Lately I’ve been digging into old-school 19th-century physical culture. Specifically, I’m looking for challenging exercises that fit my Modern Arnis.

The above video showcasing 19th-century Swedish calisthenics is fascinating.

To backtrack, I have shifted away from weightlifting and more toward bodyweight/calisthenics routines. They are more fun and, in many ways, more challenging.

Also, the fact that I’m now 62 and have had my right hip replaced is a factor in my shift away from weightlifting.

The right hip replacement was the result of years of Tae Kwon Do kicking, and I have no interest in damaging any other joints.

Four other factors drive my interest in old-school training:

  1. One of my clients is a former world-class gymnast. He has impressive strength and build. He has influenced me by showing me a variety of challenging bodyweight/gymnastic exercises.
  2. Next are my observations of some older folks at the local gym who are still lifting heavy weights. It’s easy to tell that they’ve damaged nearly every joint in their bodies. It’s as if they’re blind to what they’ve done to themselves. I don’t want that for myself.
  3. I need more variety in my workout routine. The number of bodyweight exercise variations is mind-boggling. That is quite appealing to me.
  4. I’ve had to re-evaluate my workouts after my push-up challenge in 2024, which left me with severe tendonitis in my right shoulder.

I have slowly changed things up to the point where I dropped my membership at the local gym and moved entirely to garage/basement workouts. I am still fine-tuning and tinkering with the routine to benefit my martial arts base and skill level.

Anyway, I tried out some of the exercises from the video at the top of the post. The leg exercises were challenging and left me pretty sore the next day. I have already incorporated them into my garage workout!

In the next long-form post, I will describe how parallel bars literally cured the tendonitis issue in my right shoulder. I have a set of bars exactly like the one in the featured image above.

Parallel Bars In My Garage

Also, a recent purchase of 2 sets of Indian clubs will be the topic of another long-form post!

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