BritNoob

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I've been away all week so i've only just caught up with them all. Lots of good advice, thank you very much

Do you have any advice that is useful when starting out? Like what are good things to eat during the week and foods I should avoid? What exercises are good to do at home and how often should i do them? I don't want to pull any muscles or over-do it. I'm pretty sure that during my first lesson i must have pulled a stomach muscle because my stomach was painful and very tight for 2 weeks. I think I must have over done it during an exercise where you grip your partners ankles and then lift your feet up to his head......know the one I mean?

Thanks, guys. I am already noticing the benefits of the class in terms of my general fitness. I love the way I feel after class and I've learnt loads of warm up exercises and stretches that I can do during the week to get me in better shape for the next lesson.

Hi all, this is my first post here I started learning Goju-ryu and Uechi-ryu Karate 2 weeks ago so I'm a complete beginner. I've looked around the interenet for some good forums and this one seems to be busier and more helpful than most i came across. I'd love to find some more experienced martial artists I could share my thoughts with and ask for advice. I'm over-whelmed by how much there is to take in begin with, is it normal to feel so useless at first? I'm 25 and not in the best of shape (I'm not overweight, in fact I'm very skinny but generally unfit) and i only have one 1-hour beginner lesson every week but as I improve I plan on attending the mixed ability classes as well as I already feel i want to train several times a week, once just isn't enough. The beginner class I attend has a mix of yellow, orange and green belts so there is still a big jump in ability. Some of the other students have been going several years. Obviously as I'm so new I haven't learnt much at all in the way of karate, we do a lot of kata's toward the end of the lesson and I just try to pick it up as we go along, but by the end i've forgotten it almost entirely. So really I just wanted to introduce myself, but I'd love to hear all your thoughts on wether it's normal to feel so awkward and useless when you first start. Thanks all