When Chris and I moved here in August we didn’t know anyone in the area except family. Which means we didn’t have any nearby friends. It’s been a pretty lonely period of time. Don’t get me wrong! I love hangin’ out with Chris, but it’s also nice to have other friends too.

As soon as we moved, we started hunting for a good Krav Maga gym. We were both bound and determined to start getting into better shape. Not to mention the obvious benefits of learning self-defense.

Little did we know how spectacular our gym is. They organize all kinds of events, including ones that aren’t in any way related to self-defense, fitness, or martial arts. A few weeks ago, one of the instructors held a Halloween party at his house. Everyone dressed up in ridiculous costumes, so we were able to get a sense of people’s creativity and humor pretty quickly.

Just last weekend, Chris and I met up with a bunch of people at a local bar for the UFC fight between Couture and Lesnar. After the fight, we sat around talking about everything from the state of the financial world to movies.

By participating in these other organized events, we’ve started making new friends relatively easily. We can be (admittedly) pretty socially awkward when it comes to meeting new people. You never know what kind of a sense of humor other people have or if they have similar interests…

But luckily, we already know we have at least one thing in common! In the end, talking about things like our day jobs and interests seem like one of the least stressful and awkward things ever.

There are some pretty obvious positive results in going to Krav Maga: you learn self-defense and you get into shape. On the other hand, you may walk out of your gym with a whole handful of new friends.

And if your gym doesn’t offer this kind of community, tell them it’s something you’d like to see incorporated! They could host holiday parties, fight nights, 5k runs, bar-b-q’s… the list goes on.

Next week, I’ll post some more unseen benefits to Krav Maga!