 Hi everybody, welcome back to a brand new season of Art of One Dojo. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and new year, and today I thought it would be appropriate to talk about New Year's resolutions or getting back into training. This is the time of year where people tend to set new goals for themselves. It's a clean slate. It's a new year. Time to start over. And especially for martial artists, a lot of us can feel like, oh, I want to up my training this year. I have some goals I want to hit. So today we're going to talk about, you know, if you've been on the training for a while and you want to get back into it, what are some things to keep in mind? So stay tuned and we're going to get right to it. So this episode is not necessarily for people who have never trained in the martial arts and they're looking to get into it for the first time. We've actually covered this topic before in a few different episodes, specifically what is the best martial art and why your art sucks. So if you're just starting the martial arts for the first time, I recommend checking those episodes out. You'll probably get a little bit more insight on that and how to choose. Today we're going to specifically talk about you did train at one point and you've fallen out of it. And now being a new year, you're promising yourself new goals, oh, let me get back into it. Or you want to up the ante and add new milestones to what you're already doing. First of all, let's ask what made you stop to begin with? Were you a child? And maybe you trained for, you know, a year or two at school and then you went to college and you just kind of, it kind of went to the wayside and you're getting back into it. Or did you get an injury? Was this just a hobby? Sometimes people just do martial arts as a hobby. And then they stop for a long time and maybe they pick it up later. Did your school close? Does life get in the way? You know, did you get married? Did you go out of state? Any number of things that can happen in your life that can prevent you from training? Were you disillusioned with your school? Did you have a bad experience that made you step away for a while? And also, let's not lie, was money a factor. You know, training does cost money and not everyone has the luxury to do it. So first of all, ask yourself what made you stop to begin with and maybe from there you can use that to help guide yourself how you should get back into it. My number one piece of advice, at least I personally feel right now, if you're just getting back into training, don't push too hard. I know you might have this motivation to want to just jump into things and go ball to the wall and you know, be the best you can be and that's great, but you also want to be smart about it. So don't just go too hard at the beginning. One, you risk hurting yourself, two, you also risk burnout. And there's also a big difference in how long you've been out. Are you out for six months or has it been 20 years? There's going to be a different acclimation time. It's going to be a totally different experience between the two. One thing you're going to notice is to say you trained as a child or in your early teens and now you're in your 30s, 40s, 50s, you want to get back into it. The first thing you're going to notice is your body doesn't feel the same as it used to. You're not going to move the same way. You're not going to have the same speed, the same flexibility, the same reflexes. So don't expect to jump right in and feel the way you did 20, 30 years ago. If your body's changed, you have to acknowledge that and change with it. But that being said, that doesn't mean that you can't do stuff. I'm saying that you're going to have to make some modifications. You're going to find your comfort level. You're going to find what you can do and what your body's capable of doing and follow that. And over time, as you get better and you get more acclimated to it, you can push your boundaries little by little and improve. Again, you don't want to just jump in and go too hard and make it another bad experience for yourself that you don't ever come back to it again. Obviously, I don't feel the same way I did when I was 20. You know, I started when I was 14. Back then I was jump spinning kicks. I was doing all the flashy stuff. I was super bouncy over the years. My legs don't feel as springy. I'm heavier than I was before. And also like your attitude changes. I don't focus so much on the spinning and the flashy stuff is I'm more focused on being grounded. And I want, you know, when I was a kid, speed and flash and hit the guy 20 times versus now it's more like, well, we'll make one time work. So set new expectations for yourself. So, okay, you haven't trained in a while. Tonight's your first night back, you go back to class. What can you expect? One, it's probably going to feel good and horrible at the same time. It's going to feel good to be moving again, to get back into it. The motivation is going to be there. But like I said before, you're not going to be at the same physical level as you were before unless you've kept up physical fitness throughout all this time. If this is the first time working out in a while, you might not feel so great at the end or you might feel sluggish and you might feel like, oh my God, this was a lot harder than I thought it was. That's normal. And that does go away. I've noticed after my time out, when I get back into it, my first class sucked. Like, I would do kicking drills on the pad. I'd get winded quick. I wanted to throw up. I'm like, where is my energy? That does come back after a few classes. You'll see like a surge come back to the point where you