24 Jul

How “Old School” is Old School? Personal training for fitness – and survival – in the 15th century

Posted under: Fitness & Physical Culture

Sweating to the Oldies, 15th Century-style: Fencing, weight-lifting, stone-throwing, wrestling and tumbling were all considered excellent ways for members of the Renaissance upper and middle classes to stay in shape and gain “a nimble and elegant body in concord with a healthy spirit”.

You may have noticed that at Forteza we talk about “going old school” quite a bit. After all, our martial arts classes cover subjects that are 100 to 600 years old, and our Gymuseum is comprised of a wide collection of working,19th c training apparatus. Nor is this just “retro-geek-cool”; much of what are now considered to be the height of modern training regimens is based around a new understanding, appreciation and application of “old school fitness”: body weight exercises, kettle bells, performance-based training, etc. But to most people, “Old School Fitness” probably means “before Pumping Iron came out.” Most people probably do not realize just how “old school” the notion of systematic functional fitness training and cross-training, especially in conjunction with the martial arts, really is. The Olympic Games are about to begin, so everyone will be reminded of the Ancient Greek interest in the gymnasium, where wrestling, running, javelin and discuss throwing and vaulting were all cultivated and practiced as part of building a natural, athletic body, But somehow, in the popular mind, we went from naked Greeks wearing laurel wreaths to Arnold Schwarzenegger and now to Cross-Fit, without much in between.

In truth, the Greek idea of the gymnasia was carried forward, and its martial aspects emphasized, in the Roman palestra, or public training ground, which combined gymnastics with boxing, wrestling, swordsmanship and javelin throwing. The palestra was essentially the ancient world’s precursor to the modern fitness studio.

It turns out that, as people who lived much more physical lives than we do today, our ancestors knew quite a bit about how to train for functional strength, so we take our inspiration in this from 14th – 16th century texts on health and fitness, which advise the following activities as being the idea set of exercises for achieving health, endurance and grace:

Running – cross country, over-hills and in sand.
Tumbling
Lifting, carrying and tossing heavy stones.
Throwing javelins.
Wrestling
Fencing

While it is clear that throughout the Middle Ages, interest in regimented training exercise, based on the Greco-Roman model never truly disappeared amongst the European warrior elite, the idea of “exercise for exercise sake” did not begin to reappear until the 15th century, when the Renaissance obsession with Classical culture gave the palestra a new lease on life.

The 15th c fencing master, Hans Talhoffer also recommended these same exercises, along with recommendations on diet and creating a specific training regimen, for someone who found himself forced to prepare for a judicial duel. This advice has been translated and presented in a short, evocative video by the fine folks at Blossfechter, a medieval swordsmanship and traditional martial arts club in Germany. The guys put a lot of heart into this clip, do yourself a favor and take three minutes to watch it!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pwHK2n44OA&w=420&h=315]

Seem like it would be a challenging way to get fit? And more fun that more time on a Stairmaster? (At least, if you didn’t have to fight a duel at the end.) We think so! Since this same idea of the palestra was at the heart of the Victorian physical culture movement, particularly at Barton-Wright’s Bartitsu Club, how could we not?

Our historical European martial arts classes all begin with a combination of various calisthenic exercises, that would have been at home in any medieval training hall; amongst the most popular (with the instructors, if not the students!) being throwing medicine balls, stick-wrestling, rolling and falling and tug of war, then followed by the actual sword, dagger or wrestling classes themselves.

While many of these training methods are warm-ups for our martial arts classes, for those who really want to push themselves to lose weight, tone muscle and develop coordinated grace by going really old school, these same activities, combined with Indian clubs, kettle bells and a variety of fitness games, is at the heart of our FightingFit! program: our 2012 answer to 1512 physical fitness! And since, no one is going to make you fight a duel at the end, you can just enjoy swinging swords, throwing javelins, pulling ropes and basically doing all of the things you loved doing when you were ten…only now with a focused way to get in shape and stay there.

You may be fit, but are you FightingFit? Only one way to find out….

(Oh, and you don’t have to wear the “tights”!)

16 Jul

ONE DAY WORKSHOP: REVERSE GRIP KNIFE/IMPROVISED WEAPON TACTICS!

Posted under: Events, Martial Blade Concepts

• Date: Sunday, July 29th 2012
• Time: 11:30am-4pm
• Location: Forteza Fitness and Martial Arts, 4437 N. Ravenswood Ave. Chicago, IL 60640
• Required gear: eye protection, and a training knife (there will be a few loaners available).
• Cost: $30 pre-paid, or $35 at the door.

