Taking Breaks

Bme26 · 02-03-2013, 02:14 PM

When do you feel is the right time to take breaks away from training?? Ive only been training a few weeks, but I'm doing BJJ 3-4 days/wk and MT 3/wk. My knee is a swollen and sore and I got a good bit of muscle soreness in my right arm. These two things I can certainly still train with, but I do have adjust certain workouts to not put so much pressure on these parts (like today taking easy on my right knees in muay thai). But my question is typically when do you take a few days away from training and just let your body heal or do you just adjust your workouts from the pain your having or do you just go the same intensity pain or not???

Domenic Merenda · 02-04-2013, 12:12 AM

Your training schedule sounds silly, and is probably the cause of your wear and tear. You can't just drop into rigorous training all of the sudden and expect your body to keep up. Those of us who have intense training schedules usually only train that way when we have upcoming fights, and definitely didn't try it when we first got into the sport.

I'd take a hard look at any coach who felt this was okay.

Bme26 · 02-04-2013, 01:14 AM

I'm not going to disagree with you, but the classes I'm taking right now are just fundamental classes. For the bjj, we usually just go through a couple moves, pair up with a partner (usually a blue/purple belt) and practice it. After the class is done, there is a 30min rollin session. If Im feeling sore or what not, ill just pass up on the rollin. As far as the Muay Thai, we are just doing some basic combos, blocks, and working on throwing some knees (haven't even started kicks yet) and half the class, Im holding mitts for my partner. I'm sure after the foundation classes, it will get more intense, but the schedule doesn't really feel that overwhelming right now. The problem I had was coming into this with some pretty bad mat burn on my right knee. It just feels like some minor bruising, but it has swelled a little, therefore I'm really focused on taking it easy on that knee right now. As far as the muscle soreness in my arm, I believe its due to not getting my hips into my punches enough and getting a little too "arm-y".

I'm going to try and take 2-3 days away, see how my knee/arm responds then take it from there. If I find the training becomes too much, i'll definitely have to tone down one or the other.

Domenic Merenda · 02-04-2013, 01:23 PM

Seems reasonable, then. Just remember that if you go balls to the wall schedule-wise, even if the classes aren't intense, it's easy to get discouraged when you can't maintain the pace due to other commitments, life, etc. Something moderate and sustainable will keep you at it for a long time. Good luck, dude.

Bme26 · 02-04-2013, 02:27 PM

Thanks man, I appreciate the feedback

TheeFaulted · 02-04-2013, 05:26 PM

What was your level of fitness before joining? If you were just sitting around then you can't just jump into 6-7 practices a week. Slowly build up your workload and your body will thank you.

Bme26 · 02-04-2013, 06:48 PM

I came in leaned out and in solid shape. Conditioning isnt even a concern at this point, its just more of the wear and tear from the different exercises and such

Kaoklai · 02-05-2013, 01:45 PM

When I started I just chose to do only either muay thai or bjj not both. I slowly started doing some bjj classes after doing muay thai for awhile. I built up to it and I think it was worth it. Your body gets all confused doing different things.

TheeFaulted · 02-05-2013, 05:05 PM

Your joints and connective tissue needs to build up to that kind of volume as well.