If you are soldier or someone who needs to do super tough-feel-like dying in the mud jazz, then this rant here  doesn't apply to you. The mental edge, and ability to push your body well beyond normal limits is necessary for you to not die. Having said that, it does need to be interspersed with periods of rest and lesser intensity training, but still, this rant is more targeted to Susan who decided a couple of years ago, that hiring a trainer would be a great way to lose weight and get fit again.

 

Enter Billy Biceps, who didn't quite make it in the Army, but has decided that, given that everyone in the military movies seems to be very shouty and loud, that Susan would appreciate being made to feel like shit a couple of times a week in order to get into shape. 

 

Now you may have heard me rant about my problems with constant high intensity training and the go hard or go home mentality. I've spoken on summits and podcasts around this, and penned for various magazines.

 

 

A number of years back, I was prepping for a fight that wouldn't happen. I was heavily into my MMA and BJJ training, and was in denial it was about to be taken away from me.

 

Unfortunately, despite appearances of being incredible fit, an autoimmune disease had taken it's toll on me, and I was scheduled to have a kidney transplant. 

 

I was in complete denial, and continued to train for a fight that was past my scheduled surgery date. Obvious to anyone who knew, that this wouldn't be happening. 

 

Except I didn't tell anyone, except my coach, and even then, maybe underplayed it a little.

 

One of my last real training sessions, almost killed me, as the go hard or go home mentality was the culture in the gym at the time. None of my sparring partners were aware that I probably should have been at home wrapping my head and body around what was to come, but instead, I attempted to train as hard as was the required level. 

 

 

I told my coach I needed to sit out a round, and with a slight hint of disgust, he pointed to the corner to sit in, and dwell in a little shame as I rested. The next round wasn't a good one, and I suddenly felt really unwell. With the guilt and shame bestowed upon me, I eventually was sent to the change rooms, and went home.

 

With equal share of the blame here, I should have been upfront with what was happening with me, and backed off a little. But like most people who end up in these situations, not only do we want to hide weakness, we get caught up in the vibe of whats going on, and before we know it, are in way too deep!

 

The next day, I still felt terrible. I ended up at the doctors and had bloods taken, confirming I was in rhabdomyosis. A condition which essentially means that your body is unable to rid of muscle waste products quickly enough. A dangerous condition for anyone, but particularly life threatening for me at the time. 

 

 

Not only have I seen others in my clinic who have suffered with rhabdomyosis (some frighteningly doing so with an idiotic sense of pride), but I've also seen the many other detrimental effects of go hard or go home.

 

 

And it isn't that training hard is a bad thing. High intensity training is something all of my athletes incorporate into their training. But they do it at a point where it is earned, and appropriate to the phase of training. 

 

Exercise covers a very broad spectrum of intensity and modalities. Sometimes you need to go hard. 

 

For many people reading this however, for your health, very often you are probably better off going home, and revisiting your training plan, with someone who understands better how to scale your training to your needs, goals and state of health and movement. There is no one best type of exercise. Various levels of intensity come packaged with their own unique benefits. Make sure you are visiting them all, and at the appropriate times.