One of my athletes approached me this morning and asked a very simple but important question: “What does ‘over-training’ look like?”
Great question AND shows great awareness. This is something we see a lot in self defense, athletics, business, life, etc… Doing too much at once. But what exactly does that mean? What DOES it look like?
The reality is it’s different for everyone and different for each situation. Some athletes/fighters can handle two or three training sessions a day and still function at a higher level. Some people can manage multiple projects at once. However, most can’t. And that’s ok.
The reality is, if you really want to make progress in something, you need to focus on that thing. You need to analyze where you’re at, envision where you want to be, and focus on THE ONE THING that will get you there more efficiently.
For instance, if I want to be a competitive athlete in CrossFit and I realize that I am pretty well conditioned and do pretty well with gymnastics, but don’t seem to be as strong as others. It does me NO GOOD to lace the majority of my training with more conditioning or gymnastics movements. I NEED to step back, focus on strength and accept that, if this is my biggest weakness, I need to adapt my training to target that area.
It’s impossible to get better at everything, efficiently, at once.
The same applies in fighting. If you suck at takedowns it doesn’t do any good to avoid it.
If you’re trying to focus on twenty things for your business, you won’t do any of them well.
Often times “over-training” or “over working” or overloading” comes simply from having no direction. So instead, you rely on “more is more” and that policy doesn’t pay off in the long term. Being busy doesn’t lead to success. Training more hours doesn’t lead to success. Focused and meaningful action/training leads to success.
So take a second, analyze where you are at (honestly), decide where you want to be, and focus on the most important thing that will get you there.
Be good, train hard, stay safe
-aaron
Aaron Jannetti 