The State of My Life

The State of My Life - Justifying Pain by Vincent Cooper

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I remember years ago reading an interview with the Goju ryu karate Morio Higaonna. Higaonna is famous for his intensive use of the makiwara striking post and has, over the years, developed both phenomenal power and heavily calloused knuckles from his daily practice. The interviewer asked Higaonna about the best way to train with the makiwara and the master replied that safety and moderation should be stressed. The interviewer was shocked at the response and - rightly - pointed out that Higaonna himself would attack the striking post until his knuckles were bruised and broken. Higaonna laughed and said something to the effect that while he did indeed train to such an extreme, it wasn't something he necessarily advocated.

Today as I write this I find myself in a small degree of pain from two muscle strains that I have suffered in the last 5 days or so. The first was in my right foot and made rising on my foot painful when delivering a kick. The second, suffered just yesterday, is another muscle strain in the left side of my back. This makes movement from a stationary position painful for me (though I am okay once I get going).

Now when I say 'painful', I'm not talking about crippling pain, but just enough to make me wince and wish that I wasn't injured. So no sympathy necessary. ;)

What I want to talk about though is the question that all martial artists face at some point: Whether or not to train through an injury and the pain it produces.

Personally I have always done so. So does Morio Higaonna and every single more-than-competent martial artist I have ever trained with. Note that this is training through an injury, not around an injury. I continue to train in my normal, regular manner and deal with the pain as and when it arises. Training around the injury would mean that you continue to train but in a modified manner so as not to aggravate your injury. Then of course a third option is to simply rest completely.

The pain is as real for me as it would be for you. I feel it, I don't like it and it makes me feel uncomfortable. How I get around it is to justify the pain to myself. Pain becomes a sign of growth, an indicator that I am challenging myself in a new way from which I will learn and develop.

A central theme of this blog is to investigate the application of our experiences in martial arts to building a successful life within and beyond the martial arts. As we learn to train through injuries, so must we learn to live through pain.

Overcoming pain - and I include the pain of boredom, frustration and failure here - is a component, in my opinion, to finding success and building the life you want. As one of my first sensei said one night, training when you feel like it is easy; it's training when you don't feel like it that separates the achievers from everyone else.

To be able to experience pain, accept it and even welcome it (as a sign of growth), you need to be able to justify the 'negative' experience of pain to yourself. For Morio Higaonna, he is able to justify the daily pain he suffers at the hands (haha!) of the makiwara because the experience toughens him physically and mentally, promotes the power of his techniques and allows him - rightfully - to identify himself as a master of karate and, among other things, earn an appropriate living doing what he loves to do.

For myself, one of my primary goals right now is to get my weight down and realize a fundamental shift in my fitness from being a power lifter to a fighter with strong muscle endurance. I can justify the pain I feel as an unfortunate result of over-training because I am convinced that in the long run, the extra training that I am doing will be of immense benefit to me; not just in terms of my weight, but in developing my ability as a fighter.

So to experience pain and keep on experiencing it, you need to be able to justify the process to yourself. There has to be an over-riding reason why you are putting yourself through the regimen you are (whether directly in training or in the wider arena of life). Without justification your days of disciplining yourself to feel pain and continue regardless are limited. So take a close look at when you are immersed in pain; how much and for how long. If you can justify it and, paradoxically, see the experience of pain as being positive, then by all means continue. If on the other hand you cannot justify your life or your training to yourself then perhaps you should take a closer look at where you are right now and begin developing a new approach.

GOALS UPDATE:

My injuries hindered my training throughout the week but I was still able to get a lot done. A far more serious hindrance to my progress was that I changed the sports drink I was using to one that, it turns out, contains less glucose. After a few days I could really feel the difference and by Wednesday and Thursday nights I was very tired. I also fluffed being able to read two books this week. Reading was just sending me to sleep so I quit my non-fiction book for a while and am now reading a fiction book. Partly this was because of the content of the book and the fact that it is written for an academic reader, and it is not therefore a scintillating read, but a lot had to do with my lack of mental energy.

I was also due to take a rest week starting next Saturday but have changed my plans. Something came up on Monday 31st and with clients from Tuesday - Thursday I won't actually be able to have much of a rest. Instead I am rescheduling for the week after. However, I am still holding myself to completing all goals by the end of this week.

I took a full rest day yesterday. Last weekend was obon and while it was a lot of fun and very relaxing, it wasn't restful. Something I noticed yesterday though is that I am requiring progressively less sleep to function at the same level of output. A couple of months ago I would spend a rest day in bed, sleeping, eating and reading. Yesterday was all but normal (included walking around for nearly two hours in very hot weather taking the kids to and from their schools). I just slept for maybe about three hours during the daytime (about an hour longer than a normal day).

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