Pneumatised!

MM,

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Nathan and I went to the gym. I have been writing most of this week so far, so I decided I needed to get some exercise at the gym.

First, I did the stepmaster. Ended up doing 21 floors in 10 minutes. Then we did the following exercises.

Leg lifts
Pull-ups (again military and parallel)
Dips
Leg press (we started using a slightly different leg press that is a little harder on the quads because you don’t use your glutes as much)
Hamstring flexor (called seated leg curls)
Hip adductors
Hip abductors
Chest press
Bar pulls (works the muscles next to the scapulae on the back)
Seated row
Shoulder fly
Shoulder lift
Back extensor

Free weights:
Pectoral fly (lie down with weight in each hand, arms extended; pull hands together at arm’s length in front of chest)
Bicep curl
Two shoulder exercises (no idea what they are called; someone showed them to me)
Wrist strengthening
Side situps and jack-knives

After we ran 1 mile from Yonge and Bloor via Church Street. My time was 8 minutes 33 seconds. It’s starting to feel like spring 🙂 and the run felt good. Without the cold air in my lungs so much I felt like I could increase my time for the 1 mile again. I should be able to do mile and half easier now and maybe next time I will try to push the speed.

Friday, March 31, 2006

Friday is gumdo day. I’ve missed doing the sword martial art. I have been an orange belt for six months. Mostly because I’ve been too busy to go to gumdo and have primarily been focussed on taekwondo and getting loads of writing and some other work done lately. But Friday I made myself go in. It was easier to do because Nathan went to aikido and I said, “Let’s go to the gym after. I’ll be motivated to go to the do jang if we have to go to the gym after.” Gumdo class on Friday is good because there is more time for the instructor to teach us things and he likes to correct our techniques and point out what we may be doing wrong (i.e., like swinging our sword out to the side too far where it may potentially pull on the shoulder – not good). We worked on our patterns of course. And I got a few more pointers on my techniques. I never think of this as correcting, but rather information that I may not have known. (If only other students would take that perspective when someone tries to help them, but that is another story and rant.) Anyway, like I said I like getting extra tips and information especially if it makes complete sense (as in it will give more power to the technique or make it feel more natural). At 7:30 I had to leave to meet Nathan and go to the gym.

When I got to the gym, I did some cardio on the elliptical. I did 0.98 miles in 10 minutes. Then I did the following exercises.

Leg lifts
Pull-ups (again military and parallel)
Dips
Leg press
Hamstring flexor (called seated leg curls)
Hip adductors
Hip abductors
Chest press
Shoulder fly
Shoulder lift

Free weights:
Pectoral fly (lie down with weight in each hand, arms extended; pull hands together at arm’s length in front of chest)

The gym closes at 9 p.m. on Fridays, so Nathan and I didn’t have time to do a full workout – next time.

Tomorrow there’s another black belt meeting at the do jang. I realize this is supposed to help us help the Master with the running of the do jang, but frankly it’s his do jang and he can do what he wants. I think it’s nice he wants our opinion, but I wouldn’t really argue with the things he does. He’s a good guy. There are issues that come up that I suppose he likes to have us help him with, so I suppose it’s a good thing we have these meetings. However, they do take up time and for those who know how meetings can be like… well, yes, it happens sometimes too for martial artists – we aren’t perfect people. This time we are having training too. We haven’t had black belt training for awhile, so I’m expecting this to be good. Need some traditional martial arts training.

Now, get this… tomorrow is April Fool’s Day. Yeah, that’s right, it’s April Fool’s Training Day. Hehe… you “normal” people must think us martial artists are well… fools! Whatever. It’s who we are and who I am. So deal.

Blessings,
Cassandrah
(who has a lot to say, but not enough time to say it all because she does sooo much)
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