Adaptability is the key to developing good self-defense skills. As both the ability to carry purpose-designed self-defense weapons and the legal use of force becomes more restricted, it becomes increasingly important to learn how to immediately identify and implement improvised self-defense tools.

Fighting at close quarters happens suddenly, brutally and often ends fatally. That’s why this seminar is designed for anyone who wants to develop basic threat detection and the ability to react immediately and spontaneously.

Using the proven reverse grip knife tactics of Martial Blade Concepts as a foundation for using improvised weapons, trained martial artists will increase their use of high speed, close-quarters defensive tactics. If you are new to martial arts, or just want to learn how to escape from harm if trouble comes to you, then you will learn a set of easily internalized and adapted skills, that can be employed reflexively to defend yourself at extreme close range and confined quarters.

To save your spot, email us at: info@fortezafitness.com and PayPal GMele@fortezafitness.com

06 Jul

Forteza Challenge Workouts

Posted under: Uncategorized

Ready for a challenge? The Forteza Challenge Workouts are designed to test both your fitness level and mental toughness via fun, but demanding workouts.

There are plenty of these sorts of workouts online, but as with everything else at Forteza, we’re going to try and make it a little different. Challenge workouts will combine training themes, combined with our love of old-school training methods and martial arts to make you sweat but crack a smile between all of the grimacing. Keep watching this space, as the workouts will sometimes include photos, videos or even contests, to see who is out there watching – and training!

Today’s challenge is Fight Gone Bad. A fight gone well would be a one punch knockout. A fight gone bad, however, is you going to distance in a brutal, back and forth war of attrition.

Perform 3-5 rounds, depending on your fitness level. Each station lasts for 60 seconds, with a 60 second rest between rounds. Try to challenge yourself as much as possible by choosing the heaving weight or most difficult version that you can safely handle for each exercise. Remember; never sacrifice good form for a few more reps or heavier weight!

Fight Gone Bad

· TRX or Ring Rows

· Heavy Two Handed Kettlebell Swings (Men should aim for a 75 pound bell; women 45 pounds)

· Box Jumps

· Medicine Ball Slams (Use the heaviest medicine ball that you have. The less bounce, the better!)

· Battling Ropes

Enjoy!

20 Jun

SWORDPLAY OF ROMEO & JULIET: BROADSWORD AND RAPIER IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND

Posted under: Events, Renaissance Swordplay

A 3-Class Overview for Actors and Fighters.

Sundays, July 8, 15, and 22
11 AM to 5 PM
Cost: $225

Southwark, London – 1597

A new play is published by a relatively unknown playwright. A tragic love story drawn from older sources, it resonates with Londoners because its characters and dialogue draws from real events and gossip filling the city streets. Filled with romance, plots, and poison, it pivots around a disastrous swordfight, carefully detailed by the author as….

They Fight

While the Bard’s rather vague directions have left centuries of fight directors a great deal of creative leeway, it doesn’t tell us “What did fighting look like to the audience of Romeo & Juliet”. In this three class mini-camp, students step back into 1597, taking the role of actors preparing to debut Romeo & Juliet to a Southwark audience well-versed in swordplay. Nervous of its reception, Master Shakespeare has arranged to bring in a pair of fencing masters to prepare his actors.

Each day of the workshop will have a different focus, but will present real historical martial principles alongside the stage combat techniques that make it possible to safely perform them:

Day One: Broadsword and Bucker
The traditional sidearm of English fighting men for centuries. Taken directly from a text written in London during the 1590s, learn how to use this stout cut-and-thrust sword to mind your swashing blows!

Day Two: The Rapier
An “Italianate” weapon favored by English nobles and duelists, the rapier was a long, elegant and deadly sword, the weapon of Romeo and Tybalt. Drawing from the greatest Italian masters of the year 1600, you will learn the foundations of rapier play and become what Mercutio called the very butcher of a silk button, a duelist and a member of the very first house!

Day Three: They Fight – Creating Effective Elizabethan Swordplay
In this final class we will begin with a short recap of days one and two, then show how to use the sword against the rapier (and vice-versa) before teaching you how to use your hard-won knowledge of real Elizabethan fencing to create believable fights on stage!

Presented by renowned stage combatants R&D Choreography and respected historical swordsmen from the Chicago Swordplay Guild, this is a workshop unlike any you’ve ever seen and will appeal to actors, stunt performers and martial artists alike!

12 Jun

Our First Open House a HUGE Success!

