| My wife puts up with a lot, and I love her dearly, and | | | | theyre doing itand I tell them a little hurting now will |
| Im always grateful for the utter lapse in judgement | | | | save them a lot of hurting later. |
| she had in marrying me, over the advice of her | | | | Then we go through the standard forms, with an |
| friends. Shes appreciated that I do martial arts and | | | | initial open stance thats centered and low to the |
| that I write about it, and that makes us some | | | | ground for punches, jabs and the front kick. First we |
| money, but shes always kind of regarded getting | | | | have our students do it in front of a mirror, letting |
| thrown on a mat, or punched in the ribs as A guy | | | | them work up a sweat. I walk through the line as |
| thing, if you know what I mean, so shes never really | | | | they do it, correcting form here and there even |
| participated. It took a lot of promising to do the | | | | though I dont expect any of these women to ever |
| dishes, but I got her to sign up for the dojos | | | | use this as a martial art, I expect them to get it |
| kickboxing routine as a fitness program. | | | | right, just in case. The entire dojo starts to build up |
| Were trying to get students in at different times, | | | | some energy, with kiais and grunts. |
| and trying to appeal to a wider demographic. As a | | | | The next part of the workout is to take them one |
| result, weve taken up teaching Thai Kickboxing as a | | | | at a time and get them into hitting the bag. This is |
| kickboxing and exercise routine for body shaping and | | | | actually the most difficult part of the process for my |
| cardiovascular workouts. While Muay Thai is an | | | | students. Karen, my first one up, actually pulls her |
| excellent martial art for self defense, it also provides | | | | punch before she hits the bag even with the pads |
| an awesome workout routine, building balance, | | | | on. It took me two or three reps to get her to |
| flexibility, percussive strength and coordination, and its | | | | punch with all the power coming from her hips, glutes |
| an excellent fat burner, especially on the hips and | | | | and midsection at full speed. And about ten more |
| thighs and abdomen. (Yeah, I know, it doesnt really | | | | reps for her to actually do it on her own. A lot of |
| do targeted weight loss it causes you to lose weight | | | | people in America are taught hitting is bad, and thats |
| over your entire body, but builds muscle there it feels | | | | conditioning that has to be overcome, even when |
| like targeted weight loss!) Since I have a pretty | | | | working out with a bag. It took me most of the first |
| flexible schedule as a writer, I ended up being the | | | | session to get all the women to hit the bag decently. |
| teacher for the afternoon classes. | | | | The last part of the session is cooling down |
| Weve worked out a kickboxing routine that starts | | | | stretching and standing in position and letting the |
| with stances, and stretches we have all our students | | | | muscles unkink, working on the balance theyll need to |
| run in place for about 5 minutes to get their heart | | | | do front kicks and roundhouses, which, at my guess, |
| rate up, then have them stretch out. Getting the | | | | will be in about two weeks. All it all, it seemed like a |
| blood flowing early means that the stretching is more | | | | pretty solid success, and I look forward to seeing my |
| effective. I try to encourage all my students to take | | | | students later this week! |
| the stretching seriously it should hurt a little bit as | | | | |