According to the findings, 3 training sessions (of 1-2 hours duration each) per week is the most productive in terms of both physical conditioning and improving one's skills. Two times per week was found to be the minimum for maintaining oneself, but is not enough to make true progress in skill and strength. Four times per week was found to be not that much more productive than 3X per week.

Allowing time for muscles and joints to heal and rest is an important factor in between workouts. If you're training hard every day, eventually you will acrue more damage and fatigue than your body can handle. People who train more than 3 or 4 times per week should alternate the intensity of their workouts so that there are "light" days in between the "hardcore" ones.

On the psychological side, how many people get "addicted" to MA training mainly because they are fascinated by their martial art and want to drink it all in? And how many get hooked because the martial art discipline fills a social, intellectual, spiritual or emotional void in their lives?

Often, people recovering from a broken relationship, career disappointment, lost religious faith, loneliness and other ills will train obsessively. Sometimes they end up mellowing out over the years and come to love the art for itself, but too often an individual will turn his entire life over to the dojo because it has become the surrogate for a healthy home and family life, job satisfaction, or whatever.

It's one thing to find something absolutely riveting and to devote your life to exploring all its nooks and crannies, and quite another to become obsessed to the point of burnout.

Just a few ramblin' thoughts on the subject.

Cady Goldfield