How much do you actually train?

[Merryprankster]

How much do you actually train? I have a feeling that we generally vastly overestimate how much time we actually spend training. I'll gladly consider any art-specific training as "training," but I hesitate to consider running and weightlifting as "training the art." For instance, I do a circuit routine 3 times a week that incorporates specific movements from BJJ, designed to improve my cardio, but I don't consider any other extra physical activity I do to be training in my art.

I generally work out twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, for a total of about 2.5 hours a day, and generally 4-5 days a week. I have a 4-5 hour stretch of training on Saturdays.

All told, I'd say I train about 12-15 hours in an average week. If I had to have guessed without actually tallying it up, I probably would have guessed about 4 hours more that that, but I'd be wrong :D

The reason I question is because I see some people claim 25 or more hours a week and I just don't see how you can do that unless it's practically your job. I know that 13-15 hours feels like a second job. And some of those 25 hour a week guys have wives and kids etc...

So, tally it up!

Just curious--not trying to pick an "I train more than you" fight

[SanSoo Student]

But for a boxer...
Running and lifting weights would be considered training for him.

[Water Dragon]

I have 3 classes a week, each at about 2 1/2 hours. I do my solo about 1 hour 3 times a week, maybe 2 hours on Sunday.

I'll disagree and say that running, lifting weights, etc IS martial arts training. MA are 50 % technique and 50 % attribute. Some are more like 80 % atttribute and 20 % technique.

Or if you like to be more Chinese, The time spent strengthening the body is long, the time spent defeating the opponent is short/

[MasterKiller]

Actual Kung Fu techniques and sparring: Probably 6 hours a week. I include heavy bag work in this category.

Weapons. Probably 4 - 5 hours a week.

I spend another 2 - 4 hours lifting, stretching, skipping rope, etc... though.

[wall]

As a teen (...the beautiful careless days...) used to train 15:00 to 20:00 (5h), 6 days per week, total 30h.

As a busy adult (the past 10 years or so) I manage to fit in (weekly):
3h CMA training
2h weights
2h stretching
1h endurance

...for a weekly total of about 8h or so. I tend to do short intense workout, so say on the average evening I'll do 10min run, 20min stretch, 40min CMA, 30min weights: so average training session is about 1.5h.

Wall

[Ground Dragon]

Actual class time 6 hours

Lift weights 3-4 times a week, approx an hour each time

Heavy bag work (with conditioning thrown in in intervals) 4-6 times a week - about 4-5 hours a week total

Bodyweight exercises 4 times a week approx 45 min each

Occasionally go jogging, maybe a couple times a week for about 30 min each time but I don't really count that since it's kind of sporadic
16-18 hours a week total, but that's counting everything.

[Merryprankster]

I'll disagree and say that running, lifting weights, etc IS martial arts training.

In an oblique way, of course, you're right. I just think the line has to be drawn somewhere, and this seemed logical to me as you aren't actually training your art at this point--not grooving any movements, etc. I mean, otherwise a pick-up basketball game could be "training," which i think is silly.

I'm taking away from attribute training, mind you. Just a particular point of view.

[yenhoi]

Its silly and wastefull to consider a pick-up basketball game not training.

Non-martial training hours aside, Im at about 14-20 hours on the mat.

:cool:

[GreyMystik]

well, is it the activity that determines whether or not it's 'training' , or the focus? or both?

if you're just going through the motions (not saying you are, just giving an example), is it 'training'? or idle exercises perhaps?

if i'm playing a basketball game with intent of improving my skills, working cardio, etc... i suppose in a roundabout way it could be considered training, but i wouldn't say necessarily training the art... training my attributes, sure... but because my system benefits from 'carried over' attributes acquired from other activities doesn't necessarily make those activities paramount to the system. hopefully that makes sense...

so maybe it's both... the specific activities as well as the intent and focus, that really determines meaningful training time? some thoughts...:)

