So this topic has come up several times during a lifetime of being involved in sports and martial arts.
Quitting during training will equal quitting during competition.
Period.
My years of observing other athletes and my own behavior has led me to absolutely accept this maxim of training. Mental toughness, keeping focused on the goal and pushing through the pain by using either associative or dissociative techniques is paramount to success with training with high intensity.
One thing that has always put me off from fitness or conditioning work with martial artists or MMA coaches is the common heavy handed "tough guy" approach that always seems to be based around shaky conventional fitness wisdom and standards. I have been through more than my fair share of haphazard workouts by generally well meaning coaches. The main theme always seems to be "push yourself" regardless of the situation.
This has always seemed like a lazy "train harder not smarter" one size fits all way of coaching to me that has always led to me mistrusting and not pushing hard.
Even in well thought out and modalities like CrossFit, I have found myself smack dab in the middle of a workout that quickly started to not make sense for me.
Let me pose a simple example from my training involving sprinting from the beginning of this year.
So I had been CrossFitting for about a year at this point. I had a fair amount of stamina and still pretty weak cardio-respiratory endurance, and a moderate lactic acid threshold for sprinting. I did possess a relatively impressive amount of speed at the 100m and 200m distances considering my weight. I weighed around 230 lbs at a height of 5' 10", putting me roughly at 20% body fat. So, this level of fitness and body composition puts me at odds with large volumes of sprinting.
I went through a sprinting WOD at boot camp during my first cycle that prescribed 20 sprints of 100 M with 30 seconds each. Now, at first glance, my knowledge of fitness level told me that this was way too much volume with far too little recovery time. As it turned out...it was. I managed to actually sprint at or near full capacity for the first 4 sets, after which my times dropped dramatically until I was barely jogging by the 10th set.
So, using this illustration, I will go back to my original problem of quitting vs. training smart. Since the sprint workout I described was designed to be sprints, meaning at or near my top speed, does it make sense to keep pushing through 20 sets of sprints if I am actually only able to sprint through 4 sets, and then run and then jog the rest?
Setting yourself up for failure.
It seems that attempting workouts way beyond your ability based on data will inevitably lead to failure, and frustration.
This something that I have consistently found myself doing to myself in terms of martial arts specific training, and also in my CrossFit training. Whether it be not scaling a WOD because I equate scaling to failure, or "toughing through" extended heavy bag circuits that are only counter productive because "that's just what you do" to get better at striking.
Here's another example from today where I feel I made an error in judgement that lead to me quitting during a workout:
After a lay off of a week from hard training at CrossFit to focus in BJJ and MMA in preparation for my fourth fight, and then taking this past week off from training at CrossFit again because of the cut under my right eye, I went back to CrossFit yesterday and PRed on Helen by over a minute. So, after a layoff from Crossfitting for a couple of weeks, and PRing on a hard WOD for me, I decided to come in for O-lift at 11. My shoulders, traps, hamstrings and low back were only a little sore from the kettlebell swings, and my hands were smoked from the pull ups. But, since I committed to the O lift competition this Sunday, I felt that I should go O lift today, despite yesterdays hard effort after the layoff.
So, I did ok during the back squats, and make a mistake in not resting long enough at the top during a set of 20 back squats at 70% of my 1 rep max, coupled with a cramp in my right shoulder from the rack position caused by the muscle soreness from yesterday's kettlebell swings. I ended up dumping the bar at rep 17 because my legs started to fail, and then my right shoulder cramped. Not that big of a deal, failure happens
Then, we started a mini WOD that entailed 3 rounds for time of 10 deadlifts at 155 lbs, 10 burpees, 10 pull ups, and 200 m run. I managed the first sets of deadlifts and burpees without a hitch, but when I got on the bar for the pull ups, I realized that my hands were smoked, so I switched to jumping pull ups. Smart decision, I think. After which, I started to feel really heavy on the run. I managed to get through the second set of deadlifts, but then started struggling through the burpees. I barely made it through the next 10 pull ups, and started on a slow jog through the 200 m run. At this point, I realized that I was toast, and it didn't really make sense to attempt to "survive" and "push through" the last round, and I ended up quitting after 2 rounds.
Now, Nathan did have a point as he was giving me shit for doing this. He said that if I knew that I was that sore or messed up, that I shouldn't have attempted the mini WOD, and I agree with him entirely. The problem was, that I didn't know. So I feel in this sense, that even though I made a mistake in attempting the mini WOD, it was a smart move to cut it short once I realized I had nothing more to quality work to give.
I am going to go back and re-evaluate my training logs and see where else I have traded quantity for quality and see how it has affect my progress. The answers should be pretty predicatable.
Too much training volume at shitty intensity + Too often + Shitty Nutrition + Shitty Sleep + Too Much Stress = Shitty results, burnout, and backsliding.
