Like most guys involved in our sport, I like to stay pretty active. I lift weights twice a week, do BJJ classes 3-4 times a week (for 2-3 hours a session), and go jogging. When the summer rolls around I like to play some soccer now and again and go biking too. There's always something to do. Like most of us in Jiu Jitsu, I like to push myself hard when working out. It's not a rare occurance to have aching muscles and some pains when getting out of bed in the morning. How do you know when you really have to take note of those little aches and pains, and how do you know that you're just being a pussy? If I spend a couple weeks without exhausting myself I'll have trouble sleeping and tend to get bummed out a lot. My wife thinks that I'm kinda crazy.
No doubt exercise is definitely good for you. The flip side of this, of course, is that too much exercise without enough rest will slowly wear you down. Many people I've talked to about this have experienced 'overtraining' - that burned out feeling that you sometimes get. It's an occupational hazard when you're trying to push yourself.
1. Check your Performance - When you lift weights, track your numbers. If they're steadily going down then you're pushing too hard. I like to climb 12 flights of stairs every morning to get to my desk at work. When I start to feel exhausted on the 5th floor, I know that I need to take it easy.
2. Check your Attitude - Going to Jits is normally a blast for me. If I'm dreading it, or dragging my ass around the house to get ready, there's definitely something up. Also, if I'm in class and I start to feel very frustrated . . . usually it's because I'm not thinking properly. When that happens it's usually because I'm exhausted and am having trouble fitting together the little pieces of a particular move.
3. Check your resting heart rate and weight - I run between 40 - 45 bpm and about 185-190lbs. When it starts to hit closer to 55 or so, or if my weight starts to drop down to 180lbs I know there's a problem.
So, OK . . . you've diagnosed that you're starting to push to hard. What do you do?
1. Sleep - This is often my number one problem. Many of my classes are late at night, and I've got to be up early to beat traffic and get in to the office. I aim for eight hours minimum during a night, but not being able to sleep because of being too pumped up or waking up several times to relieve all that water that I was chugging in class is a normal occurrence. My advice, spend at least a half hour reading to calm your mind before bed. Keep to a sleeping schedule as much as possible so your body's natural rhythm will tell you when it's time to sleep. Don't drink or eat anything with caffeine within 5 hours of your bed time.
2. Nutrition - I try to eat a pretty clean diet, so this is not usually my problem. Back in my university days though . . . holy crap. Yes, you can survive on ramen noodles and apples for six months at a time. Yes, it will seriously hurt your athletic performance. No surprises in this category. Eat lots of fruit and veggies each day (roughly half of each meal), eat protein (cottage cheese, yogurt, quinoa, chicken breast, fish, are all great), eat good fats regularly (almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, a little dark chocolate, etc.).
3. Resting Your Body - Marathon day in/day out sessions will wear anybody down. I've tried a couple approaches to solve this problem, each has it's benefit/disadvantage.
A - Dedicate at least one day a week off as a rest day. This lets you go pretty hard on your other days and then just snooze/read/watch TV and do some light stretching on your day off. (Also, use that day off to sleep in a little bit).
B - Pace yourself. Basically when you start feeling tired the idea is to reduce your weights, roll for 3 rounds rather than six after class, or sub off more in soccer. You really have to be on the ball to make this work for you . . . when I'm in class, I'm pumped up and just want to keep going and going. You have to learn to feel if you're really tired or not.
Hope this helps!
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