muay thai

thai kickboxing

WRT gel wraps -- I think that's probably what I'll wind up doing eventually (Mexican wraps in class, gel wraps for messing around at home), once I get a little more fit and also get my nards together enough to ask someone to show me how to do the Mexican wraps correctly (b/c horses don't have fingers -- or, well, technically, they have only one finger on each leg, and that's the one they stand on, LOL!).

I'm lovin' the instant cold therapy.  I feel the same way about ice.  There are two kinds of pain I can't stand: 1) extreme pinching; 2) ice (and things as cold as ice) against my skin.

I quizzed my roomie last night on how the instant-cold packs work, because he's rocking his chemistry classes right now ... I wasn't 100% sure what the ingredients were, though (I think it's ammonium nitrate and good ol' water, but I need to look it up).  The wrap I didn't ask about, b/c I have no idea what that's made of -- some kind of gel stuff that feels delicious.  It is definitely coming with me to class tonight.

I so hear you about the Biofreeze (and similar stuff).  I love the smell of menthol, so I don't mind smelling like it, LOL.  I just pretend its ... like ... rugged, and outdoorsy, or something (because I'm clearly so rugged, LOL).

Your shoulder story made me chuckle because it sounds like something I'd do.  I mucked up my ankles for a while as a kid that way, LOL.  I'm half-debating skipping class tonight b/c my calf is still a bit painful, and I have this habit of erring on the side of stupid where injuries are concerned.  I have a doctor's app't tomorrow AM, so I plan to get it checked out either way. 

In all honesty, though, knowing myself, I'll go to class (and spend the whole time praying I don't blow up my leg, LOL).  I don't have class again 'til Monday, so I'll be able to rest the danged thing between tonight and then.  Within reason.  If I can convince myself to sit down that long.

Wow -- yeah, 15 lbs higher + 5 amateur fights = probably not a great idea for your first amateur fight.  Or maybe any fight, unless you're related to Chuck Norris.  After Monday's class, I have rather more respect for the whole 'weight class' idea, LOL...  I'm pretty sure that even if I was super-skillful, the guy I trained with on Monday could hand me my bacon.

OTOH, the gym in NYC sounds like possibly a good lead.  I look forward to hearing about your adventures there!

The female fight club made me laugh -- not because it's a female fight club (I know lots of girls who can hit a lot harder than I can, LOL!), but because of the inevitable Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie connection (and maybe the fact that Jolie does action flicks), that immediately made me imagine Angelina Jolie in the role of Tyler-Durden-Only-Female, and for some reason, that seems funny :D

I have mixed feelings about 'anything goes.' 

I like the idea in theory, and I think I'd be willing to go there with a bunch of people I knew and trusted, but with people I didn't know and/or at least spar with on occasion ... I dunno.  I like my face in one piece (well, two pieces, if you count the jaw), LOL. 

I'm all for getting hit, and all for getting hit hard ... but I'm also all for being certain that the ppl in question having the decency not to rearrange my face after knocking me out, 'cause that's just not fair.  (Re-arranging my face while I'm conscious and on my feet is another story, though -- that's one way to learn to keep your hands up!).  There are people in this world who are messed-up enough to take an opportunity like that and us it for the wrong reasons, and I've met enough of them already, LOL.

I believe I envy your proximity to both NYC and AC :D  Louisville is a great town, but pretty much all the actual MT fighters here come from my gym, LOL, and I don't think we have many straight MT fights here at any level outside of the gym.  We have to drive (or fly) for those!  The MMA and BJJ guys have it a little better, though.

There are a couple of other gyms here that train Muay Thai.  Maybe when I develop some skills in something other than punching myself in the face and pulling my tendons, I'll think about arranging some kind of MT throw-down.  Unless the gym has some kind of problem with that, which I doubt they would.  They're not the, "You must never use your skills outside of our hallowed halls unless you are attending a sanctioned fighting event!" kind of place.

Youtube has a bunch of videos on how to wrap hands.  i actually watched a couple different ones until i found a way that felt comfortable to me. 

I have to get me some of those cold therapy things. How'd you make out at your class with your injured calf, or did you skip?  I'm glad my shoulder story gave you a good chuckle.  So, yes, I am a dumb @ss, I also err on the side of stupid.  i should've given my shoulder a rest but i figured i could go to class and go easy on my right arm.  Then my doctor got mad at me because he said i was talking too long to heal.  Of course i didn't tell him i hurt it boxing (it was an elbow to the bag that did it) but I stopped strength training and i cut back on my pushups.  Its a weird pain it doesn't hurt all the time, just on certain moves, like spinning back fist or if a fully extend a cross, so i was doing a half ass cross until the Master told me i was doing my crosses wrong!  BUSTED!! So it took 5 months, but hey its better (mostly)!! LOL

Yeah i'm in a good location.  I'm close to AC about 40 minutes.  NYC is about 1 1/2 hours, and Philadelphia isn't far either, probably about the same as NYC.  I'm about 15 minutes from the beach, although i don't go there often.

I will check out the handwrap videos on YouTube.  I imagine there are probably written instructions on the internets, as well :D  Why do I never think of things like that?  LOL  Then again, I rarely think of looking at instructions.

I did go to class, and it went surprisingly well.  My leg actually felt somewhat better after than before -- I think it needed some stretching and activity (though it did hurt like a biscuit at first when we were jumping rope).  It feels fine today -- still very mildly sore, but no worse than the aftermath of a decent Charlie horse.

I know what you mean about weird pains that don't hurt all the time -- I had one of those in my right foot for a long time, and it was deeply dependent on how I arranged my weight, so I would only feel it if I was standing a certain way, or if I had to stand for a long time.  I actually put up with it for about a year before I finally saw someone about it, and they made me walk around on crutches for two weeks -- but it hasn't hurt since, so I guess it was worth it, LOL.

OTOH, walking on crutches sucked.  I have never felt like a bigger wuss in my life: not because I was on crutches, but because I was completely unprepared for the kind of upper-body workout involved in crutching your tail all over the mountains of Western North Carolina (where I worked at the time).  For that matter, I wasn't even prepared to crutch my way through the mall.

I also suspect that erring on the side of stupid is probably a common factor among people who get into things like Muay Thai and BJJ, LOL.  It probably takes a reasonable measure of willingness to do things that most people would think were simply dumb -- a lot of people seem to think, "Why would I want to do something that makes it fairly likely I'll get hit in the face?"

Meanwhile, we're all like, "You should come get hit in the face with me some time!  It's fun!"  :D

W00T! new semi-contact sparring class!  That sounds pretty awesome.  Definitely keep me posted!  I can live vicariously through your class highlights until I become eligible for the sparring class ... five months from now.  (I realize there's good reason for that, but it still seems ... so ... far ... away.)

Also -- LOL -- I know what you mean about guys being afraid to hit girls ... I was watching the Mixed Martial Arts class after my class last night, and there was one girl in the class.  They were doing some boxing drills, and the guy who was working with the girl was being all shy about it.  Their instructor walked up and said, "Don't be afraid to hit her.  She has two major titles and could flat out kick your @ss."

I about died.  I was sitting on the floor, stretching, so I just kind of hunkered over in a deep straddle with my elbows on the ground and hoped no one would hear me snickering :D

BTW, this is another thing I love about my gym, LOL.  They're a bunch of very blunt people, and I like that.

