Balancing the grind of combat sports training with the demands of personal life and a professional career is no small feat. We do it and many others are out there living the same truth as us.
Whether it’s finding time to recover, managing energy throughout the week, or maintaining relationships outside the gym, the challenge is something every dedicated athlete faces sooner or later. Personally, I would LOVE to spend more time lifting, training and maybe even diving more into different practices, but the season of life I currently find myself in has me only doing this a couple of times a week.
I knew that if I was facing this challenge, I wasn’t alone; others have likely felt the same way.
To uncover practical solutions, we asked professionals from different walks of life how they’ve managed to keep training consistently while handling the pressures of work and home. Their answers highlight six simple but powerful strategies that anyone can apply to stay sharp in the gym without sacrificing success outside of it.
Batch High-Energy Work to Master Work-Life Balance
Danielle Swimm, Consultant, at Entrepreneurial Therapist, had this to say when asked how she balances training and running not one but two businesses.
“I’ve been balancing motherhood, running two businesses (a therapy practice and business coaching company), and maintaining my wellbeing since 2018, so I totally understand the juggle. The strategy that saved my sanity was **batching my high-energy work into concentrated blocks**.
I schedule all my therapy sessions back-to-back from 11 AM to 4 PM, then I’m completely OFF. This means I can be fully present during intense work periods, then switch gears completely for family time with my daughter. No scattered appointments throughout the day that fragment my energy.
The real breakthrough came when I realized trying to do everything perfectly was burning me out faster than anything else. I started scheduling my work around my natural energy peaks (afternoons for client work, mornings for business tasks) and built in non-negotiable boundaries. I finish work at 4 PM every weekday–period.
During my first year building the practice as a single mom, I had to get ruthless about what I’d let go of. I asked for help with household tasks, said no to social commitments that drained me, and treated my business like the “baby” it was–giving it focused attention during designated times, then putting it to bed so I could live my life.”
Boxing Transforms Stress into Professional Strength
One powerful perspective comes from a professional who found that training wasn’t just about fitness; it became a tool for managing stress and sharpening performance at work. Rather than trying to “make time” for the gym, he reframed boxing as the key to staying balanced in both his career and his family life.
I’ve been boxing for years while running multiple practices across Canada and the US, and the secret isn’t about finding more time–it’s about using combat sports as your stress relief valve. When I was running my family practice in Cochrane for nine years, the physical and mental demands were brutal.
Boxing became my reset button between patient overload days. I’d hit the gym right after closing the clinic, and those 45 minutes of heavy bag work would completely clear my head from dealing with insurance companies and difficult cases. The physical exhaustion actually helped me sleep better, which meant I showed up sharper the next day.
The real breakthrough was realizing that the discipline from boxing directly improved my patient care. Learning to stay calm under pressure in the ring translated to staying composed during complex spinal adjustments. My hand coordination got better, my focus improved, and I could work longer hours without mental fatigue.
My specific recommendation: use your training session as the bridge between work stress and family time. I’d go straight from the clinic to boxing, then come home completely present for my three kids instead of bringing work anxiety to the dinner table.”
Gannon Ward, CEO, Atmosphere Chiropractic and Wellness
Schedule Combat Training Like Business Meetings
Another take that really stuck out was around structure. So many people struggle with building it not just in combat sports, but in life in general. Once school ends after 18, that built-in routine disappears, and if you don’t create structure for yourself, it’s easy to slip into a whirlwind of chaos. Here is what Joseph Depena, Owner of VP Fitness, had to say about creating structures that serve you:
I’ve been balancing boxing training with running VP Fitness since 2011, so I get this struggle completely. The biggest game-changer for me was treating my training like any other business meeting–scheduling it and protecting that time religiously.
My most effective strategy is what I call “movement integration throughout the day.” Instead of trying to carve out huge blocks for training, I built boxing fundamentals into my workday. I’d do shadowboxing between client sessions, practice footwork while reviewing franchise documents, and even hold walking meetings with my team.
