Kung Fu - Class 1

Image by Rafael Javier from Pixabay

My first class taught me some new things and reminded me of old things I know. I've had a number of martial arts instructors over the years and I really like Sonia's style. Even despite the fact that crocodile walking and crab walking were like torture for me. And I can't fathom how I ever played crab soccer in my childhood.

There were a lot of techniques that I knew the fundamentals of from karate, but they have a twist on them in kung fu that makes me think of aikido. For example, karate blocks were quite firm, hard, and wasteful in terms of energy usage. With kung fu, we only use as much force as is absolutely necessary and we hook our hand instead of leaving it as a fist. This will let us grab if necessary, but we might not always want to, strategically. Grabbing means the opponent can pull you depending on the circumstances. But the basic positions were the same. 

There was enough that was similar to karate in terms of the stances. Horse stance especially, which I was glad for because the moment we got to that, I felt nauseus and had to stop for a little bit. Cat stance was a bit like back stance, but prettier. Snake stance was new. I think there may have been another, but it didn't seem to get into my fleshy memory storage.

It's going to take me a bit to get rid of the chambering habit learned in karate. I don't think it's completely without use as you can get more striking force from it, but it also takes time to move the fist from the hip to the target. Time one might not have in reality.

The aforementioned nausea was probably due to having too much water at one point. It's a hard thing for me. With Sjogren's, if I don't have little sips throughout, I can get dry to the point of developing a cough and then struggle to breathe. But I also had moments where the temperature regulation in my body was sucking. I'm hoping that particular issue will reduce as I lose weight, but it might not. My temperature will spike suddenly and I'll either feel nauseus or like I will pass out. Basically, I'll feel like a car that has all its warning lights on suddenly. I take a breather during those moments and watch until they subside. 

It's nice to be getting back to kicking things. My right hip flexor muscle isn't happy about it, but I hope that this will help undue the damage that an office job wreaks on the body. And I also hope to lose the remaining extra weight I gained during the pandemic. Damn cupcakes!

Speaking of food, I was glad Sonia went over calorie needs for the body. I learned the hard way that I wasn't eating enough to cover my basic metabolic needs when I was trying to do the idiotic 1200-1500 calorie thing. My body felt so weak when I tried that! I started losing weight when I started eating more. 

After class was over, I saw one of the super inspired younger women in the hallway as I left. She was practicing her step throughs. She said that she hoped she will get better and I told her she will, because I know it will happen as long as she continues to put effort in. The muscles will come and we'll all be faster, better, and stronger by the end of June. Now I have Daft Punk stuck in my head.