You know, there aren't any girls in the BJJ class at Core, either -- at least, not in the no-gi class.  There are in the kids' gi class, but I don't know about the adult gi class. 

I'm marginally (but only marginally) wary of fighting girls for an entirely different reason -- guys usually just try to look tough and wail on you, whereas girls are usually extremely technical, have great form, and will pop you in the same spot until you want to cry, LOL.  OTOH, getting hit in the same spot ... over and over and over and over and over again ... and again ... is how we get tougher ... uh ... right?

I agree with your assessment of the female fight club -- sounds fun and exciting, but potentially like it could go wrong, LOL.  Are they of the, "If this is your first night in female fight club, you have to fight" mentality, or can you sit in and watch and get a feel for it?

In other news, I might actually get to see some of the really good local fighters in action this weekend.  They're hosting a mini-competition here, which I think is awesome (and about danged time).  The guys hosting the thing, are affiliated with my gym, and are pretty awesome -- they have some pretty high-level amateur fighters, mostly straight MT (a couple guys do MMA).

I figure I might learn something if I go watch, but it's possible my stupid work schedule will intervene /:  However, this is the last Saturday that I have to work, probably for a very long time, and I imagine that they'll probably have some other stuff happening at some point.  I'm actually thrilled that the Saturday schedule is going away, because I'll be able to hit class 3 days a week from now on.

I grew up in CT, so I hear you about proximity to NY and other cities -- we were about like that relative to Boston and NYC (and, of course, most of NJ), and it was very cool.  The family also had a cottage a Old Lyme (for values of cottage), which was awesome, though my Dad's parents decided to sell it when they retired :::sigh:::  I miss the proximity to the cool stuff in the really big cities, here, though Louisville is really awesome for a mid-sized city.  Nonetheless, that's among the reasons I will probably move back to the Northeast after I finish school.  Unless I can't find a good gym -- then all bets are off, LOL.

Oh -- this you might find amusing.

The guys who are hosting the fights on Saturday are a fight team made up of a mix of pro and amateur fighters.

One of them is sponsored by Krispy Kreme.

LOL!

Donuts and Muay Thai ... a match made in Heaven?

That's funny to have Krispy Kreme as a sponsor!!  Cool that your place has fights that you can go watch, sounds like fun and a good learning experience. 

Glad your calf is better.  I excerised my calfs too much doing plyometrics once and they hurt so bad but i noticed that after walking around they loosened up a bit.  Felt like somebody shortened them or something, had trouble walking, but my dumb @ss didn't miss class either and i did alright.  I have intermittant weird pains in my foot too, and it only happens in certain positions, I don't know what it is.  i went to the doctor for it once, he took an xray, said perhaps it was a stress fracture and told me to wear good shoes. 

I HATE crutches.  I shattered my big toe years ago (i think this has something to do with foot pain but the foot doc didnt' think so) and they gave me crutches.  i couldn't believe how hard it was to do things.  going up stairs impossible!  I felt like a wuss too.  I went to the supermarket and couldnt believe how hard it was walk around.  i actually told my husband to finish up and I went and waited in the car.  After that i just limped and used my big foot boot that they gave me instead of those darn crutches. 

Funny, that the girl at your place had the same problem with a guy partner, i bet a lot of girls do.  One of our instructors (we only have 2) is always telling the guys 'don't worry about her, she's tough, she can take it', but i know they go easy. 

So you are from CT, so then you are familiar with the area.  I'm near Pt. Pleasant, NJ.  I grew up in Woodbridge though which is even closer to the city.  I'm pretty sure you could find a good gym in NYC.  I know the place i go to has a friend in  CT - i think its called ctmartialarts.com in Danbury. Louisville sounds like a cool place too.  Never been to Boston but that sounds cool too. 

You wrote: "Felt like somebody shortened them or something, had trouble walking, but my dumb @ss didn't miss class either and i did alright. "

LOL, that's pretty much exactly how mine felt Wednesday night.

'Wear good shoes,' LOL, Doc Speak for, "Well, there's obviously something wrong here, but hell if I know how it happened or what to do about it!" :D

Yeah -- going up stairs on crutches is HORRIBLE.  I'm pretty sure you could be, like, Arnold Schwarzenegger and it would still suck.  I admire the people who have to use them all the time, and make it look easy (I've also known at least one guy that could kick your @ss with them -- fortunately, though, I was never on the receiving end of that beat-down, LOL!).

I'm looking at ctmartialarts' website -- I'm pretty familiar with Danbury.  They sound kind of interesting.  This is probably awful, but the one thing that bugs me is how many times the word 'safety' shows up, LOL.

Not that safety itself bothers me -- it just makes me wonder whether the people that sign up are going to be into the whole full-contact idea, LOL.  My hope is that they just say "safety" a whole lot so they don't scare off the timid people before they learn how fun it can be to get kicked around a little :D

I hear you about the Saturday schedule ... this is one thing I very much like about my gym -- our Saturday classes are back-to-back, at 11:00 and 12:00. 

Edit: Lost all my paragraph breaks somehow when I posted this.  Fixed!

I hope I won't be one of those guys who automatically go easy on the girls.  I don't think I will -- I didn't in TKD, anyway.  Besides, I spent the first 14 years of my life getting the living daylights kicked out of me by my older sister -- I know girls can fight, LOL!

Oh, yeah -- I know where Pt Pleasant and Woodbridge are.  My sis and ex-bro-in-law lived in Jersey for a while, in Belleville (where he grew up) and Newark, and we drove down your way a couple of times when I was visiting them there.  I was also there a couple of times with a friend of mine from Bear, DE who liked to take me on long road trips whenever I visited him.

Come to think of it, I pretty much had the run of southern New England and the Mid-Lantic area for quite a long time ... LOL, nice work if you can get it :D I believe there are good gyms in NY, NJ, and Boston, per Bullshido.net, if I'm remembering correctly.  I don't think it should be too difficult to find something up that way (though it will be sad to leave my current gym behind, if/when that time comes). 

Boston's a neat city.  I don't think I'd live there -- tooooo expensive! -- but it's a cool place to visit. Louisville is a nice city -- it blends the progressive atmosphere of the Northeast with the gracious hospitality of the South, and throws in a dash of good ol' Midwestern common sense (though also Midwestern hesitation about adding a light rail system :| ... maybe some day...). 

Not to say it isn't without its problems (horrible air quality, for one, though not as bad as the Baltimore/DC metro), but it has a lot going for it.  Or at least, it does for now -- I'm worried that Kentucky's current fiscal disaster might hamstring its efforts at becoming a world-class city. I guess I should go test some stuff for real. 

I've kind of been writing this off and on between testing things, but the thing I need to look at next is kind of complicated.  I'm not actually sure how to make it work, so I'm not actually sure how to tell if it's broken, LOL. Good luck with your class tmw -- I hope the schedule for the sparring clas turns out to be you-friendly!

LOL, about the calf.  i think i waddled around for about a week!  I can't stand doc speak!  that's exactly what the doc meant...'i have no idea but wear good shoes, that should help'....those doctors drive me nuts!

