First up, I met my January goal, which was “to continue what I’ve been doing [twice a week yoga class, three times a week hard cardio, walk to and from the train station on my work days] and also to do burpees/weights/pilates at least once a week.” I did burpees and weights (if not always pilates) once a week, every week. I got up to 78 burpees. Not in a row: I do 12 in a row, rest for 30 seconds, 11, rest, 10, rest, nine, rest, etc., down to one.
Also, recently and unexpectedly, I’ve started taking krav maga.
I’m not sure why.
Maybe because I’ve never taken a self-defense class, or because MB is well-versed in martial arts. Maybe I’m just curious. Or maybe it’s because I’m almost 40 (YUP) and I want to try something different.
Mid-life crisis.
Why krav maga and not another martial art? Sheer laziness. There’s a krav maga place two blocks from my apartment. I’ve passed it before but never thought about taking a class. Then I got the bug up my ass about it, checked their website, and saw they were offering a free 3-day pass for January.
I’d try one class, I decided. It was free and one hour of my life. It’d be a beginning class. No biggie.
When I first got there, I was nervous. There were mostly men. But once class started, I saw there were a few women, at least one who looked as nervous as I felt.
And you know what? It was totally fun.
We started with conditioning, ie, running around the room, lifting stuff above our heads, punching, doing push-ups alternating one-handed (so glad I’ve been practicing plank, chatarunga, and burpees, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to do it), and some stretches (again, yay for yoga!). Then the instructor taught us stances, kicks, and punches. We practiced those facing the mirror, then with partners. (Some poor guy ended up as my partner and had to make do with my incompetence. But he was really nice about it.) Then we took turns pretending to attack each other and practicing a series of moves our instructor had taught us.
I’m not sure I knew what I was doing, but it was fun as hell.
Plus it helped that the teacher was terrific – energetic, positive, and patient, unlike the teacher this past Thursday. He was all right but a lot more blunt and not very clear with his instructions sometimes, so that when I did something wrong, and he was like, “No, that’s wrong,” I wanted to snap back, “Well, then tell me how to do it.” I held my tongue though and just went with it.
So far what I like best about krav maga is the conditioning at the beginning. I kind of like having someone yelling at me to run! run! run! now do burpees! now do crunches! MB, who was in the military, just shook his head at me. “Angela’s playing army!” I guess I am. It’s sure more fun than running on the treadmill.
I’ve prepaid for a six month membership (there was a special discount) so I have a six month commitment. However, the gym offers other classes. Yoga, conditioning, etc. I’m tempted to switch to all conditioning, but I know just a few classes isn’t enough to give krav maga a chance. MB says I should give it three months, which I’ll try to do, but my shorter term goal for the month of February is to go to krav maga twice a week every week.
Here are all my February fitness goals:
- Go to krav maga twice a week every week
- Go to yoga class twice a week every week
- Hard cardio twice a week every week (dropping from three because of krav maga)
- Burpees/weights/pilates once a week (this will be a challenge in addition to krav maga)
- Walk to and from the train station on work days
My knuckles already have scrapes and scratches, which I kind of like.