My first ever blog!

byjdsjave

161 followers

6 years ago

So, first one... Sitting here staring at the monitor and keyboard and wondering what should go here.....

How about a bit about me? Its not very exciting but it is a start. It may also go some way to explain why I chose my niche area for my website...

My name is John. 42 years old, father of two, boy Jack aged 12 and girl Eve aged 9. Been with my missus - Doris (not her real name but her pet name) and we have been together for 14 years. And Teddy the Staffordshire Bull Terrier aged 1. Its like having a naughty toddler again.... If you know what I mean then you will know what I mean..

So, I am and have always been in full time employment. Can't talk too much about my job except to say it can be stressful and if I'm lucky it might only be 40 hours a week but can often be 60 hours a week and my commute is about an hour to an hour and a half each way.

I love my job but I am considering other avenues and working from home (and becoming a full time Hermit) is quite appealing to me at the moment.

So I grew up in a fair bit of poverty, single parent family and my extended family shared the upbringing, something I will always be grateful for.

I was an active kid, heavily in to martial arts until about the age of 25, competed in swimming and dabbled in everything from rock climbing to gymnastics.

Part of my motivation comes from having a "bad back". I have a condition called Scoliosis and I consider myself to have it quite mild, although some Doctors have disagreed with that but what do they know eh! :-D

What this means is that in the lower part of my spine, my Lumbar region, I have 3 herniated discs, one of which is a Hemibrea (semi formed vertebrae) which causes a 37 degree bend in my spine. In turn this causes the bulging discs, pressure on nerves, leg pain, pins and needles, arthritis in the spine and the entire lumbar area is fused meaning it does not bend and flex as it should. All fun stuff.

Doctors said I'd be in a wheelchair by the time I was 15 years old but I disagreed and I continue to do so today.

This issue of mine does not define me, but it has gone some way to making me the person that I am. I am quite (thick-headed) strong willed.

So I grew up LOVING exercise although not team sports (I don't want to lose because other people don't pull their weight, and vis a versa) but when my kids come along and due to shift work I stopped exercising then I put on a load of weight... About 30lb's and as I am not a big guy, I did not carry it well. That caused me lots more back pain, so I moved less and just ate and drunk booze and got fatter.

Then one day in 2014 my daughter wanted me to get on the floor and play with her and I knew that if I did that, I wouldn't get up again. That upset and scared the life out of me so the next day I went to the Doctors for help.

Ended up in hospital - MRI (showed I also only have one kidney!) and eventually a small but intrusive operation on my spine.

A week later I decided I was going to lose the weight. I got one of the Couch To 5K apps for my phone and set off. They suggest it takes about 3 months to get up to 5k from nothing.

I've never been able to run before and before the operation I couldn't even stand or walk for more than 10 minutes without being in pain and discomfort.

2 months later I could run 5k in 28 minutes and on my 40th birthday (on the beautiful island of Majorca), I ran 10k in 60 minutes. I don't run very often now but I do keep the pace of 30minutes for 5k.

So once I could move I began weight training in the gym. Got some good advice (and some bad) and listened to Doris who by now was a qualified Personal Trainer however after a few years I realized that heavyweight training - the fun stuff - was making me fat! Or rather it made me so hungry I couldn't stop eating for days and ate everything in sight and had no discipline...

Sometime after that on YouTube, I stumbled across some videos of people teaching Bodyweight training and Calisthenics. It was like a bolt out of the blue! I suddenly knew what I had to do! And I realized I had been doing it for most of my life! Martial Arts, Swimming, Gymnastics, climbing, running etc it is all BODYWEIGHT TRAINING!!!

I learned how to get a full body work out in at home in 20 minutes, how to increase strength with no equipment, how to grow muscles, increase flexibility, ease pain and discomfort, build stamina and endurance and everything! I totally believe that unless you want to lift heavy weights, bodyweight training IS the Holy Grail of health and fitness! So that is why my website is JAVE Calisthenics.

JAck and eVE make up the JAVE. I even had a cool tattoo designed and put on me for JAVE but if you want to see it you'll have to ask..

Its fair to say I am passionate about it and every time I think I know something, I just learn how much I DON'T know and how little I can do, compared to what can be achieved, and I love that!

So here I am trying to turn my passion in to money (getting an extension on the house, I need some extra dough!!) and I'm loving this new learning experience here and I hope I can give back to this community as much as it has already given me!

Hope you've stayed with me and maybe even enjoyed my drivel and as always, I'm open for criticism!

Regards

Me.

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