Back in Martial Arts!
Dec. 20th, 2008 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
abracanabraI have returned! To martial arts classes, that is. After being allowed back by my doctor, there was a vacation in Georgia and a really nasty cold that intervened, and I almost said, "Screw it, they're about to go on holiday break, I might as well wait to join up until after classes resume." I'm glad I didn't. For one, this allowed me to ease in a little more. For another, it means I'm not another one of those people returning to physical activity just because they made a New Years' resolution; they have a high percentage of attrition.
I learned that I still remember the words and moves well enough to follow along with others. Somehow, though, studying from my notes made me "flip around" the direction some of the bits in my form were going, and I'd swapped out a basic from red belt for the one in half-black. Jump-kicks are still very scary. Especially the one that I blew my knee out trying to learn. I was better at sparring than I'd expected, mostly because I went pretty much pure defensive and was mostly sparring people a number of ranks below me. I didn't push myself as much as I could have. One of the days I'd wanted to go in for classes I learned that a bus I used to take as a backup no longer connected to my second bus. V. upsetting, especially since the bus driver bitched at me. And it was cold and snowing and I had gone far out of my way and not caught my bus and there was no way I could walk and catch it in time.
I was very, very sore the next several days after the first week of classes. There may have been whimpering. This despite the relative easiness of the classes and the fact that my physical therapy exercises + biking mean I'm not entirely out of shape. The last class I took was open workout, and I ended up spending most of it working on my jump spin kicks. The next day my knee, especially, was so sore that I was popping Ibuprofen and worrying about swelling. Yes, I did it to myself. I have a lot of difficulty figuring out what level of exertion I should be performing at. I err to one side or the other--either babying myself or running myself into the ground. Is very annoying.
I am so happy that I'm taking classes again, though. Physical activity is very good for me. Sweating through my workout clothes and hitting people and heavy bags is something I need.
This is also good for my need to lose weight. To those who feel like rushing in with reassurances--I think I've actually got a good idea of what my ideal athletic weight is, where I can build up plenty of muscle and still be light enough to be agile and quick. This is not, "That dress makes my ass look fat." (Although that dress does make my ass look fat, which is pretty depressing. For purely cosmetic reasons, I also need to lose weight--but that's not my primary motivation.)
In the first week back, I lost eight pounds. Despite these being relatively easy classes, not the brutally hard workouts they can be. My body's reaction to hard exercise is, "Oh, God. At any moment, she might make me do that again. There must be predators around. I can't eat heavy meals or I'll be too slow to escape." Hat-tip to evolution. Not to mention I can't even think about food for a good hour after working out. So as long as I stick with very light dinners and get to bed before slightly hungry kicks over to ravenous, more exercise = less caloric intake = weight loss. For documenting things, I am now at 190 lbs, and plan to drop 25-30 more. (Bear in mind that I'm almost 6', so this is less proportionally than it would be for a smaller woman.)
I'm now at about 10-11 months post-ACL knee surgery. Full strength takes 18 months. For the next year, I need to continue to wear a knee brace whenever I do anything strenuous. Most of the time, my knee doesn't hurt or ache at all. I walk and run normally. If I run more than a short distance, though, my knee does start to hurt with each step. I have pretty much my full extension back, I think, which is better than a lot of people do. I am still doing knee stretches to get my full range of motion back. I feel secure most of the time. Doing a lot of pivoting (as in kicks) makes me feel--less secure. Sometimes, even just carrying a heavy load of laundry and turning suddenly on that side provokes a grumpy throb of pain. After martial arts or something else that's strenuous, my knee aches. I can kneel now, but it's very uncomfortable, especially on hardwood floors (all my scar tissue's right there!). I'm trying to get back to sitting on my haunches, even though my physical therapist kinda shrugged about it. Most people don't get that back.
I learned that I still remember the words and moves well enough to follow along with others. Somehow, though, studying from my notes made me "flip around" the direction some of the bits in my form were going, and I'd swapped out a basic from red belt for the one in half-black. Jump-kicks are still very scary. Especially the one that I blew my knee out trying to learn. I was better at sparring than I'd expected, mostly because I went pretty much pure defensive and was mostly sparring people a number of ranks below me. I didn't push myself as much as I could have. One of the days I'd wanted to go in for classes I learned that a bus I used to take as a backup no longer connected to my second bus. V. upsetting, especially since the bus driver bitched at me. And it was cold and snowing and I had gone far out of my way and not caught my bus and there was no way I could walk and catch it in time.
I was very, very sore the next several days after the first week of classes. There may have been whimpering. This despite the relative easiness of the classes and the fact that my physical therapy exercises + biking mean I'm not entirely out of shape. The last class I took was open workout, and I ended up spending most of it working on my jump spin kicks. The next day my knee, especially, was so sore that I was popping Ibuprofen and worrying about swelling. Yes, I did it to myself. I have a lot of difficulty figuring out what level of exertion I should be performing at. I err to one side or the other--either babying myself or running myself into the ground. Is very annoying.
I am so happy that I'm taking classes again, though. Physical activity is very good for me. Sweating through my workout clothes and hitting people and heavy bags is something I need.
This is also good for my need to lose weight. To those who feel like rushing in with reassurances--I think I've actually got a good idea of what my ideal athletic weight is, where I can build up plenty of muscle and still be light enough to be agile and quick. This is not, "That dress makes my ass look fat." (Although that dress does make my ass look fat, which is pretty depressing. For purely cosmetic reasons, I also need to lose weight--but that's not my primary motivation.)
In the first week back, I lost eight pounds. Despite these being relatively easy classes, not the brutally hard workouts they can be. My body's reaction to hard exercise is, "Oh, God. At any moment, she might make me do that again. There must be predators around. I can't eat heavy meals or I'll be too slow to escape." Hat-tip to evolution. Not to mention I can't even think about food for a good hour after working out. So as long as I stick with very light dinners and get to bed before slightly hungry kicks over to ravenous, more exercise = less caloric intake = weight loss. For documenting things, I am now at 190 lbs, and plan to drop 25-30 more. (Bear in mind that I'm almost 6', so this is less proportionally than it would be for a smaller woman.)
I'm now at about 10-11 months post-ACL knee surgery. Full strength takes 18 months. For the next year, I need to continue to wear a knee brace whenever I do anything strenuous. Most of the time, my knee doesn't hurt or ache at all. I walk and run normally. If I run more than a short distance, though, my knee does start to hurt with each step. I have pretty much my full extension back, I think, which is better than a lot of people do. I am still doing knee stretches to get my full range of motion back. I feel secure most of the time. Doing a lot of pivoting (as in kicks) makes me feel--less secure. Sometimes, even just carrying a heavy load of laundry and turning suddenly on that side provokes a grumpy throb of pain. After martial arts or something else that's strenuous, my knee aches. I can kneel now, but it's very uncomfortable, especially on hardwood floors (all my scar tissue's right there!). I'm trying to get back to sitting on my haunches, even though my physical therapist kinda shrugged about it. Most people don't get that back.