Back to class!

So after taking three weeks off of my kung fu class due to my wisdom teeth extraction, I finally went back to class last night. It was pretty intense. I didn't lose much of my flexibility and strength mainly because I continued to do my stances and stretching while I was out. However, I lost a lot of my endurance. Training involves 45 minutes of fundamentals, 15 minutes of instructor's choice, and 15 minutes of forms. It requires stamina, endurance, and good cardiovascular health. It fits to say that the class kicked my butt. But it was good to be back.

I've been taking kung fu for about three months now. The thing is I did aikido before, and I still miss it a lot. After college, I stopped my martial arts classes and only relied on my weight training for fitness purposes. Then I got lazy there. Last summer, I did a hike and realized how poor my fitness was and I went back to a workout regimen at the local YMCA. I worked out 2-3 times a week with cardio and weight training. But then I did a kenpo training video at home and realized how poor my endurance was. So I decided to go back to martial arts. I picked kung fu because of its external (hard) nature. Aikido is an internal (soft) art and wouldn't stress my body as much. I was right in this area.

However, I'm disappointed by the lack of self-defense application of the style of kung fu I am in. I love the workout, but I feel incomplete. My aikido mentor showed us a lot of self-dense applications with out techniques and I loved how I could apply it in real-world situations if I needed to. Well, lately this feeling can be pretty overwhelming to the point where I am considering switching back to aikido. Unfortunately, aikido doesn't give me the workout that I like. I'm already supplementing my kung fu workout with weights at home. Kung fu class is only three times a week, with me making 1-2 per week. The aikido class I looked at would have classes six times a week at more reasonable times. This would allow me flexibility to make it to more classes. I just wish I either have more cash to sign up for both or there's an art/school that would combine both.

There is an open house for the aikido school this Saturday, so I'll probably go to that and see how their classes operate. Maybe their training is just as intense and I wouldn't feel like I'm losing one part of my training to gain another. We'll see