No Pain, No Gain

A couple of months ago I posted that I've been trying to lose weight because of my high cholesterol. I set out to be more aware of two things: (1) my food intake, and (2) exercise. I cut down on the rice I ate and started walking around a mile or so every other day.

I managed to lose around ten pounds using this method, but at some point I hit a wall. I decided to take some sort of fitness class just to keep myself motivated, and have someone actually pushing me. I wound up choosing Krav Maga, which is a form of Israeli self-defense. I had heard good things about it from former co-workers. I tried a class, found it kicked my ass (in a good way), and signed up.

Today we did around thirty minutes of warm-up, which consisted of push-ups, jumping rope, crunches, leg lifts, hitting a punching bag, jumping over obstacles, running, wheelbarrows, jumping jacks, shadow boxing, and doing squats while carrying a two-hundred pound partner. My arms and legs were about to fall off after that; and these were only the warm-ups!

The rest of the training session was easy after that (not to mention fun). It gets embarrassing sometimes, though--especially when you're partnered with a pretty girl and you're told to hit her (although we do use pads and such--you don't hit anyone directly). Of course, she has no such qualms. After a while, though, adrenaline takes over, and all you see are the pads. You punch, elbow, knee and kick those pads like your life depended on it. Sometimes, you inadvertently hit your partner, as I've (painfully) found out (knees to the groin are not fun).

What's great is that I get to burn calories while learning self-defense at the same time. Hopefully I'm never in a situation where I need to use what I've learned, but it's always nice to be prepared.