Pneumatised!

MM,

I have once again been a workaholic as of late – not enough exercise.

I did manage to squeeze in a workout last Tuesday (April 4). Nathan and I ran a half mile, then went to the gym. My time for the half mile was I did 4 minutes 48 seconds.

At the gym, we did some more cardio. I did 10 minutes on the stepmaster. Then we did our weight training.

Leg lifts
Pull-ups (aka chin-ups, military and parallel)
Dips
Leg press
Hamstring flexor (called seated leg curls)
Hip adductors
Hip abductors
Chest press
Bar pulls (works the muscles next to the scapulae on the back)
Seated row
Shoulder fly
Shoulder lift
Back extensor

Free weights:
Pectoral fly (lie down with weight in each hand, arms extended; pull hands together at arm’s length in front of chest)
Bicep curl
Two shoulder exercises (no idea what they are called; someone showed them to me)
Wrist strengthening
Situps

After, we ran straight back from the gym, which is just about 1 km. My time was around 5 minutes. (Unfortunately, I didn’t save it on my phone, but I remember it comparable to the time I did for a half mile.)

Wednesday night, since I missed gumdo practice on Tuesday, I practiced candle begi (candle snuffing with a sword). It has been so long since I practiced that that it took me a while to get used to it again. I must have practiced between 200 and 300 sword cuts. I have to snuff out two candles on my next sword test, and I needed to practice. It’s damn hard to snuff out more than one candle with a sword. One is easy. The problem when there’s more than one candle is you may actually snuff one out, but then the candle that didn’t go out will re-light the one you snuffed out. Argh! This is more frustrating and difficult that board breaking! Hehe. At least, if you don’t break the board, you still hit the thing. You cannot hit the candle to snuff it out. That’s not the point. Candle begi is a test of how well you control your sword. Cut down swiftly and quickly stop the sword precisely where you need it to blow out the candle. Anyway, I can definitely see how some people eventually can cut watermelons and cucumbers off someone’s abdomen. All I know is right now don’t let me try that on anyone! Anyway, I got good sword cutting practice in Wednesday night even if I missed gumdo and taekwondo all last week. (And yes, I still managed to blow out one candle on its own.) This just means that I have to get to class this week. This weekend is Easter weekend – I’m expecting the do jang will be closed, so I have to go during the week. Tonight is gumdo and taekwondo. I’m making myself go (despite my workaholic brain telling me to stay home and work), and if I don’t, Nathan is allowed to kick me in the butt. 😉

BB,
Cassandrah
Brigid’s Flame