2017 in Review: Health & Gym

2017 has witnessed some progress, depending on how you measure it.

I've been attending the gym regularly. Early in the year, I had some minor pains in my right shoulder socket which restricted my inclined bench press, but not much else. I had major pain in my left elbow (later self-diagnosed as golfer's elbow) in the early spring which, despite resting it as much as possible, has taken most of the year to heal. Pushing was fine; pulling was agony. As of today's workout, the shoulders are feeling good and I'm gently re-introducing my left bicep to heavy exercise once again, and so far, so good.

I added bench presses to my workouts back in January, progressing rapidly from an empty bar up to 140 lbs, where I seem to have plateaued. I'm not sure what I'm going to do to get past that, but I'll figure out something fairly soon. I've been working on volume more than weight in the past three months, so it hasn't been a complete loss.

My triceps & biceps have plateaued as well, but hopefully the use of a weight belt while performing dips will help with the tris. Getting my bis back in growth mode will be easier now that I'm letting myself actually use them.

Since my knee surgery in May of 2016, I've been very careful about leg exercise. For the most part, my legs are in pretty good shape anyway so my only aspiration at the moment is to re-introduce squats to my regular routine as a whole body combination exercise.

Having added karate twice per week (sometimes more) back in August has dramatically increased my cardio component, as well as given me much more stretch & flexibility. Since we're highly focused on kicks and stances, I'm getting a pretty good leg workout as is.

In all, I'm feeling much stronger & more confident than ever. Oddly, my body doesn't seem any different visually. At this point, my measurements are all pretty much the same as they were a year ago: chest 43", upper arms 16", forearms 12.5", neck 18", weight 193 lbs, body fat 20%. I'm either kidding myself about anything resembling improvement, or I'm not measuring properly.

For the future, I'm going to bring the weight belt for arms day to help with the dips. I need to figure out something for the bench press... if I had a spotter, I could take a few more risks, but I don't have anyone available for that at the moment. Now that I'm letting my left bicep play with the rest, I want to amp up my bicep workout, and re-introduce more lats & back exercises (lat pull-downs are difficult when you can't pull). I'm working on a revised exercise plan for my next gym visit on Jan 2, 2018.

2017 in Review: Karate

As recorded here earlier this year, I took up karate in August at a local dojo which opened earlier this year in our general neighbourhood. Friends had studied karate years ago and frequently mentioned how much they enjoyed it, and I've had a general interest in martial arts since I was a kid, so why not? After all, if now now, when?

In the past, my casual inquiries were stymied by the lack of an adult beginner class. Nearly every program I had looked into was largely designed to introduce children to karate around age 5, then stream them along the various programs as they grew up into adult blackbelts. It seemed there were few options for the grandparents of those same children to begin.

Victory Karate has entry levels for all ages: 3-4 years, 5-7 years, 8-12 years, teens and adults, as well as a few all-skate sessions which mix age groups. I started the adult beginners on Mondays & Thursdays. It's primarily kenpo karate (as opposed to, say, shotokan, goju-ryu, shito-ryu, etc.) with elements of taekwondo and krav maga. Fees are $150/month, charged automatically to my credit card.

I've come to like the routine & light formality of the class. One arrives, puts away the coat & shoes, dons one's belt, collects one's attendance card (each card is collected by the sensei at the beginning of the class where attendance & other comments are made), bows to the dojo, then either stretch or meditate along the side if one is early, or take one's spot on the floor if the class is immediately beginning. The first half or so of each class is a warm-up cardio or stretching, or both. When ready, we delve into the topic of the day as determined by Mr A (Sensei Ibrahim Abdallah): kicks, punches, stances, grappling (and combinations of these), kata, sparring, etc..

Thanks to much weightlifting over the past few years, I have vastly more upper body strength than others in my class. Actually, more than anyone else I've met there. Not that this strength is particularly useful in karate --no strong arms or chest will preserve you from a brutally hard round kick to the head or a back kick to the stomach--, but it lets me generally absorb more sparring hits, make stronger punches, and resist grappling. The biggest advantage is more mundane: I can do the full complement of warm-up push-ups without ending so drained that I stumble through the rest of the class.

Our class has varied from a half-dozen to 15 at any given session. Until recently, I was the newbiest of the newbies: I was the only white belt in a sea of yellow & orange, as well as a few blackbelts who tag along for fun and assist in instruction.

(NB: Beginner levels are white, yellow, gold & orange (green for teens), intermediate is green, blue & purple, and advanced is red, brown & black (blue, purple for teens).

In early December, I graduated up a level to a yellow belt. I have memorized the first three katas, can perform a required series of punches, blocks & kicks without embarrassing myself, and am greatly enjoying myself.

For some extra challenge, I've added the kickboxing class early on Saturday mornings and stay after the Monday class for Mr Tony's taekwondo training. The kickboxing is more like zumba class composed of kicking: we're not boxing each other, but Mr A puts on the house dance music and leads us through a series of high cardio kicking sessions. Imagine lining up on a floor with three kick targets: Each person is to perform one particular kick on the first target, a different one on the second, and yet another on the third, then circle around to the back of the line. In mid-cycle, Mr A might change the target order or the kick to be performed, or right-hand vs left-hand, constantly keeping us on our toes. It's really enormous fun and even more of a cardio workout than the regular karate class.

The taekwondo class is fascinating, mostly because I'm such a newbie that everything is novel to me. It's much more about blocking & grappling than karate has been so far. I've only attended a few classes so far because of scheduling conflicts and the xmas break, but will report more as it happens.

Problems? There are occasional injuries: abrasions on my right forearm from the sparring gloves, the top of my right foot from repeated round kicks, a pulled muscle in my right calf from hopping on one leg & landing badly. Nothing serious. I'm much more flexible than I used to be, but at this point, there is no way I can kick higher than chest-level, and even that lacks any elegance. While that is adequate for defense and my training, I'd really like to be able to kick at head-level with control & smoothness.

What is my plan for 2018? I've been reading a great deal about karate, the history, the physics & biomechanics, and performance guides. I was given a punch & kick target for xmas this week, although I have yet to clear out a space in the basement where I can use it. I need to kick higher: I think this will be a combination of stretching (insert wide-stance joke here) and strengthening my core so that I can pull my knee up to chest level in isolation. I'm exactly how I'm going to get there, but I will start by asking Mr A for advice.

Presuming I can successfully graduate to a new belt level with each exam session in 2018, I hope to end the coming year in the intermediate level as a green belt.