The Daily Dozen - A Re-Resolution

Boys Keep Swinging

How did the daily dozen routine work out for you last year? What do you mean it sort of fizzled in February? That paunch around your middle isn't going to magically disappear. I think we need to get on top of this, so I want you to extend the programme and add in some Indian club routines.

Indian clubs became a popular tool for exercising in Victorian Britain. British soldiers stationed in India adopted them into their training routines, possibly inspired by similar clubs of middle-eastern origin in user over there called 'meels'.

Indian clubs were quite the rage. The chaps in the photo below are the St. Paul's Young Mens Society Indian Club Swinging Team from Ipswich, Australia, circa 1890. (Note the male leggings.) The British-style club in the tear-drop shape became the most popular type of Indian club and it's about time it made a comeback.

Exercising with Indian club exercises can benefit your physique, posture and movement; and the graceful circular routines you can incorporate into your daily dozen can be effective in exercising the whole body — though practice makes graceful.

Put some talc on your palms and start swinging, gents.

Bespoke Indian Clubs

If you are not sure of the size and weight of Indian club you need, speak to BodyMindFit. They make Indian clubs in the UK and have standard sizes with weights from 2lbs to 7lbs; but if you are looking for something out of the range they can help with that too.

The clubs are turned in wood — the larger clubs hand-turned — with a lead core. They are built to shape you for a lifetime.

How to be a Swinger?

If you are unsure how to start swinging, then you will find useful guidance in The Indian Club Exercise: With Explanatory Figures and Positions (1866) by Sim D. Kehoe [Amazon], reprinted by Kennelly Press.

Music to Swing By

According to legend, the music on the three-volume Kosmicher Läufer (Cosmic Runner) records was originally created by a 'Martin Zeichnete' as secret training music for East German Olympic athletes between the early 70s to early 80s. An archive of tape recordings of this music was —ahem — found and picked up by Drew McFadyen of Edinburgh's Unknown Capability Recordings, who has been steadily releasing them.

The sound is studiously Krautrock, but I think it is fairly understood that this music is actually presented as a homage and spankingly new.

Why shatter the illusion when the music is so lovingly crafted? With your clubs in your hands and music this damned peppy you feel like you could represent East Germany yourself.