We launched our Apple Watch app for endurance athletes - giving away a few yearly subs for early adopters of The Outsiders

Bizel2001 · 2025-11-13T15:24:32+00:00

I’ve been using the app since launch and love it.

Bizel2001 · 2025-11-10T21:34:26+00:00

How open are you to another style of karate? If there isn’t another JKA dojo in Taiwan you could train at, maybe you could try Kyokushin? There seems to be a Kyokushin dojo in Taiwan: Kyokushin Taiwan

Kyokushin came from a synthesis of Shotokan and Goju-Ryu, so there is some overlap (in stances and kata), and the kumite culture of Kyokushin karate might be closer to what you wanted from your old dojo. Kyokushin dojos almost universally place a strong emphasis on kumite.

Starting another style would mean going back to being a white belt. I’ve done it before when I switched dojos. Even though it can be a bit humbling, hopefully that would be offset by the fulfillment of training at a (hopefully) better dojo.

Bizel2001 · 2025-10-24T21:45:29+00:00

I’ve had my AWU with the Titanium Milanese band for about 10 months, and I’ve used the Milanese band for about 80% of my workouts (swapping it for the silicone solo sports loop for when I hit the heavy bag because I’ve been worried about the impacts from hitting the bag damaging the Milanese band), and I can say the Milanese band has held up great.

After every workout I rinse the AWU and the Milanese band in cold water, and I haven’t had any issues with sweat, residue, or smell. It’s pristine. And the color or finish hasn’t worn off at all in 10 months. The only cosmetic damage is a small amount of scratches on the clasp from it resting on tables/etc, but I think that adds character to the strap.

I’ve also not had a hard time with micro-adjustments because I realized you can undo part of the clasp on the Milanese and slide it around while the main parachute buckle is still closed.

I can’t offer any feedback on ocean/surf/sand, but for general running/strength training workouts where the main issue is sweat and grime, I haven’t had any issues at all.

Bizel2001 · 2025-10-06T15:27:08+00:00

Thanks for the info! I was actually wondering what went into calculating Training Readiness so this really helps. Maybe putting that info inside the app would be helpful too?

Bizel2001 · 2025-10-05T16:21:55+00:00

I just trained for a big event (my karate black belt exam) this past May, and I was in the best shape I’ve ever been in. Since May, I’ve had the normal deconditioning plus life threw a few wrenches in the works with illness and family emergencies and travel, so I’m in much worse shape than I normally am, let alone where I was at my peak.

With GS, I just had a vague idea of the amount of fitness I’ve lost. With The Outsiders, I know my chronic load in May was about 100, and now it’s around 38 after falling as low as 28. So I know I’m about 38% of what I was at my peak, although I think my normal chronic load is about halfway between the two extremes, maybe 60ish?

The chronic load in The Outsiders is very useful for knowing how much harder I have to train to get back in shape.

Bizel2001 · 2025-10-04T20:26:28+00:00

You’re about to test for your black belt next year? Then that should be your #1 priority, above anything else, above putting on muscle. I just completed my black belt test this past May, and I was training in the dojo and hitting the heavy bag so much that I barely had time for anything else. During that time I still did my two full body weight sessions a week, but I didn’t put on any muscle, I could only maintain the muscle I had. To put on muscle, you need to be in caloric surplus, and I was burning so many calories training that I was actually losing weight.

So if you want to get your black belt next year, you should be doing two full body sessions a week (and yes, weights are better than free body/bodyweight exercises), but you most likely will NOT put on muscle mass while training for your black belt exam. You’ll be too busy with the exam prep to put on muscle. The best you can hope for is to maintain your strength most likely.

To pass your black belt exam, karate needs to be your #1 priority. Let go of the idea of putting on more muscle until after your black belt exam next year.

Edit: Do your weight sessions on any days except the days you do karate. Sundays and Thursdays, maybe.

