We can only handle so much, despite what we might tell ourselves. I see it in all walks of life; we want it all and we are afraid that if we aren’t always trying to do everything we might as well be doing nothing. My BJJ coach Diego uses this analogy when he’s trying to overload the system with information, “how much can you juggle before you shut down?”
In life, as in BJJ, we have limited bandwidth. We can only handle so much information before the system reboots. We start with a ball.
“Hey, this ain’t so hard. I think I can add another.”
“What about this apple? Why not? Let’s throw in a bowling pin or two. Give me that flaming torch. Chainsaw? Sure.”
Collapse… the look of shock when the whole house of cards comes tumbling down around us. Yet we built a skyscraper on trailer park foundation.
Our foundation is sleep, nutrition, rest, recovery, and mindfulness. Build your life around these big rocks and understand what the balls and bowling pins and chainsaws represent: stress.
We all want to think of hard training as stress relief. That’s because you live in such a heightened sympathetic state that removing some sort of existential dread for an hour feels like relief. But we are creating another physiological stressor. On top of work, family, calorie deficits, sleep deficits; you’ve got a lot of balls in the air.
You might fear backsliding and therefore keep adding in runs and rides and HIIT and Crossfit and extra training sessions. How’s that working for you? Stuck? Not seeing progress? Having diet breakdowns? Loss of strength?
Train hard. But stop thinking that more is better. You aren’t a professional athlete. You aren’t a 22 year old fitness influencer. You’re more like me; a middle aged, beat up ex-athlete who works long hours and sleeps like shit. Stop trying to juggle chainsaws and instead invest in a better pair of shoes.
