Kozushi
Level 7 Valued Member
Below are thoughts from long ago. They aren't my current thoughts. Also, I have gotten right back into judo and kendo. I think it was an idiotic error to have stopped them, which I greatly regret, and I won't stop them again. No amount of solo training replicates the thrill of training with other people, the friendships you get, and the fighting skills.
Beginnings:
I stopped judo (and some other martial arts) late 2015 since I have a big family to care for and a demanding career. I had to find a way to stay fit, strong, healthy, ready for physical labour (chopping down trees or thick bushes, trekking to work through deep snow, portaging canoes, etc), and ready to fight if necessary (including bears and dogs if needed), to replace judo. I had bought quite a number of different dumbbells and even a few kettlebells over the years, and I have a chinup bar and a home made dipping station. I was in a hurry to find out how to stay in fighting trim with the equipment I had at home or could purchase for my home. I decided to focus on kettlebells because they most resemble carrying real things around. I had no idea what I was doing so I did workouts with over 30 different kinds of exercises in them, daily. I got sore and bored with this fast and cut out a lot of them, leaving about 15 or so exercises (I forget exactly how many now). I wanted to find out how to cut the whole thing down to as few as possible but had no idea what to do. I also forget how, but I came across Pavel Tsatsouline's name as the father of the kettlebell in North America (I'm a proud North American (specifically Canadian, but I feel kinship with all of the Americas)) and looked at what books he had on Amazon. The current "go-to" book seemed to be "Simple and Sinister" so I bought it and was utterly shocked to find that it had only two major movements, the swing and the Turkish get up. Anyhow, I started his programme in January or February of 2016, and eventually went back to judo one last time in June before the club closed due to the sensei moving away. Hilariously, I found myself having improved more at judo in those 6 months of no judo and only kettlebells than I had ever improved before in my life. I was doing things in judo I had only seen in videos previously. I was very happy about this and I decided to learn more from Strongfirst through these forums and by buying several other Pavel books.
I hope by starting this training blog thread that I can get some help and advice from others here.
Beginnings:
I stopped judo (and some other martial arts) late 2015 since I have a big family to care for and a demanding career. I had to find a way to stay fit, strong, healthy, ready for physical labour (chopping down trees or thick bushes, trekking to work through deep snow, portaging canoes, etc), and ready to fight if necessary (including bears and dogs if needed), to replace judo. I had bought quite a number of different dumbbells and even a few kettlebells over the years, and I have a chinup bar and a home made dipping station. I was in a hurry to find out how to stay in fighting trim with the equipment I had at home or could purchase for my home. I decided to focus on kettlebells because they most resemble carrying real things around. I had no idea what I was doing so I did workouts with over 30 different kinds of exercises in them, daily. I got sore and bored with this fast and cut out a lot of them, leaving about 15 or so exercises (I forget exactly how many now). I wanted to find out how to cut the whole thing down to as few as possible but had no idea what to do. I also forget how, but I came across Pavel Tsatsouline's name as the father of the kettlebell in North America (I'm a proud North American (specifically Canadian, but I feel kinship with all of the Americas)) and looked at what books he had on Amazon. The current "go-to" book seemed to be "Simple and Sinister" so I bought it and was utterly shocked to find that it had only two major movements, the swing and the Turkish get up. Anyhow, I started his programme in January or February of 2016, and eventually went back to judo one last time in June before the club closed due to the sensei moving away. Hilariously, I found myself having improved more at judo in those 6 months of no judo and only kettlebells than I had ever improved before in my life. I was doing things in judo I had only seen in videos previously. I was very happy about this and I decided to learn more from Strongfirst through these forums and by buying several other Pavel books.
I hope by starting this training blog thread that I can get some help and advice from others here.
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