I always wanted to become
the best as soon as possible. That's the reason I became a full-time
live-in aikido student for three years. That's the reason I went to a full-time
six months MMA training camp in the States. Why I trained full-time in Ireland for three
months together with professional MMA fighters. Yet I recently learned that this
approach only made things worse. When I was a full-time live-in
student in an aikido school, I was still in my early 20s. I was burnt out
after training more than 13 times per week, but after getting some sleep I was
ready to go again. Even if I went to bed at 1 am and had to wake up at 6 am for
morning weapon class it wasn't a problem.
Yet when I started training full-time MMA – I was not in my early 20s anymore. The training
was happening 5 days per week at 6:00 am every morning. Including the trip to
the gym, I had to get up at 4:45 am. After the main training ended at 8 am I didn’t
stop there. I then joined the advanced sparring session until 9:30. Sometimes I also continued
to join in the evening classes or even the extra weekend training, just to make sure that I would
learn as much as possible as fast as I could. For the first couple of weeks, I was doing
quite well. I was showing good results and felt I was in a good shape. Yet, every additional week
of training started becoming harder and harder.
My body was constantly sore and I felt like a zombie.
I tried to find ways to recover. I ate as well as I could, I did lots of stretching and I went to
bed early to get enough sleep. Unfortunately, instead of falling asleep, I would lie in bed
for hours waiting for my body to shut down. No matter what I did I couldn’t fall asleep earlier
than at 2 or sometimes even 3 am. After that, I would wake up feeling even
more tired than the day before. By the time my six months training camp
ended I felt exhausted. Nevertheless, I said to myself: that’s how a hard worker
has to feel. I believed that training with such intensity I will surely get used to
it and eventually will get much better. Then, after taking only a month’s break
I was ready for my next adventure. I moved to Ireland, Dublin to train at
SBG Ireland – one of the most famous MMA gyms in Europe where dozens
of world-class fighters train. Although I was still a beginner, I was glad
to be given permission to train with the best. Train with the best to become
the best – I thought to myself. I was also happy to learn that the pro-MMA
team session was happening at 12 pm daily.
After my experience in the States, I
figured that I am not a morning person and that if only I would have gotten more sleep,
my six months training camp would have been more efficient. I was ready to prove this theory.
But… Things still didn’t go as I planned. After training daily for about a month, I was as burnt out – if not more
– than as I was in The States. Training with professional fighters was so
exhausting that after a single session with them, I didn’t have the energy to train
on the same day anymore. Meanwhile, the pros didn’t even look tired at
the end of the session and I learned that they continued to train at least
one or two more times that same day. Still, I was saying the same thing
to myself: I only need to continue to push myself. Eventually, I will get used
to it and become significantly better, just like the pros do.
Yet even while
I experienced getting somewhat better, I didn’t feel great progress. I just
continued to become more and more tired daily. I started to lose hope. “Maybe intensive training
is not for me?” – I thought to myself. The problem was – that I was an all-or-nothing type
of guy. If I wasn’t training intensively, I didn’t see a point in training at all.
And that’s exactly what happened after my training camp in Ireland finished. I
stopped training in martial arts entirely. I came back to my home country
Lithuania and for a year I didn’t train. That is until I met Sergej
Maslobojev – a world champion kickboxer. Sergej was looking for someone to give him some
tips on how to grow his YouTube channel. I was glad to share what I knew.
In exchange,
as a thank you, he invited me to join his private kickboxing training group.
The time of the training was: 8:30 am. That was way too early for me. I remembered
the days of how exhausted I was training in the mornings in the States. I didn’t
want to repeat the same experience. At the same time: this was a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To train in a private group with a
world champion. How could I miss that? I considered the fact that the training
was happening only twice per week, which made me feel somewhat better.
So I decided
to commit for three months and then after that, to say that it was enough for me. I figured
that no matter how tired I would get, I will be able to pull off a few months. Twice per week, though, early in the morning
– was still a lot. My body wasn’t used to training anymore, and kickboxing was new for me.
I felt exhausted again. Lacking sleep and feeling fatigued after training – for the rest of the day,
I was spaced out, didn’t have any energy, and was waiting for the day to end so I could go back to
sleep again. I was also constantly thinking about the next training session, feeling stressed since
I knew that I will exhaust myself during it again. Still – I continued to push on… and over
time… Things started to get better. While in the past I thought that training twice per
week wasn’t worth it, I didn’t even notice how the three months passed during which,
I improved a lot.
I then realized that if I hadn’t trained those two times per week for a
few months, I wouldn’t have gotten better at all. One day I also caught myself not thinking or
feeling stressed about the next training anymore. In fact, after the training, I was
forgetting that I woke up early and that I worked out already – since
I still had plenty of energy left. After the three months ended, not only did I
continue to train further, I also had enough energy to add an additional weekly class to my
schedule. After a while… I was ready to add one more. Without even noticing I became comfortable
and enthusiastic to train four times per week. In the past, all this time, I was
overtraining. I wanted to bite more than I can chew from the get-go and didn’t
realize that I was getting in my own way.
Only after experiencing that I progress much faster when I train only as much as my
body can handle, I learned the most impactful martial arts lesson yet – consistency and
respecting your limits beats intensity. — If you’re interested to see my sparring progress
compared to while I spar with a beginner, then an advanced, and then world champion
kickboxers – click on this video right here. Thank you for watching and as always
I wish you to own your journey!.
