Hakuho Weight Training

[Chanko Thief 67]

I have read many times that Hakuho lifts weights constantly in his home gym but the only clip I have seen of this is a short video on his instagram account where he is bench pressing. Does anybody have any weight training footage of Hakuho, or know his routine? Also, does he maintain a traditional sumo diet (chankonabe, etc.) or does he have a more specific diet plan? I heard he has given up dairy products, but that's about all I know. Any footage/info would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all.

[maorencze 144]

1 hour ago, Chanko Thief said:

I have read many times that Hakuho lifts weights constantly in his home gym but the only clip I have seen of this is a short video on his instagram account where he is bench pressing. Does anybody have any weight training footage of Hakuho, or know his routine? Also, does he maintain a traditional sumo diet (chankonabe, etc.) or does he have a more specific diet plan? I heard he has given up dairy products, but that's about all I know. Any footage/info would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all.

I remember Hakuho mentioning in one documentary that he doesnt lift that much, preferring to stick to traditional sumo routine, so this is the first time I hear he's lifting seriously.

[RabidJohn 1,663]

In one of his recent videos, Chris Gould says Hakuho is doing an hour's weight training at home every day at the moment.

[Chanko Thief 67]

2 hours ago, RabidJohn said:

In one of his recent videos, Chris Gould says Hakuho is doing an hour's weight training at home every day at the moment.

I saw that vid the other day and this is what inspired me to join and post the topic. Any idea what that training program consists of?

[Chanko Thief 67]

9 hours ago, maorencze said:

I remember Hakuho mentioning in one documentary that he doesnt lift that much, preferring to stick to traditional sumo routine, so this is the first time I hear he's lifting seriously.

I believe that traditional sumo is his main training program, but IIRC, I remember hearing that as he has gotten older, he has incorporated a lot of modern training into his routine, including weight training.

[RabidJohn 1,663]

22 minutes ago, Chanko Thief said:

I believe that traditional sumo is his main training program...

That's what he always said. Idk if the weight training is a reaction to normal training being suspended, and I've no idea what his weight program is.

[Chanko Thief 67]

Ok, after doing some more digging, I have managed to come up with a few clips of his weight lifting. Any more info/vids would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all.

 

 

[Yamanashi 3,723]

"Fat guys in diapers", huh?  Prove it to him.

[sumojoann 1,256]

Back in Sept 2014 when I met Hakuho & had lunch with him, one of the people at the lunch was a Japanese man named Oba, who was introduced as Hakuho's "trainer".  He looked like a personal trainer.  Since Hakuho doesn't use a personal trainer during keiko, I had to conclude that he did some modern type of training.

[kawika 123]

I heard that he does training in the afternoon, the same time as his bout at the basho would be for some sort of advantage....

[Chanko Thief 67]

14 hours ago, sumojoann said:

Back in Sept 2014 when I met Hakuho & had lunch with him, one of the people at the lunch was a Japanese man named Oba, who was introduced as Hakuho's "trainer".  He looked like a personal trainer.  Since Hakuho doesn't use a personal trainer during keiko, I had to conclude that he did some modern type of training.

Thank you for this insight, much appreciated. And so lucky to have met Hakuho! What was he like? Did you have Chanko at the stable for lunch?

[sumojoann 1,256]

1 hour ago, Chanko Thief said:

Thank you for this insight, much appreciated. And so lucky to have met Hakuho! What was he like? Did you have Chanko at the stable for lunch?

We did have chanko.  I was very surprised at how plain-jane it was.  Just beef broth, sliced onions and a couple of other vegetables (no meat).  During the meal, someone showed up with some large cubes of tofu and added them to the chanko.  Everyone made a big fuss over it which surprised me.  The following was copied and pasted from my profile ---- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted December 14, 2014

My husband treated me to a special "Sumo Trip" to watch the last 8 days of the Aki basho this past Sept. I was able to watch my favorite, Hakuho, as well as the other Makuuchi rikishi, some of the Juryo, and the occasional Makushita (Ishiura). I first got interested in sumo in March 2013 and soon became hooked. The Aki basho was my first "live" basho. Every day was exciting but when Hakuho defeated Ichinojo, the entire Kokugikan erupted. For 5 minutes, the crowd screamed, shouted, cheered and clapped. The atmosphere was electrifying!!

The highlight of my trip was meeting Hakuho at his heya on Day 12. It was such a privilege to watch him train (it lasted an hour). He practiced mainly tachi-ai, using a hapless, short, low-ranked rikishi as his "opponent". Hakuho slammed him into the wall again and again. Finally, the poor rikishi could no longer hide the terror in his eyes. Hakuho patted him on the arm to reassure him, but then slammed into him some more.

