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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

"Abs" - solutely

After a grueling 2 hour workout last night, I awoke this morning with my muscles screaming in protest. Getting out of bed was difficult, attempting to walk was agony. But I managed to slowly shuffle thru my day. This isn't the first time a Songahm Taekwondo has left sore and stiff - and knowing the instructors at my school it won't be the last.

All day I argued with myself on whether or not to attend to class tonight. The devil on my shoulder whispered "You're tired, your body hurts, you can afford to skip one class". The arguments were persuasive. However, in the end my Taekwondo angel won out, and I put on my dobok and headed to the school.

I'm glad I did. Tonight's class was lead by Mr. P -- one of my favorite instructors. His classes tend to have a military aspect to them - think lots of drills focusing on a specific body part (arms, legs, core). The focus for this class was the core. Prior to this evening, I hadn't done a single sit-up in 3 and a half weeks. Mid-way thru October I cracked by tailbone, so doing crunches on a bottom that barely tolerates sitting was out of the question. The tone and definition I had gained is/was rapidly disappearing. So Mr. P's ab workout was a much needed one.

By the end of the 20 mins, my abs were on fire....which means they'll really be burning tomorrow. After abs, we broke down into belt classifications. The WOY (orange, white, yellow) on one side, the PC ( purple/camo) on the other. We went thru our 1-steps --- for those who don't know, we are not permitted to contact spar until we reach the rank of Camo. Instead, we do 1-steps, or shadow sparring. Basically, it is a set of pre-defined evades and attacks. Although the PC group is allowed to spar, Mr. P had them review 1-steps from their lower forms. The assistant instructor, Mr. D, was working with us WOY folks. He really loves to yell, so by classes end, we were yelling off our aggressions -- and probably scaring the PC group just a bit. Class ended with a review of our form.

Tonight's class was intense, but in different way than yesterday's. I was able to move around and loosen up my tight muscles. I'm glad I listened to the angel.

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