Indian Heavy Clubs
I just got tired of gyms.
I wasnt feeling it. It was a variety of things. Gym culture, with the spandex, the grunting, the posturing, fitness influencers, the whole thing. But even more, my body was wanting something else. While there are benefits to the western paradigm of 8-12 reps, 3 to 5 sets, there are some significant holes in the results. Namely, functional strength. Fluidity. Joint mobility. Flow.
I started looking for something else. Something that inspired me not just to exercise, but sparked interest and creativity, which results in motivation. I did what I always do, which was just ask God, "would you show me?"
I came across a video of the Flowing Dutchman. A big blonde dude from Holland, swinging large clubs in fluid patterns which immediately captured my attention. I could feel a rabbit hole dive coming on. I watched all of his videos. There were several where he traveled to India, and worked out in the traditional Akaras with locals. I was hooked.
I went deeper. I learned that the tradition of swinging heavy clubs goes back thousands of years in India (actually even further back to Cirus the Great of Persia. A topic of contention between the Indians and Persians as to who was first). The feats of fluid strength relatively small Indian men were engaging in was remarkable. Just the size of some of the clubs they were using was amazing.
I started to understand that these werent just about strength. Swinging the clubs engaged balance, coordination, and required finese. There was spontaneous flow. You weren't restricted to one axis of movement. As the arcs of movement change, you have to adapt. You engage your muscles, connective tissues, joints, and balance along changing lines, forcing your nervous system to adapt. I also learned that depending on the length of the club, the centrifugal force can multiply the force weight on the muscles by 5 times. Meaning, a 20 pound club, can apply 100 pounds of force at the center of its arc. The changing load requires whole body adaptation. I was in.
So now I needed clubs. There are lots of commercial options available, mostly made from steel. But something about the raw creativity of making them, the way the Indians do, appealed to me. The level of artistic expression they put into their clubs is enjoyable. They are functional, but are also works of art.
But I wasnt quite ready to go all floral pattern. I wanted something more primal. My initial attempts were done with concrete, cast around a handle with drywall screws through the center to provide surface area for the concrete to cling to. They worked reasonably well, but I heard several people mention that there is something about the distributed weight and size of wooden clubs that cant be replicated. So I did what any reasonable person would do in this situation, and cut down a tree. We have a large number of alder trees on our property, so I found one that was roughly the right diameter, cut it, stripped it, and made two simple wooden clubs, just using a hand saw, a chisel, some sand paper, and wax as a finish.
Simple, primal, effecive. Exactly what I wanted. I started using them regularly. I worked up to 100 swings per arm. Almost immediately I noticed how much better my shoulders felt day to day. At certain points in my life, I have been extremely fit, and heavily into weight training. But at no point in all of that, did my shoulders feel as good as they did after just two weeks of swinging the clubs. They also hit a spot between endurance and weight training that I had not really experienced much. The result is feeling... springy. Not just strong, but agile and fast. More fluid. More healthy overall.
This experiment of wanting to improve my health using creative inspiration, resources that were available, and exploration of new, sparked an awareness, and a way of thinking I wanted to explore more of.
My next experiment was the Indian Gada...