Body Movin' We Be Body Movin'

[Paul le Fou]

A thread for exercise and sport and moving of the body!

I decided to get off my ass and start a physical hobby/activity again, since I haven't really done anything except intermittent lifting since I came to Seattle. Instead of getting back into judo or trying BJJ or wrestling where I'd like as not be up against some tryhard UFC nerds and weekend warrior wannabes, I decided to get nerdy and go back to my oldest interest that had only recently become, like, a popular thing.


That's right, I joined a HEMA class.

Essentially it's fencing or kendo but instead of Italian/French foil it's German longsword. So basically instead of settling for fencing or kendo like I'd tried before, now I can just do what I've always wanted, which is fencing but with cooler swords.

So actually to get real nerdy here, there are a lot of types, not all German, of course. Like, Fiore is an Italian longsword school they teach in the main Medieval class. the class I'm in is KdF, or Kunst des Fechtens, based on Ringeck's gloss of Liechtenauer's Recital. What that means is they read old 14th-century manuscripts about swordfighting and then we do that.

We'll be training with the longsword, but there's also messer (one-handed short sword) and wrestling as part of the class. So that should be neat.

[Tegan]

Protip for anyone like me who's trying to lose weight without gaining muscle:

Walk.

Like, a whole lot.

According to the 3DS I keep in my bag, I'm doing something like 8-11 km (5-7 miles) a day and I look great. It's hard to say exactly how much weight I've lost since hormones are making me gain weight in ...other places right now, but it's a lot. I had lost something like 18 kilos (40 pounds) between last May and this January. That's pretty good considering that I still eat garbage and spend most of my time sitting down.

Oh, and I have an amazing ass now. That's a thing.

[YangusKhan]

Originally Posted by Paul le Fou

I decided to get off my ass and start a physical hobby/activity again, since I haven't really done anything except intermittent lifting since I came to Seattle. Instead of getting back into judo or trying BJJ or wrestling where I'd like as not be up against some tryhard UFC nerds and weekend warrior wannabes, I decided to get nerdy and go back to my oldest interest that had only recently become, like, a popular thing.

That's right, I joined a HEMA class.

I have a Facebook friend who's been doing German longsword for a while now. He's super fucking nerdy so your story checks out.

[hologramblue]

I'm really looking forward to all the exercise i'm going to get when Pokemon GO launches.

[Tegan]

Originally Posted by hologramblue

I'm really looking forward to all the exercise i'm going to get when Pokemon GO launches.

no joke: I started my ridiculou walking regime because the O-Powers in Gen VI recharge faster as you walk more, so I could get an almost constant speed bonus for hatching Pokémon eggs as long as I walked at least 4000 steps in a day. It escalated from there.

[Peach]

Do you get to wear a harness for that, Paul? Also, do you get to read those fechtbuchs with all sorts of esoteric rules for Judicial Duels?

Meanwhile, I'm on my feet for 8 hours in a kitchen each weekday, so I don't often have a lot energy left over at the end of that, but I tend to take at least a 2 hour walks both days of the weekend. A few weeks into late spring, and I already have a fierce farmer's tan.

[hologramblue]

Originally Posted by teg

no joke: I started my ridiculou walking regime because the O-Powers in Gen VI recharge faster as you walk more, so I could get an almost constant speed bonus for hatching Pokémon eggs as long as I walked at least 4000 steps in a day. It escalated from there.

Wait, they-

-what? They do what? I never knew that, what the fuck.

I don't play core Pokemon enough for that to work for me but I am just addiction-prone enough for a Pokemon mobage to make me want to drive to the park every morning.

[TE-Ryan]

Originally Posted by teg

Walk.

Like, a whole lot.

I've been trying to get out for walks more often lately, but I'm so lazy that even slightly less-than-perfect weather is enough to deter me.

I really need to get over that.

Currently I get my steps to/from bus stops before and after work (1.5km daily), and then usually an hour walk on the weekend (5km). There's definitely room for an increase.

[zonetrope]

Epic-length urban walking is my favorite exercise when I have the time (which is rare lately). This is my record, 27.5 miles in NYC last July, from City Island to lower Manhattan:



much food was consumed.

