A few weeks ago I made an effort to establish a new fitness training routine to enjoy some much-needed exercise and improve my day-to-day energy levels. I wasn’t really sure of the best place to begin so I borrowed a fitness programme from the British Army’s recruitment website to use as a starting point. The training programme progresses quickly and I started to burn out after the second week of it. I decided to lay off for a little while until I found time to modify the training schedule to better focus on my needs as a martial artist.

It is always useful to take a step back and review progress on any on-going activity so you can better plan how to proceed from where you are. It provides an opportunity to refine your goals and modify what you do in order to reach them. It also helps to fully appreciate the reasons behind a goal and decide whether it is still what you want.

The problem I had with the army fitness programme was that while I was rapidly progressing, I never had the energy to practice martial arts as well. It left me all but completely drained, hence the burning out. Clearly I needed to reassess things and take it a bit more slowly if I want to get some practice in.

I will now be focusing primarily on my martial arts training and adding in some running and basic strength and endurance exercises along the way. As much as I like being able to run further without collapsing, I have a real passion for martial arts so I owe it to myself to put time into their practice.