About Me

Who am I?

In the Society of Creatice anachronism, I am known as Count Sir Aengus Mac Owein. That’s all you get right now.

I’ve been involved in the fitness field one way or another most of my life. After joining the National Guard and returning from basic training I started weight-training. 

And I was good at it.

 Around that same time period  I also became involved in  Shotokan Karate as well as the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) a Middle-Ages re-creation organization.  I was also a former gymnastics instructor and this past April, I became a Certified CST Instructor .

   Needless to say, my physical fitness training revolved around these two martial activities,SCA Armored Combat and Karate.  I was of the opinion that being stronger meant more power which meant the ability to hit harder.

   For years I trained this way.  Karate kept me flexible and I focused my weight training around  fighting in armor which meant LOTS of Upper Body work,  I ran for Cardio and endurance. Squats and dead-lifts rounded out the program for general overall strength. 

   Over time, this type of training started to take it’s toll on me.  Being in the military, I had to pass a Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) every year which included push-up’s sit-up’s and a 2 mile run. Being a big guy, running was difficult for me and eventually, joint problems occurred.

  As far as my SCA Fighting , I was winning tournaments, and having a great time.  Eventually, I  noticed that I was having shoulder and elbow problems along with my knees.  Most everybody that I knew who fought in the SCA had some sort of similar injury. 

And all this time, I kept lifting weights. Not as heavy as in the past, but still heavy enough.

And then I discovered Circular Strength Training.  I literally stumbled across it on the internet. I was looking for something that would cater more to a martial artist style of training.  I had looked at the old school training of Japan with the weighted stones called THE CHICHI and from Russia, the Kettle Bells. I cruised down the information superhighway until I took an exit at a site labeled Circular Strength Training. After reading the many articles by Coach Scott Sonnon and the comments of the people on his forum, I decided to give CST a try.

  It was one of the best decisions about fitness I’ve ever made and I’ve never looked back.

Why? :

•  My joints don’t hurt

• I have greater range of motion in my body.

• I’m as strong, (if not stronger) than when I was when I was lifting seriously.

• And I just plain feel better.

5 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI