Living By The Sword Will Kill You

I meant to get in a workout Friday, but Thursday's session with the swords killed me.

I get a laugh out of all those people who seem to think that using swords, or any kind of weapon, is easy. To them, I say that there's a lot more to it than "pointy end goes in here."

Each broadsword may weight only about a pound or so, but swinging that one-pound weight around for half-an-hour or more, with your arms at varying extensions, incorporating all the footwork and body twisting is like a full workout with Nautilus. Even more so.

Most modern weight training isolates parts of the body. It's designed more for sculpting individual members, not the body as a whole. Using weapons takes the whole body. Controlling a sword or staff uses the legs, the waist, the torso and, yes, the arms. And every one of those parts was hurting like hell Friday morning.

So I returned to my workouts with a little more common sense today. I'm still determined to focus on the broadswords this month, but I'll take it a little slower.

I was also hamstrung by the stormy weather here in the Bay Area. Growing up, I wasn't about to let a little rain or snow stop me. But I'm not only a little older and slightly wiser, I also live in the lightning strike capital of the world. Practicing in the rain is risky enough. Practicing while holding a hunk of metal in your hands is downright reckless.

When the weather let up this afternoon, I took up my wooden broadsword, went into the yard and ran through alternating runs of the single dao and the Sup Baht Mor Kiu fist set, (18 Devils Bridge). The latter set is typical of most Yau Kung Mun and Bak Mei forms - short, but very fast and aggressive. When considering the aggressive, nasty nature of Bak Mei forms, it's easy to see why the character of Bak Mei (also known as Pai Mei) is frequently depicted as a villain in Chinese culture and cinema.



I returned to my carport, alternating between individual drills on the dummy, claw pushups and the ab wheel. Following about 15 minutes of that circuit, I closed with a round of the Wooden Dummy form, some classic sit-ups on an incline board, and two sets each of standard pushups and dips on the Power Tower.

Living by the Sword(s)

Several paying assignments kept me busy for most of the day. But I've resolved recently that I won't let work get in the way of my workouts.

I used to take the attitude that you should find something to do that you enjoy when it comes to exercise. I still believe that.

But my former editor and writing mentor, Susan Ladika, told me that she makes it a point to set aside time for her yoga, just like she does any other chore. She depends on yoga to keep her healthy, especially for minimizing some back problems. If she didn't treat it like a chore to get done, she says she'd be too tempted to postpone it in order to work on more paying assignments.

I've also concluded that barring a miracle, I am not going to be able to get to Dallas this year to compete in the Legends of Kung Fu Tournament. It's somewhat liberating because, as much as I love it, it means I don't have to focus the bulk of my workout on Wing Chun forms and techniques.

So today I decided to brush up on my Yau Kung Mun. Following the full-body stretch, I launched into runs of the single and double sabres. It took longer than I planned because I was very rusty on those forms. I had to keep stopping what I was doing, go to my laptop, and play the DVD I made of the Yau Kung Mun sets.

Still I managed to do eight runs of the single sabre and three runs each of the opening moves of the double sabre. Afterward, I followed with five runs of the Gao Bo Toi (Nine Step Push) set, with sets of claw pushups and the abwheel between each run of the form.



I closed with a set of crunches and 30 pushups between a couple of bowling balls.