So, in class tonight we done many things, Conditioning was one of them. We got challenged on how many we could push out in a one time period of 2 minutes, this was for each conditioning activity (push ups, sit ups, squat kicks and then recently added bur-pees.) These are all very critical criteria to work on for stamina, agility and intensity. push up’s are great because they build up the muscles in the arms.  Martial arts include lots of punching,  and so the push ups build up the arm muscles; helping you push out more punches in a shorter time period without your arms tiring. Sit-up’s are great as they work the ab and stomach muscles, no matter what your doing in karate your ab muscles are always contracting, so it is good to build up your stomach muscles. Squat kicks are another good one as they really get in there and are great for the upper leg muscles; you definitely need them strong for kicking and holding certain stances and positions. Also the newly added  bur-pee’s – so today in class we all had 2 minutes on each one, I was actually very happy with my outcome. I completed my 100 sit up’s, 100 squat kicks, and for a person who has never really done bur-pee’s ever, I got up to 62. I am very happy I could push that many out. However for the push up’s yes, I had perfect structure from head to toe and reaching all the way to the ground and all the way back up, but I could only push out 56, so i definitely need to work on them more, specially being a black belt.

Another thing I loved about tonight’s class, we did another lot of high intensive and high speed basics and then kata. We was also challenged to go through all the advanced kata up to the highest one we knew as fast as we could with better form and making our way back down to the lowest advanced kata (shihohi) and see how many times we could get through it. As we was going through all of this, Sensei Sandra was saying that it will be a lot more harder and intense in Japan. I don’t know about anyone else but that made me think, well I have to train harder and faster and push aside the fact that I had a massive stitch in my stomach. All the muscles in my body were throbbing and I made sure I pushed myself harder and faster. I made myself keep up with the fastest person in the group or get ahead of them, which I did and I pushed myself harder even more. I’m sure I`ll get lots more time through-out the rest of the 2 week intensive to get heaps of chances to work more on that and I look forward to more challenges to come.