Posted under: Events

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9YmTwvK5Qs]

On Sunday, March 4^th from noon to 4:00pm, Forteza held a special Open House to showcase our swordfighting, physical fitness and Western martial arts classes. Over the course of the day, over 150 guests filed through the studio to check out our combination of demos and mini-lessons, including:

Armizare: the Martial Art of the Medieval Knight – including the two-handed sword, spear and dagger

Renaissance Swordplay: the Art of the Duel – including the rapier, rapier and dagger, and rapier and cloak

Bartitsu: The ‘Lost Martial Art’ of Sherlock Holmes – a unique Edwardian blend of Eastern and Western fighting arts

Garimot Anis: Traditional Martial Arts of the Philippines – including fast-action self-defense techniques against a knife

Stunt Display – an exciting stunt display by Asylum Stunts

There was also be a hands-on table display of the weapons and armor we use for training.

The link above will take you to a short video impression of the Open House, featuring demonstrations by the Chicago Swordplay Guild, the Bartitsu Club of Chicago and the Asylum Stunt Team.

Our public debut also drew some media attention. Check out:

Martial Arts, Victorian Style: Bartitsu at Forteza Fitness Brings Back the Lost Fighting Art of Sherlock Holmes, by New City journalist Kristen Micek,

and Blast into the Past from Action Quarterly.

12 Jun

Welcome to Forteza! Welcome home!

Posted under: Uncategorized

Forteza Fitness, Physical Culture & Martial Arts, a unique studio in Ravenswood, Chicago blending cutting-edge knowledge with old school training.

Forteza is an ancient Italian word meaning “fortress” or “stronghold”. At Forteza we help each person who comes through our door build their own personal stronghold; the stronghold of their body, mind and spirit.

We do that by being far more than an ordinary martial arts school or a gym. Rather, we are:

A fitness studio that combines personal training and functional fitness with modern nutritional counseling, set in a beautiful, 5000 square foot, c.1900 facility;
Pioneers in the revival of 19^th century “physical culture” – the combined use of calisthenics, Indian clubs, medicine balls, therapeutic gymnastics, body-weight exercises and games designed to create natural strength and grace with athletic performance;
The Midwest’s only full-time school for the study of traditional Western martial arts, including the fighting arts of the medieval knight, and Renaissance swordplay;
Home to Chicagoland’s only licensed instructor in MBC Self-defense System; a nationally known and respected method of hand, stick and knife defense designed for modern people with limited training time;
A gymuseum: a unique “living museum” of antique exercise equipment and an inspirational gallery of 19th century prints portraying combat sport athletes in training;
An international center for education on the rich and sophisticated martial traditions of Western Civilization;
Home to an innovative and eclectic series of workshops, lectures and unique social events.

Above all, though, we are a fellowship and home-away-from-home for anyone who has ever been fascinated by these subjects and wants to challenge themselves to do more and be more

While our website serves to get prospective students the 411 on what we teach, when we teach it and how to join, our blog and Tumblr page are a growing archive on the Forteza experience in word, photo and video. It is also an ever-growing library of articles, martial arts techniques, old-school fitness workouts, nutritional tips, that we hope you will come to time and time again.

Welcome to Forteza! Welcome home.

12 Jun

Armizare Academy: A Celebration of the Knightly Arts

Posted under: Armizare - The Knightly Arts, Events

The Chicago Swordplay Guild is pleased to host this invitational, three day event in honor of Maestro Fiore dei Liberi and his Art.

In 1410, Fiore dei Liberi, an aging condottiero and master-at-arms to some of Italy’s most renowned warriors, presented a book to the bellicose Niccolò III d’Este, Marchese of Ferrara (1383-1441) containing the sum of four decades of knowledge won in the training hall, siege, battle and five duels with rival masters. He named this work Il Fior di Battaglia, the Flower of Battle, composed so that the “art might not be forgotten”.

Six hundred years later, a small circle of martial artists gathered from around the world to prove him right! This event, affectionately called “The 600: Prepare for Fiore!”, was such a success with attendees, that we decided to make it a recurring workshop! Since “The 602″ seemed to be missing some flair, the event has been renamed Armizare Academy. Each Academy session will have a central theme, but will also include a renowned instructor from a similar, outside tradition, to help put our art in context. This year’s outside focus will compare Arimzare to the German Kunst des Fechtens of the Liechtenauer tradition.

You can find out more here.

12 Jun

The Bartitsu School of Arms and Physical Culture: Chicago, 2012

Posted under: Bartitsu, Events

The Bartitsu School of Arms and Physical Culture: Chicago, 2012

The 2012 Bartitsu School of Arms and Physical Culture will take place at Forteza between September 8-9.

Participants are invited to join a field trip and guided tour of the Hegeler Carus mansion and historic gymnasium in LaSalle, IL on the afternoon of Friday, September 7. Saturday the 8th will include a full day of Bartitsu cross-training instruction followed by dinner, discussions and socialising, and Sunday the 9th will include a further day of training with fellow enthusiasts, finishing with a fun and challenging antagonisticathlon combat obstacle course event.

