If you are able-bodied, and have the financial means, consider joining a BJJ or boxing/kickboxing/muay thai gym. The recent zionist mob violence - along with the neonazi/proud boy violence seen a couple years back - has driven home the point that we keep us safe. We cannot expect the fascist police to keep us safe, nor should we. As part of learning to fight you will learn how to move. Learning how to move is important to being able to evade the cops when they try to grab you, and to keep your balance and footing when the cops are shoving your line. Also, learning to fight is fun. A lot of people describe it as feeling like you're a kid again, roughhousing with your friends (if that is an experience you had).

Some details so you know what to expect:

Training for most fight sports can be split into two categories: technique, and sparring. In the technique portion the instructor will show you some move or strike then everybody practices with a partner at low resistance as the instructor roves the area observing and correcting. Sparring, in contrast, is simulated real fighting. You and your partner will attempt to apply the moves you know to each other with significant resistance. The amount of resistance varies; in striking sports, you rarely use more than 25-50% power because you don't want to hurt your partner. In grappling sports like BJJ it is more common to use 80% or higher levels of resistance due to the reduced risk of injury & concussion. The general consensus is you cannot learn to fight by learning technique alone. If you do not spar, you do not know how to fight because you have not been tested in anything resembling the crucible of the real world. Sparring is what separates actually effective martial arts from "fake" martial arts that claim their moves are "too deadly" to be practiced against a resisting opponent or some other such nonsense.

BJJ is the most accessible of all fight sports due to the low risk of concussion, compared with striking-based fight sports (for obvious reasons). In BJJ you spend a lot of time learning to fight a single person once you have both fallen to the ground. As we saw in the zionist violence, this is not entirely useful because once you've fallen to the ground the fascist's friends will surround you and beat you. However, BJJ does teach how to get back up once you've fallen down with somebody on top of you and also how to keep your balance so you don't fall down in the first place. Thus it is mostly valuable for learning how to move, since you're unlikely to be locked in a 1:1 struggle in the sort of scenarios we are worried about.

Striking based sports are most useful for learning how to block the fascists' attempts to punch or kick you. It's questionable whether it would be worth it to actually strike somebody, but knowing how to absorb or block a shot is a nice skill indeed. If nothing else a good leg kick will make them think twice about coming near you.

To set expectations, you will take at least two years to become basically competent at any of these sports, if attending class 2-3 times per week for 2 hours at a time. By competent I mean you will be able to easily ragdoll almost any newcomer to the gym unless they are physically large & muscular or have significant background in wrestling or other physical sports like football. 99% of people you encounter in the real world will not have any training whatsoever.

Two years is a long time. The best time to have started training was two years ago. The second best time is now.

  • Pluto [he/him, he/him]
    ·
    7 months ago

    I think everyone should attempt to work out, if you're able to.

    I don't want to shame anyone into working out, but it could prove useful in the long run, and healthy too.

    • Des [she/her, they/them]
      ·
      7 months ago

      i gave up the local chud gym but hiking and physical labor that is just weight lifting for pay seem to maintain things pretty well.

      at least until i finally take the E and melt my muscles into goo lol

      • bleepbloopbop [they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        at least until i finally take the E and melt my muscles into goo lol

        straight up one of my bigger concerns about taking it. I'm kinda (like a tiny bit) strong just from having to lug my own ass around and lift heavy thing sometimes, but I think I'd have to work out a lot to maintain it on E

        • Des [she/her, they/them]
          ·
          7 months ago

          yeah same here. i'm elder millenial so the thought of having to start intensive strength training just to maintain like 75% of this makes me so exhausted esp with a job that is tearing my body apart

        • imogen_underscore [it/its, she/her]
          ·
          7 months ago

          i've been on e for two years and have maintained quite a lot of latent strength (I was pretty strong before) and have done literally nothing to maintain it lol. it's a slowwwww change that can easily be combatted

          • bleepbloopbop [they/them]
            ·
            7 months ago

            avoheart thanks, that assuages some of my concerns. I've just seen one too many "haha I can't open jars anymore isn't that cute?" posts and they freak me out every time

            • imogen_underscore [it/its, she/her]
              ·
              edit-2
              7 months ago

              yeah, it's definitely one of the aspects but it's one of the slowest changes to occur and you can maintain the majority of your strength with just a basic exercise regimen (assuming you're not like, a big powerlifter or whatever, then the changes would be more noticeable)

    • EmoThugInMyPhase [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      Well if one doesn’t work out, it would be best to avoid events that would become confrontational, or at least stay far back. Otherwise everyone would be at risk, the person who isn’t trained, and the person who is and now has an extra responsibility

      • i_ben_fine@lemmy.one
        ·
        7 months ago

        I don't think this is the right mentality for a protest. Everybody should be there. Those who can take on the extra responsibilities will.