When I was a blue belt (black belt candidate), I was in my mid-twenties, single, and full of energy. There were times where I would go to the dojang 6 days a week and do multiple classes a day. I was a junkie for training and I loved it! After I got my black belt I continued to teach on top of my training, and before I knew it I was teaching at multiple studios/clubs and helping out as much as I could. Tang Soo Do was my life and I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else.
Then after one gup test, I noticed a change in my body. I began to feel more fatigued throughout the day, and I started to lose my appetite. When this initially happened, my thought was, “I need more karate!”, so I went to more classes. Even though I felt energized during class, I would be completely exhausted afterward, and once I got home I would just crash. The fatigue got so bad that I would even take a 30 minute nap before class to replenish my energy from work in order to teach, only to go lie down right afterwards. After a month and a half of this I had lost 50 pounds of body weight and could barely stomach anything.
Only the insistent urging from my roommates convinced me to go to the hospital and figure out what was going on: my ulcerative colitis had flared up and I had been ignoring (and forcing myself through) its symptoms to the detriment of my own health. I got on medication and a strict diet, and my recovery took several months before I could even consider getting back on the mat again.
I share all this to highlight that your health is not worth jeopardizing over your job, your social activities, or even “healthy” activities, such as martial arts. It’s important to find balance between your work, training, and personal (or family) life so that one does not overpower the others. Your ‘pace’ will change depending on where you find your balance and it will change over time, and there is nothing wrong with that; that is called life!
Lastly, if you do not have a family doctor or personal physician that you see regularly, I would highly recommend you do so, even if it’s just to get a physical. We often forget, as martial artists, that medical professionals can not only be sought for when we are injured or sick, but also as a preventative measure to stave off any issues that would impede our training. Our training does not make us any less vulnerable to illnesses, although I would gather we are more aware of our physical health than the average individual.