[upupdowndown]

Urban walking is the best, I'll be doing plenty in Chicago this weekend

[Lukyn]

I used to do sword and buckler fighting as described in I.33. It was a lot of fun but a number of excuses means I haven't done it in a couple of years.

I need to start walking more. I've outgrown so many of my clothes.

[Red Hedgehog]

Originally Posted by taosterman

Epic-length urban walking is my favorite exercise when I have the time (which is rare lately). This is my record, 27.5 miles in NYC last July, from City Island to lower Manhattan:



much food was consumed.

That's pretty impressive. I might have ended in City Island just to have fish for dinner.

I've been meaning to do the 13.5 mile walk of Manhattan (Inwood to Battery Park) but never gotten around to it. And now I have a baby so I probably have to wait a few years. :/

Oh well, it's not like it's hard to walk 10k around the city on a weekend day - even with a baby.

[Paul le Fou]

City walking. What a simple but tantalizing idea. If only I lived in a beautiful accessible city with lots of convenient foot traffic wait holy shit

Okay, I'm gonna walk, like, a super far walk in the city this weekend. It's settled. Awesome.

[Galadrome]

There's some HEMA stuff around in my area, as I discovered because of a crazy old man with swords on the street. They do practice every monday, and I might just drop by this summer. Next school year I'm going to start wrestling, so I'll drop it then, and I always do powerlifting so this will be extremely secondary but it seems fun!

[Moon Orbit]

Man, I miss going on walks, but the local area is all uneven and has shitty roads and shit so it hurts more than a standard in like a mall or whatever does.

[Paul le Fou]

So last time we did ringen (wrestling) at HEMA I got to use my judo background to figure out a throw we were trying. We started using this manuscript by von Auerswald since there's this nice pdf with awesome plate prints and pretty good translation.

We were working on the first throw (page 7), and it wasn't quite sticking. We had the over-arm lock, and the leg pick, but you'd kinda pick up a person and hope to knock them or twist them off balance; there was no clear direction for the throw. But I remembered enough of the balance/blocking/kinesiology to realize something was off, re-read the plate, and tried out a few things until I realized you need to block their leg with your own and throw them over that. We came out with a pretty awesome throw!

We also did a simple wrist lock and leg-block throw, but the latter didn't feel quite right since it didn't have a good body component, just a kind of push. I'll need to work on it or add an arm pull or something.

[Falselogic]

I'm training for a Marathon! It's actually pretty low intensity at first. Going to pick up I'm sure though.

Since I live just a couple blocks from the grocery store I've committed to cycling there and back when I go grocery shopping instead of driving.

[Kate or Die!]

Originally Posted by taosterman

Epic-length urban walking is my favorite exercise when I have the time (which is rare lately).

I used to walk from the Met to Chinatown (then up to Penn) because I didn't know how to use the subway :/

I'm always meaning to get some treadmill time in daily but I'm always absolutely smashed at the end of the day, I have yet to figure out how to work that into my schedule.

[MooMoo]

I used to walk home from uni almost every night last term (about 30-40 mins) and I've noticed since I stopped this I've gone a bit podgy. I'll be sure to change that around, shortly.

Anyone got experience in foraying into regular biking, or biking to commute? Getting to uni is fine, but on the way home I have a hill to tackle, so I don't want to spend dolla on a bicycle if I'm only going to ride it one way. I know these things take time to build up strength, so does anyone have a ballpark figure as to how long it takes before it stops feeling like a chore?

[Red Hedgehog]

Originally Posted by Kate or Die!

I used to walk from the Met to Chinatown (then up to Penn) because I didn't know how to use the subway :/

!!!

[zonetrope]

Originally Posted by MooMoo

I know these things take time to build up strength, so does anyone have a ballpark figure as to how long it takes before it stops feeling like a chore?

Maybe six months? It depends. How much of your commute does the hill take up?

[MooMoo]

Like, if I walk it I guess 7 minutes? So maybe 1-3 by bike. It's not that much, it's more that it's gentle incline then gets steeper and steeeeeper then wheeee... I just envisage myself huffing and puffing in sweltering heat and it puts me off a bit. :T

[Paul le Fou]

You can make sure to get a bike with good gears to make it easier getting to te top. You can also get off and walk your bike up the hill, then get back on at the top.