Boston sounds cool, never been, always wanted to check out Mass., Louisville sounds cool too.  its very expensive here in NJ.  and i don't think things are going to get much better.  our taxes here are ridiculous!  and i moved down here because it was cheaper than woodbridge, cant imagine what things cost up there now!  is crazy!  baltimore/dc area is way too congested!  my in-laws just moved to NC 2 years ago so every thanksgiving we go down there, and the traffic is just intolerable.  it took an extra 2 hrs of bumper to bumper to get through that area.  this past year we took another route so we could go around the dc area and we saved 2hrs, its crazy.  yeah also bad air quality.

well today we had a huge snow storm.  we got at least a foot of snow.  i'm supposed to be at work at 7am, no way that is happening!  I'm going to call out in a few minutes then off to clean up some of this crap!  I could use a snow day, haven't had one in years!  hopefully the dogs will have a blast running around in the snow, at least the greyhound will....although they have thin skin and practically no body fat and have to wear a coat in the winter. how funny is that!

I hear you about docs driving you nuts ... I think I'm lucky with my current doc.  She's an osteopathic doctor, which in practice doesn't necessarily mean much (the educational process is pretty much identical to that of your standard MD), but I think osteopathic medicine tends to attract people with a slightly different philosophy towards wellness, illness, and healing.

A lot of MA schools focus a lot on safety -- and I think it's largely for the very reason you mention: the P word, LOL.  I guess with Muay Thai, there's also the possibility that people don't know much about it beyond what they've seen in the movies or watching MMA competitions.  I'm sure there are probably people who are more timid about it and do require some reassurance in the beginning that they're not just going to be handed to advanced students for use as punching bags. 

I have somewhat mixed feelings about naturally-timid types in Muay Thai ... on one hand, MT might help them become a bit less timid, but OTOH, people who are simply timid by nature are probably likely to remain fairly timid, and MT is an agressive art.  I guess those who are timid by nature aren't likely to become overconfident and get themselves liquified by significantly-more agressive fighters, though, so I don't really see a problem there ... I just wonder, do naturally timid people ever really come to enjoy it?  I know at least one guy who got involved with Muay Thai because he's naturally conflict-averse and doesn't like hitting or getting hit -- and he's learned to do the hitting/getting hit part, but he still doesn't like it.

I'm sorry to hear they didn't update you on the sparring class yet!  I hope they'll do it back-to-back, too -- that way you're already warmed up, and you don't wind up having to either hang around at the gym for ever and ever between classes or go all the way home, then come back (or run errands in your workout clothes!).

It sounds like you have a good gym ... I'm glad they're the kind of place that listens to the needs of the students.  Likewise, it sounds like their program is well-structured, so students have a relatively clear means of assessing their own current level of ability.

You wrote: "i have to admit there are girls that i go easy on, haha, i think some of them should be doing turbo jam instead...and i REALLY i hate saying that."

I suspect the same could be said for some guys, LOL ... having only partaken of the conditioning class so far, I don't know if we have any in my gym, but it wouldn't surprise me to run into guys that want to be 'tougher' than they really are, and want to face off with people who pretty much have to go easy on them.  I would also guess that some people get into Muay Thai expecting it to be more like TKD or shotokan -- then, it's possible that some schools teach it that way.

LOL -- I hear you about B'more/DC traffic.  My sis lives in B'More, and when my then-bf and I drove down for her wedding, we made great time until we were almost there, then were on the beltway for like three hours.  Argh.  I lived in B'more for six months and avoided the beltway at all costs.

I think greyhounds in coats look rather fetching :D  I hope you and the dogs get to enjoy the snow today!  We have no snow -- just  sun and cold.

That's it for now ... off to test more things, argh.

I see an osteopath too, i love my doctor.  i found this one about a year ago, my old doc wasn't osteopath and would just prescribe medications all the time, instead of trying to find out what causes all these problems, and i don't like to take stuff (unless of course it were necessary). I have an autoimmune disease (celiac) so i have a poor immune to begin with and taking antibiotics just makes me sicker.  I've had a lot of strange problems and i've taken a lot of strange meds and never want to do that again. at one point i had migraine headaches every day (this lasted over a year), no doctor could figure out why this was happening but the only thing they could do was prescribe me stuff, like seizure medication, blood pressure medication, to stop the migraines....it was horrible.  doctors never figured out what it was....  i, otoh, thought maybe i had additional food allergies.  paid out of pocket for allergy tests, and viola! found out i had some allergies, stopped eating foods, migraines mysteriously stopped...hmmmm

Most people in my MT class have kids that take TDK at the place (i think there's 3 or 4 of us that don't have kids there, me included).  i think they get a family discount.  A couple people are TDK black belts and wanted to try another MA. Also, there's no problem if they have to bring thieir kid to class (free babysittting). Most of the parents are dads, but there are a few moms ....There are a lot of high school seniors that will be turning 18 soon, so i wonder if they will be joining us.  i don't think we have anybody under 25 in our class at this point.

Well i didn't make it to class last night!  OMG, its the second class i missed in 11 months!  But, we did get a foot of snow, and i was shoveling for about 4 hours.  the roads were horrible and i didn't feel like driving 25 miles.... they probably would've thought i was nuts if i did show up!!  so hopefully by next class i will hear something about this much anticipated sparring class.  I hope its back to back, because running errands in my wet, sweaty clothes would not be fun.

Kayla the greyhound does look fetching in her coat!  she actually has a coat that matches her collar (they need special collars since they have small necks)!  she loved the snow.  she looked like a deer running and hopping around it was really cool to watch!  KD on the other hand didn't enjoy it, the snow was taller than her legs so she had trouble.  i stayed home from work (my work never closes) and spent half the day shoveling!  work is about a half hour on a good day, i figured i'd help out the people who plow and stay off the road.

Having a snow day was cool, its been about 6 or 7 years since it snowed this much.

have fun testing things....

LOL, weird coincidences abound!  I didn't make it to class last night either, so I'm doubly-looking forward to Wednesday's class.  I think a foot of snow out of nowhere and terrible roads qualify as a valid excuse.  Mine was simply a scheduling SNAFU that I didn't know how else to resolve.

I totally hear you about docs that just basically write prescriptions ... my previous doc was one of those as well.  At one point, she had me on five different meds for asthma and allergies without hitting on one medication that really worked for me without making me feel awful, LOL.  I guess part of this is the fault of the American health care 'system,' though -- insurance companies focus on quantity rather than quality, because the more patients a given doc sees in one day, the higher the revenues are for the insurance company.  So even doctors who want to really spend time with their patients find themselves missing important things and just writing scripts.  IMO, health care is one thing that does not benefit from free market pressures.

However, I do think the philosophy behind osteopathic medicine makes your average osteopath more willing to work around that system in order to better care for the patient.  I think the major difference is that standard docs tend to look at the body as inherently diseased and in need of constant correction, whereas osteopaths see the well body as inherently healthy and try to seek out the causes of ailments and, whenever possible, correct them through less invasive, less arduous means.

