Kyokushin Workout at the Oyama dojo, New York
By Moshe Katz
2009
When I lived in Brooklyn, NY, USA mid 1980's, I would wake up each morning at 5 a.m. and take the train to the Oyama Kyokushin Karate dojo. This was our special morning workout, after our regular karate class. Only the uchi deshi (live in students) and the more serious guys remained for this. The class was often conducted by Saiko Shihan Shigeru Oyama himself.
Six (6) sets of the following:
Leg stretches to the right, 30 count.
Leg stretches to the left; 30 count.
Split; 30 count.
Squats – 30 reps
Knuckle pushups on wooden board – 60 reps.
Run around the dojo.
This was followed by hitting the bag; boxing combinations - jab, cross, upper cut, knee kicks.
These were amazing workouts that left us exhausted but fit and trim, in mean lean fighting condition. Highly recommended.
Another one of my favorite drills was partnering up, one student wore the arm shields for middle round house kicks. As the 'attacker' kicked the 'defender' would take a step back and thus we would go all across the dojo, back and forth, constant kicking. This built leg strength, flexibility, endurance, hip strength, and was a lot of fun.
When I came to Israel I looked for a Kyokushin Karate dojo (school) but could not find one in the Jerusalem area. I eventually found Itay Gil who had trained in kick boxing and Kyokushin and in fact had done the '100 man kumite'. Although the training was not pure Kyokushin, he certainly preserved the spirit of the art: no nonsense full contact training, hard work, strong spirit, giving it everything you've got.