can keep up in class and at that point, you'll hit like a plateau and little by little, you'll build up your endurance more and more. So, if that's your experience, when you go back for the first time, just try to bear with it, the endurance and energy levels will come back if you are out because of an injury. Granted, this is going to be a wide range of severity here. You could have just a small injury that knocks you out for a couple of weeks or a lifelong injury that maybe disabled you for life and then everything in between. First and foremost, my number one recommendation is, before you start training or when you get back to training, follow your doctor's orders. Tell your doctor or physical therapist, depending on what your injury was, what you want to do and how you're going to start working out and follow their orders, listen to them. And also, don't assume anything about your recovery. When I had knee surgery at this point, like 10 years ago, it was kind of funny because I was anxious to get back to class. I had never been out six months before. It drove me nuts not training. When I went back, I was allowed to go back in stages. My doctor said I could go, but I couldn't kick for X amount of time and I was starting to feel good. And I asked him, I said, look, my knee is feeling pretty good. How about I just do some light kicks? Just with that leg, I'll just do some pushes wherever to get the motion down. And my doctor said, actually, that's not what I'm worried about. He goes, you can kick with that leg. He didn't want me bracing with it. So in my mind, I'm thinking, oh, the problem would be the impact. And his mind was like, no, he didn't want me to put an extra strain and pressure to brace, but I'll kick with my other leg. So just because you think you might feel good in one way or you might think why you're not allowed to do something, talk to your doctor. Don't make any assumptions about your recovery, especially if you have a physical therapist. Always listen to a physical therapist. I know people who had surgery and they were right back on their feet, working out the next day. And guess what, they now have, they've worsened it and they now have lifelong injuries because they did not listen to the doctor's orders. So if you have an injury before you train, follow their orders, don't push yourself, but it's not worth a long-term injury just to get some immediate gratification. All right, this one's tougher when life gets in the way. First and foremost, your family comes first. You have obligations that come first, often job, responsibilities. Sometimes training doesn't take the front burner and you have to decide what's important to you. A lot of people get married, they have kids. Having kids is gonna take away a lot of training time. So you're gonna have to find time on your own. If you're really serious about getting back into it, you are gonna have to dedicate the time. You know, maybe you can work out with a spouse, trading off times, watch your kids, or maybe you can do a work schedule. That's gonna help you do something you work out, but if you really wanna continue and set realistic goals, you're gonna have to set some time on your own. If you have a dojo you're gonna go to, try to at least go once or twice a week at the minimum if you can. Try to work your schedule where those time slots fit. If that doesn't work out, if your time is all over the place, find time on your own to work out. Online program, your own home course material, maybe get up an extra hour early in the morning, stay up an extra hour later. Whatever you can, try to set a dedicated time, a day or a week that you can say, okay, this is my training time and you're gonna fit whatever you can in that. That regularity is better than saying, well, I'll get to it. I'll just do a better longer training next week. You start pushing off, you're not gonna go back to it and that gap's gonna happen. So get some regularity in your schedule, even if it's small. If you can't find time to physically work out, again, like if you're on your lunch break, read about the art at the very least. Again, your home material, or look up the history of your art, get the mental simulation going. At least think about it so you've got some sort of cognitive thing in place there. Even if you're not physically working out, you're still training your minds that when you do work out, concepts are fresh, ideas are fresh, and maybe even get a new perspective that you wouldn't have had if you hadn't taken the time to read about it. So yes, life can be really hard to schedule, but the bottom line is, if you wanna make it work, you're gonna have to find the time yourself to dedicate to your training. And as I've said before, again, keep all your notes and references in classes. So that way, if there is material for you to buy, manuals, DVDs, I recommend getting it. You have that resource. If your school does not offer that, write notes, go home at night and write down what you covered in class. So at least you have that. Disillusionment. A lot of people stop training in the martial arts because of a bad experience, or they became disillusioned with either the art or the process. So once again, ask yourself, what made you stop? Was it a bad instructor? Did you really have a poor experience with a particular instructor? I have known instructors who were abusive to their students, and their students left them. I wouldn't blame you for not wanting to go back to that. I've seen it, it's horrible. Did you have a bad experience with the school, with your colleagues, with your classmates? So maybe another school is just a better option for you. Did you not like the