The key breakthrough came when I realized combat sports training actually improved my business performance rather than competing with it. After implementing structured boxing sessions at VP Fitness, I noticed my decision-making got sharper and my stress management improved dramatically. My energy levels stayed consistent even during 12-hour days managing franchise operations.
Start with just 20-30 minutes of training scheduled like a client appointment. I blocked out 6:30-7:00 AM for boxing three days a week, and it became non-negotiable. Once that habit stuck, everything else fell into place because the mental discipline from combat sports carried over into better time management across all areas of life.
Energy Management Trumps Time in Sport-Career Balance
Max Shak, Founder & CEO of Zapiy had a take that really stood out to us. What stood out here was the idea that balance isn’t just about finding more hours in the day it’s about managing your energy. Too many people try to separate their training from their work, when in reality, the two bleed into each other. Once you line things up with your natural energy levels and actually respect recovery, training stops feeling like it competes with your career and starts fueling it.
Here is what he had to say:
“Balancing combat sports training with building a company has been one of the most challenging but rewarding balancing acts of my life. When I first got serious about training, I underestimated how much it would demand of me—not just physically, but mentally. Running a business already requires long hours and constant decision-making, so adding intense sparring sessions and conditioning into the mix sometimes felt impossible.
Early on, I made the mistake of compartmentalizing the two: business during the day, training at night. What I quickly realized was that one would inevitably spill into the other. If I had a rough training session, I’d carry that frustration into my work the next morning. If I pulled a late night with clients, my training the following day would suffer. The turning point came when I stopped treating training and work as separate worlds, and instead began integrating them into a single rhythm.
One strategy that really worked for me—and I’d recommend to anyone trying to balance passions with professional life—was structuring my schedule around energy, not time. I discovered that my mind is sharpest in the morning, so I reserved those hours for deep work on the business. Training, which gave me a mental reset, was best placed in the afternoons when my decision-making energy was lower. This small shift changed everything: instead of fighting for balance, the two pursuits started complementing each other.
Combat sports also taught me a surprising lesson that spilled over into entrepreneurship: the value of recovery. At first, I equated rest with weakness, both on the mat and in the office. But overtraining and overworking eventually caught up to me. Learning to intentionally schedule recovery—whether that meant taking a rest day from sparring or stepping back from work for a few hours—actually made me sharper and more effective in both areas.
Looking back, the balance came from a mindset more than logistics. Once I stopped seeing my training as something that competed with my career and instead treated it as a discipline that fueled my resilience as a leader, it became easier to sustain both. If I had to give one piece of advice, it’s this: don’t chase perfect balance—find harmony by aligning your schedule with your natural energy and by respecting recovery as much as the grind.”
Treat Boxing as Medicine, Not Hobby
I really liked this perspective because it flips the script. Boxing and your combat sports practice isn’t just a hobby to squeeze in when there’s time; it’s medicine. When you treat training as something essential, like a doctor’s appointment you can’t miss, it stops feeling like it takes away from life and instead becomes the thing that makes everything else run smoother.
I like boxing and it needs a lot of time. But the truth is when I do not do it, I feel like my life misses something essential. The physical exhaustion from training actually gives me more energy for work than any amount of rest ever could.
The strategy that actually works (at least for me) is treating training like a non-negotiable doctor appointment rather than a hobby. I schedule my work around boxing, not the other way around.
All in all, boxing is not taking time away from my life. Rather it is the thing that makes everything else function properly.
Burak Özdemir, Founder, Online Alarm Kur
Protect Training Time to Build Career Discipline
This last one drives home a simple but powerful point: consistency comes from protecting your training time. By locking it into the calendar and treating it as non-negotiable, the discipline built on the mat carries over into work, studies, and everything else.
When Agus Hendra Saputra, Sports Content Writer, at OddsSurfer, was competing in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a blue belt, the biggest challenge was balancing training with studies and work. What really helped me was treating training like a non-negotiable appointment in my calendar, once it was scheduled, I showed up no matter how busy the day was.
That consistency built the discipline I still rely on today in sports analytics: planning, prioritizing, and being fully present in whatever I’m doing. My advice is simple, schedule your passion and protect that time. Far from being a distraction, it will actually make you more effective in everything else.