[brothernumber9]

there are definitely people who's schedules can allow for a lot of practice time. but for most take this into consideration. Let's assume someone says they train 20hrs a week. Let's assume they train 6 days a week. That's a little over 3 hrs a day. Let's assume they have a regular job 8 - 5, and that it takes them 30 min to get to wherever they practice. a few minutes to change and 10 to fifteen more to stretch and warm up. so roughly they can actually start training somewhere around 6 oclock. For 3 hrs until 9 oclock, then they get home around 9:30 - 10:00. If you have a wife/husband and kids, or even just a wife/husband then you won't for very long. No marriage lasts on having time for the other only on sundays. I'm sure there are exceptions but for the most part it seems very unlikely that someone with a professional career and family would have more than 12 -15 hrs a week to train and that is if they were fairly dedicated and balanced (with time). I think a lot of people definitely take liberties when describing how much they train.

[FatherDog]

I spend 6 hours a week in class; 3 hours of boxing, 3 hours of wrestling. After class I spar or roll, which probably accounts for another half hour or so.

I spend 6 hours a week in the gym lifting weights.

Two days a week, when I get home from the gym, I either do rounds on the heavy bag, spinning and hip heist drills, or wind sprints. That probably accounts for another two hours or so a week.

[red5angel]

If you don't include cardio or weight training, although I try to target areas to compliment my martial arts training - For example I do the 3 day a week circuit as well and on other days I may do an intense punch/kick workout for cardio.

However, not including that I do an hour in the morning and about everyday an hour in the evening. I also shoot to do a little bit during my lunch hour a couple of times a week mostly just to maintain the discipline. I usually do about 2-3 hours on saturday or sunday and usually an hour on sunday if I can get it in but I go light if at all.
So I guess I average about 12-15 hours a week of technique or drill specific training.

[Ray Pina]

Twice a week with my master for 6 hours (unless there's good surf or caught up at work or traveling)

5 hours a week chi sauing or sparring with friends.

Officially then, 11 hours.

But there's lots of short power drills and what not when walking up the block for pizza or to check the surf at night, and just being hit with the desire to train internal. Those I'd add up for another 2 hours a week. But 11 hours hands on training.

[fa_jing]

5 - 15 minutes per week MA training

5 - 7 hours a week conditioning.


For three years, I trained about 1.5 hours a day, very MA - specific. Then I would have a 2 hour semi-private lesson, high intensity on the weekend. I made consistent progress this way.


However, I think for hours spent/wasted surfing KFO, I have most of you beat. Check my post count.

[norther practitioner]

I'm at my school 5 days a week, minimum 2 hours, so about 1.33 hours I would concider, "training." I'd say I get a solid 7 hours a week in taiji, and about 8 hours a week in long fist. I also work out some of our kickboxing girls... which I don't concider training, but is a decent workout if I do some of the workout with them. Especially holding the pads for some of our better girls.


EDIT>>>

Thats at the school, out of school I prob. get another hour- 1.5 hours in a week (read occasional lunch break stuff). If there is a tourney coming up I'll add three to four solid hours a week and up my efficiency too.

[Liokault]

I do 7 hours a week in class (2 of 2 hours 1 of 3), then I train 3-4 times a week at my teachers house on bags, nei gung etc for between 2 and 4 hours if I have a fight coming up.

As a guess when I have a fight coming (most of the time as we train 8 weeks before and I can do 3-4 a year) I do about 14 hours but only 7 hours if no fight.

Oh and I do nei gung for half an hour every day.

[Black Jack]

Lets see,

Added up, it comes to about 6 hours per week of straight MA group training with Saturday being about half or more of that time.

Plus any solo work I put in like bag work, shadowboxing, footwork drills, weapon drills, but that could range from a quick 15 minutes to over half an hour when I have the urge and time.

I also hit the gym 3 times per week right now for about an hour, maybe a bit more, each time I go.

[Starchaser107]

I find it hard to actually quantify the time but
est abt. 8-10 hours per week in recent times.

[Oso]

2-3 hours of cma (my practice time)

3-4 hours of jujitsu

5-7 hours teaching

About 4 hours of cardio/weightlifting.