I had a similar experience to your migraines with Advair -- it cleared up my lungs pretty well, but made my throat horribly sore ... I figured it out by accident.  Forgot my Advair one morning, and voila!  The sore throat went away within twelve hours.  So then I was like, "Waaaait a minute..."  Fortunately, that was with my current doc.   I told her about it, and half expected, "Now, now, you can't just stop your asthma meds like that," but she was like, "Oh, okay -- well, is the Singulair working for you?"  And I said, "Yup, it's great."  Seriously, I really do feel like a totally different person -- amazing how much of a difference these things can make, hey?  :D

I totally hear you abou the people who want to learn vs. people who want to exercise angle -- I think that's one thing that works out well at my gym.  The people who just want to exercise have the option of doing the conditioning class -- which is absolutely awesome for exercise, and will teach you the basics -- and skipping the other Muay Thai class, which is pretty much geared towards teaching you to fight.  From what I understand, we get fewer exercisers in the regular MT class, LOL, and it seems like a good way to organize things.  That way, the ones who just want a unique (and seriously hard-core) exercise program can do their thing without getting in the way of people who really want to train.

I hear you about work never closing.  My office is in a downtown area where all the utility cables, etc., are buried, so they never lose power, and their basic position on weather-related closures is, "If we have power, we're open."  LOL!  We have branch offices that do close if they lose power, however, and my manager is cool -- before the last big weather disaster, he said to us, "I'm not going to ask you to choose between your lives and your job.  If you don't feel it's safe to leave home tomorrow, and anyone has a problem with your absence, they can talk to me."

I'm glad Kayla enjoyed the snow :)  My last dog was a big snow fiend -- but she was part husky, so I guess that was kind of a given :D  I know what you mean about the dogs with the shorter legs, though -- my old roomie had a giant Rottie/Dane mix and a little ... I'm not even sure what went into her -- part Sheltie, part Basset, part foot-stool -- and she would get so frustrated when the big dogs could just bound through the snow, while she could barely keep her head above water, so to speak, LOL.  She would be, like, "That's it.  I'm going back inside," after about 5 minutes.

Well, I hope you enjoyed your snow day!

LOL, that's funny that you missed class too.  Well i'm definately up for class tonight! 

My old doctor had me on 2 allergy meds, i was taking singulair and allegra every day for years.  i even tried allergy shots for 2 years but that didn't work.   i like my new doctor, i have a lot of health issues and he always suggests more natural alternatives to things and he LISTENS to me.  I can't tell you how many times i've had a problem that shouldn't be happening to me because i'm 'too young' for that particular ailment.  There's been many but here's my favorite one....i went to the doctor for a checkup and they checked my height and weight.  well my height was 1 inch less than normal.....since nobody there seemed to be concerned about somebody shrinking in their 30s, which IS odd, i went to the gastro doctor and told him (i have celiac disease which causes malnutrition/malabsorption problems and could result in bone loss) so he sent me for a bone scan and sure enough i had bone loss. so the gastro calls me and tells me i have bone loss and to contact my doctor for treatment....huh? isn't he a doctor?  very confused.  i like the osteopath....he actually checked my vitamin levels and found some deficiencies (all related to bone loss)...i'm hoping that i've grown some bone mass back.  I just had a repeat bone scan and am waiting for the results, i have my fingers crossed.  when they checked my height, it was 1/4 inch more! not sure if people can grow in height but i'm thrilled (so i've only shrunk 3/4 of an inch). if my bone mass is normal, i'm writing an article to every fitness magazine about how you can increase bone mass without taking strange medications with weird side effects (like jaw bone cancer).

i hear ya with the weird side effects. most of the migraine drugs i took made me gain weight, then i would have to wean off the drug and start a new drug and wean on that one, and then wean off.  it was really a pain in the @ss but there was no way i could go to work or live for that matter with those migraines.  one drug made everything taste like metal, one drug made my legs swell, one drug actually said in the insert that it gives you a 'high' feeling (i'm not kidding! and yes it did), most made me gain weight.  oh and i took nexium for years (heartburn from all the food that i was eating that i was allergic to) and nexium causes bone loss....funny thing is, the doc didn't tell me to stop taking nexium when he found out i had bone loss.  he said take it every other day.  so obviously these doctors weren't helping me.

and this new doctor is the guy that's right next door to the dojang, hence me starting MT... so there are 2 reasons i like the doc!

Huskies are cool.  a friend of mine has a husky, i'll have to ask if he likes the snow.  my little dog Nikki never liked the snow. I feel bad for KD.  its still cold here so nothing has melted, so she still can't walk in the snow.  so she goes outside, looks around, then comes back in the house.  i shoveled a little bit for her to go to the bathroom but she can't run around the yard yet... hopefully this weekend it will melt some.  i love the foot stool comment, kd is the foot stool height. dogs are great (greyt)!

well hopefully tonight i will find out some info about this sparring class...i'm really anxious to find out, and it's been a week already...geez!!

Ack ... I was writing a long reply to this a bit ago and my browser blew up :(

At any rate, it sounds like your old doc was more or less typical of the American medical establishment -- the basic idea seems to be to medicate everyone into submission, LOL.

I'm glad you've got a good one, now -- osteopaths do seem to be better listeners, and definitely much more inclined towards finding a non-medicinal approach to health problems.

Celiac disease can be really hard on the body.  I'm glad you finally got diagnosed -- it sounds like it makes a world of difference for you.  I hope your bone scan comes back with good results!  I have to think there's a better way than the drugs they have now ... jaw bone cancer is scary!  In A&P, we talked about the role of weight-bearing exercise in the development and maintenance of bone mass -- if Muay Thai isn't weight-bearing exercise, I don't know what is!  :D

LOL, I like foot-stool dogs.  My Mom had a nice dog named Zoe who was about foot-stool height, so she was forever being used as a foot-stool in goofy pictures :D  She was a nice, quiet, long-suffering beagly thing who would occasionally go on a tear, escape via the door when someone was going out, and run in circles around the neighborhood.  If she couldn't escape, she'd just run up and down the stairs at about a million miles an hour.  We never did quite figure that one out!

I hope the snow will melt a bit so KD can have fun outside!  I can't wait 'til I can have dogs again.  I am definitely all for adoption -- I'm thinking I'll probably adopt either two greys from the greyhound rescue folks, or one grey from them and a Heinz 57 from Petsmart.  Both my cats are Petsmart Charities guys, and they're the best cats ever (caveat: I know everyone's cats are the best cats ever, LOL).  My husky blend came from the pound, and I loved her ... she was awesome, very smart and a great friend (also a fantastic judge of character :D).

Well, I'm expecting a tough class tonight ... I hope yours goes well, and that the Mystery of the Sparring Class will at last be resolved!

Celiac disease is hard on the body, I seem to have a lot of problems with it.  I know others who aren't nearly as sensitive to gluten as me.  If i touch something with gluten in it, then touch my own food....I get sick.  I was diagnosed about 6 yrs ago.  Then about 3 years after that I found out I had food allergies, and a couple months ago I got tested for more food allergies and found out I have more.  So eating can be difficult (especially eating out or at other peoples houses). I like CC for nutrition, although i did gain about 5 lbs over the winter and would like to 'loose' it (I crack myself up).  When I started logging my food I couldn't believe how low my protein intake was (in addition to finding out I am a peanut butter addict). My new doctor has helped me a lot with the vitamin/mineral deficiencies.  My old doc told me as long as I take a multivitamin I'll be fine.  He was wrong. 

