chh

How about a gyro ball? That's the only gadget-y training device I have. I think they're around 30 bucks, they do a great job working your hand and forearm muscles. I wouldn't call buying one a "lifestyle decision" as it says on their goofy website, but hey. Most sporting goods stores carry them. http://www.powerballs.com/powerball_benefits.html

The best advice I ever got about running was to slow down. Especially when you're starting out, there's no reason to treat it like a race. I saw one place (running magazine, actually - a good investment of three dollars or whatever, the copy I picked up had lots of articles with tips for frustrated beginners) that said if you're too out of breath to talk to your running partner, then you're going too fast. Focus on increasing the time/distance you can run without breaks, presumably the speed will come later.

I just ran across this site: http://lrnj.com and wanted to post it here to support this guy's project. He's creating an RPG game that teaches you kana and kanji. To complete the current version, which is a prototype of the project, it's necessary to master both katakana and hiragana and be familiar with 200+ kana. It's really a cool little game, still in the works and needs support now, so be sure to register if you like it!

If you talk to your instructor, explain that the training is too much for your knees and that you fear long term damage, you may well find that he/she is perfectly reasonable about it without going all legal on you. If that doesn't go well, your contract may have language in it that gives you a way out in case of an injury. I've only seen one of these contracts, but it had such a section, it got very specific as to what "injury" means and there were lots of restrictions but it's certainly worth checking to see if there's something you can use.

Been there! I sprained my right thumb, and then the left one a few days later, then re-injured both the darn things frequently for weeks and weeks afterwards. Apparently my hands figured out whatever they were doing wrong and cut it out, and now (several months later) I'm finally feeling like they're almost 100% healed. I did wear a thumb splint for a couple of weeks on the right one when it was particularly messed up, really just to remind myself to protect it during practice (and so my fellow students would quit bashing it). That helped. Icy-hot cream loosened it up a little when it was really bugging me, and putting ice on it after a re-injury seemed to do some good.

Check your local library. Mine has a couple of Higaonna Sensei's videos, including the one of him performing all the Goju kata with some bunkai demonstrations for each.

6, I think. Either 5 or 6.

Glad to help! Hope it turns out okay. If gray is preferable, seems like diluted black dye should do the trick? But I guess you don't have much time to experiment for the right shade! I'd wash it several times afterwards if you're planning to actually work out in it, to make sure you don't leave gray sweat puddles all over the floor

If I were you I'd pick up the cheapest white gi I could find and throw it in the tub with some dye. My friends used to dye their clothes all the time back when I was in high school, didn't look like there was anything to it.

Muscle memory is important, but from my experience I think training with a mix of people is very important for self-defense skills. Maybe it's because the only other woman in my dojo is about my size (small). Practicing techniques on each other is very easy. Then I work the same technique on an aggressive guy 100 pounds heavier than me and a foot taller who's been instructed to make it feel like a real attack--oh, it's different! Especially takedowns and groundwork. She and I can pick each other up and place each other on the ground if we want, and we're pretty evenly matched there, a good struggle but not much of a rush. Again, hugely different when a big aggressive guy who's much stronger than me grabs hold of me and wrenches me to the ground. I know it's not real, but my body REALLY doesn't! Suddenly the adrenaline's pumping and I have to keep my brain working while dealing with the annoying emotions that come when someone's seriously trying to get physical control over you. Anyway, I think women-only classes can be useful for getting timid women's feet wet, so to speak, but if they're serious about training and learning self-defense they should get past their hangups about training with men. Just my 2c.

Um, generally speaking, feminists DON'T want to be like men. It's about equality, nothing to do with transgenderism.

Yeah, the web design guys at my company have switched to DreamWeaver and seem to really like it. They used to use MS FrontPage, which produced some incredibly bloated and messy junk, DreamWeaver is definitely a million times cleaner than THAT. By the way, I know a gal with no web design skills/experience who successfully designed a whole site with DreamWeaver, and still doesn't know a thing about HTML.

