Fatigue makes cowards of us all.-Vince Lombardi
The above quote was made famous by legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi. However, it was also said and likely taken from Lt. General George S. Patton.
They are both renowned leaders so take your pick. In one of my recent articles I gave some tips on how to keep fit during the COVID-19 shutdown.
One of the things I suggested was hill sprints. I also said that I did air squats one day in their place because I was feeling rundown.
I have since continued those squats adding reps every week. But those hill sprints were still looming.
I had good reason to avoid them the previous week, but last week I was healthy, strong and rested. The weather was gorgeous for a couple days.
I had no excuse not to do those sprints. But I didn’t want to.
I could have not done them. I am a free grown man. However, how could I live with myself talking shit in an anonymous blog if I didn’t get my candy ass out there and do the hardest exercise in the article?
Nope, if I avoided them they would haunt me. I had to face what I was avoiding and throw myself into the fire.
I knew exactly which hill I was going to run. When I used to train fairly seriously in a local boxing club, I ran once per week.
For me it was lift 3/wk, box 2/wk and that left Saturday morning to run and rest on Sunday.
You can get away with not running doing floor work in a boxing gym; you can even drag yourself through 2, MAYBE 3 rounds of sparring if you are not.
But if you want to be able to spar at a hard pace for 3+ rounds, you MUST get some running in. Even once per week makes a difference physically and more important mentally.
I also was not slick and relaxed enough to sit back on the outside and potshot. I could only get by on a come-forward style which meant eating some leather to get inside where I could work.
This means you are the one pushing the pace/action which means your hands, head and/or feet better be moving at all times. In other words: if you are not in shape you are in trouble.
I was just a gym rat with no fights sparring guys with previous or upcoming fights. This meant I was never in with anybody less experienced than me.
Back then I alternated 2 different 2 mile routes, each including a big steep hill with some occasional track sprints. BTW-my track sprints looked more like jogs, especially when one of my buddies was at the track lapping me like I was standing still.
So for this current workout I chose one of those hills I used to include in my 2 mile runs. As the hours then minutes drew closer I grew more nervous.
About what?! Well, I knew a minimum of 3 hill sprints had to be done for it to feel like it counts. I was the same way with sparring; going less than 3 rounds was a failure in my mind.
The thing was I hadn’t sprinted this hill in about a year. I am not really in that kind of condition anymore. The last one was really tough, but I completed the 3 sprints. It’s not much but I felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment when I was done.
It was a distant similarity to the feeling I had after a sparring session. After a sparring session I felt like King of the World till morning.
Even if I got my ass handed to me and went home with a little blood still trickling from my nose I felt like I had just beaten Mike Tyson.
You know why? Because I did something I was afraid to do.
Just like the hours and minutes leading to those hill sprints, I used to agonize the same way times 10 on a sparring day.
Sparring sessions in boxing gyms are very intense compared to martial arts gyms. The coach will tell you to work with each other but once someone gets hit solid, it basically becomes a fight.
The only difference is during in-house sparring (sessions involving guys from the same gym) you generally don’t take advantage of anyone you have hurt; you back off just a little rather than try to take him out. You also won’t (if you have respect for yourself and the other guy) hit someone if they are not set or fully paying attention.
So on those days as the time got closer I would get nervous, anxious, whatever. These are all just mitigating adverbs for fear.
I would even look at my coworkers with resentment that they were going home to the couch and I had to go get punched.
But after the other day’s run I realized something. It wasn’t getting hit that I was really afraid of back then. It was fatigue.
The biggest obstacle we have in life is our own fear. Our most common fear is looking stupid, usually through failure.
It’s the prime reason so few guys approach women. They are afraid of getting rejected in front of people.
The most common way to look stupid in the ring is to run out of gas. Each round is 3 minutes.
Sounds like nothing right? Go in your mirror right now and just throw left-right 1-2 combos for 3 minutes.
See how you feel. Three minutes can be an eternity when you are gassed.
It’s a helpless feeling to be winded :30 seconds into a round knowing you have 2:30 left and punches are coming.
Fear and fatigue usually feed each other.
The more fear you are battling, the worse your breathing is and the quicker you fatigue. The quicker you fatigue, the more cowardly you are likely to become.
That’s why the Thrilla in Manila was so special. Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier were on fumes in 120 degree heat and never stopped giving everything.
I remember a period in those gym days where there was about a month or so when me and 2 other guys (we were the only 3 in the gym over 200 lbs at the time) were doing round-robins a couple times per week; sometimes our coach even jumped in the mix.
One guy was preparing for a fight. Myself and the third guy were helping him get ready but neither of us were looking to give him an inch.
The rounds increased every time. And you know what happened? My fear all but disappeared.
I couldn’t wait to get to the headgear on and bite down on that mouthpiece. I started to love the smell of Vaseline on my face and the other guys’ gloves.
I was getting hit so often that my face was numb; I was in a place psychologically where I was enjoying getting hit (in the face that is; hard well-placed body shots are NEVER a good time). I know that sounds sadistic but if you have ever partaken in a full contact fight discipline you know exactly what I am taking about.
But most importantly, as we were building rounds sharpening each other, we were getting into incredible shape. The fatigue was becoming less and less of a factor.
Then, inevitably life got in the way.
The one guy had his bout and then took a deserved rest. The other guy had a family and a long commute to the gym.
We still sparred but it wasn’t with the same regularity. When you go more than a week without getting hit, the sensitivity in your nose comes back.
You are sparring less often so your fight conditioning has to suffer. Then fear creeps back.
Yes, you face it and conquer it but I never quite got back to that same place mentally again.
So, fatigue definitely makes a coward of this writer. Does it make one of you?
If it does, run to it to be empowered. Don’t run from it and be haunted. Talk soon.
-Marksman
PS: I received some personal feedback on some home fitness methods that I did not included in my recent article. Feel free to comment on what you are doing to stay fit during COVID-19.
Impressive!