So for 2 years I have been working on building my bone mass, I'm determined.  I walk, I strength train (been doing that for many many years), and the martial arts is another thing that can help. I initially tried Tai Chi but I didn't like it.  I'm not sure why, maybe too relaxing for me. MT is more my speed. So the strength training (actually resistance training with a boflex) with the Muay Thai should definately build some bone.  I also sometimes workout with a weighted vest, supposed to help too. We'll see.  Everybody at work thinks I'm nuts.  I walk every day at lunchtime, whether its 95 or 25, I'm out there walking.

Well the mystery continues....I still didn't hear anything about my sparring class....darn! They were closed on Monday due to the snow, so technically I didn't miss class.  I'm going to go tonight, it's a short class, really not worth my time to drive there, but I really like going 3 times a week. Last night was a good class.  I was the human punching bag.  When the master wants to demonstrate real life moves on a person, he likes to pick me which I think is great. But, you don't have to be a MT n00b to punch yourself in the face.  We were doing a kicking drill and he was kicking my gloved hand - which wasn't positioned properly because i hit myself in the face - while I had to kick his ungloved fist (ouch!). fun fun

Both my dogs are rescue dogs.  Nikki wasn't a rescue though, i found her in a classified in the paper.  I like the smaller dogs, foot stool or smaller.  Bigger dogs can get hard to handle.  When we first got Kayla, she didn't know anything. You really have to remember where they come from because they don't know what a car is, what stairs are, mirrors, simple things they just don't know.  They don't know how to be a pet. So getting her in the car was hard at first, we actually had to pick her up (hello, she's 70 lbs and ripped) and try to lift her up to get her in but of course the feet go out sideways (almost like in a cartoon) and try to resist....finally we got her to jump in but it took a while. The stairs took months, she still doesn't understand the concept of stairs, she tends to jump up the stairs, like 3 stairs at a time. KD we got from a kennel and she had been there for a while so I'm sure she would have been euthanized if we didn't take her. 

Well I hope you had a good class too.

I did indeed have a good class.  We finally decided that I'm a southpaw.  It seems to work better for me -- I'm quicker and more coordinated that way, though I still kind of occasionally get all TKD-ish.  Last night we were working a low kick-jab-cross-hook-switch kick combination, and it kept turning into low kick-jab-cross-hook-tae kwon do.

I kept throwing some kind of horrible, mutant TKD-style spinning kick instead of an actual switch kick, LOL.  Basically, only my left (normally back) leg was doing the switch, and halfway through I kept pivoting on my toe and letting fly with the actual kick ... hard to describe, but you can probably picture it.  So it was like, "low kick-jab-cross-hook-suck," LOL.

Suffice it to say, after a few of these, I made myself stop and do the combination in slow motion like four times, and was grateful when we moved on to simply exchanging push kicks :D  (For the record, my push kicks are looking much better -- read: more like proper push kicks; less like TKD front snap kicks -- and that's progress!)

My goal for this Saturday is to do Muay Thai, and not Muay Tae Kwon Do :D  Guess we'll see how that goes!

Your old doc telling you to just take a multivitamin -- wow, that's seriously scary.  I'm really glad your new one has some common sense (amazing how rare common sense is, ne?).  I'm also glad you've been able to get a lot of the food allergies diagnosed ... food allergies suck; they really do make it hard to eat anywhere.  I had a friend in hs who had a rough time eating anywhere because she was allergic to eggs -- it amazes me where you find eggs!

LOL -- somehow, the notion that even MT non-n00bs occasionaly punch themselves in the face is comforting.  It makes me feel like marginally less of a goofball (now if I could just do away with the MTKD... :D) 

It's also cool that you get picked as the demo person -- I think that speaks well of your ability!  I guess kicking the master's ungloved hand could be filed under 'building physical toughness?'  :)

That's what I tell myself every time I feel like wussing out of crunch number one billion five hundred thirty-three, or whatever: "I'm building physical toughness."  (Okay, except it comes out more like, "Building ... GASP ... physical ... GASP ... toughness!")  Biking to work in a face-peeling wind?  "I'm building physical toughness."  Sitting through boring training sessions at work?  Okay, maybe that's building mental toughness LOL.

I had to bite my tongue last night when we were doing crunches.  In my gym, it's a unique experience, LOL.  First of all, they come at the end of class, rather than at the beginning.  Second, the actual method is a little unusual -- you straddle the bag, do x number of crunches -- usually 3 or 4 -- followed by a sit-up, four punches (last night, hooks), lather, rinse, repeat.  The Train kind of wimped out on me.  I opted not to remind him that he's bigger, stronger, and more experienced than I am, and just kept plugging away on my own :)

To his credit, he had mentioned earlier that he has problems with athletic self-discipline, LOL.

Interesting -- the thing about greyhounds not grokking stairs is the one thing I've heard most frequently from people who adopt them.  The feet going sideways as you're trying to put her in the car -- LOL, I know what you mean.  It always amazes me how far cats can stretch their legs when they don't, say, want to go in a cat carrier or take a bath.  I'm surprised that they never evolved gliding capabilities!

There is much to be said for foot-stool dogs -- small enough to be portable, but still big enough to deter potential criminals (though, if I were to suddenly opt for a life of crime, I doubt I'd break into a house with guarded by an angry chihuahua -- those guys are hard-core!).  If I were to opt for a pure-bred other than a grey, it would probably be a Shiba Inu, a Manchester Terrier, or something similarly sized.  I've greatly enjoyed having big dogs, but smaller models definitely offer advantages, LOL!

My husky-blend, for example, was convinced that she hated being bathed (and, since she was part Lab, had an oily coat that picked up all kinds of dirt and dust, so she would often need it once a month or so, since we did a lot of running around outside).  It was usually an adventure coaxing 75 lbs or so of not-terribly-willing dog into the tub -- especially after she discovered the 'boneless' method!  The weird part was that once she was in the tub, she usually chilled out and enjoyed the warm water, LOL.  I think it was some kind of conflict between her Lab genes and her Husky genes!

LOL - MTKD, that's hysterical.  I can picture that last kick. I find slow motion helps a lot.  I practice at home in slow motion and I do things over and over so it becomes natural.  Helps a lot so you don't have to think about it.  Good news on the push kicks, it's funny how everything looks easy at first but when you get down to proper form its really not that easy.  I had problem with push kicks at first, hard to get that push part of it right.

Yeah the whole doctor thing is scarey.  Oh, I have an allergy to eggs too and soy, soy is in almost everything, and if there isn't soy in it, there's gluten in it, haha.  The gluten is bad enough but when you add the soy and egg to the mix my commercial food choices become very limited.  I just found out a couple months ago I have to stay away from navy beans, kidney beans, dairy, yeast and a couple other things (I have a list in my purse). It's tough but what can you do, there are worse things. And yes it is weird where you find eggs, for example a snickers bar, york peppermint patties, candy corn...funny how I named all candy!

I would like to think that everybody punches themselves in the face once in a while...

I actually like being picked as demo person, it makes me feel like I'm doing something right.  I had to do stretches again yesterday, if somebody told me a year ago that I would be able to stand in front of people and lead anything I would have laughed my @ss off. We do crunches at the end of class too, and push ups for that matter, they do it when you are most tired.  Oh, I love those sit ups  with the punches, not, they are hard!  Again, a lot of this stuff looks like 'yea i can do that' then you do one and you're like, okay i'm done.  I can't believe the Train whimped out! 

