Well ... Maybe There IS Progress...

[the_gneech]

Kung Fu tonight was, well, terrific. :) I got through the entire warmup (including jogging 700 bazillion laps around the school) without stopping once; again I got lots of nice comments from Sifu Bloomfield about my form (to the point of having me demonstrate techniques for some of the other students); and what I was most pleased with, was that I never had to bow out to catch my breath -- I came close a few times, particularly near the end, but I managed to hold it together!

One of the things I was most pleased with, was the lightning fist exercise. What this consists of, basically, is we stand in mabu position (called "horse stance" because you have your feet wide apart and your knees bent, so it's like sitting in a saddle), with our arms extended forward, palms up. Then, holding that position, we make as many fists as we can in 60 seconds, turn our palms down, and do the same. Every time we've done this particular exercise before now, even though I've kept making fists the whole time, I had to drop my arms because my shoulders gave out. But not tonight! I got all the way through it ... and owie, my latissimus dorsi muscles have a lot to say about it!

I think the morning pushups and the Bowflex have a lot to do with it; I've also been doing stance practice at the end of every Bowflex workout as well. For the white belt test, we need to hold mabu and gungbu (forward stance, sort of a lunge type of thing, think any Jet Li movie poster) for two minutes each. So to get ready for that, I've been doing mabu for five minutes while doing lightning fist as long as I can, then gungbu for three minutes on each side. (Gungbu is tough -- it's going to take me a while to build that up to five minutes.)

All in all, quite possibly my best class yet, which makes me feel a lot more hopeful than I was this morning. It also helped break me out of a funk that's been lingering since late last week. Mmmm, endorphins! Assuming I can stay de-funked, that should make for a nice, productive weekend, which will only make me feel better still.

Life is good.

And I am tired. ;)

G'nite!

-The Gneech

Comments

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Well, then it seems a good way to stay de-funked is to take the advice of Forrest Simmons: "Chocolate is bad! Exercize! Exercize!"

-=TK

[nekomimikun.livejournal.com]

Good luck with your weekend projects!

[murrrmaiyd.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! Go Gneech!

Mur

excellent!

[mammallamadevil.livejournal.com]

may that be a good harbinger for the weekend....MLD

latissimus dorsi?

[camstone.livejournal.com]

*watches a duck all from the ceiling*
You've named the mystery muscle group for today!
TA DAHHHHHH!

Re: latissimus dorsi?

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Yay! =)

What do I win?

-The Gneech ("Or is it just the duck?")

[kagur.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you're making excellent progress:) Yes, holding any stance is hard for five minutes, but you will build a lot of leg strength by doing so. I remember a drill where sensei would have us hold each stance for two minutes and then, without relaxing, shift to another stance. Agonizing, but good for us. Horse stance, back stance, cat stance, hourglass stance, and front stance. Fun

Re:

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

The other stances I know, but the name "hourglass stance" is not familiar to me. I suspect we have the same stance, but under a different name ... is it basically feet together but weight all on one leg?

-The Gneech

Re: Stance

[kagur.livejournal.com]

Well, not exactly. You are describing our cat stance. Try entering the following into Google image search: Sanchin dachi
You'll see what hourglass stance looks like in our style.

Stress relief

[invisiblewolf.livejournal.com]

I've found that working out -- be it cardio or weightlifting or other sports -- is a great stress reliever. I have to go to the gym at least once a week or else I can feel the stress building up.

I'm glad that kung fu's going well for you!

-Spiritwolf.