Life is a process of learning from your mistakes.
We can try to glean as much insight as we can from research and those before us, but nothing can replace learning your lessons the hard way.
Pain, loss, and lack of progress can be powerful motivators.
The ultimate mistake however, is not learning from the mistakes themselves.
Repeating the same thing over and expecting different results is the concept of insanity.
Sometimes, it’s ignorance, sometimes it’s habit, but many times, it’s hard to let go of your long-held convictions, even if they’re at the expense of your well-being.
Here are 8 training mistakes I made in my 20s, that may have robbed my progress or longevity that I won’t be making going forward.
1. No Attention To The Nervous System
In your 20s, it’s easy to burn the candle at both ends. You can often redline it with multiple sessions a day, skip warmups and cooldowns, and get by on a crappy diet.
In your late 30s and beyond, this is a guaranteed path to injury and burnout.
What I failed to realize was how important it is to consider your nervous system and the influence regular hard training can have on it.
You sympathetic nervous system is activated by things like jiu-jitsu, weightlifting, and simply being up and active.
I’ve also written on the effects of an over-stimulated nervous system from the repeated ‘fight or flight’ response from regular combat training.
Yet in my 20s I did nothing to promote the rest and digest, parasympathetic nervous system.
This can be best activated through breathing drills, relaxation techniques, dedicated recovery days, and monitoring your overall work volume.
2. No Rotational Training
One of my biggest regrets is not starting rotational training earlier. It was the missing link in my routine that I believe could have prevented many injuries if I had started earlier.
Most of us put our effort on the big 6 human movement patters – push, pull, hinge, squat, lunge, and carry. But in reality, the number one primary human movement is walking, which is rotation.
All of life, and certainly all of athletics, is rotational movement.
Unfortunately, I spent little to no time improving my rotational ability.
It wasn’t until I started swinging clubs and learning about Rotational Movement Training that I started to understand the importance and value of these patterns, especially for performance and injury prevention.
Rotation is now the staple of my training routine.
3. Thinking Cardio Training Was Best Done With Circuits, HIIT workouts, and “Metcons.”
I became a trainer in 2011, right when CrossFit, circuit training and HIIT workouts were exploding onto the scene. They were grueling workouts that could make you puke and felt a lot like BJJ.
In fact, a whole segment of the industry was build on training like an MMA fighter with circuit training.
While these workouts can be effective for metabolic conditioning, fat loss, and mental toughness, they’re not the smartest strategy when considering performance or longevity.
Most of these types of workouts crush the glycolytic energy pathway, leaving you feeling smoked and your muscles flooded with lactic acid.
Aside from lactic acid making you feel like trash, it takes energy to clear out, and can have a negative effect on performance.
There are smarter ways to improve your energy systems with a-lactic and aerobic training, which also has a positive effect on mitochondrial health, aka longevity.
4. Thinking More Strength Would Solve My Problems
My foundational exercise education came from a prominent “school of strength” that hammered the importance of strength and strength training for fitness and performance.
And while I still agree that strength is a highly important quality for all humans to have, it’s not the only, or event the most important.
And it certainly is not the answer for all performance, pain, or movement limitations.
Humans, and more relevantly, grapplers, need a wide range of qualities to perform at their best and remain resilient against injuries.
Once my mindset changed from chasing strength numbers in hopes of improving performance and resilience, those things actually improved.
Now, with a focus on longevity, I emphasize mobility and movement quality in combination with strength, especially strength at the end ranges of motion.
5. Not Using Isometrics
As mentioned, I still do value strength.
But the abrasive nature of traditional strength exercises, in combination with their compressive effects made them a risk not worth the reward…at least for me.
Im my 20s, my body could handle regular strength training, today I’m much more selective with heavy loading.
So, still wanting to build strength, I discovered the value of isometric training, which can yield just as much, if not more, strength benefits without the risks.
Isometrics are also excellent for working around injuries, healing inflamed tendons, and building the type of strength you need for jiu-jitsu.
They have become a tool I’ll use to build strength safely from here on out.
6. Not Addressing Fascia or Compression
Fascia is starting to get its day, but for years it was disregarded as unimportant or irrelevant for performance.
We are now discovering that it’s essential for force transference and optimal movement.
Fascia links the entire body and can become tight, restricted, and dehydrated. It, amongst other tissues, can also become compressed, which robs you of your movement potential and therefore, performance.
You can relieve compression and free your fascia by rolling on lacrosse balls and rollers, as well as breathing, and moving through dynamic ranges of motion.
7. Not Addressing Foot Health
As grapplers, we don’t think much about our feet, except when we’re defending them from attacks.
Unlike most traditional sports, much of Jiu Jitsu is not performed from the feet. However, foot health is vitally important for performance and injury prevention.
Often, if there is a restriction at your foot, there will be an issue somewhere up the chain, like your knee or hip.
If one foot can’t pronate well, there’s a good chance your hip won’t rotate well either. In turn, this will have an effect on your guard mobility, how well you can squat, and how well you handle force.
Paying attention to your foot pressure during exercises is also important, as this will have an influence on what muscle chains are activated and how force travels through your system.
I’m convinced foot health is a key to optimal movement and longevity.
8. Not Following A Program or Program Hopping
Shiny object syndrome is real and it’s easy to get distracted by the next flashy exercise or method on social media.
But results come from consistency and progressive overload.
I used to get caught up doing random workouts that definitely challenged me, but had no clear objective. They were part strength training, part bodybuilding, part energy systems, and part prehab.
I wanted to work everything.
And I did see results…
The problem was I wasn’t locked in on one goal, which yielded sub-optimal results that came slower than desired.
Once I put the blinders on and committed to one program for its entirety, that’s when the results came as expected.
I collected other programs I wanted to try, but put them off until the one I was following was complete.
This takes discipline, especially in a noisy online world, but is well worth the effort.
Final Thoughts
Would I be in a better place now approaching 40 if I hadn’t made these mistakes?
Maybe, but that’s not how life works. Growth is not a straight line.
Many of us are fortunate enough to have enough time to learn from our mistakes. To try new things, course correct, and gain from experience itself.
The gains are made through having an open, adaptable mind, the willingness to challenge your convictions, and the discipline to continually seek progress.
WHENEVER YOU’RE READY, THERE ARE 4 WAYS I CAN HELP YOU:
1. Start improving your BJJ durability and performance with the new Foundations of Rotational Strength.
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