Afterwards, Hakuho talked to the assembled reporters for about 10 min, and then I was introduced. I knew my chances of meeting him were small but I prepared ahead of time anyway. I speak very little Japanese and knowing he speaks barely any English, I decided to learn some Mongolian phrases!! I was able to say in Mongolian, "Hello, how are you?, My name is Joann, I have come from America, from Texas. It's nice to meet you, I admire you a lot." Then, I said (still in Mongolian), "You are very handsome!" He groaned loudly (probably embarrassed) and looked away momentarily but I think he secretly liked it.

Hakuho was polite, reserved but not particularly friendly. I don't think he quite knew what to make of me, a 65-year-old American female sumo fanatic, with him being my favorite. He looked at me apprehensively, once while training and when we were introduced. At first, I thought it was dread, but I think he was apprehensive for some reason, maybe because he thought that "Granny" was going to criticize him about something!

What a morning! The highlight of my trip, of course. Later in the day, he went on to defeat Kisenosato.

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[sumojoann 1,256]

2 hours ago, Chanko Thief said:

Thank you for this insight, much appreciated. And so lucky to have met Hakuho! What was he like? Did you have Chanko at the stable for lunch?

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Posted February 13

On 13/02/2020 at 15:59, RabidJohn said:

 

******************* PLEASE IGNORE THE ABOVE.  I CAN'T SEEM TO ERASE IT! **************

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Here is some additional information I posted later about meeting Hakuho -------------------

There were some other tidbits regarding that lunch that I have never before mentioned on Sumo Forum.  I might as well take this opportunity to mention one of them.  Hakuho's Japanese trainer Oba spoke excellent English and was very friendly.  We kept making each other laugh.  I told him that I had told Hakuho in Mongolian that he (Hakuho) was very handsome, but I didn't say it in English, I said it in Mongolian.  He asked me to translate it into English since he didn't understand Mongolian.  Other people in the room were eager to know, too (a low-ranking rikishi whose job it was to serve us and a young very pretty Japanese woman who was helping in the kitchen and who I think might have been the trainer's wife).  When I translated the phrase ("You are very handsome"), he translated it into Japanese (which I don't speak).  All of a sudden, EVERYBODY started laughing!  The laughing got louder and louder.  Thinking I must had said something rude or at least totally improper to a Yokozuna, I blushed and covered my face with my hands.  At this point, the laughter got even louder and sounded almost obscene!!!  I was so confused!  At the end of lunch, my friend (the one who introduced me to his friend Hakuho) & I were downstairs waiting for our taxi.  I could tell he was angry at me.  He finally snapped at me, "You shouldn't have said that to Hakuho.  He's a married man!!!!!"  I was dumbfounded!  I told him, "I just told him he was handsome!  There's nothing wrong with that.  It means someone is attractive.  It's not sexual."  I was sooooo confused because he still seemed angry and embarrassed.  I was still puzzled by all the obscene-sounding laughter.  Months later, it finally hit me!  I can't be positively sure but I think when Oba, Hakuho's Japanese trainer, translated my phrase from English to Japanese, he translated it as something obscene.  THAT would account for that type of laughter.  And it didn't help that I blushed and covered my face with my hands!  I finally emailed our mutual friend to ask again what I had supposedly said, but he claimed he had forgotten the incident!!  So it shall remain as a small mystery.  The whole experience was surreal. 

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[sumojoann 1,256]

3 hours ago, Chanko Thief said:

Thank you for this insight, much appreciated. And so lucky to have met Hakuho! What was he like? Did you have Chanko at the stable for lunch?

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Posted February 15

On 15/02/2020 at 11:14, Stupidface said:

 

********************* SORRY, I'M NOT ABLE TO DELETE THE ABOVE *****************************

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A couple of months ago, I posted this additional information about my encounter with Hakuho ---------

