Life of Pride
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Oh, what a beautiful Tuesday! It's not precisely what I would call warm, but it is sunny. This is good. And I can breathe through my nose again, which is also helpful.
You know, it has occurred to me for a while that I have no idea who could be reading my blog without posting any comments. Lurking. Hey, I lurk on other people's blogs. Why not? So hello, potential lurker-people.
Today, I have decided to describe a typical Tae Kwon Do class. I'm back into my martial art now, but I am out of practice (though still fairly used to exercise in general). So I entertain myself with my puny efforts. Last night's class makes a prime example of this. We began by jogging around the mat for a few minutes, which I always enjoy. I run faster than everyone else, but that is because I have a hard time jogging slowly. I'm much more of a sprinter than a distance runner. So that's fine. Stretching and preliminary kicks are also great, because I am pretty flexible. But then we hit the calisthenics. Crunches for a minute - I did 70, taking care to contract my abs every time. 30 pushups - 30? We normally do 20! But that's ok. I did the first 10 off my feet, as normal, and the other 20 off my knees. I have to do it like this, or I can't keep up with the guys and still finish all 30. So then, at this point we would usually be done with our calisthenics. On to class, right? Wrong. We turned over again and did 20 "lemon squeezers," an exercise in which you lie on your back on the floor and then lift both upper and lower body off the floor, so that you can touch your hands to your legs. Unfortunately, I had very carefully exhausted my abdominal muscles during the crunches, so I completed 10 reps of the exercise properly and 7 very weakly, and then I lay on my back and laughed because my head and shoulders absolutely refused to lift from the floor. Then we turned back over and did 30 more pushups! Even off one's knees, it is difficult to do 60 pushups in close succession.
After this "warm-up," our head instructor, Mr. Moore, took over, and we did kicking drills the rest of class. These involve such homely exercises as someone chasing you down the mat with kicking paddles so that you have to run backward and jump off backward every few steps in order to kick a paddle. Or you stand between two people with paddles and, for a 30-second stint, kick back and forth, constantly changing direction.
I completed everything without too much difficulty, but not as handily as I would have preferred. Still, I loved it. My brothers and I emerged in a happy, sweaty glow. I definitely miss TKD at school. Not that I have to think about that for a while, because I am not at school. I am here. :)
You know, it has occurred to me for a while that I have no idea who could be reading my blog without posting any comments. Lurking. Hey, I lurk on other people's blogs. Why not? So hello, potential lurker-people.
Today, I have decided to describe a typical Tae Kwon Do class. I'm back into my martial art now, but I am out of practice (though still fairly used to exercise in general). So I entertain myself with my puny efforts. Last night's class makes a prime example of this. We began by jogging around the mat for a few minutes, which I always enjoy. I run faster than everyone else, but that is because I have a hard time jogging slowly. I'm much more of a sprinter than a distance runner. So that's fine. Stretching and preliminary kicks are also great, because I am pretty flexible. But then we hit the calisthenics. Crunches for a minute - I did 70, taking care to contract my abs every time. 30 pushups - 30? We normally do 20! But that's ok. I did the first 10 off my feet, as normal, and the other 20 off my knees. I have to do it like this, or I can't keep up with the guys and still finish all 30. So then, at this point we would usually be done with our calisthenics. On to class, right? Wrong. We turned over again and did 20 "lemon squeezers," an exercise in which you lie on your back on the floor and then lift both upper and lower body off the floor, so that you can touch your hands to your legs. Unfortunately, I had very carefully exhausted my abdominal muscles during the crunches, so I completed 10 reps of the exercise properly and 7 very weakly, and then I lay on my back and laughed because my head and shoulders absolutely refused to lift from the floor. Then we turned back over and did 30 more pushups! Even off one's knees, it is difficult to do 60 pushups in close succession.
After this "warm-up," our head instructor, Mr. Moore, took over, and we did kicking drills the rest of class. These involve such homely exercises as someone chasing you down the mat with kicking paddles so that you have to run backward and jump off backward every few steps in order to kick a paddle. Or you stand between two people with paddles and, for a 30-second stint, kick back and forth, constantly changing direction.
I completed everything without too much difficulty, but not as handily as I would have preferred. Still, I loved it. My brothers and I emerged in a happy, sweaty glow. I definitely miss TKD at school. Not that I have to think about that for a while, because I am not at school. I am here. :)
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