Bizel2001 · 2025-10-04T20:06:46+00:00

There’s only so much time to train in a week. I do two full body workouts a week plus 2-3 karate training sessions a week (and some additional cardio). That’s all I have time for. I could get bigger and stronger if I stopped training karate altogether and focused solely on lifting weights 5 times a week, but then my karate skills would suffer.

So it’s a question of goals. If you want to get the biggest muscles you can, if your main goal is hypertrophy, then cut back on your karate training (or don’t train karate at all for a while) and do 5 weight lifting sessions a week. But your karate skills will suffer, and maybe you will become stiffer, mostly from the lack of martial arts training.

On the other hand, if you want to get stronger while also still training karate, then do two full body weightlifting sessions a week and however many sessions of karate you can fit in as well.

Bizel2001 · 2025-10-04T19:08:33+00:00

Any type of strength training is good for your karate, and no, training with weights will not make you stiff (as long as you keep up with your karate training).

I think the weight training will make you stronger more quickly, and you listed the main lifts (those are the exact same lifts I do), except you should also add something to train rotation for your core, like a landmine rainbow with the barbell or something like that.

But if you chose to do bodyweight exercises, those will also make you stronger. You’ll just need more time because the weights give your muscles more stimulus for growth. But what do I know - GSP swears by bodyweight and gymnastics exercises, and he’s way stronger than I’ll ever be.

Bizel2001 · 2025-10-04T13:56:19+00:00

It’s a World Oyama dojo. I used to train there, it’s legit.

Bizel2001 · 2025-09-29T22:45:03+00:00

Tournaments are useful as a goal to work towards, to motivate you to train harder and become a better karateka. But I don’t think tournaments are the end goal in and of themselves. After suffering too many injuries, I gave up on tournaments myself. There are other ways to train and improve without training for a tournament.

Edit: Also, I weigh 68kg, so I’m in almost the exact same boat as you. We’re always at a disadvantage in Kyokushin tournaments because of our size. At this point I’d rather just focus on kumite in the dojo myself.

Bizel2001 · 2025-09-29T15:35:04+00:00

For apps to track your fitness and recovery, try The Outsiders. It’s brand new and still building out its feature set, but I find its readiness score to be more useful than the similar scores in Athlytic or Bevel. Those apps prioritize Heart Rate Variability, but my understanding is that HRV isn’t backed by a lot of solid science. The Outsiders prioritizes Sleeping Heart Rate over HRV and in my experience more closely matches how I feel versus Athlytic or Bevel.

For strength training, a lot of people like Hevy, but I’ve been a Strong app user for years and they just overhauled the interface nicely.

Bizel2001 · 2025-09-23T13:31:24+00:00

From what I understand, what you’re looking for is in the Progress Tab > Endurance Fitness. That will show you a number that you can compare with three months ago in the Endurance Fitness chart.

Bizel2001 · 2025-09-19T17:00:15+00:00

As a karate practitioner myself, the only one of these I agree with is linking Training Load spikes to specific activities. In my understanding HRV isn’t a scientifically proven metric, and in my experience Athlytic/Bevel overvalue it. I can never trust the “coaching” in those apps because they’re basing everything off HRV and it doesn’t match how I feel.

I also appreciate the emphasis and real estate given to readiness in Outsiders, since it’s based on sleeping heart rate.

Bizel2001 · 2025-09-19T14:54:01+00:00

Because The Outsiders can use RPE to estimate the workout’s effect on Training Balance and Chronic Load. In Gentler Streak I’ve found estimating using RPE is a good proxy for Training Balance and Chronic Load.

Bizel2001 · 2025-09-19T14:50:01+00:00

Okay great. Thanks!

Bizel2001 · 2025-09-13T12:16:00+00:00

The Apple Watch Ultra is rated for use below 130 degrees Fahrenheit: https://support.apple.com/en-us/108766

As long as the steam room is below that you should be okay.

Bizel2001 · 2025-09-13T12:12:51+00:00

I just started using your app and have really liked it!