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Additional tidbits  (none are as exciting as the "obscene laughing" I previously posted about)  --- When we sat down before having lunch with Hakuho , we first had to wait while he had his hair washed and styled.  I was told later that he likes to have his hair washed 6-8 times a day!  When he came in, the first thing he did was offer me a "beeryu" (beer).  He poured one for himself.  I declined and asked for mizu (water).  Then we all clinked glasses in a toast.  The table was already laden with food.  Of course, there was a pot of very hot chanko-nabe.  I was surprised at how plain-jane it was.  It consisted mainly of beef broth and some onions and other vegetables.  Then someone came in with a  bowl of large squares of tofu which was added to the chanko-nabe.  Everyone except Hakuho made a big fuss over the tofu which surprised me.  Another surprise was that in place of napkins (serviettes to you British!), Hakuho held out a box of Kleenex (tissues that you normally blow your nose with)!  Each of us took one.  I could tell that Hakuho was very at ease being a host.  He offered me a plate of what looked like small thinly sliced sausages.  However, there was no serving utensil and I didn't know what to do.  He gestured that I should just pick them up with my fingers!  Then he had his trainer, who spoke excellent English, ask me some questions about myself.  (I posted about this already but I'll repeat it for anyone who didn't get to read the previous post).  The most embarrassing question was concerning why my husband had not come to meet him.  The truth was that my husband didn't want to!!!! He wanted to go to the Samurai Sword Museum instead.  Obviously, I couldn't tell him that!  So our mutual friend , as best as he could, tried to tactfully explain that my husband wasn't quite as big of a fan of sumo as I was.  Hakuho got very confused.  His eyebrows furrowed and he shook his head, not understanding.  It was again explained to him.  I don't think Hakuho had ever known of anyone who didn't want to meet him!!  lol  Everything apparently got lost in translation and Hakuho let it go.  Our lunch continued.  Of course, Hakuho wanted to know how I learned some Mongolian phrases so I told him I studied online for 3 months, watched Youtube videos and bought a phrase book.  (I never dreamed I would meet him but since I was in Japan to attend 8 days of the basho, I was hoping that somehow it might happen.  I decided to prepare ahead of time just in case).  Hakuho told me that he has a grandmother who is 97 years old!!  I was very impressed.  At the end of lunch, I told him in Mongolian that I had brought a gift.  He accepted it politely but it was just a humble t-shirt with his favorite word (DREAM) on it (you can see it in my profile photo).  I found out later that he has a sweet tooth so I should have brought him some American chocolate.  Afterwards, we went downstairs to wait for our taxi and Ishiura popped in.  I said, "Hi Ishiura!"  He looked stunned that I knew his name (he was still in Makushita at that time).  We didn't have time to say anything further because our taxi had arrived.  We waved goodbye to Ishiura as we left.

This was one of those once -in-a-lifetime events where everything just happened to fall into place.  A lot of luck involved.

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[sumojoann 1,256]

3 hours ago, Chanko Thief said:

Thank you for this insight, much appreciated. And so lucky to have met Hakuho! What was he like? Did you have Chanko at the stable for lunch?

Hope I didn't load you up with too much information!  Since I see that you are new, I realized you hadn't had a chance to read about my impressions of Hakuho.  Awhile back, I watched a Youtube video about Hakuho and it featured an interview with a man identified in the video as Hakuho's trainer.  It wasn't Oba, the trainer I met in 2014.  This trainer was in a large room full of weights and other training equipment.  I remember the date of the video was after 2014 so I don't know what happened to Oba.  I can't find this video so I don't know if it's still up or if it has been deleted.

[Kaninoyama 1,694]

I love the Mongolian grunge music in the background of the first video. 

[Chanko Thief 67]

On 23/04/2020 at 18:04, sumojoann said:

Hope I didn't load you up with too much information!  Since I see that you are new, I realized you hadn't had a chance to read about my impressions of Hakuho.  Awhile back, I watched a Youtube video about Hakuho and it featured an interview with a man identified in the video as Hakuho's trainer.  It wasn't Oba, the trainer I met in 2014.  This trainer was in a large room full of weights and other training equipment.  I remember the date of the video was after 2014 so I don't know what happened to Oba.  I can't find this video so I don't know if it's still up or if it has been deleted.

Thank you so much sumojoann, your stories/impressions of Hakuho were a fantastic read!! My wife came over and asked me why I was laughing so hard and I had her read them and then even she burst out in laughter.

That video with the interview of Hakuho's trainer sounds really cool, I will definitely keep an eye out for it.

[sumojoann 1,256]

Here's a Youtube video of Hakuho at a huge gym called Dome Athlete House.  He's wearing athletic workout clothes but he is not shown using any of the equipment.  Instead, he is being interviewed and interacting with a TV personality while people in the TV studio are watching (see little box in upper left hand corner).  Apparently, Mitakeumi and Ishiura are in the studio because it shows them occasionally in the little box.  The logo for the Dome Athlete House says, "Physical recovery, Nutrition, Skill, Integrity, Passion".   

 

[Chanko Thief 67]

21 hours ago, sumojoann said:

Here's a Youtube video of Hakuho at a huge gym called Dome Athlete House.  He's wearing athletic workout clothes but he is not shown using any of the equipment.  Instead, he is being interviewed and interacting with a TV personality while people in the TV studio are watching (see little box in upper left hand corner).  Apparently, Mitakeumi and Ishiura are in the studio because it shows them occasionally in the little box.  The logo for the Dome Athlete House says, "Physical recovery, Nutrition, Skill, Integrity, Passion".   

 

Thank you Joann!