Coming back to Shape - first few steps

Walking

Most difficult is to start doing something. Walking is easiest and provides the best results
Walk with a dog if you have one
Or walk to work if you don’t have a dog
Start with once a day short walks and reach for 2 walks a day
The key is to be disciplined for 2 months or 3

The goals are is to start breathing better
to feel some strength coming back to your legs
use time while walking to strategise and to tackle various problems

Watch this mini video on Walking

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Wrestling, Playing with a Dog

Once you have started walking, the next step is to get more physical action. I have a dog, so I try playing with it, wrestle with it and so on. What you can do with a dog

to play football
scramble with a dog
sprint whoever is faster
The goal is to be acquire habits of playing with the dog so that

you are in better mood
you start feeling your muscles
you sweat

Watch this mini video on Playing with Dog
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Watch this mini video on Wrestling with Dog
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Smoking less, Quitting

If you don’t smoke, you are lucky and can skip this part. But if you do, you are unlikely to just quit. While quitting could be a longer term goal you have to live with it for a while

What helps to smoke less, is to go for long walks without cigarettes
is to work in the environment where smoking is prohibited and you need to go outside to smock
Quitting is always a goal, try as many times as you can
There were periods when me and my brother both smoked while we wrestled. But as pressure of the season increased we paused with the habit, returning to it, when the pressure is off. Sanasar smoked until 50, while i quit when was 30 and unfortunately started again at 46 then quit at 48 and started again at 49

i admire folks who can smoke a cigarette a week and don’t fall into a habit..
Once you quit, don’t smoke at all. No cigars, nothing
Substitute smoking with light alcohol at initial stages of quitting

Drinking Less

Rehydrating on beer after good practice is a pleasure while with age, this puts more pressure on your systems and is not welcomed.

Try to drink only good wine or beer
try to drink good beer or wine only after good practice and not in other settings
learn to cook good food, to be accompanied with good wine
Decrease the amounts drank and go to sleep quickly, you will fill much better the next morning
If you are at a point in life when alcohol is a habit, seek further help and support. But if its still manageable and provides some positive feedback, then just try to minimize that

Increasing intensity of workouts will help you to get enough body strength and shape to sustain alcohol damage
do not ever drink hard liquor
be open with your family and friends about your state of alcohol dependence

Starting Jogging

Following 2 or months of walking, you can start jogging

keep walking, but do jog occasionally twice or 3 times a week
or add some jogging while one your walks, run parts of your walking distance. Dog will help here
Every day jogging is great, but do give yourself some rest skip days or weeks or even months, but keep walking during pauses from jogging
Aim at jogging longer distance
Not everybody enjoy jogging, if you don’t then skip this step, but do keep walking. That’s essential, but do try jogging a longer runs especially if you are already in better shape. This is the easiest way to get pressure on our body

run in the woods, or on river banks
run slowly
keep checking your blood pressure and over asses your changes in shape to decide wither to continue with jogging

Watch this mini video on Jogging with Dog and rehydrating on beer and smocking afterwords
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Starting Wrestling Warm Ups

If you have access to wrestling gym, that’s great. Nothing is better than feel again the springing mat under your wrestling shoes (buy a pair)

run and do warm-ups
stretch yourself
add more gymnastics
do imaginary sweeps sprawls and throws
do leg attacks
practice imaginary gut ranch defence
If you don’t have access to the mat, try to get access to some gym

do find a gym where it feels good
some university gym or some suburb club
do your research, connect with people, old friends, check out what they do, where they go to practice

Watch this mini video on how to start practicing
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Wrestling Practice 2 Times a Week, Sweating

Once you got access to the mat, try working out once or twice a week

don’t ever go hard in the first couple of months, just play
skip parts of the warming up, especially if you are in practice with yonger crowd
do more of the drills, but also do some playing scramble and wrestling
try your old moves but also try to learn new stuff, there is plenty of video support these days
imitate different techniques, try John Smith shots, or try Sanasar’s smooth moves and tip toes stand. Explore
Spend another 5-12 months in this mode of very gentle practice


do go for some matches if there is an option
but keep it cool, don’t go 100%
protect your breath and heart, don’t get too tired

Watch this mini video on making practices regular and be disciplined
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And watch another mini videos n making practices regular and be disciplined
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Adding Weekly Grappling or MMA Workout

Add some new style of wrestling, grappling, judo, mma or bjj, capoeira there are plenty of those these days. Get yourself a Gi

start once a month
and increase to once a week
get new friends
Try participating in tournaments

be very careful with your knees and ankles perhaps wear protection if unsure
travel to different countries for tournaments. New styles have lots of tournaments around the world, and most anybody can participate
do more than one style

Getting Ready for a First Tournament

If you decide to stage your comeback in your main Olympic style was it freestyle, Greco or judo, that’s fine. But otherwise do it in your new style

try not to aim at veterans tournaments, go for real stuff, to wrestle with young and performing wrestlers
you are likely get injured in your first tournament, but try to be prepared for it, and don’t give up, use plenty of ice initially
come back to practice as soon as you can