I Did It

Well, guys: I did it. I signed up for a monthly membership to continue doing the Muay Thai/MMA classes. Last week, my hair stylist said that this seemed like the first thing in a long time (fitness-wise) that’s really inspired me. I’m not sure that “inspired” is the right word. “Terrified” is a good one. “Overwhelmed” is another. As I tried to explain to someone the other day, every class is a tightrope walk between the dread of hurting myself or looking stupid due to my own incompetence, and the stress relief that comes with beating the shit out of things.

Yes, this is both the cause of and relief from stress.

Of course, in my first official class, I managed to kick the pad and bag nice and hard… and completely with the wrong part of my leg. And by “leg” I actually mean “the top part of my foot.” Ideally, this is not what you want to do. And what you really don’t want to do is kick it in the wrong place multiple times. It left me with a really nice purple goose egg on the top of my right foot. (I’ll spare you the photo.) This is a good lesson for me to get closer to the pad, particularly when working with a partner, because my instinct is to stay back as far as I possibly can to avoid being hit.

On Friday, I held the pads for someone else. This is new to me. You’d think that holding a focus mitt and a giant kicking pad would be fairly easy, right? You would be wrong. My arms and shoulders are flat-out pissed at me, and oh so tired. But with the gym closed for Labor Day, I have the advantage of a couple of extra days to recover, guilt free.

And in the process of all of this, I’ve put my other gym membership on a six month freeze. The old membership was cheap, relatively speaking (a legacy deal for about $30/month), which would be excellent if I went regularly. But with doing the new workouts Monday/Wednesday/Friday, there’s no way in hell that I’ll be waking at 4:45 on Tuesdays and Thursdays for spin class. By putting the membership on freeze, I’ll be able to keep my cheap rate if I decide that my career as an MMA fighter isn’t panning out. (Cue laughter at the thought of it.) Plus, my new membership includes Crossfit-style functional fitness classes, boxing, Muay Thai, MMA and apparently something called Active Recovery. I have no idea what that last bit entails, but it sounds like something I need.

And of course, I can run any time I want to. Never mind that it’s been months since I’ve wanted to.

So what do you think? Am I crazy to be doing something like this at 43?

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