Kozushi
Level 7 Valued Member
As I'm not a professional anything to do with exercise, I might have the terminology wrong, but I keep thinking about why S&S has been so good for me. What I mean by "athletic" here is the idea of moving around deftly with moving objects, having to adjust balance, shift directions, maintain alertness, project power or resistance in different directions. In my own mind I'm imagining a comparison of slow heavy lifts like deadlifts or presses with S&S. For sure the slow heavy lifts also teach balance and I'm also sure they have an advantage over S&S in terms of absolute strength, but S&S resembles more a sport where you are dealing with constantly changing angles of force and a much more dramatically changing relationship with the position of the kettlebell - for both the swings and the TGUs. Thus, S&S seems to activate our athletic instincts of timing, balance, alertness. Like the S&S book says, it's a lot like doing a Karate kata when you do TGUs and a lot like wrestling when you do swings.
Based on my own experimentation and what I'm reading on these forums, I get the idea that cardio health is handled fine with hiking or running, and strength with slow, heavy lifts like deadlifts, leaving a gentle question mark for my beloved set of 8 kettlebells. I don't think there is any question that deadlifting into the 300lbs range has pushed my judo level up past what improvements I had already garnered from S&S training. Still, paring down S&S a bit made me feel like I was losing something. This "something" might not matter for judo, but judo is only one thing. But, I think I'm starting to appreciate more what "General Physical Preparedness" entails, and alertness, balance, timing all count. These things aren't so closely related to physical changes like muscle mass, but more to "technique" and to how your brain works, but I think they're super important, especially being a judo guy who can appreciate the importance of timing, balance, alertness, technique.
Based on my own experimentation and what I'm reading on these forums, I get the idea that cardio health is handled fine with hiking or running, and strength with slow, heavy lifts like deadlifts, leaving a gentle question mark for my beloved set of 8 kettlebells. I don't think there is any question that deadlifting into the 300lbs range has pushed my judo level up past what improvements I had already garnered from S&S training. Still, paring down S&S a bit made me feel like I was losing something. This "something" might not matter for judo, but judo is only one thing. But, I think I'm starting to appreciate more what "General Physical Preparedness" entails, and alertness, balance, timing all count. These things aren't so closely related to physical changes like muscle mass, but more to "technique" and to how your brain works, but I think they're super important, especially being a judo guy who can appreciate the importance of timing, balance, alertness, technique.
