Pneumatised!

May 30, 2007

I planned to go to the do jang, but I forgot my belt. I was too tired for a hard workout anyway. I decided to walk with Nathan for a bit before he went to tai chi, then I walked home. I ended up walking from Bloor and Spadina to Bathurst, south on Bathurst to Queen, east on Queen to Spadina, north on Spadina to Dundas, and generally walking in a northeasternly direction towards home. I walked through some side streets and through U of T campus until I got to Bay Street, then it was a walk directly east towards home. Unfortunately, I ended up getting blisters breaking in a pair of sandals that I hadn’t worn since last summer. The walk took about two hours give or take about fifteen minutes. It felt good to get the exercise though. Sometimes a long walk helps for building endurance.

June 6, 2007

I went to the do jang. I was late so I took the last twenty minutes of class. It was good enough because I was feeling tired and out of sorts.

June 7, 2007

I went to the do jang again. This time I managed to get there for the 7 p.m. class. I stayed after class and practiced patterns and some hand strikes for a while. I stayed until 9 p.m. for Nathan to pick me up after his tai chi class.

June 8, 2007

I went for a run. Nathan decided to go with me. We ran for about 15 minutes – covered about a mile and a half. Then I got a little bit of a cramp, so we walked a bit until we got to Bloor West, then ran to the track at Central Tech. I did one lap to see how fast I could run it – almost back to my top speed. Unfortunately, I cramped a bit again during the one lap so I ran roughly 300 metres instead of the 400 metres (1 lap).

June 9, 2007

Nathan and I went to see Pirates of the Carribean, then we walked home from the theatre at Richmond and John streets. It was late and the subway was likely closed. There really isn’t any point to taking the Yonge bus since we can walk up Yonge street to home easy enough.

June 11, 2007

Nathan and I went to the gym. It’s been a while since we’ve gone for a good workout so I insisted on going. I really needed to do some squats for my legs. Kicking so much in taekwondo can really aggravate the knee, so weight training is a good complement.

COMPLETE LIST OF WEIGHT TRAINING EXERCISES:
Machine/apparatus Exercises:
Pull-ups/chin-ups (this machine works on a counterweight, which means you are lifting your weight minus the weight you set the machine to; thus if I set the machine to 35 lbs, I’m really lifting 70 lbs if I weight 105)
-overhand (palms facing front) – 35 lbs
-underhand (palms facing back) – 30 lbs
-parallel (palms facing towards each other) – 30 lbs
Dips (same apparatus as for the chin-ups) – 25 lbs
Weighted squat machine – 120 lbs
Leg press – 275 lbs
Hamstring flexor/seated leg curls – 105 lbs both legs
Hamstring flexor (lying down on stomach) – 50 lbs both legs, 20 lbs single leg (this machine was broken again, the pin comes out of the bar that needs to be lifted – not a good thing)
Hip adductors – 100 lbs
Hip abductors – 100 lbs
Seated row – 65 lbs
Seated chest press – 75 lbs
Lateral pull-downs – 75 lbs
Pectoral fly (sometimes done using free weights) – 45 lbs
Reverse pectoral fly (not sure exactly what this is called, it works the rhomboids in between the scapulae/shoulder blades) – 35 lbs
Shoulder fly – 40 lbs
Shoulder lift/press – 45 lbs
Back extensor – 180 lbs
Bicep curls (usually done using free weights now) – 30 lbs, or 15 lbs single
Tricep extensor – 40 lbs (the dips do a good job of working the triceps, plus a special kind of push-up that I learned from taekwondo)
Leg lifts (I do a set of 30 reps. Lift legs out in front, the right, and the left. Doing the leg lifts to the sides helps work out the obliques/side muscles. I hate the new apparatus for this. I can only tolerate the apparatus once in a while because it aggravates my back, even though it’s supposed to be ergonomically designed.)

Free weights:
Two additional shoulder exercises
– lift weight in front using shoulder muscles
– bending at waist lift weight out to the side using muscles along the scapulae (this is the same as the machine that works in reverse of the pectoral fly)
– wrist strengthening – 15 lbs
– dead lift – 30 lb bar
Other exercises:
Pushups (I’m slowly working on single handed pushups – it’s very hard! For now, I’m just holding myself up on one hand for a 10 second count)
Situps
Cycling
Elliptical

May 31st was a full moon. I ended up doing a ritual for TTWG. Actually it was supposed to be a combined ritual with my group.

It was fun to do a full moon ritual. I did a ritual to Hekate and Hermes. The ritual was about magic since it was a blue moon. A full moon is considered powerful for magic. A blue moon is the second full moon in a month, happens about every 2.5 years, and is thus more powerful than an ordinary full moon. The ritual was fairly simple. Some brief words about magic, and then we spent time absorbing the power of the blue moon.

Unfortunately, it rained earlier that day so the ground was wet and damp and there were lots of mosquitoes. I got uncomfortably bit on my hand and on my legs (where the repellent rinsed off when I was cleaning up afterwards – have to be more careful with applying the repellent; otherwise it works).

Overall, it was fun to do a ritual for a small group. There were five of us in total, and I was happy to do a public ritual – good practice for me.

BB,
Cassandrah
Brigid’s Flame