As you can see, it's been two weeks since my last post. Bad, bad, bad. Work at the paper has been non-stop and leaving me less than enthusiastic to spend any more time in front of a computer than is absolutely necessary. Sorry for dereliction of duty. However, my slacking on the blog did not carry over to slacking on training. I've been hitting the gym five days a week for combat fitness, FIGHT, boxing, kickboxing, knife fighting and I even got in to the gym for some weight lifting on Sunday.
In no order of importance, here's what's been happening:
Last week's combat fitness (5/14 and 5/16) devastated my legs. Thanks, Matt. On those two nights Mr. Stuart had Matt create some of the stations on the circuit. Matt takes great delight in this because he's in phenomenal shape and can smoke just about everyone in the class. In one night we ended up doing squat jumps, burpee frog jumps up the ramp, Bulgarian splits and Iron Mikes. This was followed up by more lower body destruction in Wednesday's combat fitness class with suicide sprints and midget jumping Jacks (you do jumping Jacks while in squat position with your thighs parallel to the ground). I walked around for a few days with a hitch in my giddy up.
*****
After several people told me I looked too skinny I have started to hit the weights. During the 17 months I have been doing combat fitness I haven't done any lifting. I'm trying to lift three days a week. I'm limiting the weights to mainly work my chest by doing bench press, dumbbell flies and dumbbell press. I'm doing this after boxing and kickboxing class and on Sundays if I can manage it.
*****
It was no great revelation. It was no ephiny precedded by the parting of clouds and rays of sun falling upon me. My understanding came by simply watching some guy in kickboxing class. This understanding was all about movement, specifically head movement and moving offline while throwing punches. This dude, I think his name was Adam, was doing it spot on. Every alternating punch had his head swinging side to side. If he threw a left jab, his head was far to the right. If he threw a straight right, his head was far to the left. When he was throwing jab - straight combinations, he was blur. He would jab (head to the right), sit, and then pop up and throw a straight (head to the left). It was like he was always offline. He was never static. Had I been trying to hit him instead of just offering my hands as targets while I coached, I would have been hitting nothing but air. I have to thank this guy for showing me what being offline really looks like. I will try to mimic him from here on out.
Last week, Mr. Stuart doled out one of his best pearls of wisdom to date. I paraphrase: Someone once told Abraham Lincoln he had an hour to chop down a tree and they asked him how he would go about accomplishing the task. Lincoln responded, I'd spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my ax. Brilliant stuff. Preparation is key.
This isn't words of inspiration, rather it's a question Mr. Stuart poses to us every once in a while. And it's a question, that for me, depending on my mindset at the time, could be answered in a sentence or in an epic novel. So I'll sign of this blog post with this simple question: Why do you train?
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