One of the great loves of my life is to try new things. As every human being knows, "Life" as a whole is so damn short and can be wiped away at any given second. With that, I want to make sure that mine is brimming full of "Nouns"; People that I've met along my life's journey, Places that I've traveled to, and Things that I have tried. I honestly don't have a "Bucket List" of things that I would like to do, I just try to do things that I haven't done before...Things that I normally wouldn't even dream of doing. With that theory alone, I have done some amazing things! :)
Since Fall is now here, my race season is starting to come to a close. Sure, I could probably do 5k's all throughout the winter months, but frankly, I HATE running and I sure as heck don't want to do what I hate on slippery, icy surfaces! So... I've been wracking my brain for weeks and on a search for my "Next Best Thing" to keep my mind and my body occupied throughout these cold, dark, winter months to come.
The one thing I know about me is that I like to play hard. I like to play rough, get dirty, and sweaty (I'm going to venture a guess that that is the Tom Boy in me!). I am also very competitive (even if it's only against my own self), and even if sometimes things takes me a couple of tries to get it right- Once I get it, "I get it" and will work at it until it is perfect. I am rarely a quitter. I am humble though. I will easily admit when I don't have the greatest skill, I don't like to hurt people, and I will never rub anything in anyone's face. And with that...
I'm Trying Something New!!!
I was doing an internet search one afternoon looking for a kickboxing class. I have had friends over the years take this type of class, and they all have said that it was quite the workout. But, I was actually having a tough time finding a class like this until I stumbled upon a cardio/fitness Kickboxing class offered 3x's a week at a small out of town martial arts franchise. I was happy that this was "out of town" because I sure as heck didn't want anyone that knows me, SEE me! Um... Yeah... Did I mention that I'm easily embarrassed?? lol! And so I gave them a call, and went to my first class last week.
Talk about a fish out of water!
They were doing "bags" that night. There I was, standing eye to bag with this big, black, padded cylinder that stood as tall as me, was about 3 feet in diameter, and heavily weighted at the base. I got to wear some funky padded strap on gloves that reminded me of really cool looking "I'm about to beat the living shit out of this bag" gloves!
Because I was the only newbie, the female instructor had to spend almost the entire class with me teaching me how to hit this thing. She showed me about 6 different ways to hit this bag with my hands/elbows, and roughly 4 different ways to kick at this thing, and then you would use different combinations of hands/feet. OMG did I go to town!!! I hit and kicked that damn big black mass as hard as I could. And then I had to keep walking the bag back to where I orig. started because I kept moving it! (that bag is really heavy, moving it back to start, sucked!) I'm thinking I had a little something bothering me at the time...OK, maybe it was more than "little" LOL! What a fricken blast waylaying that bag was! I was really getting into it! I would crack it a good one, and then get this big CHEESY grin on my face! (and pray no one noticed it!)
And that's how it went; Focus, "Crack", Grin, Repeat!
**POOF** Stress Be Gone!!! Worked like a dream!
Only downfall was that I "Broke My Wing" that night. aka: I pulled my forearm muscle and couldn't even put the truck in park because it hurt so bad once I got home! No worries, a little Ibuprofen, and it was all good by morning! ... It was still SOOOO worth it! :)
Tonight's class was pretty memorable. Tonight we got to use mitts & gloves and work with a partner! My partner was a man. He used the mitts first, and I had the gloves. We did different combinations of hitting/kicking for half an hour before we switched roles. Well, er... He used gloves and I wore the mitts.. Not that I was then the man and he became the woman. lol! :) The challenging thing about tonight was that he was always moving around the entire floor and when he would stop, I then would hit him (multiple times!) I liked that. The constant moving and striking was a nice workout! I felt SOOOO bad though. I accidentally missed part of the mitt once and partially kicked him in the arm. And to top it off, I wear my Vibrams FiveFinger shoes. So I know the sole probably didn't feel the greatest scraping across his arm. I felt so bad that I apologized quite a few times for that.
That's OK, he eventually got me back. (Not on purpose, I am a crappy mitt holder! Again.. Learning curve! lol) He kicked me in the upper wrist on accident.
Yup,... That left a mark.
Collateral damage for tonight's class: I broke my other "wing" (ripped the other forearm muscle) and I have a fair sized black bruise where I got walloped.
Can't wait for the next class!
**CHEESY GRIN**
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