Wednesday, April 29 Workout - A Victim of Spring Fever

I don't know whether I'm getting a cold or if my allergies are just acting up on me. I planned to make this the first day I split my workouts in half - martial arts forms and techniques in the morning and strength training in the afternoon.

But I only managed to do the morning workout. It was still pretty good.

I started with another marathon, super-slow set of Siu Lam Tao. Several accounts I've read say that Bruce Lee's teacher, Yip Man, never took less than an hour to do that set. I only managed to stretch it out to half-an-hour, but I still felt pretty good about it. Even with the pain and soreness in my legs, I still feel like I'm also generating energy from doing that set for so long.

My recovery time seems to be decreasing, too. I suspect it is due the fact that I started taking fish oils again. I really need to keep up on that for my heart if nothing else. But I do notice when I've been taking it regularly that I don't need to rest as long between exercises.

In fact, between sets, I swept and otherwise worked to clean up my carport kwoon. Over the months, I've let a few things get away from me, like letting the leaves accumulate. I also threw out the rotted seat and leg fittings for my stretch rack. I can't wait to finish that.

Alternating with the cleaning, I did some drills on the heavy bag, mostly chain punches and turning punches. It's nice to see I haven't lost too much power or speed. Thanks to the work I've done with Ken Gullette on silk reeling and internal power, I'm learning to get even more power from my waist and penetrating deeper into the bag with my punches.

After the bag, it was time to hit the dummy. I did some drills to brush up on my chi sao, or sticking hands exercises. True, it's not the same as doing it with a person, but at least I can preserve the movements and work on my speed.

I closed with a single run of the wooden dummy form, both the Yip family and the mainland branch sets. I would have liked to keep going, but I had a luncheon with a former editor and I didn't want to keep her waiting.