Monthly Archives: November 2007

I worked out at the gym today on my calves, hip adductors, did some squats for my quads, and isolated my triceps and biceps to strengthen them. I am strengthening my elbow joint more when I work my triceps. I have to begin with very low weights. Marilyn and me later went to karate. We went through what we needed to know for the upcoming grading. To achieve our yellow belt, we have to know 5 kihon kumites, 5 katas, and 5 kicks, as well as the associated punches and blocks. Today they had us walk forward while blocking, then walk backwards using the same blocks. Walking backwards is not easy, I almost have to re-learn all the blocks again. All belt levels do the same kicks the white belts do, but are graded more severely. They are expected to have more perfect form than white belts. For example, a … Continue reading →

Wow it was a hard workout today. We had a whole lot of black belts come in from Edmonton and surrounding areas this morning because they are getting ready for a tournament in Toronto soon, I think next week. It was pretty crowded. They were in the back doing their own thing while we white belts and colored belts practiced on our own. Buhrs Sensei had us doing a lot of push-ups and core strengthening exercises after our warm-up. Then we practiced our kicks using the protective mats again. I did pretty good except that my right toe started to get sore from the impact even though were we impacting on the instep, the shock of hitting the hard leather (or is it vinyl?) bag eventually made it pretty sore. Then Barrau Sensei took us through a long series of katas, stressing form and count and every time one of … Continue reading →