[chen zhen]

Im so lucky to have found a Vale Tudo club that has training hours of about 7 hours a week, and soon we'll start in a gym where we can train all day, train with heavybags etc, + equipped with weight training facilities. and we can at all times have someone to roll and spar with, since its also the main gym of world champion Shooto fighters and Japanese JJ'kas.
Real fantastic.

My former MA training has been only 2-4 hours a week, and at the same time ripping me for money, and not teaching me sh!t.

[Liokault]

My former MA training has been only 2-4 hours a week, and at the same time ripping me for money, and not teaching me sh!t.


Hmmmm i always thought you sounded like a mug.....wanna lend me 10 quid?




(if u dont know what a quid is ask on one of the english slang threads)

[Starchaser107]

Oh let it Go why don't you.

[Golden Arms]

Normal Training Schedule:

M-F
Heavy bag and Shadow boxing with drills from forms: 1 hour
Pre class workout: 1 Hour of forms and drills
Class and Sparring: 2 hours
Forms weapons and Body conditioning 1 hour
At home before bed 30 minutes of stance training excercises

Sat 2 hours class, if at my school, some less if practicing with friends. 1 hour Forms and Drills

Sun 1 hour or so of whatever I feel like to start off the day, and some standing before bed so about 1:15 or so.

So added up, ~ 33-36 hours a week. Do I have a girlfriend, life on the weekdays, or go to bed before midnight ever? Nope. There are trade-offs. However, I have been doing this for 3 years, I dont break my schedule, although sometimes I should, and I deal with overtraining injuries when I get stupid. But I know someday I wont have the time to do it, so I am doing it while I can. Even with this much training it took about 2 years before I could really start to apply more than even the most basic of Hung Gar stuff to free fighting, other than hitting like a mule, which comes pretty fast for most.

[chen zhen]

Liokault: u have already showed to me that u're an ass, it is not necessary to proove it anymore.

[CaptinPickAxe]

I train about 2hrs every night
Mon,Thur,Sat-Shuai Chiao work out and heavy bag work(plus SC class on mon & thur)
Tue,Wen,Fri-Weight Training, Iron Body
Sunday-nurse hangover:D
=roughly 16hrs a week

[Musicalkatachmp]

Water Dragon,
I hear ya bro...when I think about it, I don't train as much as I originally thought, and that's considering the time I spend walking around trying to catch my breath after doing a form or shadow boxing. It's like watching reruns of old game shows with the commercials cut out or a show that you taped off TV and didn't record the commercials...makes me say: D@mn I never realized I was only watching 14 minutes worth of American Gladiators during a one hour span while growing up....

[Shaolin-Do]

Yeah... Thats right :)
All in all...
2 hours class monday, 2 hours training
1 hour of class tuesday, 2 hours training
3 hours class wednesday, 2 hours training
2 hours of class thursday, 2 hours training
friday - weights, kung fu oriented training with weighted things ( 2 hours)
saturday- occasional light workouts for 1-2 hours
sunday- rest

so... 15-22 hours a week or so. :)

[neigung]

90 min per day, 7 days a week.
10.5 hours per week.
Put in the weekly perspective, it doesn't seem that much :\

[neigung]

Originally posted by Liokault
Oh and I do nei gung for half an hour every day.

ROFL

Can you please rephrase that?:eek:

[chen zhen]

:o"neigung & Liokault, sittin in a tree..."

lol

[Shaolin-Do]

"Oh and I do nei gung for half an hour every day."

"ROFL

Can you please rephrase that?"

roflmao... didnt even notice it till you pointed it out.
bahahahahaha...
So hows that goin for ya liokault? err... neigung? :eek:

[neigung]

LMAO

:mad:

I can't stop laughing.

[Starchaser107]

LMAO

[SevenStar]

judo - 3 - 5 hrs / week

bjj - 8 - 9.5 hrs/week

weights/cardio - 5 - 7 hrs/week

solo training - 1 - 4 hours/week

[Liokault]

By god how old are you people?


