Fighting Fit
Brenda Borba leans back in her chair and hoots with laughter. She is trying -- unsuccessfully -- to envisage herself as the poster girl for martial arts. She rolls her eyes at the ceiling of her home in Surrey, B.C. "No," she chuckles, "I'm just not what you'd call svelte and flexible."
Until you look closer. With 187 pounds on her five-foot, six-inch frame, Brenda, 45, admits she doesn't look like a third-degree black belt. But since taking up the popular Korean martial art of taekwondo six years ago, she's lost 80 pounds, gained upper body strength that would make Schwarzenegger goggle and transformed her legs into pillars of steel. It hasn't been easy, she concedes, but she never gave up. "Martial arts kept me going the whole time," she says. "I have been positively affected by it. I carry myself differently, in a very confident manner."
A great way to stay in shape
Canadian women are flocking in ever-growing numbers to martial arts for fun, fitness and the kind of self-assuredness that makes bullies step aside. "It's a great way to stay in shape and learn skills," says Patrick Mascoe, a teacher in Ottawa and a former international judo champion.
Brenda's wake-up call nine years ago came, as they often do, from the hospital. Her husband, Joe, then 39, had gone in for a routine angioplasty. But without an immediate triple bypass, the doctor warned her, he wouldn't be coming out again.
Fun with the family
Her own health was far from spectacular. After having three children, she was overweight and out of shape. Then, in 1999, she was diagnosed with a form of epilepsy; the medication pushed her weight to 267 pounds. "I was 38," she recalls, "and I was heading for problems." Determined to change, Brenda, now 45, ditched the family's fatty diet -- packed with "the cheapest red meat we could find" -- for one high in fibre. But it wasn't enough. The Borbas needed discipline, so Brenda signed up the family for taekwondo.
"I tried it out, and the next thing I knew, I was testing for my first belt," says Brenda, laughingly. Since then, Brenda, Joe, now 48, and their three sons, Brendan, 18, Daneel, 15, and Levon , 9, have all earned black belts and have plans to become certified instructors. "That's what I've really enjoyed about this," says Brenda, who co-owns a newspaper distribution company with Joe. "We're able to do it with the kids."
But that's not all. "The teaching has given me the focus and discipline to lose weight, run the business, run my house and," she says, "stretch myself that little bit extra as a school volunteer."
Wen-Do: For women only
In 1964, Ned and Ann Paige of Toronto read the Kitty Genovese story in horror. With 38 neighbours and strangers nearby, the 28-year-old New Yorker was stabbed 17 times, raped and robbed. Deeply disturbed, the Paiges, who are trained in karate, decided to create a self-defence method just for women. The first course, held at Don Mills Collegiate in Toronto in 1972, attracted hundreds. "We remind women that we're worth fighting for," says instructor Deb Chard.
"A majority of women say they've never had to use the physical techniques, but their sense of self-trust really increased," says Chard, 53, who has taught the self-defence technique since 1988. "And if you feel more confident, you'll make healthy choices. I think the mind-body connection is really powerful."
Students learn basic blocks and strikes, as well as releases from holds, chokes and armed attacks. "We teach women how to use their hands, elbows, knees, feet and even bags. We talk about how to use a strong, confrontational voice," says Chard. Courses, offered to women and girls of all ages and fitness levels, run for 15 hours over two days. Sign up at Wen-Do.
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