The Shotokan Long Game: Training After Forty

Mat Manual companion guide to "Shotokan After Forty." Print it. The article sets out what changes, what does not, and the rules that govern both. This book takes your baselines, builds your twelve-week ramp, and keeps the ledgers that tell you the truth for years.

Name: ______________________________ Age at start: ______________ Dojo: ______________________________ Status (circle): True beginner / Returner — years away: ______ Start date: ______________

BEFORE ANYTHING: SCOPE AND SAFETY ☐ This book is training organization, not medical advice. Chest pain, pain that travels into the arm or jaw, breathlessness out of proportion to effort, dizziness, or fainting in training means stop and get medical care, that day, not at the next class. ☐ Joint pain that alters how you walk, swelling that lasts past 48 hours, numbness, or any pain that wakes you at night gets a clinician, not a modification chart. Modifications in Part 6 are for training management of known, cleared conditions and ordinary stiffness. ☐ Tell your instructor about diagnoses, medications, and restrictions that affect training (balance, blood pressure, joint replacements, eye conditions affecting head contact) before your first hard session. That conversation is professionalism, not confession. ☐ New starters over forty who have been sedentary are advised, plainly, to get a routine check-up and clearance before beginning hard training. Most will be told to go and train. Get told.

Part 1: The Program at a Glance

Program shape, once built: two hard classes, one optional light or technical session, two 30-minute strength sessions, daily mobility of 8 to 10 minutes, one full rest day. That is a serious program by any age's standard. It is also sustainable, which the four-class heroic version is not.