Personally I think the word "chivalry" is the problem here, because it's dragging too many outdated connotations along with it. I absolutely give up bus seats for the pregnant & the elderly, I hold doors open for people (men & women), I do not hit people who are not a threat to me (men or women), and I offer to help carry items when the person (again, man or woman!) looks overloaded. It's just plain good manners. To me, "chivalry" today is when a guy makes a big show of rushing in front of me to get every door. Or when I'm relieved of a bag that a toddler could carry, or when I'm told not to be silly when I get my wallet out when the check comes, or when a guy leaps out of his seat on the subway and looks offended when I don't take it (honestly, I PREFER to stand on buses and trains, and my legs really are capable of holding me up!). Call me an extreme feminist all you want, but there's a line between being polite and performing a pointed demonstration of power and control. And frankly I don't think it's a particularly fine line.

His style and instructor had nothing to do with it. It's just natural selection in action.

Yup, pretty much all upper body muscles. Personally I've been repeatedly encouraged to focus on my forearm muscles with them. Do you train with nigiri game, Telsun?

I wear contacts. I've had them knocked out of place a few times but haven't taken any serious hits to the eye. My eyesight is extremely poor so I can't train without anything, the idea of glasses slipping all over my sweaty face and the lack of peripheral vision doesn't sound appealing. I do have re-wetting drops I keep in my gear bag and use before practice, otherwise they dry out when I'm sparring and become a bad distraction. I've even thought about looking into laser eye surgery since I began training, I hear it's gotten a lot cheaper. Scary, but it would be so nice to have properly working eyes.

Well, yeah! You join a class and state that you will not grapple with females...what does that say except that you do not trust the female students' intentions?? Doesn't matter whether you mean it that way or not. It's bordering on suggesting that women can't be serious martial artists because they're unable to distinguish ground work from foreplay. I shouldn't have said you should expect a bloody lip for it, though, I don't really think that way. Perhaps I DO need to get out more.

The quote strongly implied that witchcraft has "close links with demons and the occult," I believe that's what Usagi took issue with. Any pagan can tell you there is PLENTY of underlying injustice in this common misconception.

Sorry, I don't think you're going to find it. Just picture the sign up on the door of that "sexist" school you're seeking that says "NO WOMEN ALLOWED", that's just not going to happen in this day and age. The bloody lip is about what you should expect for that kind of request, there are some pretty offensive implications in it. If you seriously want to train, you don't need an understanding sensei, you need to communicate with your wife. Grappling in a martial arts class is simply NOT a sexual activity. That said, the possibility of private instruction occurs to me. Don't know how you'd go about finding it.

I'm in Washington, a bit south of Seattle. That makes sense about the video, my sensei's sensei trained with Higaonna Sensei at some point. We also use it as part of our warmups. Wonder where the kick boxer's club got it from--the movement itself is very similar to what I think are called Hindu pushups, but the breathing part seems very Goju-y.

Telsun, we do the "tiger pushups" exactly as you described in my dojo, Okinawan Goju-ryu as well. I wonder where it traces back to. Miserably difficult exercise, I clearly remember the first time I was able to complete one of them, it felt very momentous. Your pyramid suggestion was very useful to me, by the way, seemed much easier/quicker than what I was already doing (5 sets of 25) but I REALLY felt it for a couple days afterwards. Here's a general bone-headed pushup question: Is a "basic" or "normal" pushup hands shoulder-width apart, elbows kept close to the sides as you go down? I was poking around on the web and saw a few people say that wide arm pushups are more difficult than "normal" pushups. This confuses me, because wide arm pushups are a million times easier for me. With my hands shoulder-width and elbows in I find it very difficult to do the full range of motion with good form for more than even 10 or so. :confused:

Thanks, I'll try that! I'm easing off extra upper body training now since I can (just barely) do the 35 and I don't want to be sore for the test in a few days. Once I get that out of the way I'll be jumping back into it.

She's not in heat, is she? Not sure how a puppy would solve the problem...if she's not in heat my guess would be she needs more exercise and training.

Upper body strength...I guess the org my dojo is in has decided to make some test requirements more official, coming up is my first test where I've actually known how many pushups I'll have to be able to do. I know 35 is peanuts to many of you but it'll be a minor miracle for me. Of course I've been obsessing about pushups so much I'll probably drop dead before we get to that part because I didn't worry enough about endurance

Thanks! I guess I could try hang drying, I thought they'd end up stiff as a board if you did that. I did have one of them pressed last week after they hemmed it up for me, after a couple washes it still seems to be coming out at least a little smoother. I don't think I could stand wearing it more than once without a wash--not fussy enough to iron, but too fussy for that!