The stairs were funny with the greyhound, well it's actually still funny.  They are facsinated with mirrors at first too, she actually walked into mirrors for a while, she thought there was another dog around.  Kayla has a great personality, she is very playful, but they really have to learn from another dog how to be a dog. She learned a lot from KD but she also picked up some bad habits as well. KD's a great dog too, she's very laid back, she's a couch potato.  That's funny about the bath, KD's not a big fan of baths either, she has a coat that attracts dirt.  Kayla OTOH has a really soft coat and they say greyhounds don't really get dirty, she had a bath before we got her in August and we haven't had to bathe her yet, oh boy will that be fun!  Clipping the nails was bad enough, you'd think somebody was beating her or something.  She's a big baby, I call her a diva! She's really sweet.  KD has perked up a lot since we got her.  We were worried that she was getting depressed after Nikki died.  It was the first time she was alone.  I was happy with one dog but it made me sad to see her so lethargic.  So KD seems happy now, sometimes KD tries to chase Kayla which is hysterical because KD can only keep up for about 1 minute.

I would've perferred a small dog, I would definately get another min pin or another miniature dog.  They are portable, tough and fearless but they do yap a lot (I'm not sure my dog whispered skills are that good yet).  My husband suggested the greyhound.  When I was a kid I always said I would one day adopt a retired racing greyhound so I didn't mind. 

Soooo happy it's Friday!  Have a good class Saturday class, and good luck on dropping the KD from your MT!

OMG, I hear you about nail-clipping.  Kia was a great dog, but she must've had something seriously bad happen to her feet.  She had been abused before I got her and was very hand-shy; I was able to get her over that, but never over her foot-phobia.  Fortunately, her nails didn't grow very fast, so we would usually just have the vet do them every couple of months.

If that wasn't an option for some reason, I would do like one or two nails a day -- she would just get so freaked out, and after the third or fourth nail she would kind of lose it and sometimes would snap.  She never actually bit me, though, and she always looked like she felt horrible afterwards.  Basically, she seemed so uncomfortable that it didn't seem worth it to push her beyond that point, when I could still get the job done doing two nails a day over a few days.

The mirror thing reminds me of the day my Mom put in a full-glass storm door on her front door ... Poor Zoe was used to the storm door having an oval frame around it, and when she saw my step-Dad coming up the walk, she tried to run out to meet him and ran into the door head-long.  It was one of those situations where your first reaction is, "OMG, is she okay?" and then once you realize she's fine (if a little dazed and confused), you can't help laughing (especially since Zoe was usually a very serious and ladylike dog).

I know what you mean about them having to learn to be a dog -- I've known horses like that; both racehorses and the pricey performance horses that never get to play outside because they might get hurt :::sigh:::  You turn them out in a field, and they're like, "So ... now what?"  LOL  I'm glad Kayla has KD around to teach her!

Wow -- yeah, between Celiac disease, egg allergy, and soy allergy, there isn't much prepared food that you can eat!  OTOH, I guess that makes it harder to be lazy about it like I am :D  People are always saying it's best to make your own food, so you avoid all that salt and high fructose corn syrup and so forth.

You're right about doing things in slow-mo ... I think it helps with the neurological end of things, LOL.  If you do something in slow motion, you're more likely to do it right, and you then basically 'wire' yourself to perform the given movement correctly.  In theory, this is where the benefit of doing forms comes in -- effectively, you're pre-loading your circuits for efficient movements.  If nothing else, it helps with overall form.

I was definitely surprised how hard it is to do push kicks correctly.  That's one place where the TKD background does not help at all, LOL.  My push kicks kept turning into front snap kicks about 90% of the time for my first several classes.  Now they're all push kicks, though some of them are very bad push kicks, LOL!

Yeah, I was kind of surprised about the Train wimping out, too, LOL.  To his credit, he did say before class that he has trouble with the bits that require self-discipline, and I would definitely say that the sit-ups at the end require self-discipline.  I'm good with that kind of thing because I hate quitting, LOL.  Except for the generalized fights and arguments that happen between siblings, pretty much every argument or fight I've ever had was the direct result of my native inability to back down -- so now I try to use that trait to my advantage :D

w00t!

Got my first taste of sparring (okay, Sparring Lite) on Saturday!

Train wasn't there, so I worked with this guy who had to be sixty-five or seventy, but was pretty darned bassad.  He was a retired Marine, but I'm not really sure why they let him retire, LOL.  We did some long combinations -- basically built up from low kick-jab-cross-hook-switch kick to an iteration I can't even remember all of right now, LOL.  It started with a push kick and ended with switch kick-switch kick, and how it went in the middle is all a big freaking mystery at this point :D

After conditioning class was done (a pretty intense session -- apparently, Trey though we were all looking a little tubby, or something :D), the Saturday sparring session was looking kind of lean, so Brian asked Trey if I could join in.  Trey gave the go-ahead, so I got to join in the fray.  It worked out nicely; they would've had an odd number without me.

Since there were two sparring n00bs present (myself and another guy who's been doing MT longer, but hadn't sparred yet), Trey had us do kick play with a 'no head kicks' rule in play for about half the session.  I mostly worked wtih Brian, though I also worked with another guy who was like six and a half feet tall and probably weighed like ninety pounds (okay, not really ninety pounds, but he was skinny) all of which was 100% lean muscle (well, okay, there were some bones in there, too).  He was pretty cool; definitely knew his way around the whole sparring thing, but opted not to hand me my bacon :D  We pretty much traded kicks and blocks back and forth.

Brian decided to make me fight right-handed -- primarily, I think, because my lack of coordination was making it somewhat harder than it needed to be for me to defend myself southpaw stylie.  Sparring south-paw against a righty, you're at an advantage if you know what you're doing, because most people are right-handed and have mostly trained against other righties.  If you don't know what you're doing, however, it's somewhat harder to defend yourself.  Not sure I can really explain the mechanics involved, but I imagine you know what I mean.

Perhaps predictably, Brian and I kind of found ourselves whacking away on each-other reasonably hard, though not, by any means, at full power.  I have an enormous bruise on my upper left thigh (he has some pretty deadly aim, LOL!) -- which he gave me with shin guards on.  I realize they're designed to protect the kicker rather than the kickee, but I suspect they probably take the edge off at least a bit :D

I'm curious what his full-strength kicks look (and feel) like.  He has one serious round kick, that's for certain.  Also, a very skillful push kick -- he landed one right in my belly, which didn't hurt, but did succeed in knocking me backwards about a half step.

I had a great time, even though I'm pretty sure I was doing it mentally-feeble monkey style.  I will say that, having already biked about 5 miles (against a freaking merciless head-wind) and wailed my way through an hour of conditioning class, I was fairly tired, and I had more trouble than usual keeping my hands up.  Brian socked me in the ear once to remind me, LOL.  Didn't hurt, but made the point just fine. 

I like his teaching style -- it's the kind of thing that works for me.  To give you an idea of my learning style: I was good at spelling, but always used the wrong iteration of 'its' vs 'it's' until my 5th-grade teacher called me out on it; since then, I've pretty much never used the wrong one (okay, once in a great while -- but not because I don't know which one to use, LOL).

