Anyone can develop bad habits at the gym, regardless of how long they’ve been training. These habits often build up over time and can prevent you from progressing as quickly as you want.

Mastering any martial art is about building up the correct muscle memory so you can execute techniques whenever an opportunity presents itself without spending much time thinking about what you intend to do. That’s why it’s so important not to develop bad habits with your training. It can be challenging to break out of them when you’ve been doing things incorrectly for so long.

This article will explore some of the most common habits martial artists develop at the gym so you can avoid them when you train.

Five Habits That Are Slowing Down Your Growth As A Martial Artist

Ready to find out which bad habits to avoid while training? Let’s jump right into our list:

1) Skipping Warm-Ups

Skipping warm-ups is a common mistake, but they’re essential for activating muscles, loosening joints, and reducing injury risk—arrive early or on time to make them part of your routine.

Here’s a bad habit that younger martial artists are more likely to develop. Age eventually teaches all martial artists – and fitness enthusiasts – the value of warming up before starting intense exercise.

It’s easy to skip warm-ups when you’re short of time, but it plays a crucial role in helping to prepare your body for the strenuous activity that’s about to follow. Warming up helps to activate your muscles, loosen your joints, and get your blood flowing. Failing to do so increases your risk of feeling sore after training and makes you more prone to injury.

The first step is understanding warm-ups’ crucial role in preparing your body for strenuous exercise. Make it a habit to arrive at the gym early so you have enough time for some warm-up exercises and dynamic stretches before your training officially starts. Many martial arts instructors make warm-ups a part of training, so arrive on time for classes if the first few minutes of each class are dedicated to warm-ups.

2) Going Too Hard

Pushing too hard in training can lead to burnout—pace yourself, build endurance gradually, and avoid comparing yourself to seasoned martial artists.

Everyone has moments when they decide they’re going to push themselves to their limits at the gym, and it can even be beneficial in some cases. However, consistently going too hard leaves you vulnerable to burnout as your body struggles to recover between classes.

Many martial arts like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), Muay Thai, and Boxing give you a full body workout. The same rules that apply to conventional workouts also apply to martial arts training. Getting the most out of your training requires you to gradually build your endurance so it can handle the stress you put it through. You don’t have the endurance a black belt has when you’ve just started training, so don’t try to match what those guys do.

3) Using Strength To Negate Poor Technique

Relying on strength over technique can stunt your growth as a martial artist—focus on refining skills, not overpowering partners.

Being one of the stronger people at your gym isn’t always a good thing. Sometimes, it can lead to neglecting to work on your technique since you can overpower your training partners when you spar.

While outmuscling weaker people might stroke your ego, it does nothing for your growth as a martial artist. Focusing on dominating your training partners with your strength typically leads to holes developing in your skill set that more skilled opponents will exploit.

Regardless of how strong you are, there’s always someone out there who is stronger. You’ll have serious difficulty competing against such people when your entire game revolves around muscling people around.

Focus on improving your techniques whenever you’re at the gym. Talk to your instructors about any technical weaknesses you have, and constantly work to correct them. Resist the urge to overwhelm your training partners with your strength while drilling techniques or sparring to ensure your game doesn’t revolve around your strength.

Strength has its place in martial arts, but not before technique. You want your strength to be a last resort that you use only when your technique has been ineffective. Don’t develop the habit of relying on it.

4) Not Prioritizing Recovery

Training hard can help improve your skills as a martial artist, but all your work in the gym doesn’t mean anything if you don’t give your body time to recover. Not doing things like cooling down after training, using recovery aids like foam rollers, and not getting enough rest between training days prevents your body from healing properly, leaving you more prone to overuse injuries.

Not getting enough rest between workouts can also lead to mental burnout, making you lose the motivation to train.

Make active recovery and rest days a part of your training routine to ensure your body recovers between training days. Try to get at least eight hours of sleep daily since that’s when your body repairs damage caused by all your hard work in the gym.

5) Avoiding More Advanced Training Partners

Sparring with advanced partners may challenge you, but it’s the fastest way to identify weaknesses and level up your skills.

Here’s another mistake that hinders the growth of many martial artists, especially when they’re new to training. It’s almost an instinct to avoid anyone who is more skilled in combat sports since your odds of defeating them when you spar are slim to none. However, this mindset is guaranteed to prevent you from becoming elite at any martial art.

While a part of you might be reluctant to pair up with more advanced training partners, remember that the goal of learning any martial art isn’t to rack up as many wins as you can in the gym. No one cares who wins or loses sparring matches at the gym, so don’t let your ego get the best of you.

Make it a habit to regularly spar with some of the higher belts at your gym. They will expose any holes in your game and drastically improve your defense. As the old saying goes, “Iron sharpens iron.” Regularly spar with a bunch of black belts, and you’ll fight like one in no time.

Form Good Habits Early in Your Martial Arts Journey

How you train determines how fast you grow as a martial artist, so you must build the proper habits from your first class. Learning martial arts isn’t a race to a black belt; it’s a journey, so do things the right way.

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