What style(s) do you study ? How do you think it benefits your health ?
If you do study, what questions do you have for other practitioners ? If you
don't, what do you want to know ? 

39 responses total.

I do the school's Rec&Ed aerobics, 1 hour twice a week.  I'm seriously
thinking (once again) about doing some martial arts, either as a replacement
or in addition.

What kind of workout is a martial arts class?  How much aerobic activity,
muscle development, etc?  Would I want to have a day off between like weight
lifting, or not?

I took Tae Kwon Do as a child, but it has been a long time since I have done
anything close to supervised martial arts.  I only left 'cause of Hafner
closing the other school and pouring the members into the Academy.
        Now, when it comes to actual combat I rely on my control of adrenalin
- and lend to go berserk, before being hit.  (Unlike most people who go
berserk, who need a reason first).
        I have been interested in Ninjutsu for a while, but can't find anyone
who I'd actually be able to trust is a Ninja - considering that historically
Ninja were spies and Assassins.
        However, I am interested in Judo and Kendo - I'm just not sure I want
to jump back in just yet.

I have been taking TaeKwonDo for a few months now I should be an orange belt
but was in a car wreck and was unable to test yesterday. I am not athletically
inclined; in fact I hated gym class growing up. I especially hated team
sports... I'd mess up and the other kids would treat me like I had a disease
(winning a basketball game in 6th grade is equivalent to the cure of cancer).
Instead of building my self esteem, it served to squash it. 

I took karate for my PE credit in college. The style was Okinawan goju-ryu,
which is not very commonly taught. My instructor was the only one in my city
to teach it. I really liked it, even though the workouts were so hard I wanted
to die. I had this class for 1 1/2 hours twice a week, but lost over 10 pounds
that smester wiothout eating any less! And you knoew how bad college students
eat... all junk!

I didn't go back for any more physical activity after that, and the pounds
I lost crept back on. I decide to go to a regualr school and learn TaeKwonDo
(i didn't care which style, the teacher I had before had since closed his
school). Work and school had been stressing me out badly., I tried the
aerobics tapes, treadmill, weights and all that and no matter how much I'd
sweat or how sore I got, the pounds would not budge and I just wasn't getting
results. So I just poicked a school from the phone book. I'm so glad I
deiceded to learn it!

It gives me confidence when I learn new movmeents that I didn't think I could
learn.  Trust me, you will seat like a pig. Even if you only do it 2 hours
a week, you'll see results (i've lost more nches instead of pounds, but the
pounds I have lost are staying off). By the time class is over my whole head
is wet from sweating (lovely). It teaches me respect.. I find mysaelf saying
"yes sir" and "yes ma'am" a lot more than I ever did, since it becomes
habit... the instructor is called "sir". Best of all I know I can handle it
if someone messes with me. Karate teaches you mental discipline to work things
out before jumping in and fightiung. But, if you have no option but to fight,
you can. It's a secret weapon.. to look at me you can't tell I am a yellow
belt. But if you try to attack me on the street, you'll find out. Quick. 

Much of martial arts training is a combination of aerobic and anaerobic
exercise. It frequently involves lots of moving around and lots of
calisthenics. Frequently extra exercise (in addition to the regualr class
workout) is recomended; some weight lifting, walking/running, swimming, etc.
You may want to take a day off between wrokouts for the first week or so as
your body adjusts to it's new regime of exercise, especially if you do a lot
of stretching.
Bjorn, if you are interested in ninjutsu I can put you in touch with someone
fairly reputable and trustworthy. Much of what people teach as ninjutsu today
is not in the smae vein as it's origins.

As long as none of them have the last name "Hopson".  I mean, I trust James
Hopson in being a black belt in two martial arts - I just don't trust him
very far.  
        With my Tae Kwon Do - long ago as it was, under older ranks I am just
slightly higher in rank than ... damn.  I forgot who I was talking about.
        Personally - when something has a traditional background, I try to
stick to the actual tradition.  Which is why, when I berserk - I refuse to
retreat.  Some situations however, will make me force the frenzy to stop
(noting that I'm about to attack a friend, i.e.) or pump my adrenalin faster.
Usually, I try to stay out of fights - especially picking them, but there are
some things that offend me so much, and I've already told the people who do
them that, that lightmy short fuse - I truly don't care if they are joking.

This item has been linked from Health 28 to Intro 77.
Type "join health" at the Ok: prompt for discussion of
human health and well-being.

Cool.
And stuff.

OK, I'm heavily interested... where to go, what to do?

Go to the phone book.  Figure out what you want ot get out of it. Then talk
to people you know who are knowledgable on the subject and get suggestions.

For the record, I did the phone book thing last year, and didn't get much out
of it.  This time, I mailed Matthew to ask about where he goes.

Luckily, I still have an A2/Ypsi Phonebook not just a Saline/A2 one . . .

By starting with the phone book you can track down the most visible schools
in the area you're looking in. Checking with local university organizations
and local rec. departments can also provide some possibilities.

Well, if I do go back to Winona State for another year, I know they have a
Tai Chi (sp?) course.

Phone book is good, many schools have free intro lessons. You should also be
able to sit in on a class and watch. There may be a little pressure, but if
they are laying it on thick, split. Although you are going to be a student,
you are also their customer, and should not feel cornered into joining a
school. Keep in mind lessons can be expensive... I am signed up for a green
belt  and have spent almost $600. However my instructor is flexible and will
work out a payment schedule (but if you spread it too thin, may incur interest
charges).