Kick play with Brian was similar: I got kicked in the side hard once or twice before I started watching for those kicks and blocking them (or side-stepping them, as circumstance allowed, LOL); took one push-kick to the gut before I started watching for those; made the n00b-tastic mistake of kicking his back leg with my back leg once, thereby leaving myself more or less completely open -- he took far less advantage of that than he might've.  He pointed out that in so doing, I pretty much invited him to grab me and knee me in the ribs, among other things.  Didn't do that again, either, LOL!  He also made me slow down and focus on technique a bunch of times, which was cool.

I would like to train with him more often.  He's easy to learn from, and keeps on me about the stuff I do wrong (like letting my hands drop when I'm tired ... and letting my hands drop when I'm tired ... and did I mention letting my ... yeah, you get the point ... okay, that one will require more than one reminder!).

When we got done with that, we worked the bags a bit longer -- Trey had us work a couple of combinations, and then had us box the bag for three rounds (2-minute rounds, admittedly).  By the time we were done with that, my arms were about ready to fall off -- but the class was also over, so they didn't.

Because I am A) crazy and B) a masochist, I decided that I didn't want to wait for the bus after class -- I figured I would bike part way home and pick up a bus when I got tired.

So, of course, I wound up making a wrong turn and biking for fifteen minutes before I realized I had (basically, I turned on to a road that went the right way, then made a big curve in the wrong direction, and made the foolish mistake of assuming it would turn back in the right direction or connect with something that did, LOL!).  I had a tail-wind and was biking down-hill most of the time I was going the wrong way ... so, of course, when I had to double back, it was punishment all the way back, LOL: a head-wind strong enough to roughly double the effort required to maintain decent speed, mostly uphill.  Argh.  I won't make that mistake again, either.

Well, that's it for now.

I hope your Saturday was as great as mine!

Oh I'm so jealous!   Saturday class was good, not as good as yours!  We got to use the mitts again which is fun, but I got the same partner as last time, I almost got one of the guys but it didn't end up that way.  Your class sounded great!  See that's exactly what I'd like to do, that sounds fun.  Plus you get to learn from your mistakes, just like you said.  Well no news on my sparring class.  I did mention on Saturday how I was looking forward to sparring class, so we'll see...  Boy that's crazy that you rode your bike there, worked out 2 hours, then rode the bike back, with detour! Sounds like it was great, that's cool that they let you spar already!  Oh, now I can't wait....

I'll have to try that with the dogs nails, one or two a day.  Kayla's are getting long and I know she'll be crying bloody murder when I cut them.  Kayla gets weird like that where she looks really disturbed.  That's funny about the door.  I actually did that at home with my screen door, walked right into it, boy was that funny!

That's exactly what its like with the dog, she'll be out in the back yard and have no idea what to do.  Meanwhile KD is stalking squirrels and birds, but Kayla has no idea what she is supposed to do out there.  Sometimes she'll bark at something she sees, then she turns to look at KD to see what to do next.  It's cute but it's also really sad that she doesn't know what to do.  I bet it's exactly like horses.  She actually reminds me of a horse (or a cross between a horse & a deer), the way she runs and trots.  She also makes horse noises.

One good thing about my food problems is that I am forced to eat healthier.  I don't eat a lot of preservatives, salt, corn syrup, etc. since I make most stuff myself.  Although OTOH I do still get sick from food all the time so even though I do eat pretty good I don't always feel good.  I can never get an A on my analysis though, B+ is my best so far. I think I also miss out on a lot of nutrients.

I know what you mean about those push kicks.  I imagine its harder for you since you are used to the TDK form.  I was front kicking at first, I practiced that one a lot.  I think slow mo definately helps with the neurological end of things.  It's cool when you get something that was hard to do before, or when something just clicks and you all of a sudden get it.

I think you may have to change Train's name! 

Looking forward to class tonight, I like Monday class, gets me back into the whole work routine thing....I'm not a big fan of Monday's so class definately helps! 

I'm glad your Saturday class was good, though it's too bad they haven't updated you on the sparring class schedule yet.  I think I would be going crazy by now, LOL.  "When did you say we were gonna be sparring again?  Did you say that was this week?  Hey, look, I brought shin guards!  For EVERYONE!"

If you're ever in Louisville (who knows, it could happen!  We have lots of conventions here!), you should come by my gym.  Core seriously rocks.  I guess it's probably not the perfect gym for everyone -- it's probably a bit intense for some, LOL -- but I think you'd like it.

I was kind of surprised Trey let me spar, since I'm still a baby n00b, but Trey is awesome like that.  I do think the learning-from-your-mistakes bit is great -- and I suspect a lot of gyms don't do that as much.  Core is kind of rough-and-tumble, but very friendly -- so if you're willing to get knocked around a little bit in the spirit of 'hands-on education,' they seem willing enough :D

OMG -- I hear you about screen doors.  I nearly took out Cameron's Mom's screen door that way once.  "Dum-de-dum, guess I'll go feed the birds -- CRASH!"  LOL.  My own screen door is highly visible, and I like it that way.

The one or two nails a day thing does seem to help -- and, for all that, maybe it'll help Kayla sort of 'acclimate' to having her toenails cipped (though Kia never did, so don't hold your breath on that one...).  Kayla and KD both sound like such great dogs.  I can just picture KD stalking birds, and Kayla being like, "Whatcha doin'?  Why you doin' that?"  Maybe eventually KD will teach her the ropes.  I think it's cute that Kayla makes horse noises ^.^

Yeah, the TKD form does interfere with stuff from time to time.  At first, it was hard to not do front snap kicks instead of push kicks.  I still try to remind myself, from time to time, 'push, don't snap.' 

Likewise, TKD doesn't teach you to follow through with your strikes anywhere near enough.  A lot of people from TKD backgrounds find themselves pulling their punches (and kicks) entirely -- mine at least land, which is something, but I still have a tendency to pull back after landing a strike rather than following clean through.  Obviously, in an actual fight, this would be a serious disadvantage.

I'm hoping Brian more or less broke me of that habit on Saturday -- he pointed it out to me, and also pointed out when my kicks were good (which was awesome; another reason he's a good teacher) -- but we'll see, LOL.  They (whoever 'they' are) say it takes about 21 repetitions to either make, break, or replace a habit -- so I guess I need to kick stuff more, LOL.

I'm totally looking forward to tonight's class, too.  Muay Thai has transformed my feelings about Mondays! 

I am hoping I'll be able to wrangle my schedule in such a way that I can still do the conditioning class (think I'm just gonna call it 'bag class' from now on, since ppl at the gym mostly call it that) when I start doing the fight class on Tues & Thurs -- it shouldn't really be a problem, but might mean escaping from work 20 mins early two days a week.  Right now, I still get out early enough to get my butt there without any trouble, because my shedule is still weird.

Yeah -- I, too, am beginning to think I may have to change Train's name, LOL.  It's supposed to be hard to stop a Train, after all!

