Special In-DepthConditioning Discussions
SPECIAL TALK SESSION
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No.01Getting to Know Your Own Body
Masumi Kuwata x Takeshi Suzuki. (R-body)
Masumi Kuwata had a long career as a top-level professional baseball player both in Japan and overseas. And now has retired from playing professionally, he says "My intention is not just to live a long life. I want to live a long life with a healthy body". To that end, he has kept on taking conditioning sessions to ensure he keeps his body in its best possible condition. In this interview, Mr. Kuwata is joined by Mr. Suzuki, the CEO of R-body, as they discuss a wide range of topics, including Mr. Kuwata's thinking on conditioning, the importance of athletic trainers, the education and development of competitive athletes in Japan, and much more.
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No.02Raising the Profile of Japanese Athletic Trainers
Kosuke Kitajima x Takeshi Suzuki. (R-body)
If you hear the name Kosuke Kitajima, what kind of image springs to mind? Well, the truth is that even back when the multiple Olympic gold medalist was still competing as a professional swimmer, he was also busy establishing Perform Better Japan PLC, a sports training seminar and training equipment supplier, with the aim of "raising the profile of the athletic trainers who support us athletes behind the scenes". Here Kosuke Kitajima talks with Takeshi Suzuki, the CEO of R-body, who is a close personal friend both publicly and privately. The location is the training area at the R-body Conditioning Center.
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No.03Living healthily until 100 years old
Kimiko Date x Takeshi Suzuki (R-body)
Over 500 Olympians and top-level athletes have undertaken conditioning training at R-body, but only two have continued after retiring from active competition. One of them is Kimiko Date. Her goal is to continue playing her beloved sport of tennis until age 100, and also to maintain a healthy body that will allow her to take care of herself until she is 120 years old. We currently live in an era when people can live to be over one hundred years old, but with no guarantee of government support, how should we approach our physical well-being? Here we share her knowledge and passion for conditioning training that she believes will help her meet her life ambitions.
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No.04To avoid going down a rabbit hole.
Yuji Naito x Takeshi Suzuki (R-body)
As a coach for professional golfers, an instructional programs host, TV commentator, creator of a YouTube channel, and writer for magazines and books, Yuji Naito is in high demand. Amidst his busy schedule, he always found time to squeeze in golf practice sessions, but suddenly found he couldn't hit the ball as far as he used to. Even after making time for extra practice, he couldn't solve it. "Huh? What's going on?", he thought, "This has never happened before." That's when he came across conditioning training, and in the seven years since, he's been working on getting his body in better physical condition. "Lately, I've become able to expect a lot more from myself", he says. We sit down to chat with one of golf's foremost theorists about the relationship between golf and conditioning training.
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No.0515cm of Infinite Potential.
Hiraku Misawa x Takeshi Suzuki. (R-body)
Hiraku Misawa lost his left leg just before entering elementary school. Even so, thanks to his innate athleticism and fierce competitive spirit, he still jumped farther than anyone else, chased soccer balls around, and served as the ace pitcher, cleanup hitter, and captain of his baseball team. "The only thing I regretted losing was the sense of speed." However, even that he regained through skiing, which he took up in the second grade of elementary school, and in which he made the national team by his third year of junior high school. He competed in five consecutive Winter Paralympic Games. He stood on the podium three times at World Cups and World Championships. In 2013, wanting to fulfill his life-long dream of "becoming the best in the world", he joined R-body. "Top athletes, able-bodied people, and people with disabilities - at the end of the day, a body is a body." He went back to square one, and over the next decade he continuously made improvements to his physical condition, using conditioning training to find potential even in 15 centimeters.
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No.06With this body gifted to me by my parents, I want to make the most of my life
Nao Kodaira x Masahiro Yuki x Takeshi Suzuki. (R-body)
It's April 1st, and a 4-minute walk along the spacious sidewalk from Kashiwanoha Campus Station brings you to the stylish and modern KOIL TERRACE building. The first three people appeared outside the entrance at 8:00 AM. After that, the line of people stretched further and further around the block, growing longer as people arrive from as far away as Yamagata, Fukuoka, and Kumamoto. At 11:00 AM, standing before the 250 attendees in the venue and 240 online participants from Japan and abroad, Nao Kodaira slowly scanned the room. A smile gently spread across her face. "Wow, so many people came to see us," she thought. She was to be one of the guest speakers, joining Masahiro Yuki, and Takeshi Suzuki of R-body. All three of them boasted careers that would quickly fill this space, yet the subject for today was not about "Me, the gold medalist," or "Me, who nurtured the gold medalist," or "Me, who coached the gold medalist." Instead, the conversation was to focus on intelligent debate, innate passion, and gentle humor. The animated conversation drew acclamation, applause, and warm smiles from the audience, with time flying by as if it had wings. Even after the three left the stage, a buzz of energy continued to circulate around the room.