Recovery

[Juan]

Hello everyone,

I'm writing this because I am having a more difficult time than usual recovering from my training and competition that occured this past weekend. Granted, I got sick with the flu before I fought and it got a bit worse after my fight but this entire week I have been completely out of it. Even performing the Tai Chi form is a huge task. I did feel like I may have overtrained for the fight but I didn't think it was this bad. When I get home from work I have absolutely no desire to work out at all. I was planning on taking a few days off anyways, but the few days have extended to pretty much this entire week.

What do you guys think? Is this normal? I remember when I fought the last time I was in the gym the very next day. Is it psychological? Is it because I lost that my body feels more tired than usual? I'm finally getting my 8 hours of sleep and still feel like crap. Before the fight I think I was getting 4 hours of sleep tops.

[Sprint]

I remember 10 or so years ago a spate of unexpected deaths among the orienteering world in Finland and Denmark. In those countries orienteering is extremely competitive. What was surprising was that those who were dying were young and extremely fit. It was eventually dicovered that due to the competitive nature of the sport those who had died were training thru colds and flu like symptoms to try to get to/stay at the top. What was happening was that the combination of overtraining and reduced immunity from infection allowed otherwise harmless microbes to attack their heart muscles causing sudden death.

In your case you have flu like symptoms, possible over-training and the psychological stress of competing and losing to contend with. It's a known fact that psychological stress can reduce immunity to infection. Also lack of sleep is extremely bad.

So you need to recover and that means going easy for a bit. You have to learn to work with your body not against it.

Look at your diet - if you are eating crap that won't help either.

[Ian]

why don't you stop training for about a month. get outside (beach, woods, whatever), take some walks, get some sun, have the occasional glass of wine. your body is telling you to chill tf out. "When I get home from work I have absolutely no desire to work out at all."

dude there's more to life than training like a demon!

and never have only 4 hours sleep if you can help it

[neijia_boxer]

Juan,

Yesterday I was feeling sick and Flu like symptoms, i'd been training hard also. I decided to take a day off and rest. I went and got a full body massage for the sore muscles. I went home and slept about 12 hours and sweated out something bad in my sleep. I feel great today.

Massage therapy is helpful, but rest and sleep are priceless too. "Taiji is there for you, you dont have to be there for Taiji". - Famous chinese doctor

just my 2 cents.

matt

[Kurt Robbins]

Probably a low immune response to physical and physiological/psychological stress response while having the flu.
Lay off and let your body heal.
When you feel better then train again.

[Juan]

Thanks guys. Yeah, I am listening to my body and getting my rest...it's just that I figured that by now my body would have had time to recover. I guess I am going to extend my vacation from training for at least a couple more days until my body feels "normal" again.

Again, thanks for the input.

[WongYing]

One must find lightness in the heavy'ness.

You can train on a mild cold but never on a virus.

Find that sense of deep mental and physical relaxation where the body seems to sink into the earth when you are presented with an emotional experience in a place of particular outstanding natural beauty, that one seems to float in awe....if that makes sense. You can feel everything let go.

Find a time to laugh from the heart. and be free of all the stress.....yeah I know it all sounds like hippie shit...the soul needs nourishment as well. Massages are good, anything that is nurturing the self, light, relaxing etc....

Find the sensation of being Light

[fuga]

When you do get back to training (after appropriate rest), you also might want to consider having in mind some very specific training goals. Perhaps working out some of the constructive criticism that folks gave you about your fight. Keep the goals very specific and focused and achievable. That way when you get back into training, you will not be overwhelmed but have given yourself permission to refine a specific skill or aspect.

I find it very useful to consider my training as problem solving.

[Chris McKinley]

Juan,

If you're thinking that taking off just one week after having the flu, sleep deprivation, and simultaneously training for and competing in a fight is extensive, your expectations are off-base with reality by an order of magnitude. You've received some good advice so far, and it's gonna take more than just one or two more days for you to fully recover. Make sure that in training to be an intelligent fighter, you don't allow machismo to creep in and sabotage your progress or even cause serious setbacks.

[TaoJoannes]

When all else fails, I find long bouts of standing meditation, zhuan zhang or whatever, to be indispensable.

[johnwang]

What do you guys think?

Trust your body. Your body wants to tell you something. Oneday when you wake up, you have strong desire to train again, you will know that your body have complete recover. You can not force yourself to have sex if you don't have that "desire".

[GrahamB]

Granted, I got sick with the flu before I fought and it got a bit worse after my fight but this entire week I have been completely out of it.

I think you had a cold - if you'd had flu then you wouldn't have been able to get out of bed, let alone fight! !!

Also - it's only been a week - I think you just need to get some rest - it's only been a week! You need to give your body time to repair itself. Hope you feel better soon.

[GrahamB]

When all else fails, I find long bouts of standing meditation, zhuan zhang or whatever, to be indispensable.

+ 1

Try these:

http://wusource.org/content/stand-still-be-fit-youtube

[Chanchu]

In any kind of exercise there is a point of diminishing return..
You body and mind may be telling you "its time for a vacation" perhaps best to take some time and relax and have fun..

Come back train again stronger when you want-