{"id":575,"date":"2019-12-27T10:57:54","date_gmt":"2019-12-27T03:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leminhha.vn\/?p=575"},"modified":"2020-07-16T15:42:20","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T08:42:20","slug":"my-revenge-and-2019-arm-wrestling-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leminhha.vn\/?p=575","title":{"rendered":"My Arm Wrestling Revenge!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I know how silly this sounds to many, but I finally beat B\u1ea3n in arm wrestling yesterday. I was <em>so\u00a0<\/em>happy &#8212; it was a culmination of months of training and looking forward to this match!<\/p>\n<p>So back in April, during an event in B\u00e1ch Khoa university, I challenged B\u1ea3n to a match. For those unaware: B\u1ea3n is a calisthenics champion; he is my rival in the weighted pull-up, but his muscle-ups and many other calisthenics skills absolutely dwarf mine. He is also more muscular than I am.<\/p>\n<p>As it happened, we arm wrestled for 1 and a half minutes before I gave up. He was just too strong. (this is excruciatingly long for arm wrestling; usually a match is over in 10 seconds!)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"V\u1eadt tay vs B\u1ea3n\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/f8XYQlNz2zY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>That defeat fueled my desire to get better at arm wrestling. I really wanted to get back at him. Not in a vindictive or spiteful way; I&#8217;ve always been a competitive person who enjoys a challenge, and to me beating B\u1ea3n is just that &#8212; another personal challenge I&#8217;m dead set on conquering.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Training and Training<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>And right after that, the rest is history: I found the Thanh Nh\u00e0n arm wrestling club and began practising with them. For the past 8 months I&#8217;ve been consistently training my wrists, biceps, and forearms, while attending weekly practices and learning technique from the more senior guys.<\/p>\n<p>This is one of my forearm exercises with a towel and a dumbbell:<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"VIDEO 20191119 120556 2\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src='https:\/\/gfycat.com\/ifr\/satisfieddecimalgardensnake#?secret=KdBARHoW5Z' data-secret='KdBARHoW5Z' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' width='100%' height='100%'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I enjoy the training process, the constant learning and improvement, the camaraderie between the guys in the club a lot. But deep down inside I know I&#8217;m constantly thinking about my revenge against B\u1ea3n.<\/p>\n<p>The effort really did pay off as I&#8217;ve been consistently getting better. When I first started in May, I was beaten by everybody in the club. My technique was non-existent. My arms were in so much pain, it freaking hurt to just bend at the elbow ? I worked through the pain and gradually improved. I started to beat other guys in the club. I even managed to beat Phong with relative ease (I used to be absolutely <em>powerless<\/em> against Phong&#8217;s right arm; he was so strong! But now I can hold him with not much problem).<\/p>\n<p>By now I think I probably rank 5th out of 15 in the club.<\/p>\n<p>Finally on Christmas (25\/12), B\u1ea3n came over for a re-match. I was ultra hyped for this. I&#8217;ve been waiting for this moment for 8 months; I know I&#8217;m much stronger now, and it&#8217;s time to put it against the ultimate test.<\/p>\n<p>I already had a game plan in mind. I know B\u1ea3n is not well-versed in technique so he&#8217;d be pressing his arm sideways. I would start with a defensive top-roll to get control of his wrist first, then I would gradually pull his arm down.<\/p>\n<p>The match happened exactly like how I had visualised:<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 640px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('video');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-575-1\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/leminhha.vn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/vattayvsban8months.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/leminhha.vn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/vattayvsban8months.mp4\">https:\/\/leminhha.vn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/vattayvsban8months.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p>To my surprise, I could hold him with ease! I really have got much stronger compared to back in April. I could have pinned him down quickly, but I was worried that as B\u1ea3n kept looking away he could have broken his arm (really don&#8217;t want another arm-break incident&#8230;), and so I took it slowly.<\/p>\n<p>The best thing is that we&#8217;re still having fun and laughing through this. No hard feelings at all. I&#8217;ve invited B\u1ea3n to come practise arm wrestling with me, and I really hope he does take on the sport. With his natural strength he only has to learn the right technique, and then he&#8217;d be a beast for sure.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What&#8217;s Next<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Overall I&#8217;m extremely satisfied with the results and the gains I&#8217;ve got from this past year of arm wrestling training. The evidence is out there: I&#8217;m beating people I used to lose in a flash to!<\/p>\n<p>Most people express bewilderment at my obsession with arm wrestling. I know it&#8217;s just a silly children&#8217;s game, and so when I try to evangelise people into the sport, most seem pretty&#8230; flaccid about it.<\/p>\n<p>But it is a hobby &#8212; a passion that I take seriously, and I&#8217;ve been truly enjoying the journey so far. It has everything that I look for: minimal equipment, camaraderie, and self-improvement. I&#8217;m really glad that from when I first wrote <a href=\"https:\/\/leminhha.vn\/?p=272\">this post<\/a> back in May, I&#8217;ve stuck around and did not give up. It sucks and hurts like hell at first &#8212; but as they say, you&#8217;ve got pay your dues right?<\/p>\n<p>Now that my original goal (defeating B\u1ea3n) has been crossed off the list, what&#8217;s next? I guess I&#8217;ll keep training and try to win a place in an arm wrestling tournament. It can just be a third place, I wouldn&#8217;t mind. I hope I can achieve this in 2020. I recently got Phong hooked on the sport and he&#8217;s been training with me, so hopefully everything would be somewhat easier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I know how silly this sounds to many, but I finally beat B\u1ea3n in arm wrestling yesterday. I was so\u00a0happy &#8212; it was&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,7,105],"tags":[80],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leminhha.vn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leminhha.vn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leminhha.vn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leminhha.vn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leminhha.vn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=575"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/leminhha.vn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1008,"href":"https:\/\/leminhha.vn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions\/1008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leminhha.vn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leminhha.vn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leminhha.vn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leminhha.vn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}