It is 4:42 AM and I’m forgoing the gym today in favor of writing, internet surfing and letting my body recover a bit.
I had my first adult karate class yesterday and my right leg is a bit sore. I showed up to a locked door as it seems Thursdays can be extremely light and they sometimes cancel. I’m not yet on the mailing list though so I didn’t get the memo. Luckily two sensei were there for their own training but kindly offered to give me a lesson. It was like a free M2M private lesson for which one usually has to pay more!
I haven’t had a workout like that in years and also ended up with a slightly bruised knee and leg as a bonus. It was also the first time I’ve ever sparred with punches and kicks in my life – a whole different feel to what I remember from wrestling. My partner was a sensei and a blackbelt but he was instructed to only ‘give a little.’
This karate school is the real deal since it is full contact every single class – it makes other dojos look almost like playtime. I also like the fact that instructions are in Japanese.
So what did I learn? I learned that my body is soft even though I have muscle from weight lifting. I learned I’m out of shape even though I go to the gym quite often. I have gained newfound respect for how much punches and kicks actually hurt.
Afterwards I had a flicker of a memory of how I used to feel after wrestling in high school. You feel very good from all the exercise which is combined with a lot of soreness – you feel confident as though you could take on the world.
