The edge

         Something donned on me today, or more specifically, I had  moment of putting 2 and 2 together.  It was in terms of the edge I feel when training constantly, versus that feeling of losing that edge.  The thought that I had was this, when training we are putting stress on our nervous systems.  The harder we train, the more stress we put on it.  The more we do this, the more our nervous system adapts and readies itself for this kind of training.  However, this is also akin to a fight or flight response.  There will be times were it is good to, or even necessary to reduce this kind of training to allow or sympathetic nervous system to kick in and get a rest for our body, and stop dumping those stress hormones.  Makes sense right?

        So when I'm feeling "on", like I have that edge, it is really the result of constant training and having my nervous system in a heightened mode.  When I start to train less, or heaven forbid take a week off training, I feel like I've now lost that edge.  Although it can feel like a negative, it really is a positive thing.   What I've also realized, is that even though I feel like I've lost that edge, the results of my training haven't actually dulled- unless I don't keep up my training for an extended period of time (months/years).  Knowing this, I've realized that I've given my nervous system the break it needs, but at the same time it has already learned to adapt to the type of stress/training I put it through, and thus can find that "edge" quickly again.

        Really made me think about the training we do, and how we are throwing ourselves into stressful situations so we can learn to adapt.  We don't need to be doing this all the time to reap the benefits, but still recognize the importance of this kind of training (a la sparring, chokeholds, grappling, etc.).  One can remain calm, even if their nervous system is in a fight or flight response.