week, especially the points I was corrected on by sensei. I don't get to the dojo as often as I would like to so I like to get homework. If i don't have anything specific I ask for my teacher's advice on what I should focus on.

My karate and martial arts in general are almost an obsession for me. When I'm not training I either reading about it or watching and studying training DVDs or watching my favourite martial arts flicks.

For me there is no such thing as too much. I have trained until I was so exhausted I collapsed to the floor more than once before.

[ShoriKid]

How much training and thought on the martial arts is too much is a personal matter. What some will call too much, others will think is not nearly enough.

We have three hours of class time a week. My family likes to see me, and I like to see them, so getting much more in is not really an option. However, I condition, running, body weight exercises etc. four to five days a week. I work a kata several times each morning, usually at a low pace to get my brain going over the motions and to refine the movements. I read articles, certain forums (like here!), books and listen to podcasts. So, my head is on martial arts very often. On the other side of things, I don't have that teen aged obsession with them where they are everything I am and do. I've realized that I need time to recharge my batteries, physically and mentally. Every now and then you need a night off from the training, to take a break or it becomes more of a grind than you can bear.

And, a lot of people don't respond well to that sort of long term grind and burn out. They start out on fire for their training and as time goes by it becomes a chore, not a joy. That my be how training is sometimes, but it shouldn't be that way most of the time. When it is always a chore, it's time to step away for a while and catch your breath. There are a good number of folks that can't handle the burn out that comes with longer term training. When they hit that wall, they will step away and never come back because they think that grind is all there is. We dealt with that in the dojo not long ago with a young man who had missed perhaps a half dozen training nights in three years. He was heavily burned out from the training and was going to quit until he talked to us. He didn't even realize that it was burn out, he just knew he didn't like coming to class. After a talk, he took a couple of weeks off and is back training and training hard and having fun again.

[Hawkmoon]

To train to not train.

Your body is and always will be the best guide!

Train as often as you feel happy to, sure, if you do not feel fatigue after the second of third day, why not?

Well to me that's the issue.

If you are not fatigued you didn't push hard enough the first time, push harder.

The body will tell you when it needs to rest;

- the longer sleep,

- the deeper sleep,

- the aches and pains that simply do not get better, maybe even worse!

nature (your body) is the best answer, work hard be happy, rest when its time to rest.

nature has been doing this for a long long time...its been right so far, I see no reason to second guess the best adviser ever to grace the surface of this planet!

'IF' you train to keep yourself ticking over keep a higher level (not top level) body condition running, routine is IMO the best thing you can do, familiarity, commitment to keep you going is fine IMO.

You need to decide what you are doing?

If the plan is to train to add, enhance you, supplement the dojo...(upcoming grading, tournament)

Push yourself.

If the plan is to maintain a high personal standard....

Its up to you to push or simply keep a regular routine going.

My personal feeling is a regular routine all times NOT leading to a grading or tournament!

Come grading and tournaments...time to push!

[hammer]

Unless I don't have other schedule conflicts, I get to two classes a week (3 hours). I'm also training to run a half marathon in August so I go out for runs 5 days/week right now. That's getting to be a bit of a grind and while I'm looking forward to running the race I'm also looking forward to easing off on the running afterwards to a more sane level. I also should be doing more floor exercises and/or strength training but that will likely wait until after the race as well. Have been told that I should be testing in early August (week before the race!) so I at least have to have fitness levels up for that.

Tough part about getting older is that one has to listen to the aches and pains more to prevent the good soreness from becoming an injury.

I'd agree with others that the amount of training that one can/should do is dependent on the individual. Doesn't do you any good if you get burned out and/or injured.

[ninjanurse]

Everyday I am training or thinking about training. Everyday I run through my forms-either physcially or in my head. Everyday, I participate in the classes I teach as much as possible. Everyday I feel the years of training in my joints. Everyday, I wake up ready to do it again!

Yes, I am obsessed.