I was once advised to practice happy. I was told that internal martial arts practice consists of millions of tiny happy steps. The emphasis here being on happy. What that means is that you should not push yourself to your limits. And you should definitely not push yourself over your limits. Your body and your mind should always be happy during and after your practice. At the end of your practice, you should feel that you want to practice more. This will insure that you have a steady progress, without falling into pattern of one step forward two steps back, caused by injuries. What you want is to still be able to practice and improve your skills when you are ninety years old. Not to be crippled by the age of 30.
Well,all that's "sort of" true for many things,but it's too extreme. While there are areas in any endeavor in which it may not be advisable to push over one's limits,in other areas it may be a requirement. The idea that one should always feel like training more after every session is ....well, I guess that would show a lack of arduous training-something which is just as required in "IMAs" as anything else. Really, eschewing the silly fairytale stuff there are plenty of "name" fellows' accounts of their training experiences. Sometimes you just want to sit,or lie down,or sleep after.For a while. We should enjoy training overall,but sometimes training isn't enjoyable-it hurts,it's frustrating,etc. Keeping a good attitude,one could call that a state of "happy" in a way,I guess. I enjoyed the training,but I can't say I was always happy in the moment when being beasted by my instructors. It hurts,it's frustrating...oh wait,I did that already! Remember to stay happy the first time you come off the court with a black eye! P.S.-"IMAs" aren't about "happy" anymore than any other MA system.
I am only happy if I push myself over my limits. I don't see how you can make progress if you never go past your limits, or are even at your limits.
I did that pushing over the limit while i trained taeqwando. and i did leave sparing many a time with bruises and black eyes, but with a smile as well. i was very good at what i was doing, but what i didn't know was that i was damaging my body little by little. i did 3 hours training every day, which involved one hour of weights, one hour of pattern training, and one hour of semi and full sparing. I used to knackered, in pain, but I thought that was cool. Then luckily someone kicked me in the knee and I had to stop training taeqwando because I could not put any weight on my right knee. This is what saved me. The other guys that I used to train with, are all half crippled from repetitive injuries to their joints, muscles and tendons. None of them is training any more. I am. I moved to internal martial arts. I stopped doing weights. Guess what. I am now stronger, more flexible, faster, and better at fighting than I was before. I am 46 now. And I have been trying to apply 70% rule to all my training ever since. Of course, sometimes I get carried away by the feeling that you are describing as being happy, but which is actually just pure hormonal surge. And every time I pushed myself I regretted it, because I managed to either pull something or twist something or what ever, because I mistook tension for power.
I am not buying it. You and your friends got injured because you weren't training smart not because you were pushing your limits. You can push your limits and train smart. If you are only ever going 70% then that's all you are going to get out of your training. I don't know what your weight training routine was like but if you were doing the same exercises everyday without rest or changing them up somehow, then you were doing it wrong. If you weren't allowing your self to rest from time to time, then this can also cause a lot of problems. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't go 100% most of the time. If you were suffering from tennis elbow(or knee or any other joint), that can be cleared up by taking it easy on that particular joint for a month or two. You can work 100% on other things in this time. And it can be easily prevented by not practicing the technique so repetitively. Seriously, under-training isn't the answer to over-training, or training @ 100%. Training smartly is the answer.
Pushing yourself to and over your limit causes your muscles to rip. Your body then grows more muscle fibres to heal itself. This is the technique used commonly to build muscles. This technique is very effective when you are young. It also leaves layers of scar tissue inside of your muscles which prevent your muscles from stretching. Ask any physiotherapist if you don’t believe me. This is why people who do too much weight training loose speed and flexibility. Plus you can only train muscles up to a certain age. After that, no matter how much you push yourself, they will deteriorate. This is when people get really badly injured. They are trying to produce the same muscle growth effect by pushing themselves more and more, not realising that they have reached their limit in growing muscles. Training to the 70% of your maximum, is not under training. 70% rule means that you only ever train to the 70% of your weakest point. To be able to do that you first have to realise that you have weak points. This allows all the muscles, and particularly small core and stabiliser muscles, tendons and ligaments to get strong. They get strong because you consciously relax the big and strong muscles to 30 percent of their limit, and that forces your body to use the other muscles and tendons. If you are always pushing yourself to your limit, your body will naturally use the stronger tools at its disposal to protect itself. This means that the strong muscles will get stronger and the week muscles and specially tendons and ligaments will stay week. You will end up with a big muscle imbalance which will cause you to injure yourself. And when you do it will be bad. This is why very fit people get bad back and knee injuries. Their core and stabiliser muscles are to week to deal with their mobilise muscles. So they rip themselves apart. My friends all stopped training nut because they pumped too much weight. They stopped because they got knee injuries, hip injuries, back injuries, arthritis in their joints from punching and kicking bags and wooden boards. As I said, I am 46 and I am planning to still practice martial arts when I am 90. How long will you be able to practice with that attitude you will see yourself.
i posted a reply but got a message that it needs to be reviewed by moderator. i don't understand what is the criteria that allows some posts straight through and some not. i would like to ask any moderator if they are present to please explain this to me as i could not find any mention of it on the site. i currently have 3 post reviewed by moderators, and i would like to know what is happening to them if possible. i applologise for sending the message like this. i tried to send this through private post but it seems i am not allowed to do so.
I started reading this and was thinking "oh yeah, I like this, it's pretty much saying have a position mindset towards your training, that's cool". And then I got to the part about not pushing yourself to and over your limits. And then I thought "what rubbish". You can take it easier during training, that's OK, it's your body and your decision. But if you never train to your limits, then you never really know where your limits are.
Guys this is a section on injuries and prevention of injuries. And all of you are talking how you should push yourself over the limit. And some of you are in another thread complaining about how you injured yourself by pushing yourself over the limit, or doing crazy things like punching walls. This is really funny. And you can know your limits without pushing yourself over them. It’s called listening to your body.
Firstly, I believe the guy punching to wall was given a good impression of how much of an idiot they are by the replies. You can push yourself to your limits in smart and in very dumb ways. While higher intensities do increase the risks of injurues doing it in a smart manner reduces this to an acceptable level. Some dumb methods are almost certain to end in injuries. Remember that limits are not always physical and it's not just a matter of pushing yourself to or over your limit, but continuously extending your limit out further.
This is exactly what 70% rule does. It is 70% of your current weakest point. This increases all the time. And never stops increasing.
By the way righty I am really sorry about your knee. I know how it feels. I was there myself. Keep your spirit up.