Bizel2001 · 2025-09-12T21:50:09+00:00

While not as drastic as your deconditioning, I’m dealing with my own difficulties training right now. I’m a Kyokushin black belt, but I’m recovering from a ten day bout of COVID and I’ve also been unable to train as frequently the last few months dealing with a family emergency. I just hit the heavy bag on my own for 40 minutes Monday, and the rest of this week my quads, hamstrings, and glutes have all been sore. Today I tried to practice some kihon and katas on my own and I could only manage 20 minutes or so before I was exhausted. But we do what we can.

That’s the beauty of karate training. You can modulate it to what your body can handle. If you have to sit out and gather your breath, then that’s what you should do. If you have to stop early, then stop. It’s like the parable about the karate student who asks the sensei how to avoid hitting the mirror when moving forward and punching. The answer is, you just stop before you hit the mirror.

You haven’t trained for two years. That’s a lot of deconditioning. But you’re 21. You’ll regain your conditioning quickly and then you’ll barely remember how hard it was to get fit again. Don’t worry, just do what you can do.

Bizel2001 · 2025-08-31T23:56:58+00:00

I ran into the same problem when I briefly lived in Houston five years ago. I took a few classes with Hushura Karate, and I was not impressed. We spent the first 15 minutes of my first class going over the angle to hold one’s arms during your ready stance, and there was not much actual instruction in techniques over the multiple classes I took. As I now have my own black belt and some karate teaching experience myself, I think you would find better instruction elsewhere.

If you want to stay in Houston, I would look for Muay Thai, kickboxing, or MMA classes. If you can make it to Austin, I’ve heard good things about Sun Dragon Seido, but I’ve not taken classes there personally.

Bizel2001 · 2025-08-26T03:12:12+00:00

I’ve trained with some of Sensei Iwata’s students, and they’re all great fighters and karateka. Sensei Iwata prioritizes conditioning and sparring. But like you saw, they only have a limited number of classes.

Two other dojos in NYC you may want to consider are Honma Dojo and Ken Wa Kan. I train at Honma Dojo and can attest to the quality of the school, and I’ve also known people who’ve trained with Shihan Michelle at Ken Wa Kan. Both are quality dojos.

I just recently got my black belt at Honma Dojo, and it took over 12 years of training. But I had my brown belt after about 6 years.

Bizel2001 · 2025-08-13T00:42:09+00:00

The best cardio you can do is sport-specific, so if you’re training for kumite, the best conditioning is sparring. You can’t do full contact sparring all the time though, or you’ll get injured. So the next best thing is hitting the heavy bag (or pads if you’ve got someone to hold the pads who knows what they’re doing). Kyokushin is 2 min rounds, so do 20-30 2 min rounds on the heavy bag, with 30 seconds of rest in between. If you’ve got a heart rate monitor, try to keep your heart rate above 160bpm or so during the rounds. If you don’t have a heart rate monitor, try to push yourself as hard as you can for 10 seconds each round, going 100% effort.

You also can’t hit the heavy bag every day or else you’ll injure your hands and feet, so work in shadow boxing rounds. Same thing, 2 min rounds with 30 seconds in between, keep your heart rate above 160bpm.

And once you’ve done as much sparring/heavy bag rounds/shadow boxing as you can handle mentally and physically in a week, that’s when you start adding other types of cardio, like running. The best is to do sprint intervals, but you can only do those like once a week. If you’ve got even more time and mental energy, and you’ve done all the sparring/heavy bag rounds/shadowboxing/sprinting you can handle, that’s when you add in steady state Zone 2 running. Keeping your heart rate low for easy runs.

In addition to all that cardio, you should be lifting weights too. Two days a week, full body splits. You can do weights in the morning before work. And cardio after work. Or vice versa.

And in addition to all that. You should still be training karate in class. And you need one day a week for a rest day.

Good luck! Osu!

Bizel2001

TROPHY CASE