[zonetrope]

I recommend trying to ride up the hill each time for as long as you can handle, and then walking the rest of the way. You'll gradually build endurance and be able to make it farther and farther.

[Lukyn]

I went for a walk through the main drag down to the beach tonight, and it was fantastic. The weather was nice and the neighborhood was active. It was one of the most peaceful moments I've had in ages. Why the hell don't I do this every night??

[narcodis]

I'm a bit out of shape. Now that I'm done with school and settled into a new job, my new hobby has been cycling. I've been cycling a lot lately in preparation of a 30 mile marathon this saturday, which I signed up for back in january. I got a new road bike as a graduation present from my father in law, and since then I've been riding a ton.

Last week I was with a group riding about 20 miles, which I've done before. But man, with the route we took, there were some pretty mean hills, and there's a stretch of like six miles where it's a steady uphill climb. Combine that with the fact that I had just eaten before the ride, was pretty dehydrated, and it was the first real heat of the summer here, I found myself gasping for air at the side of the road, throwing up. I rode about 16 of the 20 miles in the end, but I felt majorly stupid for letting myself get so dehydrated.

Anyway, today I rode 29 miles in a bit under 3 hours. Longest distance I've ever rode in a single sitting, and I feel really good.

[Belmont]

ive found that i can pretty much just keep moving if i'm listening to the right music

[Paul le Fou]

After our KdF group, there's a Victorian Physical Culture Club that meets at my HEMA league. Its official name is The Barton-Wright/Alfred Hutton Alliance for Historically Accurate Hoplology and Antagonistics, or BWAHAHAHA. They're so up Ample Vigor's alley he's blushing as I write this and doesn't even understand why. They basically do Curly Moustache Manly Stuff in Ye Olde Fashion; they wear crisp white buttondown shirts and black slacks to work out in, refer to each other exclusively as Title + Surname, so a man actually introduced himself to me as Mr. Peterson, and do a bunch of old-timey fitness stuff. Pre-boxing pugilism, Indian clubs, cane and stick fighting, cutlass and backsword fencing, bartitsu (hahaha), and so on. It seems kinda silly and fun but some of the guys also seem to take it... maybe a little too seriously? I'm not gonna start going full-time or anything, but my bus comes late after KdF and we ran out of time for conditioning so instead of wait at the stop for 30 minutes I stayed and joined their warmups for a bit and got a hell of a strength workout.

First we tossed around a 30lb medicine ball, which was excellent. Trying out different throwing forms to figure out how the hell to throw a big cumbersome heavy thing like that and feeling the various muscles scream out at new ballistic movements was awesome. 30lbs isn't that much to hold, but a big smooth ball isn't easy to grip or grab, throwing it is a certain challenge, and catching it when it's flying at you is a whole new one on top of that. I really liked it.

Then we did some weighted club swings with gada maces, basically long 2-handed indian club workout, which I kind of really loved. Check this video out. I managed to get a good handle on doing 360s with the 20lb weight. But man, the workout from that. I really felt it in my shoulders, my triceps, my back, my lower back... this is good stuff. I want more.

[Double Dracula]

Paul, this sounds incredible, and I wonder if I might be able to start something like it in Yokohama. You're probably already aware of sledgehammer workouts, right? If not, I recommend it. Pretty fun and cost effective way to get in some strength training at home.

If donning a bit of a persona and a silly outfit is what it takes to get in shape, then hey, why the heck not?

Sadly, being the daddy of a just-learned-to-crawl little baby is the only real exercise I've been getting lately, and I fear it's not enough.

[Paul le Fou]

I've heard of various sledgehammer stuff, mainly shovelglove workouts. Both of those seem fun, though I don't have a tire onhand to hit even if I got a sledgehammer. But a gada mace could be used for any of those... or a sledgehammer could be used as a gada mace! I wonder how heavy sledgehammers get... doesn't seem like they get quite as heavy.


There's gotta be some kinda baby lifting exercise. Attach baby to a stick or a cord and swing 'im around?