Training Within a Session and Sessions Over Time

1) Quality and Quantity.

In a week we get more out of 2 1-hour spaced sessions than we would a single 3-4 hr session. Less total time in training, but with more benefit. More isn’t better. Besides quicker physical recovery, the spaced repetition and delayed recall help to deepen our understanding with time to let it sink in. We give the material a chance to internally take hold without the distraction of new informational stimuli to spread our concentration. Creating an intentional break between smaller sessions gives our bread time to rise peacefully. 

But what about within a single training session?

We talk about making our mat minutes count, hidden waste, and ways to optimize our individual training sessions in Showing Up is Not Half the Battle

The idea is to get as much out of a shorter training session as possible.

But there’s also the idea to spread out these individually intense sessions. Short and intense sessions spread out over time. Better for grappling cardio, and better for technical recall. Each session spaced perfectly for physical recovery and also for time for the intellectual downloads to occur between.

 

Defining both, the spacing within a session (breaks we take, movements we avoid, rolling physicality) and the spacing between each training session is part of the art, and different for everyone. Specific advice to one doesn’t apply to everyone. This could mean:

 

2-a-days with naps and tech analysis between

twice/week without a single break in each session

5 day/week pacing ourselves at each session

week on/off, completely or just with intensity switching

 

2) Our individual path is our own.

Some of us are just dipping our toes or holding back puke, recovering from injury on the sidelines or training through an injury, need time away, dealing with emotional struggles or scheduling factors outside the academy. It’s constantly changing as our individual situations change, and keeping an honest pulse on ourselves help keep us in the game for the long haul.

 

Where are we in OUR journey and why? What would need to change for our regiment to change or to look like someone else’s?

 

An injury to slow us down, baby on the way, academy schedule, chronic fatigue or shift change at work?

 

Or a freed up pm schedule to allow for more training days, but maybe less intensity?

 

Or a tighter window to hit each session with guns blazing, or 2-a-days with the self-care to make it sustainable?

 

We know everyone is on a different path, and each path changes along our individual journeys. So we should be careful not to accidentally compare ourselves with others, who trains more or less often or how physically we compare, and we shouldn’t be bothered when we’re compared to them. But we should always be looking inward, being honest with ourselves, adjusting for the now, and planning for the most probable future changes.

 

Just last. Longevity over all else.