I started a Facebook page for the sole purpose of following fitness articles, motivational memes, pictures etc. It's my little place to get my geek on and I try to tone it down sometimes by sprinkling in some cat vids or heart-warming dog pix or cool horse things once and a while....it's really just my fix for all things fitness.
And this is not unusual for me as I tend to be a JUMP IN WITH BOTH FEET WHILE SCREAMING YAHOOOO sort of person when something really excites or fascinates me. This has bitten me in the ass more than once. However, it can also work in my favor sometimes too. I never know which will happen. Falling on my ass or having fun.
I started taking a Muay Thai boxing class in June or July this year due to a strange culmination of events that was years in the making and it sorta floored me how crazy the universe's message to me hit loud and clear.
When I first began to get into shape, I somehow found this guy on the interwebz by the name of Dave Hedges. He is a strength coach in Ireland who works with kettlebells .... And martial arts fighters. I wrote to him, he was kind enough to send some encouragement which fed my fire to learn more. He is straight forward and makes a shit ton of sense. I asked him questions, he would respond. My questions were about general fitness and I didn't pay that much attention to the fighters he talked about because it seemed WAY out of my reality. Like way, way out of my reality .... ever.
So a couple years go by and I begin to work with this really great woman I met on the interwebz, Cori Lefkowith. I was working on my own at the time, having just left crossfit and I was trying to fit all. The. Things. Into my training. She not unkindly told me to stop it. Focus. She wrote me some programs based on my goals at the time.
She simplified things. She helped talk me off the ledge of going a ga-zillion miles an hour in every work out and trying to do it all....she explained several times why I did not need to pummel myself into utter exhaustion with each work out....how I was hurting myself more than helping myself....she helped me see the value in slower paced work, along with faster/harder work... the ebb and flow.
I rehabbed an elbow injury that I earned from overuse and not properly prepping my joints/tendons/muscles for the work I asked my body to do. I did a lot of stretching, rollering, moving in all movement planes. She explained why that was important....she helped me not be such a freak over getting a workout in. She gave me her time and was not judgmental.
And she was currently working on boxing for her goals.
She simplified things. She helped talk me off the ledge of going a ga-zillion miles an hour in every work out and trying to do it all....she explained several times why I did not need to pummel myself into utter exhaustion with each work out....how I was hurting myself more than helping myself....she helped me see the value in slower paced work, along with faster/harder work... the ebb and flow.
I rehabbed an elbow injury that I earned from overuse and not properly prepping my joints/tendons/muscles for the work I asked my body to do. I did a lot of stretching, rollering, moving in all movement planes. She explained why that was important....she helped me not be such a freak over getting a workout in. She gave me her time and was not judgmental.
And she was currently working on boxing for her goals.
Again...I thought....damn, tough woman and immediately dismissed anything like that would EVER hold any interest in my life. It never occurred to me that I could do it or would be tough enough to want to do it.
More time passes.
About a month before an upcoming business trip, Dave hedges shared a blog post from a woman that hit me in a hugely powerful and profound way. I Punch First. http://www.giagia.co.uk/2014/06/30/i-punch-first/
I started thinking about taking some sort of self defense. I didn't thing about boxing really... I wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to do about it and it sat on the back burner.
About a month before an upcoming business trip, Dave hedges shared a blog post from a woman that hit me in a hugely powerful and profound way. I Punch First. http://www.giagia.co.uk/2014/06/30/i-punch-first/
I started thinking about taking some sort of self defense. I didn't thing about boxing really... I wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to do about it and it sat on the back burner.
While on my business trip to Atlanta. I found myself walking back to the hotel on my own.....in the dark....no street lights....tons of underbrush and greenery for someone to hide in on both sides of the road immediately next to the sidewalk/street....no moon.....and I thought holy shit. If someone would
come at me.....I would have NO idea what to do.
Yes, I have a decent confidence, yes, I carry myself well, yes, I have relative strength/coordination..... I would still have no idea what to do to defend myself.
come at me.....I would have NO idea what to do.
Yes, I have a decent confidence, yes, I carry myself well, yes, I have relative strength/coordination..... I would still have no idea what to do to defend myself.
I really hated that feeling. Really, really hated it. Vulnerable. Helpless. Weak. Afraid.
My business trip was over and I'm on the plane ride home....I'm sitting next to this very well dressed man reading a sailing magazine. "No way is he from CO" I think. And I don't know why but I ask anyway...."soooo....you from CO?"
He is from my home town in CO which is incredibly odd. I've never sat next to anyone from my home town in all my flights and trips for my job or for vacation. He has dogs....so we are talking dogs, really hitting it off, which in of itself is also weird....mostly it's polite chit chat and you go back to reading your book. Turns out he is good friends with one of our veterinarians, Dr. Wheeler....talk turns to fitness, and he goes to a gym in Ft. Collins that runs Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu.
He says I have GOT to come to his gym.
And I do.
And somehow I am in a Muay Thai boxing class. And it is REALLY. FREAKING. COOL.
He is from my home town in CO which is incredibly odd. I've never sat next to anyone from my home town in all my flights and trips for my job or for vacation. He has dogs....so we are talking dogs, really hitting it off, which in of itself is also weird....mostly it's polite chit chat and you go back to reading your book. Turns out he is good friends with one of our veterinarians, Dr. Wheeler....talk turns to fitness, and he goes to a gym in Ft. Collins that runs Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu.
He says I have GOT to come to his gym.
And I do.
And somehow I am in a Muay Thai boxing class. And it is REALLY. FREAKING. COOL.
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