I've been on Bullshido.net for as long as I've been taking Karate. I've taken in all the good advice from the amateur/pro fighters, instructors, bullies, military.... all in my quest to get in shape and in the process, become somewhat more than just a mediocre badass.
Why Karate if I've been reading Bullshido all this time you ask? Cuz I can do it on my lunch break, and spend my evenings and weekends with my wife and kids, that's why. Oh yeah, and I'm enjoying myself. But this thread isn't about Karate at all, it's about me feeling like a wuss.
You see, I read a thread called So you want to Train... by a one Omega the Merciless and was inspired. I had little options for the time I was able to put in, but I wanted to lift, I wanted to increase my stamina, but most of all.... I wanted to spar (cue slow piano melody). So I googled, and I googled, and I googled. Ultimately, google was useless and I just used my company's corporate discount to join a gym two blocks from my job (remember, lunch break work outs only with few exceptions). Now, its a nice big gym chain, and besides all the equipment, they have different classes. Before signing up (contract, bangs head on desk), I asked the signer upper about the classes. I'm a guy, he's a guy so I thought that he'd look out for my interests as far as man-ego is concerned. So when I asked about the Thursday and Friday lunch hour classes, he said, "sure, there are a lot of guys who take them. they are very challenging, one of my favorites" (the Thursday class was his favorite).
So I sign the contract, ready to exercise a total of 5 days per week in an attempt to become a good Karateka. Some quick background information, the tipping point which pushed me to join the gym was when I was doing kata and got gassed. It was quite embarrassing. After I signed the contract and was going to get what may possibly have been my last fast food burger for a long time, I see my signer upper talking to his co-workers. Now, something must have happened when I turned around. I'm guessing one of three things, a Jujitsu master put him is such a serious wristlock that he could not straighten his arm, he was trying to imitate a velociraptor, or he was the uber ghey. Not that there's anything wrong with that (ala Seinfeld), but remember, I had trusted him to look out for my man ego regarding the classes, and I realized that a person who imitates velociraptors in public may not be the best person for the job. This raised a red-flag, but I was not dissuaded (contract, remember?). You may be asking, why do you need classes to train cardio? I racka disciprine, that's why.
So today, on my lunch break, I go to my first class. I get there early and the instructor is there and I introduce myself. She recommends I warm up on the treadmill before class, and I do. When I come back however, the room is lined with these:
These
these
and these
And I'm thinking to myself "oh hell no". What makes matters worse, is that the class quickly fills with women. Did I not ask about that? And yes, there was music playing really loud ( I like to move it move it) and the instructor had one of those head piece microphones. To be fair, there were two other guys there. One looked like it was his first day, and by the looks of it, he wasn't going back, and the other guy was in very good shape and felt very comfortable.
Look, I'm not trying to come off as a sexist or a chauvinist or an insecure butt face, but I couldn't help myself thinking that the guys working on the Smith machines and the free weights, who had a perfect view of us because we were enclosed by very large and clean panes of glass, were snickering at me as I lifted the 10lb weighted bar over my head for two minutes before spending the next two minutes jumping on and off a breast shaped piece of rubber (think Danielsan practicing the crane kick at the beach).
In reality the work out was great. Big ups on the cardio and muscle toning activities. And once we put the toys away, we did some serious stuff like alligator walks, alligator walks + pushups, lunges, crab walks and so on. I will be sore tomorrow, I will be in better shape, but I don't know if I can bring myself to do it again.
My proposed work out for next week
Monday - Karate
Tuesday - weights
Wednesday- Karate
Thursday - weights
Friday -Cardio kick boxing (STFU, I get to hit a heavy bag the whole time)
Sat and Sun - Solo karate at home as time permits
And maybe I'll stop using my home treadmill as a towel rack and actually run. (did a mile and a quarter last night).
k, rant over. Thanks for reading
Why Karate if I've been reading Bullshido all this time you ask? Cuz I can do it on my lunch break, and spend my evenings and weekends with my wife and kids, that's why. Oh yeah, and I'm enjoying myself. But this thread isn't about Karate at all, it's about me feeling like a wuss.
You see, I read a thread called So you want to Train... by a one Omega the Merciless and was inspired. I had little options for the time I was able to put in, but I wanted to lift, I wanted to increase my stamina, but most of all.... I wanted to spar (cue slow piano melody). So I googled, and I googled, and I googled. Ultimately, google was useless and I just used my company's corporate discount to join a gym two blocks from my job (remember, lunch break work outs only with few exceptions). Now, its a nice big gym chain, and besides all the equipment, they have different classes. Before signing up (contract, bangs head on desk), I asked the signer upper about the classes. I'm a guy, he's a guy so I thought that he'd look out for my interests as far as man-ego is concerned. So when I asked about the Thursday and Friday lunch hour classes, he said, "sure, there are a lot of guys who take them. they are very challenging, one of my favorites" (the Thursday class was his favorite).
So I sign the contract, ready to exercise a total of 5 days per week in an attempt to become a good Karateka. Some quick background information, the tipping point which pushed me to join the gym was when I was doing kata and got gassed. It was quite embarrassing. After I signed the contract and was going to get what may possibly have been my last fast food burger for a long time, I see my signer upper talking to his co-workers. Now, something must have happened when I turned around. I'm guessing one of three things, a Jujitsu master put him is such a serious wristlock that he could not straighten his arm, he was trying to imitate a velociraptor, or he was the uber ghey. Not that there's anything wrong with that (ala Seinfeld), but remember, I had trusted him to look out for my man ego regarding the classes, and I realized that a person who imitates velociraptors in public may not be the best person for the job. This raised a red-flag, but I was not dissuaded (contract, remember?). You may be asking, why do you need classes to train cardio? I racka disciprine, that's why.
So today, on my lunch break, I go to my first class. I get there early and the instructor is there and I introduce myself. She recommends I warm up on the treadmill before class, and I do. When I come back however, the room is lined with these:
These
these
and these
And I'm thinking to myself "oh hell no". What makes matters worse, is that the class quickly fills with women. Did I not ask about that? And yes, there was music playing really loud ( I like to move it move it) and the instructor had one of those head piece microphones. To be fair, there were two other guys there. One looked like it was his first day, and by the looks of it, he wasn't going back, and the other guy was in very good shape and felt very comfortable.
Look, I'm not trying to come off as a sexist or a chauvinist or an insecure butt face, but I couldn't help myself thinking that the guys working on the Smith machines and the free weights, who had a perfect view of us because we were enclosed by very large and clean panes of glass, were snickering at me as I lifted the 10lb weighted bar over my head for two minutes before spending the next two minutes jumping on and off a breast shaped piece of rubber (think Danielsan practicing the crane kick at the beach).
In reality the work out was great. Big ups on the cardio and muscle toning activities. And once we put the toys away, we did some serious stuff like alligator walks, alligator walks + pushups, lunges, crab walks and so on. I will be sore tomorrow, I will be in better shape, but I don't know if I can bring myself to do it again.
My proposed work out for next week
Monday - Karate
Tuesday - weights
Wednesday- Karate
Thursday - weights
Friday -Cardio kick boxing (STFU, I get to hit a heavy bag the whole time)
Sat and Sun - Solo karate at home as time permits
And maybe I'll stop using my home treadmill as a towel rack and actually run. (did a mile and a quarter last night).
k, rant over. Thanks for reading
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