Not Without A Fight - Why Ladies Fitness is Crucial for Self-defense
Corinna Coplin – Suarez International Instructor
About two years ago, I realized that getting into my thirties I would have a harder time losing the weight I had accumulated in my twenties.
I sat down with my husband at our annual goal setting session and talked over what we wanted to accomplish. I told him that I wanted to lose weight but most of all I wanted to get in better overall health - meaning better cardio, stamina and muscle tone.
In my classes I get ladies of all ages and shapes. When I get the questions about what else to do to be a better Warrior Lady here is what I answer: “ You need to increase your cardio and being able to stay in a fight, so the better the your fitness level the better for you!”
My body will never be a very skinny one. I am a large chested, good bone structured German woman and as my grandma would say with “child-bearing friendly hips”.
I knew that starving myself to a certain weight was not the answer. I tried that once and ended up weakened physically with bone sticking out in odd places. I had to change my life. My eating, exercising habits and perspective on life.
In the following I will give you an idea of my fitness journey so far:
At the beginning of 2010 I started with purchasing myself a pedometer (Omron) and watching what I was eating. I also wrote down each night how many steps I took or rather how many I did not. My goal was a baseline of 10,000 steps each day and that is sometimes easier said than done. With the pedometer I had no more excuses. Here it was, black-on-white, what I knew already but did not want to admit, that I was not moving enough.
As my husband always says the secret to weight loss is: “Eat less. Move more.”
Watching what I was eating, doing, walking and some weight training, I was able to lose 10 pounds. Now, to some of you that might not seem like a lot but I was not planning to lose a bunch and then gain it all back if I fell back into my old routines so I was happy with the ten pounds.
In 2011, my husband and I wanted to take our fitness and overall health even a step further.
Not only did I watch my steps, we started talking daily walks. At the beginning we walked sometimes even twice a day for about 25-45 minutes each time. These were brisk walks at a pace of 3-4 miles per hour. The terrain where we live allows up to switch up our tempo, uphill, downhill, streets and nature paths so that our bodies never got used to one motion. Uneven terrain with rocks and varying footing helps to trick the body into staying active instead of getting neurologically complacent.
We started our intensified program at the beginning of summer knowing full well that the heat will have us eat more fruits, vegetables and drink lots of water rather than indulging in breads, pastas and sweets. Don’t get me wrong, I love those things and they love me because if I am not watching it, they will stay forever.
Besides our intensified walking program, we changed our eating habits even further than already described. I found the free app “My Fitness Pal” for my phone and kept track of everything. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools
The app will ask you for your present weight and target weight and how long you want to take to reach that goal. It will calculate how much calories you can consume for that to happen. You can enter all the foods that you eat, the liquids you drink and all the exercise you do. A lot of the exercises and foods are already pre-programmed. The main issue I had with any diet was eating in restaurants because it is hard to figure out calories there. This app has a ton of restaurant foods already pre-programmed, which makes it really simple to dine out. Further, you can enter your own recipes and it will calculate the amount of calories per serving for you.
This app was exactly what I needed and has proven to be more helpful than I could have imagined. I can have my occasional sweet craving satisfied without feeling guilty or going overboard because I can track it.
The other beauty is that if you have a barcode on the food item you wish to eat, the app will let you scan it so no manual entry is needed and you save quite a bit of time. I still remember the look on my husband’s face the first time he caught me with the phone in the fridgeJ. Just priceless!
Another app that is worth mentioning is the Nike Training Club, which will show you plenty of exercise. It is a big file size so might be better off on a computer than the phone.
We continued this program all year, watching what we ate, walked at least once a day, used kettle bells and weights and voilà: by the end of 2011 I had lost an additional 16 pounds!
In my classes I will give my students specific hints on exercised that they can do to get in better fighting shape so I will share them here as well:
- The wobble-Board: Great for core and balance training. Try your presentation from the holster from the wobble board without falling off.
- Kettle-bells or free weights: Start small with more repetitions at the beginning. Strengthen your upper arms and shoulders to handle recoil and to handle an attacker.
- Grip-Master: Great for strengthening the muscles in your fingers
- Pilates: Great for strengthening your core muscles, hip and back muscles which will help you with ground fighting
- Squats: Strengthen those leg muscles which will help you if you have to fight an attacker on the ground
- Elliptical: Gentle on the knees and joints but great for your cardio
- Punch Bag: Great for realizing that a 30 seconds fight of punches can be really long!
As I stated in the beginning, this endeavor was not only to lose weight, but mainly to increase overall health and fitness. The weight loss is a nice bonus but the best part is how I feel. I hope that this article will get you motivated and off your chairs to train to be in better overall health and shape. Start slow and do not give up!
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