Wednesday Workout - Telephone Sprints

The weather in Maine has been bipolar in nature. This is the time of year when the maple saps flows. Cold nights, followed by warm days. How warm? Well one day last week, it was 65 sunny degrees. The very next day, it was under 30 and we had a snow storm that sent the kids home early from school. But for the most part, it is delightful. The chill in the air in the early mornings, is perfect for being outside. I love the crispy air early in the morning.

I am not a runner. As a matter of fact, I hate running. I have a strong dislike for steady-state cardio of all sorts. I think it is unnatural for a human to run marathons, or do step-aerobics, or sit on bikes to "spin" to nowhere for an hour at a time.

Wednesday's Workout ~ ChaLEAN Extreame REVIEW

I am writing a review of a workout that I first did two years ago. Why so long? Because ChaLean helped me reach my fitness goals.

I was just reading in SandMan's Blog how Maggi went to karate (kyokushin) to lose weight, and soon found herself saying " Ya know? I wanted to do Karate to help me get in shape but now I want to get in shape to do Karate" and she did. Maggi went on to lose 131pounds.


I started playing tennis at 240 pounds. At 5'6", it was not pretty, but I didn't care, I loved it. Because of my bad shape, I developed tennis elbow. I wanted to play tennis more than anything though so I looked up how to fix tennis elbow and found that weight training helped. It seemed silly to just train my elbow so I did a whole body program. I went through several, not finding my fit until I got ChaLEAN Extreme.

Sometimes, you get knocked out

I am posting the fight that I lost at the Dageki World Champs last October. This was the fight for first and I sadly lost. I need to keep my hands up to start with, I know. I also need to work on blocking. I am not ashamed of what I did, in fact I am proud of the fight, even though it is VERY short. I got knocked out. In fact I can't recall when the ref tied my belt, even when watching it, I can't remember. It is like seeing someone in a Patty suit fighting from 20 or so seconds on. The next thing I remember is the doc standing over me, and me telling him that I needed to fight. He was telling that I was done.

Dageki World Karate Championship

Last January the video came in from last October's world championship fight. It was saddly misplaced. Good news though! It was found the other day. So here is my semi-final fight from Montreal, Canada. I am the cute girl with the pig tails and the yellow belt.

Belt Test Tonight!

Last Sunday, I went to Sensei's dojo for class in Bethel. She has several white belt's in her class now and all five of them are testing this Friday (tonight). Their first test. I know how nervous they must be. I know how nervous I was when I took my test.

I 'knew' I was going to fail. I couldn't do the pushups and situps required. I was very knit-picky on my only kata I had to do. Were my strikes are sharp as they needed to be? Was my stance correct? Then I was worried that I wouldn't remember kihon and would forget to pivot when I kicked.

Wednesday's Workout ~ Tabatas

Winter in Maine is a funny thing. One day we will get a foot of snow, wild winds will knock down mighty pines, and jack frost himself, complains of the chill. The very next day, 50 degrees, sun shining, snow melting into small ponds that freeze into ice rinks over night. On those nice days, you just want to go out and play but can't because everything is so wet.

Exercise gets to be redundant. I love karate class, because it is always changing up to learn new things, however morning workouts, are just a chore. Which is why I LOVE Tabata intervals. 4 minutes of hell and you are all done, and with the cardio conditioning of an hour of 2 minute intervals.

Wednesday Workout - Jump!

Todays workout is brought to by the letter 'J'. 'J' stands for jump rope, of course. It isn't just for little girls in the play yard or big boxers at the gym. It is for everyone and in every shape.

Nothing is better for bringing up the heart hate than a jump rope. Skipping rope for 15 minutes burns about the same calories as a 10-minute mile but a lot less impact on your knees. Besides being a great fat-burner, jumping rope tones your upper and lower body muscles at the same time. It increases your endurance, stamina, and the light impact will even increase your bone density.