art? That's a very big possibility. I can't tell you how many people I hear from who said they tried one art, and they liked it for a while, and they realized, eh, it's not for me, or it's not really getting the goals I wanted, or I had this expectation, it didn't meet it. So if you didn't like the art, if you stopped because you were disillusioned with the art you were training, please, I encourage you to at least try another one. Identify what it is that you want to do and look for arts that kind of fit that mold. It doesn't hurt to give it a try. The other thing too is, did it not work when you needed it to? Did you train in self-defense? And when the day you needed it, it wasn't there for you? That is an unfortunate reality too, and that can come down to a bunch of different reasons. Whether were you in it long enough? Was the quality of material taught well? Were you at the right school? Was it a tournament school versus a self-defense school? There's a lot of questions to ask there. That's a traumatic experience. If something didn't work when you needed to, I understand if you stopped, but I do encourage you to try to identify why didn't it work. If you can do that, then you can find a solution as to where to go next. If training is what you really want to do, and if you're watching this video that's far into it, something tells me that you are interested in getting back into the martial arts, so I do encourage trying to find why it didn't work, or at least go talk to some other schools, tell them your experience, they might be able to guide you. So I really hope a bad experience doesn't sour you in the martial arts in total when there's a lot of different realities and options out there. And in the spirit of New Year's resolutions, what are some realistic goals? That's the key here is to set realistic goals for yourself. It's easy to be like, okay, it's January 1st. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna get five more belts this year. I'm gonna go train five days a week. Make it realistic. It's easy to be gung ho and motivated at the beginning. It's a lot harder to actually walk that talk. And so I discourage doing too much too soon. When you go gung ho, and I've seen this in countless people who are people who try to get back into, even just going to the gym, they start going, I'm gonna go five days a week. Yeah, they go five days that first week. Maybe the second week. The third week, you're like, okay, I'm gonna go a couple of days this week. Then the next week, they're burnt out. I need this week off. And the next thing you know, it's tapered down, it's tapered down, it's tapered down. And about a few weeks in, you're done. You've burnt out on it. Too much is too much. So don't push yourself too hard. Again, we're not the same at 40 than we were at 15. You're gonna have to respect that, like it or not. I don't like it, but I have to respect it. I can't do the same things I did when I was younger. So instead, I focus on different areas and different strengths. That's something we all have to do. And honestly, sometimes in the end, you find more fulfillment doing that because you can find better purpose and you can find better tactics that way. Keeping track of your progress is important. If you have milestones, especially again, a resolution, your goal setting, nothing keeps you more motivated than hitting milestones and hitting goals. So instead of saying, oh, I wanna get five new belts this year, look at your curriculum and say, you know what, this week I wanna master this technique or at least understand this technique. The next week I wanna master it. Set smaller incremental goals because I'm the type of person I love making to-do lists just to help me organize my thoughts and it feels so good to cross something off. So break your goals down into smaller pieces and just keep track of your progress. And that way you see a bigger picture of your gains and you're not trying to tackle something that's too big at once. You do it in smaller pieces and you'll find that you get further that way. Like I talked about before, you have to make the time for yourself. We run this channel full time. Work two other full time jobs. I'm not gonna lie. There's a lot of times I come home at night. It's midnight, I'm like, I'm not working out. Or I have to be up at six a.m. the next day. I'm not getting up at five to work out. It's a reality. But my resolution is I'm sitting out with my schedule and I'm like, you know what? This day I'm doing this. This day I'm doing this, blocking times out because you have to take responsibility. You fell out of it for one reason. Don't let it happen again. So take responsibility. If you are serious about your training and getting back to the martial arts, the burden of the work is on you. But there's a lot of options that you have and I wish all of you so much great luck and hopefully this is a great new year for all of us. We're gonna keep exploring. And our goal here, again, our resolution for the channel is to continue to be a resource, positive resource in discussion group and networking for all of you guys out there. You've been fantastic. So good luck with your training this year. Set those resolutions, stick to them and we'll see you guys next time. Thank you so much. So as always, thank you guys so much for watching. Please be sure to thumbs up this video, subscribe to our channel if you haven't yet and please support us on Patreon. The more support we get there, the more we can do. We've got a lot in store for you guys this year. So please help us bring this material to you. Again, thank you guys for all your support and we'll see you in the next video.