intraining

I'm a stay at home mom. Hard work and I don't get paid!

I'm in Ontario, Canada

Oh my! That's quite a site. You're right, all of those workouts will be too much for me, but I can certainly see the benefits of them. Thank you very much.

Actually my husband and I were just talking about getting a heavy bag this morning. We both could use one. Thank you!

You should be very proud of yourself. Anyone who quits smoking should be. My one year will be sometime in March, I'd have to check the calander to be sure. It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, and I'm still not fully recovered from it. I'm still trying to get my breath back. Congratulations!!!

Thanks for the advice. I've started doing that, and yes, I do have a hard time doing just 5. I'm such a weakling! Anywho, that has started to turn into a stretching time as well, which has been good. My flexability is improving as well. So, again, thank you!

Hi all. I need some good exercises to increase my strength. I have never in my life been accused of being strong, and now that I'm training, it's more noticable than ever. I seriously can't even do 10 pushups. I'm weak!! My left side is so weak it's laughable and my stronger side is just pathetic. I would love to increase my strength even just a bit, but I don't know the right way to do it. Thanks in advance for the help!

I'm 5' 4" and I weigh about 142 lbs. I'd like to lose a bit of that, but I'm ok with it. I carry around some extra weight from my kids. What I would like to do is just lose that last little bit of belly fat, I really don't care about my weight.

That's really unfortunate. I don't know what to tell you. I agree with I think it was Angela that said he sounds like a bit of a bully. There is a certain amount of discomfort that comes with MA, I've found anyway, but outright pain seems wrong. Especially this, it sounds like he might have done some damage to your wrist. I would suggest however that if it continues, and you are in danger of being seriously hurt, to talk to your sensei. I wouldn't consider this situation to be whining. To me this seems like a safety issue. First off, you shouldn't be physically injured in this way, so it's not a safe environment for you to train in. Not only that, it doesn't sound like this person should be teaching lower ranks. Would your sensei hurt you like that? If yes, then I would say find another dojo. Chances are though that he wouldn't, and neither should anyone else. My sensei has deliberately hurt me on occasion, simply because there was no other way to show me the move (ie: grabbing me from behind by the nose) but he always tells me before hand that he's going to hurt me, and apologizes for it as well. I don't see any excuse for what is happening to you. And that quote is really something else!!

Everyone has a different pain threshold. Is is possible that he didn't know how much you were hurting? I know for me, I've had to force myself to let them know that what they are doing is hurting, otherwise they don't know and I'm the only one that pays in the end. I find that they often forget how strong they actually are, and myself as a lowly white belt can get the stuffing beat out of me if I don't speak up! I've come home with some amazing bruises before I started to speak up.

Oh boy do I know how you feel!! I'm the only white belt left in our dojo, so I'm always partnered up with a higher rank. Fortunately for me, they are very patient with me, and force me to work a lot harder at correcting my stances and tecniques. In the long run though, it's really beneficial, I think, for the lower ranks to work closely with the higher ranks. It's beneficial for both parties. It helps us improve a lot faster, and it forces them to slow down a bit and re-focus on their techniques. I often feel really badly for them too, and I almost stopped going when the other two white belts stopped coming. But I'm sticking with it, and am improving a lot faster now that I'm always working with a higher ranking.

Yes, I can definately see that now. Who would have thought, really? I've never been an "active" type of person, not physical at all. My husband figured I would go for the month I paid for and then that would be it. He's just as shocked as anyone that I'm still in it. I'm not a lazy lug or anything, I've just never really been "into" this sort of thing. Who knew?

Thank you everyone for your replies. I guess maybe I'm stressing too much about it. I don't even know when the grading will be, it may not even be until the end of the year, I have no idea. I have learned two of the three katas I need to know, and I know the movements of the third, but am far from being smooth at it. I've been practicing it over the break, but I'm still not feeling comfortable with it. I guess I'm just going to have to take a deep breath and just relax about it. I have a tendancy to stress over things that I can't control. I never thought that karate would end up meaning this much to me, but it really does! Hubby thinks it's hilarious that I'm so involved in it, too. Again, thank you all for your words of advice.

Your teacher/instructor/sensei does... why not ask him. I plan on it when we start back up after the Christmas break. I just thought that someone here may have some words of advice for me. If not, then no biggie.

I was wondering if anyone could help me. I'll be going for my yellow belt grading sometime in the near future. At least I think I will be! Anywho, I really don't know what goes on in a grading session, so any words of advice would be greatly appreciated. I hate going into a situation like this without having a least a bit of an idea what is going to happen, so a bit of a breakdown of what will go on would be nice too. Thanks in advance