"Mat Time"

How do we get better at basic skills? Wrestlers call it "mat time", essentially, we're talking about the time we spend learning the specific techniques. The idea is to do more training than your opponents do, technical proficiency and all that!
Raw physical met-cons and plyo-beatdowns, sweat drenched puke fests and sparing til we seize up like a twitchy pretzel is all part of the fun but has its limits.
What is "over-training"? I hear this term a lot without any concrete definition. How much blood can we ring from the proverbial stone? How far can we push the dog team before they lay down in the snow and refuse to mush?
There is a point when we have pushed our bodies past their limits and yet we don't want to back off and let the competition out work us in the gym. This is the perfect time to implement the "play" aspect of our training. -
If we don't slow down at some point, we can deplete our mental, emotional and physical resources and disrupt our hormone balance quite severely! I'll get back to this in a moment and give some suggestions for dealing with the bonk.

As for the "mat time", let's talk about how we can maximize the limited time we have.
Here are six things we can work on:

1. Slow it down - just like practicing your scales on the piano, practice slow to be good fast!
2. Go max. 40% intensity - worrying about your training partner taking your head off is distracting! Take it down a few notches so you can focus on the specific technique.
3. Ask for feed back from fellow students and instructors - get them to critique you and make necessary corrections.
4. Find the areas that need the most work and beat those into submission - don't leave the gym until you have mastered it
5. Stick to the basics - even the top fighter in the world can benefit from this point.
6. Get someone to film you and review the video later to see - this also helps you later to visualize.

As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to address the issue of over-training and adrenal fatigue caused by working yourself into the dirt like most fighters are prone to do.
Some of the symptoms you might encounter when over-training include difficulty falling asleep, over-active histamines (allergic reactions ie; hives), excessive sweating, stomach upset which can possibly lead to ulcers. You may also find it hard to stay asleep during the night, experience blurred vision, shakiness or feel light headed between meals, which is also a sign of blood sugar dis-regulation (exhaustion and insulin dysfunction go hand in hand!). Many people get dizzy when they stand up quickly which can also be due to a lack of water or electrolytes.

Here are some tips to deal with it:

1. Hot bath, I have mentioned a few times but it works! Put about 3 cups of epsom salts into the water and keep the water pretty hot. You can also add a cold shower after the bath but be sure to monitor your heart rate and any feelings of dizziness as it will raise your blood pressure.
2. Magnesium - I take about 1000mg after a workout to relax the muscles and replace what I have sweat out of my system.
3. Greg Everett from Catalyst Athletics suggests using about 2g of Phosphatidylserene per day as directed on the bottle and after your workout to bring you down, this helps especially after a late-night training session.
4. I find eating carbs makes me tired so I usually eat them at night with my dinner, if I eat them for breakfast they will make me http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifsleepy and I will crave more all day!
This will also recharge your glycogen stores, another thing that can cause stress.
5. Do some relaxing meditation! - http://raptorfightclub.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-control-fear-and-axiety-leading_17.html

If you are interested in learning more about it, everything you could possibly need to know about adrenal fatigue can be found on the podcast and the show notes from Balanced Bites podcast found here -

Here is a great article on the differences between chronic cardio and sprint-like intervals and how you could benefit from keeping the workouts shorter.