jujitsu

Well....still way prefer systema. The gi is not only like pajamas, it gets ridiculously hot, and leaves rug-burn-esque marks all over you. And three people injured their feet on the soft mats.

It was nice to get a simple foot-sweeping throw drilled in, I might actually be able to use that in a general basis. And some clinch work, I suppose, though that also just seems silly with no strikes allowed - being able to just smack the other person changes everything. I did enjoy working with a little Puck (re: Alpha Flight) of a guy, a real wrestler, who seemed to have a wrestling/MMA background. Though he was in way better shape and temperament for grappling and just plain kicked my ass, he seems a better class of person than the rest of the class. Annoying to have to fight him with the disadvantage of a gi, and him with none, though.

sore pecs for first time in years

Working exclusively on the chest in weight training was an interesting experience. It's interesting how many variations there are for working one muscle. The other interesting bit, though, was that I forgot how working out with weights can completely wear out your body; it's not like bodyweight stuff where you can kind of keep going indefinitely. I tried to do an arm balance after, and couldn't even support myself for a second. Then was vaguely shaky the whole rest of the day. And hungry. Which was good for the big Chinese feast that took up the afternoon, though, heh.

Today I tried out a dance video I bought at Bookman's, after watching Step Up 2 the Streets and pondering whether I could afford a Pima hip hop class. The production values are horribly low, but I was gratified to find out it's not even a workout kind of dance video, but just like a straight up dance class, which is nice, as that's exactly what I wanted. I felt kind of silly at first dancing in my living room, and only got through about a third of the choreography before stopping to avoid overwhelming, but I'm excited to get more of it down, it gets the tapas going and is just challenging enough. Space is a real issue in my living room, and barefeet on the rug kind of hurts; lessons learned. Ah...sad to see a review that says it's "moves from the 90s"...still, better than knowing no moves at all.

notes from work

One thing to remember when sitting at a desk job - hips! I've felt so much better lately after remembering to periodically stretch my hip flexors (easy to do with a standing lunge in the bathroom, say), and the outside of my hips by putting a foot up on a knee while sitting, then leaning forward. Those parts tighten up so much from sitting in a chair, I just happened to remember it after something keying a memory of how humans weren't evolved to sit in chairs, however comfortable.

Also, with the new workouts I'm happy to be getting a sheath of muscle again; it'll be nice for the organ-deep strikes of systema, just in feeling less vulnerable than when I did when I wasn't working out and felt skinny and weak. It's not a big visible difference, but I'm starting to feel it.

dang teens

Are actually fine, really. I certainly get better what they say about learning from teaching others; for example, I was reminded of how tight I was as a teenager, simply from any lack of knowledge of any stretching at all. Luckily, I had a kind of mini-awakening at one point about that almost-painful at times stiffness, I remember the moment in the house on Water St, and later a girlfriend was kind enough to get me over my macho crap and get me to do a yoga video. Not sure if I'll get the same into these kids, but it's all interesting to think about.

Also, I knew on some level but never really realized how intricate weight training can be - you can pretty quickly determine heavy, medium, and light weight classes for a given exercises, and then say within one class light-heavy, medium-heavy, and heavy - I'm kind of curious to see now if there is a fractal effect like in classical yoga, now.

addendum to previous

Man, I had completely forgotten why arms raised vertically is used so much in classical yoga. I'd relegated to being for seniors who don't really ever perform that action more, but one forgets how tight most people are in that direction, often. Including me after weight training focusing on the upper back, apparently, it's interesting when raising your arms straight up hurts that much; I do have a finer knowledge of that region of my shoulders, though, in working out the knots.

ow, I tell you

Saturday was the first time doing weight training in a long time. Some old exercises, including benching and lat pulldowns I still find very dubious in their practical use, and some new ones including a kind of row-machine supported 45 degree pullup. I think the trick is I jumped in way too fast, and instead of just being sore, seriously knotted up my lat muscles, to the point of nigh-constant discomfort. This is going to take a while to repair.

The systema pushup-balance drill didn't go over so well with the teenagers, I think because they weren't really getting the concept of sweeping, without a real martial arts background, and also the systema concept of striking-to-move, which is really more of a hardcore push.

I did get to teach a little yoga, sun salutationing with the teens, and tailoring a half/side forward bend to an obese gal with bad knees. That's where the real advantage of classical yoga comes in, customizing toward a specific context like that, so that was nice. She also really liked my posture primer. Looks like I may just be kind of a go-to teacher for the place for now, used in moments rather than classes, which is fine for now, though I'm a bit worried the head guy wants to kind of take over any teaching of mine and make it into regular exercise.

ye olden bait n' switch

Thinking I'd get to train with my old teacher, I actually went back for some traditional martial arts training. Instead, on account of an injured back, I got the older teacher who smells uncannily like a dentist.

Ugh, waste of a night. In one sense, bouncy mats are like a feather pillow compared to using concrete for systema, but in another sense, they almost encourage little injuries and carelessness. I find it odd that for as relatively violent and hardcore as systema seems, I felt way more sore/injured after one night on a squishy surface. Part of it is also partners caught up in doing moves that look cool, or who have this frantic need to "win," or who are just unrelentingly stiff. All stuff that is immediately quashed in systema as soon as it appears.

Also, to practice each movement one to two times, with absolutely no context and the other person just giving it to you....after a dynamic environment like systema or the self-led classes we had back on the east side, it's almost enough to make me scream. The best I got out of the class was to practice relaxing out of joint locks, I suppose. Need to get the teacher I actually went there for, oy.