Week three: hallway sprinter
Monday, Wednesday and Friday were devoted to Kempo. There have been noticeable improvements in speed, technique and endurance. Kicking - all waist height or lower - is improving with each session. Faster, more balanced, more precise. Striking skills are improving too. The heavy bag has made an appearance in the basement, but hasn't been hung yet. Hopefully sometime this week.
Tuesday and Thursday were calisthenics. One routine for the upper body, another for the lower. Went through each routine twice on both days.
In lieu of heavy bag training, I started doing my knuckle pushups on the nice hardwood floors of the house I moved into last weekend. My knuckles gave out before my muscles, after about ten pushups on both days. That's a kind of pain I haven't felt since the dojo. But when I slid my exercise matt under them - after a short rest - I was able to pound out another thirty.
Flexibility exercises continued every day following whichever workout was slated for the day.
The house I'm living in now has this great feature leading into my room where you have to take four steps down from the main level before you get to my doorway. I end my stretching sessions by lifting one foot at a time to the top step while keeping the other foot planted on the landing. I keep both legs straight and gently stretch down to the elevated foot. I've been doing this in less convenient locations for the last few weeks.
This week I was able to comfortably wrap my fingers over the tops of the toes of whatever foot was elevated.
In other stretching news, when touching my toes I can now touch the knuckles of both fists to the floor in front of my toes.
My knee is still giving me trouble, but I found the old handouts my physiotherapist gave me about five years ago and found a couple of exercises I'd forgotten. These seem to be helping quite a bit, but it'll take a few weeks to be sure.
Sleep is still a disaster. I managed to get to bed by 1am most nights and be up by about 9am most days. We'll see how this week goes.
Food improved quite a bit until the end of the week. I ate three square meals a day, sometimes four. Near the end of the week I had a can't-get-full-no-matter-how-much-I-eat stretch of about three days.
Everything fell apart for Saturday though. I woke up hung over from Jer's No Pants Party the night before and worried that I was dying. (And convinced I deserved it.)
The only exercise I got was sprinting down the hall to the washroom to throw up, a horrid abdominal workout from expelling every meal I'd ever eaten through my face, then walking back to lay dozing and shaking in bed until the next sprint. There were six sprints in all. I slept on and off all the way back to my parents' house and throughout the afternoon.
The only things I ate all day were a cookie and a few pieces of chicken at dinner.
To quote Ian: "Never. Doing. That. Again."
Ever.
Tuesday and Thursday were calisthenics. One routine for the upper body, another for the lower. Went through each routine twice on both days.
In lieu of heavy bag training, I started doing my knuckle pushups on the nice hardwood floors of the house I moved into last weekend. My knuckles gave out before my muscles, after about ten pushups on both days. That's a kind of pain I haven't felt since the dojo. But when I slid my exercise matt under them - after a short rest - I was able to pound out another thirty.
Flexibility exercises continued every day following whichever workout was slated for the day.
The house I'm living in now has this great feature leading into my room where you have to take four steps down from the main level before you get to my doorway. I end my stretching sessions by lifting one foot at a time to the top step while keeping the other foot planted on the landing. I keep both legs straight and gently stretch down to the elevated foot. I've been doing this in less convenient locations for the last few weeks.
This week I was able to comfortably wrap my fingers over the tops of the toes of whatever foot was elevated.
In other stretching news, when touching my toes I can now touch the knuckles of both fists to the floor in front of my toes.
My knee is still giving me trouble, but I found the old handouts my physiotherapist gave me about five years ago and found a couple of exercises I'd forgotten. These seem to be helping quite a bit, but it'll take a few weeks to be sure.
Sleep is still a disaster. I managed to get to bed by 1am most nights and be up by about 9am most days. We'll see how this week goes.
Food improved quite a bit until the end of the week. I ate three square meals a day, sometimes four. Near the end of the week I had a can't-get-full-no-matter-how-much-I-eat stretch of about three days.
Everything fell apart for Saturday though. I woke up hung over from Jer's No Pants Party the night before and worried that I was dying. (And convinced I deserved it.)
The only exercise I got was sprinting down the hall to the washroom to throw up, a horrid abdominal workout from expelling every meal I'd ever eaten through my face, then walking back to lay dozing and shaking in bed until the next sprint. There were six sprints in all. I slept on and off all the way back to my parents' house and throughout the afternoon.
The only things I ate all day were a cookie and a few pieces of chicken at dinner.
To quote Ian: "Never. Doing. That. Again."
Ever.