Some yimes I do nei gung for over half an hour, did over an hour last week in one session........Some times I do nei gung with my teacher.

Hell last week 2 young chinese kids (8 and 10 I think) showed me how they do nei gung!

[Laughing Cow]

Hi.

I practice my art weekdays for 1~2 hours work and family permitting.
Saturday 1.5hrs in the Park and 2hrs at the Kwoon.
Sunday another 1.5~2hrs in the Park.

This does NOT include stretching and other exercises I do sometimes.

I fully agree that most self-estimates about training times are way off and we do less than we think.

Cheers.

[neigung]

Originally posted by Liokault
By god how old are you people?


Some yimes I do nei gung for over half an hour, did over an hour last week in one session........Some times I do nei gung with my teacher.

Hell last week 2 young chinese kids (8 and 10 I think) showed me how they do nei gung!

I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. I'm in literally tears. Stop that!

[Starchaser107]

lol

poor neigung.

i hope at least you get paid.

[Volcano Admim]

Mr. Circuit Pansy (who cant strike bare-knucle), i made a poll like this topic on some other forum
stop copying me

[rogue]

Weekly
3 hours of TKD over two days of which one hour is sparring.
2 hours of self defense.
3 hours of karate.

I've cut back on sparring since I was accumulating too many injuries. The joys of being aggressive and stupid.:rolleyes:

[Cheese Dog]

Class time--10 hours per week
Martial arts practice at home--2-3 hours
Cardio--1-2hours
Conditioning--2-3 hours

For a total of 15 to 18 hours per week.

When I broke it down I'm actually surprised I train this much. No wonder my girlfriend complains sometimes!

[Serpent]

Class time: 11 - 12 hours/week
Home practice: 2 - 4 hours/week
General cardio/conditioning/weights, etc.: 2 - 4 hours/week

Total 15 - 20 hours/week depending on other committments and general laziness.

Sometimes that will increase to closer to thirty hours a week if the time allows, but with work and Mrs Serpent demanding portions of my time then some things have to give a bit.

However, with current plans in progress I should have a lot more time for training and practice in the future.

[Shaolin-Do]

"However, with current plans in progress I should have a lot more time for training and practice in the future."

*psst... can I be part of your midget smuggling operation?
:eek:

[chen zhen]

neigung gains my respect for being the person that has... experienced the weirdest things and still can laugh at it.:eek::p

I hope women do u also.

[Shaolin-Do]

Im sure theres lots of elderly and obese women doing neigung for sure!
:D

*ninja mind tricks

[Ming Yue]

My whole school does neigung at least once a week.
All at the same time, even.
:D

I get about 10-12 hours on a good week lately.
not nearly enough!

[Chang Style Novice]

Maybe an hour a day of conditioning type stuff and another hour of forms. Haven't had a training partner to push hands or spar with in a while ('cause I'm too broke to go to classes, and anyway that's when I'm at work.)

[Shaolin-Do]

"spar with in a while "

Im willing to make the drive up there once every couple weeks or so if you really want someone to touch hands with...
:)

[Chang Style Novice]

I'm sure with a little effort I could find someone to play with. Don't roadtrip on my account. But if you get to town for your own reasons feel free to let me know in a PM here and I'll try to work something out.

[Shaolin-Do]

Im up there for booze and broad related reasons every couple weeks or so.
:D

[Kristoffer]

Some times I do nei gung with my teacher.


..:D

[neigung]

You B astards!

LMAO

[Shaolin-Do]

Neigung's easy.
:eek:

[Water Dragon]

I used to do neigung, but I had to give it up. Everyone always talks about all these amazing things that will happen when you start doing neigung. Well, let me tell you, I did neigung hardcore for an hour a day for a full year and nothing. No tingles, no sudden revelations. Where's all the bells and whistles? It's like I never did neigung at all.

I even had my teacher watch me do neigung for a while. He said I was doing everything right. I had everything in the right place, all my movement were slow and deep, still nothing.

