Valkyrie Squad Day 49: Swooning through the Sweat
It’s Blade Day 2 and today we have 20 minutes of boxing. It’s gonna be an interesting morning, because I’m doing it without headphones. One of my friends is the sweetest, and when I whined to her about my day yesterday and how sad I was about my busted headphones, she hopped on Amazon and got me a new set on the way, they should arrive later today.
I’m up early as usual though, and I want to be sure to get my workout in, so I’m going headphone-free on the porch for Boxing. My shoulders are aching from all those blasted push ups yesterday, but I’m thinking the switch up to some boxing will be a workout I don’t want to miss or push off until later. It’s supposed to rain this afternoon, so if I want to be outside to workout, I better get it in now.
It didn’t take me long to start falling in love with today’s workout. I took Kickboxing in 8th grade over summer, and I always loved punching out my tween angst during drills at the punching bag. We did 30 second drills on with dominant side and non dominant side leading, and our active rests were Squats, Lunges, and Jumping Jacks between drill sets.
As I broke a sweat, I smiled through each set, getting out all the stress, anxiety and frustration that I tend to bottle up. And with my hormones all over the place this week, I was really feeling that tension, so punching it out and having it all melt away feels fantastic.
The first few times I tried out boxing drills during Novice 2.0 I was so uncoordinated and it left me feeling really down about my ability to get into Blade. All that hard work paid off though, because today my breath was timed with each jab, cross, hook, and uppercut, and my feet were pivoting into each throw of my fist correctly. I felt powerful, in control, and as I kept my eyes on where I wanted my fists to land ahead of me, I noticed them landing in the same spots each time. Not to toot my own horn, but after a few weeks of practicing these, I’d hate to be on the receiving end.
“Your body and breath will power the punch more than your actual arm.” He took up a similar stance- and struck at the air. he moved so smoothly, so brutally, that the blow was done before she could blink. “Line up the first two knuckles with our forearm. That’s what you want to hit with, and the strength in your arm will carry right through to them. If you hit with your ring and pinky, you’ll break your hand.” page 199, A Court of Silver Flames
Now I know that shadow boxing isn’t the same as hitting a bag or a body, but it’s a good start. So for 20 minutes, I aligned every part of myself with throwing those punches in a variety of combinations, leading with dominant and non dominant arms and never missing a beat or a step. Those Squats, and lunges were a nice reprieve from the heaviness my arms starting feeling as we finished up.
I did modify the Jumping Jacks, because I can’t have that kind of impact on my feet, especially my bare feet. I need more than a mat to cushion them too, so when I walk Yrsa in a little while when the sun comes up, I might try to do them for 1 minute just to test them out. I haven’t tested the impact stability on my feet in a long time, because it’s incredibly painful. But if I’m being honest about it, my feet have given me minimal problems during all my training since I started Squad, started counting my steps and walking Yrsa regularly. A year ago, walking for a mile was pretty impossible without me limping at the end of it and having to sit for the remainder of the day. So I’m interested in testing out my impact response. I’ve also noticed less swelling in my feet, even on bad weather days, when the barometric inflammation is usually an issue, it’s not as bad as it once was. I’m not sure if this is in response to less water retention in general, or if the constant activity has begun to increase my pain tolerance, but I’m happy for the lessened pain and swelling along my injuries.
The sky is beginning to lighten up, so Yrsa and I are off to get our laps in before the rains come again. I finally got some workout clothes that aren’t black, so hopefully that will be enough to keep us visible in the low light before sunrise.
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