Determined To Succeed

My friends, I am sore today.

Yesterday I had the incredible opportunity to have my first (key word – first) mixed martial arts workout with martial arts and self defense expert Doug Shaffer. I knew this was going to be a down-and-dirty workout. I knew I was going to sweat. I knew I was going to sleep until noon (well, 9:30 a.m.). I knew I was going to hurt today…

…and I loved every minute of it.

The martial arts I am learning are a mixture of Kempo, Ju-Jitsu and American kickboxing, so I started my training by learning how to punch. I put on my MMA (mixed martial arts) gloves and I went to work learning how to throw a punch (something I am proud to say I have never done in my life in the real world) using the heavy bag. After that, I started moving around the bag punching which is harder because I had to concentrate on what I was doing. Once I get comfortable with it I won’t think about it, I will just do it.

Next came kicks. Yep, no “Karate Kid”  “wax on, wax off,” “hang your jacket up” stuff. I went right into kicking and how to properly kick (with a flat foot against the target). Then into using my knees. Then into a combo of all three.

Can you see the sweat dripping from me? Believe me, it was in buckets. But that’s a good thing. That is what I signed up for.

After that, I did some reverse push-up thing which really hurt (which, again, is good), shadowboxing, kick-walking (which is the only way I can describe doing kick exercises while advancing on the mat) and a cool yet strenuous reverse-spider movement thingie that I still don’t quite have the hang of yet. All this while learning how to do all this breathing through my nose and not my mouth (it’s harder than it looks if you’re used to mouth-breathing like me). We wrapped up by doing stretches which really did limit how much I hurt today. Stretches are key after a workout like that.

Afterward I was exhausted. I was sweaty (scratch that. I was mega-sweaty). I was thirsty…

…and my ass hurt.

But what an incredible workout it was. It’s the kind of workout that should hurt. Sweat means you are burning fat and I was doing that. I was working muscles I never knew I had (like behind and under my shoulders) and I was getting my body into a new kind of workout to help trim off this remaining ten pounds and, hopefully, firm up what’s left. And when you have an instructor like Sensei Doug, who wants to help people not just train-up for martial arts but get to their personal goals or weight loss, fitness or self-defense it turns a hard-as-hell workout into a partnership.

Want to know the kicker (ha, I made a martial arts joke)? I do all this again tomorrow (I did say it was my first lesson), probably harder and faster, to test what I’ve learned and to build on that. And what does that mean?  It means I so need to finish writing and get my sore ass to the gym to workout, which I finally think I can do not that my body has warmed up a bit and isn’t so stiff.

There is a saying in the studio in which we trained which I am going to share with you all today, because it applies to all aspects of life…

“A black belt is a white belt who didn’t quit.”

Damn right, and neither will I. Hell, if I can do it with my flabby arms, thighs and belly, anyone can.