Ka-pow-ee Blam Thwap!

I LOVE HITTING STUFF!

Tonight in KenPo, there were only four of us. I guess people are taking off early for the Thanksgiving holiday. We warmed up and worked out hard. I'm building up my strength and endurance - I did most of all the exercises tonight, including the squat thrusts. When I started, I could only do one. Tonight I did 20 and didn't throw out my back like I did with the one.

Generally, we start out with the warm-up exercises, take a quick break, then stretch and begin practicing blocks, punches and kicks. By the time that's over, I'm beet red, sweating profusely, feeling a bit shaky, and breathing way too hard. Then we break up according to skill level (we have white through brown belts in my class) and practice our kenpos, combinations and defenses.

But this night, there was me (white belt), Vincent (yellow belt), and two orange belts. That's it. So the instructors rolled out four free-standing punching bags and had us do 10 each side of every punch and kick we knew, then practice the kenpos and combinations on the bags (not defenses because the bag can't grab you, you know). The two instructors circulated around and watched what we were doing and made suggestions on easier/more effective/powerful ways of accomplishing what we were trying to do. It made a world of difference to actually be able to hit something rather than just going through the motions!

So here I am, throwing punches and knocking this bag across the room, following it. One instructor came over and watched me punching, then asked me if I knew how much the thing weighed that I was moving across the room. I didn't. 270 pounds I was knocking around there. A really large man, in effect. Wow.

I have been under a great deal of stress lately. The kind that gives you anxiety attacks and makes it very hard to sleep. I don't like taking pills so I can sleep, though I gave in last night because I was really becoming exhausted. I don't think I'll have that problem tonight. I seem to have taken a lot of my stress and punched it around the room.

Guess what my darling man is going to give me for Christmas?