Please see the 2012 Bartitsu School of Arms web page for all details, registration, etc.

12 Jun

Captain Hutton writes about his friends at the Bartitsu Club

Posted under: Bartitsu

A portrait of Captain Alfred Hutton, taken at about the time he was teaching at the Bartitsu Club.

Captain Alfred Hutton was among the instructors who taught various branches of “antagonistics” at E.W. Barton-Wright’s School of Arms in London circa 1900. One of England’s most prominent and respected swordsmen, Hutton was also the president of the Amateur Fencing Association and a pioneering practitioner of revived Elizabethan era fencing with weapons such as the rapier and dagger.

Although Hutton’s specialties do not appear to have been formally included as aspects of Bartitsu, it’s evident that there a good deal of cross-training took place at the Bartitsu Club; for a complete account, see Ancient Swordplay: the Revival of Elizabethan Fencing in Victorian London.

In an article for The Press newspaper (8 February 1904, Page 10), Captain Hutton reminisced about some colourful characters and incidents from his long experience of fencing. He also offered the following remarks upon his Bartitsu Club colleagues and their methods of antagonistics:

“Before bringing my passing recollections to a close as regards people I have met, and as having been more especially connected with the use of defensive and offensive weapons, I should like to refer to my friend Monsieur Pierre Vigny, a Swiss gentleman, devoted to all athletic exercises, and certainly master of the art of self defence by means of an ordinary walking-stick, a Malacca cane being preferred. The exercise is most useful in case of attack by footpads, most interesting as a sport, and most exhilarating in a game. It beats single-stick. However, it would take far too long for me to give further explanations.

There is another new development of athleticism which I strongly advocate, viz., Ju-jitsu, or Japanese wrestling. I am too old to go in for regular wrestling as it obtains in Japan, easy as it may look, but my good friends Uyenishi and Tani put me up to about eighty kata, or tricks, which even at my age may one day or another come in useful. In modified form the art might be advantageously practised by a small boy when meeting a great hulking bully; indeed, the successful way in which a twelve-year-old friend of mine who knew some tricks of Japanese wrestling floored his parent in my presence was most instructive in spite of its apparent disrespect.

My Japanese friends tell me it is one of the most amusing sights to watch the little native policemen in Japan throwing and capturing huge, stalwart, European sailors who have supped not wisely but too well.”

These anecdotes clearly demonstrate that Hutton took a keen practical interest in the classes offered by his fellow Bartitsu Club “professors”. He occasionally demonstrated the Vigny method of self defence with a walking stick during interviews, and he offered a somewhat more detailed account of the Vigny system in his book The Sword and the Centuries. It was also in that book that he described the Bartitsu Club as being “the headquarters of ancient swordplay in England”.

As it turned out, Hutton did find use for some of the 80 “kata” he learned from Tani and Uyenishi, beginning when he penned a short monograph on Ju Jitsu, or Japanese Wrestling, for Schoolboys. A few years later, Hutton demonstrated a number of jujitsu “tricks” for a panel of doctors working in one of London’s psychiatric hospitals. This was almost certainly the first time Asian martial arts had been applied towards the problem of humane self defence and restraint in a therapeutic environment.

12 Jun

Gymuseum 1: Indian Clubs

Posted under: Fitness & Physical Culture

Circa 1900, schools of “physical culture” offered a wide range of tools and machines to develop strength, endurance, agility and flexibility. Sadly, many of these devices have been lost over the generations, but some have survived in working order. The Forteza gymuseum includes both a unique “living museum” of antique exercise equipment and an inspirational gallery of 19th century prints portraying combat sport athletes in training. One of the most readily noticed parts of the museum is a large collection of odd wooden bowling-pin shaped objects, known as “Indian clubs”.

The exercise of club-swinging was first introduced to Europe during the late 19th century, by British soldiers who had observed similar exercises performed by wrestlers and other athletes in India. By manipulating the clubs in complex swinging and flourishing patterns, exponents were able to develop their co-ordination, strength, endurance and flexibility.

Club-swinging spread throughout the Western world via public gymnasia, military physical training courses and physical culture classes offered in schools. A “flourishing” trade also developed in home study manuals, further establishing Indian club swinging as a fitness craze that lasted through to the early-mid 20th century.

Some of our gymuseum clubs are modern and some are antiques dating back to circa 1900. All Forteza members are welcome to make use of them during their training; and remember, it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkFtaw9LB6I?rel=0]

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The Bartitsu School of Arms and Physical Culture: Chicago, 2012