After a while I gave up doing neigung and started doing Shaolin Do. I just got more bang for my buck. With Shaolin Do, I always get to do something new that I never did before. It's exciting.

[Kristoffer]

:D

[Shaolin-Do]

You filthy filthy man.
:eek:


:D

[dezhen2001]

right now im training around 2 hours a day, but most of that is to get myself back in to shape after a loooong spell of not training. Its mainly stretching and basic things, as well as Qigong (not Neigung :P). When i decide im gonna be training for my hard qigong test, it will be around 4 hours per day for 100 days non-stop. Qhich is quite difficult to schedule in advance :D

I dont have any partners to do drills or spar with here so im focussing on conditioning and building up my hard qigong again.

Also dont have a gf here so i can actually train :D

dawood

[Water Dragon]

I almost forgot. Until now, I was only allow to do Shaolin Do barehanded. But Sifu says that next week I can start learning how to do Shaolin Do with a staff. Yay!

[neigung]

LMAO @ WD

[Starchaser107]

LOL

what would happen if all the internal stylists from over the globe did neigung at the same time? would there be a shift in consciousness?

[Starchaser107]

by the way, people here look down upon people that do shaolin do here for some reason. Its unacceptable. but times have changed a little and people are more accepting.

[Water Dragon]

Originally posted by Starchaser107
LOL

what would happen if all the internal stylists from over the globe did neigung at the same time? would there be a shift in consciousness?

I doubt it. Most people only think they are doing neigung. In reality, most of them are really doing Iron Fist or Sevenstar. I knew this one guy who thought he was doing Fajing when he was really just doing Shaolin Tiger.

[fa_jing]

If you plan to do Fa-jing, I strongly suggest that you hold an anal lock, and blow lightly. Failure to do so may cause you to leak your emission.

[Royal Dragon]

Haven't read this whole thing but for me, when I was at my best, I was doing 3-5 a day, 6 days a week. I did this for a good 3 years straight.

Now, I'm older, I have a family and some injuries, so I "Try" to get in every day for a couple of hours, but I usually end up doing maybe 3 days, you could say 4 if you count doing Taiji along with my students. I never train less than an hour, but rarely more than 1-1/2 these days.

When I have a partner however, and can work drills and contact stuff, it usually goes about 3 hours, maybe a bit more as it's not so much physically demanding as my form work, and it has a fun factor to it as well. This happens maybe once or twice a month right now, but plans are in the works to up that to twice a week.

[Black Jack]

Royal you teach tai chi chuan at the downers grove park district or the westmont park district?

[Shaolin-Do]

What style of taichi?

"Sifu says that next week I can start learning how to do Shaolin Do with a staff"

Still not as bad as the teacher watching while the whole class does neigung.
:p

[Royal Dragon]

Westmont....................for now, I'm planning to close the class soon. My back is better, and I need the time for my own practice. I want to find a good school by the first of the year to train at if I can. I know where I want to go, but I'm not sure it's feasible.

Outside of Golden Mountain, do you know any good Long Fist schools around here?

[BAI HE]

h2O said:
"I doubt it. Most people only think they are doing neigung"

H20 has just beaten the corrsct to death with the claw end of a fine "Craftsman" hammer.

[Black Jack]

Longfist is not really my bag but there is a guy who is supposed to be really good at the Wheaton Park district who does longfist and I believe has trained in China. I remeber meeting him once and he had forearms like steel.

I believe this was one of Monkeyslaps students long fist teachers. I think it was little Joe and if I remeber correctly he spent a good deal of time with the guy and maybe still does. Again this may wrong as its coming off sheer memory and is a bit fuzzy.

There is also Choi as you know. I train with a gent who studied some Hsing I from him and from what I hear is that the man is old school wicked fast. Back in the day there was also a long fist teacher who had a nice size school in St. Charles, They also did Aikido there as well.

Master Shu semi retired but his longfist and tai chi school is still in Roselle by the train station and is run by his upper students.

Hope this helped.