Workout: 

I had a decent workout today.

Side leg rasies – 3×15
Slow side thrust kicks -  2×15

Slow Heian Shodan, holding each stance for a three count.  I then did one of each, Heian Nidan, Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan and Heian Godan but I used little power and just did the moves to make sure that they stay fresh in my mind.  I also did a Tekki Shodan where I held the stances for a three count.

Class: 

This particular class is always hard because of the amount of Kihon that we do each week.  We started with our normal kicking warmup but for some reason my front snap kick felt different.  Not bad different but good different.  I really felt that I was putting some solid power behind them.   For the first time, it feels as if my hips are behind my kicks.

We did a lot of different moves, some old and a couple new.  One of the harder moves was a reverse punch, front leg front snap kick, rear leg front snap kick.  It sounds easy when I type it but it really required a lot of concentration.  This next move makes the last one sound really easy.  We did rising block, rear leg roundhouse kick, setting the kicking leg back behind us.  Bringing that leg back while holding the blocking hand up just wiped my mind.  Out of eight moves, I did maybe two correctly.

We finished with kata.  It was very interesting to watch Sensei do kata with us and show us how he does the particular moves and what some of the alternative moves are.  When working on Tekki Shodan, he talked about body shock.  He gave some interesting pointers on moving the wrist when doing the various blocks in the kata and how those types of simple motions make the kata powerful.

I seem to walk away with something new every time I go to class lately and I hope it continues.

Good weight workout tonight but it was very hard.

Jogging – 5 minutes
Wide grip front pulldown -  60 x 32 (1 minute)
Bench press – 95 x 36 (1 minute)
Lunge – bodyweight x 24 each leg (2 minutes)
Low row – 60 x 36 (1 minute)
DB press – 15 x 33 each (1 minute)
DB curl – 15 x 25 each (1 minute)
DB Tricep Extension – 30 x 33 (1 minute)
Stiff leg DB deadlift – 20 x 20 each (1 minute)
DB shrug – 30 x 40 each (1 minute)
Leg press toe raise – 270 x 32 (1 minute)
DB side bend – 15 x 27 each – (1 minute)
Crunch – 46 (1 minute) – very bad abdominal cramps after this set!
Jogging – 3 minutes

This workout is very taxing.  There were a few sets where my hearing got muffled and I felt a little light headed.  The rest moving for movement to movement is so short that it makes catching my breath very hard.  I am almost certain that this type of workout routine is more than enough to help my loose the 20 pounds of fat in three months that I have for a goal.

Karate workout:

Side leg raises – 2×15
Slow side thrust kicks – 15

Slow motion Heian Shodan.  I held my stance for a three count for each of the 21 moves of the kata.  I could really feel the stretch in legs and hips when holding those stances.

Side leg raises – 2 x 15

Class was good tonight.

We spent the entire working on sparring drills.  It was tough but a good learning experience.  One drill in particular always gives me a problem but tonight, after a lot of slow moves, I was able to do it.  We start with our partner in front of us and they throw a punch, I block with my left hand, then I throw a punch with my right hand and they block with the same hand that they punched with last and then we repeat going back and forth the same way.  It even sounds confusing when I typed it here.

We also did a good amount of free sparring.  It was going pretty well until I went to throw a front leg front snap kick, slipped on a puddle of sweat and landed on my butt.  It’s really a humbling experience to say the least.