Prices are something you should get early on when you check out a school.
There are some that are really expensive, then there are some that arereally
inexpensive. Price does not equate to quality of instruction ! A reasonable
price is about 50 to 75 $ per month for at least 3 classes a week.
Out of curiosity beeswing, what does your 600$ fee cover in terms of classes,
testing, etc. ? (If you don't mind my asking)

Well, my personal goal is to study under someone like the bad guy instructor
from karate kid.  I have this problem with showing my enemies too much mercy.

(Just kidding)  ;)

Mercy is for the weak . . . and the living.  >;-)

I pay $45 to test... i got the uniform free. I will likely look for another
school after I complete my contract there.  Classes are unlimited... I can
go 6 days a week or once a month.

Well, I signed up at Asian Martial Arts Studio here in Ann Arbor.  Too early
to pick fights with off-duty cops, though.

Wonderful ! Which program  did you join Scott ?

karate.  So far it seems interesting, although I'm just picking up the basics
at this point.

Well I look forward to seeing you there sometime.  :)
Anyone else want to sign up ?  :)

Well, it's interesting.  I've been to four classes.  The workout is not quite
as hard as real aerobics, but the instructors will tend to spend the whole
class working on one move.  So it's a very heavy workout for a specific set
of muscles, which will take some getting used to.

As a side note, I ran into an old (elementary school) friend at the dojo, a
guy I hadn't seen in probably 12 years.

I remember that when I took Tae Kwon Do that the hardest things to remember
were some of the forms needed to progress to the next color stripe, then belt.
(Yep, things have changed since then).  I also remember that things did start
out slow, but when I was about yellow, green stripe we spent more time sparing
than practicing our moves against thin air or the punching bags.

<rereading this item after studying Karate for a few months>

Wow, beeswing, you did Goju-ryu?  We do that one day a week and it's pretty
interesting.

Haven't seen beeswing here in a long time. <sniff>

This item has been pretty stable about being at rest, lately.

I enjoy karate a lot, but I've had to drop out temporarily because of shoulder
problems.  I need to do something different for a few months to get all the
muscles back in balance.  :(

Hmm . . . stretching both before and after working out usually helps me
completely avoid that type of problem.

It's the fact that karate doesn't exercise all the muscles to the same amount.
I need to do a complimentary exercise to get all the muscles back into
balance.

Good Point.

Revisitng yet another topic...

I had tendonitis in my left shoulder (again!) this fall.  I can't put total
blame on karate, but it didn't help either.  The real problem was various
muscles that *didn't" get enough exercise.

On the plus side... karate is where I leared to fall down safely (making
learning snowboarding much less painful), and some of the other "body skills"
I appreciate in various activities.

The final word?  I just signed up for Akido (less stress than karate), until
the shoulder is 105% (yes, better than it was!) and I can do karate again.
All at the same school, so no problems changing programs.

Wow, it was January that I switched to Aiki?  OK, progress report time.

My shoulder is still not quite totally solid, but very very close.  I'm now
doing some exercises I couldn't do before, but I'm not totally pain-free yet.
Still planning to get back into karate when I can, but I want to be solid when
I do.

Aikido has proven to be really interesting, especially after karate gave me
a basic understanding of grounding and power sources.  But I miss karate.

I also had to make a lifestyle adjustment.  Having had tendonitis in my wrists
(from typing) and my shoulder (from karate) I got to thinking heavily about
systemic issues.  I finally stopped being a vegetarian.  I'm still pretty
confident that almost anybody can avoid meat and be healthy, but that I (due
to ancestry [germanic] and metabolism [high]) couldn't.  I made the change
about a month ago, and it seems to be making a diffence (hard to tell, since
I can't really have two copies of myself to compare.  Maybe I was just ready
to make a big improvement).  

And now an update:

Still eating meat, typically 2-4 oz. of fish or poultry every day.  Seems to
be working; my shoulder and my wrists have both made a big improvment in the
last month.  I'm getting close to going back into karate (there's an issue
with being really confident about not getting the same problem back), and I've
stopped having to ice my wrists every day.

A friend mentioned seeing this item but being too busy to respond ("debunk"
is the impression I got).  I don't know for sure if this is the right
solution, but it does seem to be working.  Placebo effect?  I'm not sure. 

Who cares? As long as you're getting better, why argue?

You know, there is nothing inherently wrong with a placebo effect...:)

Another update:

Wrist tendonitis is pretty much gone.  Should is still not perfect, but pretty
good.  As long as I avoid all pushups in karate class (oh yeah, I'm doing
about one class a week new) it seems OK.

Interestingly, this week I don't seem to be interested in eating meat.  I had
a chicken bun at the chinese bakery by the dojo on Monday, and a ham sandwich
at my Dad's house, but aside from that I don't feel hungry for meat.  Not
quite the same as a few months ago.  So two things seem possible:  1.  I'm
no longer in need of as much animal protein, and 2.  I'm getting good at
listening to my body.

Animal protein consists of the same amino acids as plant protein.  Maybe you
were short on certain minerals or vitamins.  Have you tried vitamin pills?

For years now, yes.

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