Ohoh -- your comment about nutrition reminded me of something.  My friend Robert's maternal granddad had Celiac disease, and I believe Robert's Mom has some recipes and stuff for healthy, Celiac-friendly stuff (though I'm not sure if it would conflict with your food allergies), since she and her sis did a lot of the cooking for their parents for quite a long time.  I'll see if she still has them, and if she does, I'll try to send them your way.

Haha, I am going crazy!  i will have to bring it up to him on wednesday, i don't think i'll be seeing him today, the other instructor does our monday class. 

Your gym sounds cool.  sounds like i would definately like it, i'd rather more intense myself so I would definately stop by if I'm ever in the area.

I actually did the screen door thing twice.  Both times were at night so it wasn't as visible as it normally would be.  The one time the whole screen came completely off the track, i thought'd it broke, but it turned out fine.  It was really funny though. Makes you feel really stupid.

It's really funny with the dogs, because KD will be watching the squirrel run up a tree and Kayla will be standing right next to her looking back and forth, then at KD, she has no clue.  I love the horse noises, it's really cute.

Looks like you learned a lot in one class.  Maybe they will let you in again, especially if they are short a person.  That's cool that you were able to do that.  Sounds like Brian helped you out a lot too.  Boxing the bag for 3 two min. rounds must've been hard, i can only imagine how hard that is on the arms.  I still can't believe how hard a one minute drill is, 3 two minute rounds might kill me!

MT changed my Monday feelings as well.   I know when I get home from class I'll feel good and Tuesday will be a much better day. Its the only thing to look forward to on a Monday.  Have fun in class tonight!

Some days you're the fighter, some days you're the bag.

You remember how after my first class I was just glad I didn't get pwnt by the heavy bag?

Well, last night, I got pwnt by the bag, LOL.

This was actually my own fault.  I was training with Train, and we were switching off doing what we call "Four, Four, & Four" -- basically, four punches (in this case, hooks -- FTR, my hooks still somewhat suck, but I think I at least get the concept now), four low kicks, four switch kicks.  So, basically, if you're the guy holding the bag, it's a good idea to shift your weight a bit as your partner does the switch bit so you don't inadvertently get nailed (especially if your partner is a big guy with long legs who kicks hard).

Heretofore, I've generally wrapped my arms around the bag and used one hip to steady it.  Last night, I was feeling somewhat competent, so I decided to hold the bag the way the Big Kids do, from the top.

WRONG ANSWER, LOL.

So I'm sort of stepping over to get out of the way as Train transitions from the low kick to the switch kick, and without really realizing what I'm doing, I basically step gonads-first into the bag just as he's landing the first switch-kick.

I'm pretty sure this is a bad idea regardless of your gender, actually.

My first thought was more or less, "Oh, hai, that hurt somewhat less than I was expecting."  (LOL -- I attribute this to the 'runner's high' kind of thing -- that endorphin phenomenon.)  It was not dissimilar from the 2nd-worst bike spill I've ever taken, wherein, after assessing that I could, in fact, feel my toes and that no bones seemed to be broken, I lifted my right hand to reach for my bike, observed that the middle pinkie joint was bent sideways at a 45-degree angle, and thought, very calmly, "Oh, that's not right."  I guess your basic nature is revealed by how you respond to bodily catastrophes, and apparently mine is curious, analytical, and somewhat detached, LOL.

So last night's initial "hurts less than expected" reaction, however, was followed by this weird sensation that I can only describe as a squiggly electric charge that shot straight up to my stomach.

I kind of paused, went pale, said, "Um, excuse me," and bolted for the men's room, where (suffice it to say) I lost my lunch, LOL.  However, after that, I felt pretty much okay, and went back to class once I caught my breath and so forth.

The rest of the class was fine, though, both before and after that.  Actually, the beginning of class was great: apparently, I am now Trey's "Project," LOL.  There were only four of us last night (presumably because it was one of the first really nice evenings of the year) -- two girls, and two guys (Train and me); Trey was in the process of pairing us up and said, "Let see, I guess I'll put the men together and the ladies together -- ladies, that means you two work together -- and you" (he had turned to Train at this point) "will be working with my project, here."

I thought that was kinda cool :)

On Saturday, boxing the bag for three 2-min rounds was a little on the tough side, though not as much as it would've been if it wasn't for the way we run bag class. 

First, we do pretty much everything in 3-minute rounds (I originally thought we were using 5 minute rounds, so 3 seems less daunting now, somehow, LOL).  I think the idea, more or less, is that any one of us is potentially a fighter-in-training, and we both need to have the endurance to go the distance and the wiring to respond to the bell, LOL.

Second, we do at least one round of continuous punches per class -- so 3 solid minutes of punches, no switching off. 

OTOH, the continuous punches about killed me last night, since it was after I tossed my cookies and I was not quite as energetic as usual :D  Normally, it's more or less a question of grin-and-bear it; last night, I had to stop a couple of times and shake my arms out.  Part of the trick of it is to maintain roughly the same rhythm and speed as your partner, so the bag doesn't get unbalanced and go jiggling all over the place -- I had trouble with that, too.

WRT to the 3-minute rounds, you kind of learn to listen for the 30-second bell when you're tired.  I can tell when I'm feeling really strong because we'll get to the 30-second bell and I won't even be anticipating it; when I'm tired, it's all, "Okay, if I can just hold out for the 30-second bell, I'll make it," followed by, "Okay, just thirty more seconds..." 

Last night, prior to the episode with the running to the bathroom, I had a few rounds of, "Crap, is that the 30-second bell already?!"  Especially when I was really starting to "get" something.  After said episode, though, it was "Okay, if I can just hold out..." all the way, LOL.

I was really surprised how much that episode took out of me.  After class, I usually grab a Gatorade, then hang out for a while and watch the MMA guys; this time, I just basically just located the nearest out-the-way bench in the hall and collapsed.  I had to sit down in a nice, supported spot for a few minutes before I could even go hunt up a Gatorade, LOL.

I was also shaking, which hasn't happened since my first class -- not just the, "My legs are dead" thing, where your legs kind of vibrate for a couple of minutes while they recover -- my whole body was kind of trembling; my neck felt weak; basically I was more or less useless :D  I just kind of rested my head on the back of the bench and tried to concentrate on watching the BJJ class instead.

I'm hoping they'll let me sit in on the sparring class again!  That would be cool.

I also hope you'll hear about your sparring class soon.  It's pretty remarkable how effective sparring is as a teaching/learning tool.  I mean, I guess if it wasn't, people wouldn't have been doing it for thousands of years or whatever, LOL -- but it's still pretty striking (no pun intended) how effective it is.

I'm looking forward to next week -- in theory, I can start doing the fight class next week, and I think that will improve my technique.  I am, however, definitely a bag class junkie at this point, LOL.  I will be very sad if I have to stop doing bag class because of work schedule wonkiness :D

Edit: BTW, I have discovered that my primary problem -- right now, anyway -- seems to be that I'm somewhat stiff.  Not, like, physically inflexible -- but I tend to be tense, and to restrain my own movements, rather than moving freely (this is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, a remnant of the debilitating shyness I have pretty much trained myself out of -- I'm pretty fluid when I'm alone, but I tend to stiffen up around other people). 

Train sometimes irritates me by running out of steam, but I admire his freedom of movement -- which helped me understand what's going on with that.  So now I want to try to figure out how to get past my own physical reticence.