| Essay
Three.....................................................................................................................................................................................................
One thing the death of a child can do is break a tool that works for you,
either for stress reduction or recovery. I've lost my ability to connect
with Shotokan Karate, even though I've moved to the Dallas area where Brad
Webb teaches. We used to fly down from Wichita Falls, with Kyle who
was incredibly kind, to train with Brad on Saturdays sometimes. I can't
think of another place as good to train for Shotokan as Dallas-Fort Worth,
but karate is still broken for me.
Walking was broken too, for a while, though I am finally able to walk by
myself. Always with my wife, sometimes by myself.
But, by the time I was completely broken apart, I was 5'6" and 265 lbs.
Commuting down town, working 60+ hours a week, and so out of shape
I was closer to death than I realized. Of all things, we ended up with baby
Rachel. Then I regained a little of my will to live, switched jobs
to one closer to my house, five days a week. I won't say much about my job
other than I love it and adore my current boss.
I dropped to 245, which was down twenty pounds, but there I stopped.
Sometimes I could fast down to 225 or 220, but 240 to 245 was my new
weight.
I started weight training using machines at a Bally's Fitness (they had a
nursery for Rachel, so I could work out). How out of shape was I.
Well, 20 to 40 lbs on a machine was my general 10 rep max, and it would
thrash me. I kept at it, though time and scheduling pushed me to where
I was doing only one lift a week. I was on a HIT/SSTF routine and made
progress.
My big break came on a machine I hated and despaired of progressing on. I
was sitting down one day on the rotary torso machine, thinking that maybe,
some day, some how, I might yet move half the weight stack, when I actually
looked at where I was. I had only two or three weights left before
I was moving the whole thing. I'd go on to doing the entire stack with
extra weights for 20+ rep.
All I needed was to lose weight.
That would come with SLD.
On books: go to your library, use interlibrary loan, and you
can order anything. You should never buy a martial arts book until
you've read it twice for free. On Masterclass Judo books,
there are much cheaper places to buy them than Amazon, but it is a great
place to read about them.
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