ok first let me say that i am not particularly fond of posting selfies...unless of course i have 3 hours to spend agonizingly pining and posing for the perfect shot, then editing and filtering...but this was an experiment, sort of.. Just wanted to capture this rare physical phenomenon that occurs on my face after an intense work-out or run: I get this weird perfectly rectangular red splotchy area across the middle of my face. Just weird. Though this just looks like I yanked my ponytail so tight it made my eyes cross. Enough weirdness, enough being weirdly vulnerable.
My point today is that I chose to attend a Body Combat class on a Sunday afternoon, for the first time, and it also felt a little weird. Sundays are lazy days, and on this day I was feeling particularly dough-ball-ish, so it was rather hard to get into the fierce, badness, beast mode required for a good combat class. But I tried.
I walk in a couple minutes early, actually, but it feels like I'm late because the instructor has held a half-hour "pre-fight" instruction session, just to give some pointers on how to do the various martial arts or boxing moves with correct form. Dang, I should've shortened my Sunday nap and come earlier for this, oh well.
He cautions everyone to work at their own pace, to stop and get a breather or water if needed, or step up the moves to a higher intensity level. He says some of us may be much better runners than he is because, well, he learned to fight, therefore he doesn't need to run. Ha ha.
This is also the first time I've been to the gym in a few weeks, since having the kids home for a 3-week break from school plus starting my new job. So I'm trying to pace myself, but this fighting thang is just so much fun, I'm quickly escalating into the above-mentioned fire-faced beast mode! Some of my favorite tracks were...
Karate: Robb pulls out the old favorite to the Pink song that goes "I'm not here for your entertainment.." (not the actual title) love those snap kicks.
Capoeira: Robb's comment: "this is going to kick your 'boo-daahhh!!!" oh yes, it did. Lunges & squats. Feelin it a day later.
Boxing: lots of this, but one favorite track was when he split up the class, so we're facing the other half who are lined up facing us, and we do a traveling jab move towards them, then back, and eventually through them and switch sides. Robb tells us that the jab is the move you do first in a fight, and if it's done hard enough, it just might be your last move. Well if this dude facing me is my opponent, I have nothing to fear. It's one thing to face a sweet girl who can't really fight, but a guy? Come on. This was just a bit disconcerting to me, I mean, aren't guys supposed to have an innate sense of how to throw a punch? This guy's girlfriend next to him was much better than he was, or maybe she was his bodyguard. Whatever. There I go again, the snarky critic...
Muay Thai: Lovin this! Triple elbow strike right, then a flying, jumping elbow strike left, finish him off with downward brawl punches. Robb leads us in loud guttural sinister yells as we kill our opponents, and by now my Sunday dough ball self is lying in a pool of sweat on the floor. For this one, I've conjured up a great image of my imaginary opponent: in my mind I'm running the trash late at night at work. This means propping open the back door with a brick and running the trash bags out to the dumpsters behind the Starbucks in the dark, praying that nothing but a few squealing rats are there to greet me behind those smelly iron gates. I've been told I can let someone else do this, if I want, and was even offered this guy's switchblade, (not sure if he was serious or not, but seeing the number of police cars that hang out in the nearby parking lot, I can guess maybe not), but I don't mind. In my nightmare-ish fighting mode, I picture a freaky assailant dressed in black, hoodie over his darkened face and just the gleam of one odd gold tooth sparkling as he laughs an evil laugh. I drop my garbage bags, and before he can say uncle I've wailed into him with an elbow strike across the face, upper cut to the gut, add a knee and a kick, how about a few brawler punches then dump out my bags of rotten garbage and coffee grounds on his face and let the rats finish him off. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of real and imagined attackers, I shall fear no evil; my roundhouse kick and mean right hook, they comfort me.
Ok, so obviously I'm having fun with this class. Maybe too much fun. I read recently in a devotional by Kristin Armstrong (Lance's ex) that during difficult times, it can be easy to fall into a trap of using things like exercise, therapy, yoga, drugs, acupuncture, shopping, working too much, alcohol, sex, meditation,etc. to try to alleviate pain. Nothing wrong with exercise, or some of those things in moderation, but I know that the way out of painful times is not by seeking immediate gratification in things that only numb the pain, acting as a method of avoidance or anesthesia. "We develop a tolerance to them and require more, only to grow increasingly frustrated and empty. It is impossible to avoid pain; you must walk through it or it will wait for you around every corner. And it is impossible to numb pain; you must experience it fully to come out cleanly on the other side. The only suggestion worth heeding is the only path of true healing - Jesus Christ." (Armstrong, 2007, Happily Ever After)
Words of truth.
And yet I probably won't even be able to over-indulge in my passion for exercise much these days, as my new work schedule won't allow as much time at the gym. Oh well, can't complain. The more I work, the more I earn, the more money I save, and the sooner I establish a steady income, the sooner I can...do some things. But I am definitely making room for this Body Combat class. At least once a week. No more dough ball. Not today, anyway. Hoooooaahhh!!
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