Saturday 4 October 2014

Getting fit (or at least a bit fitter) on the cheap

With my 'adult beginner' Judo classes starting next weekend (I found my old 6th Kyu and 5th Kyu grading certificates from 40 years ago, but I'll be starting from scratch obviously) I needed to improve my fitness. So having recently cancelled my Crunch Fitness gym membership (I wasn't going often enough to make it worth keeping) I've taken to doing an hour or so brisk walking every day (at lunchtimes and in the evening), logging my 'step count' using my mobile phone (I'm finally reaching the recommended target of at least 10,000 steps per day). I'm also doing '5BX' exercises every day, which despite it ridiculously easy exercises at the beginning, is starting to gradually improve my fitness level (as measured by the weekly 'step test' I do). Combined with a modest rate of weight loss (using a combination of attempting to cut out all 'junk food' and 'lollies', eating a CRAN-style core diet plan most days, the odd low-calorie 'fasting' day thrown in along the lines of the "5:2 diet", and an increased level of physical activity, I'm managing to shed about 0.75 kg each week) I should be in reasonable shape to commence Judo lessons if I take it fairly easy to begin with.... we'll see how it goes. There's a grading at the end of the 10-week beginner's course (so hopefully I'll get my "yellow belt" back again), and at this stage I'm planning to continue with Judo one or two times a week during 2015, with the goal of achieving my "orange belt". I'm not sure that aspiring to any higher grades would be realistic at my age and level of health/fitness...

ps. DS1 managed to break his arm falling down while ice-skating for the first time during this school holiday period, so with his arm in a plaster cast for the next 4-6 weeks it looks like he'll miss his yet another Judo grading, and won't be attending the older kids class that runs concurrently with the 'adult beginner' classes - at least for a while.

For anyone interested in starting a free, equipment-less, easy-to-do, and quite effective exercise regime that literally only takes 11 minutes each day, you can download the original '5bx' pamphlet from various places such as:

http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rfburger/5bx-plan.pdf

And you might find this old training presentation of interest. It's both amusingly quaint, and provides some useful examples of how to do the advanced versions of some of the exercises properly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpGGr1OpK3E

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