Sports
Sports was an important part of my life since the very childhood. I was my father’s son - which means, not fit at all, with poor coordination and inability to do any physical activity, thus, I was sent to do sports since I was 7 years old. Here I reflect the path I made in sports.
Currently it is certain that cardio-vascular and metabolic health is highly dependent on the amount of physical activity (non-linearly, of course, much higher effort do not mean healthier life). Since I am interested in improving healthcare of people in general, you can reach me out and discuss your plan to improve your health with fitness, or just discuss any of the listed sports. It is free!
Running, 33 till now
I rediscovered endurance sports after I got a Garmin smartwatch. Currently I participated in just one race - marathon in Lisboa, Portugal, 6.10.2024. My chip time was 3:57:28, despite having severe muscle crumps after 35km which led to walking half of the remaining distance. My other results can be watched on my
Triathlon, 33 till now
In 2024 I run my first Sprint distance triathlon in Tuebingen (0,75km / 22km / 5,4 km). The result was 17:41 swimming (3:49 change), 43:47 biking (2:47 change) and 26:31 running. My goal is to make an Olympic distance.
Biking, 32 till now
I bought my first bike since I was a teenager in 2022 to commute to work - which is considerable 14km one way. I still commute back-and-forth almost daily, no matter the weather. I would not call it sports or even fitness - the road takes from 35 to 45 minutes, depending on the bike and the effort, but in general commuting is a low effort endeavor just as walking. However, I think being outside for 1.5 hours per day improves my mood and wakes me up before work!
Hochschulsport Thaiboxing and Sportverein Rottenburg Judo, 32 till now
I continue doing low effort, one training per week in Thaiboxing and Judo now. It is not competitive anymore, of course - I am too old for this. I pay much more attention to techniques and their variety and accuracy now. In Judo I passed a technical exam for the 2nd kyu (blue belt). Both sports, despite being done in a controlled and rather relaxed fashion, are very aerobic and train the cardiovascular system amazingly with a broken rhythm - something martial arts are quite unique in.
Muay Thai camp in Rawai, Phuket, Thailand, December 2023
It was my long time dream. I’ve spent two weeks in the birthplace of muay thai training [non-competitive] thaiboxing at Sinbi camp. For 14 days each day was “wake up at 6, come to a two hour training at 7.30am, eat A LOT, come to a two hour training at 4pm, eat A LOT, drink a protein shake, have a beer with the crew and go to sleep”. Sounds awful for a person involved in intellectual work, but honestly it was just amazing and allowed the brain to be fully rebooted. At the end of the second week I honestly needed a separate vacation - all the joints and limbs were swollen and aching so I could not even hit a heavy bag anymore. However, I would do it again.
COVID and self training, 30 till 31 years old
Sports kept me sane during the quarantine times. Self training was the only possibility, and I had to plan the activities myself and even try to learn something. I had a luxury of having a terrace and used it a lot.
Luckily, many content creators on youtube supported us in that dark time. I am sharing my carefully selected list of short videos “repeat what I do” in my COVID-time playlist - just in case it can be useful to someone.
Hochschulsport (sport university) and courses 28 till 30 years old
During these years and before COVID I managed to take 3 months of japanese jiu-jitsu classes (efficient and hard, but very injury prone), around 6 months of taekwondo classes (good fitness and absolutely useless as a martial art), around a year of fitness boxing (nice and not hardcore, even though with sparrings, it also was a great workout) and around half a year of competitive judo classes. University sports provides an amazing opportunity to train your favorite sports without too much pressure and only 1-2 times per week, which is optimal in a busy routine.
Thaiboxing, 27 years old, Barcelona
For a year I trained 1-2 times per week thaiboxing in “Club de la Lucha”. The main difference between European and Russian clubs were the overall competitiveness - overall, it was less agressive in Barcelona, even though some tough sparrings also took place. Overall, as a fitness, it was an amazing workout to forget about PhD struggles.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, 24 years old, Saint Petersburg
Just one month was enough to understand - intensive training 3 times per week are not compatible with MSc studies in algorithmic bioinformatics I was doing at that time. However, a very good experience that showed me the world of grappling beyond the judo/sambo rather simplified techniques.
Thaiboxing and MMA, 20-21 years old, Moscow
In these years I tried more demanding martial arts, namely - one month I trained muay thai and several months I trained the Russian MMA version called pankration (advanced equipment used for protection such as a helmet with a steel mask and protective vest). Unfortunately, an injury led to a stop of these activities, so I spent quite a lot of time in the dormitory’s gym working on a heavy boxing bag. In the process of doing these sports at a competitive level it became clear that intellectual activities and such serious martial arts were not compatible.
Sambo, 18-23 years old, Moscow
During my university studies I was doing judo and sambo again, however, quite irregularly due to injuries and exams. Being honest, the trainers at my university had little interest in training us, so we had to learn techniques almost unsupervised. I competed again, getting several prizes inside the university and participating in tournaments outside of it, but got several serious injuries and gave up on this sport ultimately, thinking that this sport is for other, younger and healther people.
Bodybuilding, 16 years old, Ryazan
As many other boys around that age, I got into the weights. It was fun in the beginning, when both equipment (such as free weights or machines), exercises and methodology of 6-15 repeats in a set and nutrition concepts were new, however, it became boring very fast, so I decided to leave gym for later, when I get old and won’t be able to do anything else.
Karate Sen’e, 15 years old, Ryazan
For around 9 months I attended a karate school. It was a Soviet karate style which included some basic throws and grappling techniques, however, it was a semi contact style with low-kick prohibited. On the good side, it taught me complex techniques such as kick in a systematic and methodological manner (even though later I had to re-learn all the technical moves in different style). On the bad side - as many other karate schools, it surprised me with a rather totalitarian style of teaching, copied from the old Japanese martial art schools. Since the judo I was trained was competitive/appllied and not “traditional”, we had almost no such elements of strict hierarchy there.
Judo, from 12 till 15 years old, Ryazan
I joined a judo club and was doing competitive judo for several years, 3 times per week, 2 hours each session. The competitive judo is different from judo as a martial art which focuses on variety of techniques and belt exams. Competitive judo meant one learns just several throws and grappling techniques and does not spend time on the rest, working on their “signature moves”. The whole idea of the direct one to one competition was new to me, and competitive judo toughened my mentality. Since the club was sponsored by the state police, many of my club-mates ended up in police forces later, where these techniques became very useful, I believe.
Swimming, from 12 till 15 years old, Ryazan
Swimming was a type of sport I was never good at, since I am short, but I trained (3 times per week, half an hour a session) and competed.
The most valuable experience from the swimming was summer camps - one or even two 21-day training camps with morning routine and two trainings (one running - usually 10 km, one swimming or general fitness) per day. It was a challenge in both physical and mental sense.
Gymnastics: from 7 till 12 years old, Ryazan
The first sport and already competitive. I enjoyed rings and horse, and hated everything else. Nevertheless, I was training for around 6 years 3 times per week, 3 hours each training session, and we even had 21-day yearly sport camps (2 trainings per day + short morning exercise session). Gymnastics gave me a lot of character, but also left some injuries which, unfortunately, played out later.
