Martial Arts: A Healthy Addiction

Most people when they’re going through problems in life, they ball up and surround themselves in that which makes them comfortable. For some people, it’s comfort foods like chocolate or ice cream. For others, it’s mind-altering substances like drugs and alcohol that dull their thinking and therefore their ability to think about their problems.

As for me, I throw myself into training.

It works on so many levels. It tires out the body, making it easy to sleep. It takes your mind off your troubles; you can’t afford to be distracted when you’re trying to master a tricky technique or when you have punches coming at your face. When you’ve been doing martial arts as long as I have, training becomes a comfort zone.

Thankfully, using martial arts training as a distraction in this way has been pretty productive for me, helping me achieve my goals. On Sunday, I spent 3.5 hours on the mats. Last night... over 4 hours. Today... I think I need a little break for recovery.

While the last couple of days have been very productive for me, I’ve known people to use their martial arts training as a way of taking out aggression that has built up over their problems. You should treat martial arts training like driving. Don’t train angry, particularly when it involves a partner. You may end up ignoring warning signs, leading you to injure yourself or others. If you want to practice solo patterns or just whack a punching bag around, that’s ok, just be careful not to wail away with too much strength and not enough technique as this can also cause injury.

Train safe and good luck building your healthy addictions!