Back to Basics

I couldn’t figure out what sort of workout routine to do last week, so I ended up doing something I haven’t done in quite a while: karate.

Just straight-up karate basics, focusing on simple techniques and stances. It felt like coming home. I mean, I was home. I was working out in my living room, after all. But it felt so good to be doing one of the things I loved again, an activity that I had devoted 5 years of my life to, and which had sadly fallen by the wayside in more recent times.

It was just supposed to be a filler, a break from my usual routine, but I was eager to work on it again the next day. It may finally be time to make it a more prominent part of my workout again. I’ve tried to get back into karate in the past in an attempt to jumpstart a regular fitness routine, but it didn’t last long. Part of the problem, I think, was my own expectation, I was at a certain skill level when I trained actively, and I expected to jump back to that same skill and intensity after a long period of inactivity. Frustration followed, prompting me to push myself too hard to work my way up again, which led to a burnout and put me back on square one.

My expectations are more realistic now. I’m no longer burdened by the skill of my past. It’ a new beginning,in a way. It’s all completely familiar to me, of course, but I don’t let that fool me into thinking that I’m better than I am. I’m approaching the whole thing as a beginner, and I think that’ll help me train more consistently without getting frustrated. Plus, I have my Darebee routines to break things up if that does happen, so I won’t relapse into sitting on my ass again.

The Journey Continues

Things weren’t going very well.

I had all but given up on anything resembling a healthy lifestyle, stuck in an endless loop of lethargy. Inactivity led to laziness, which led to further inactivity. Something had to be done to break this cycle.

The solution to my problem came in the form of Darebee, a website run by fitness enthusiast Neila Rey (and formerly bearing her own name). I’ve actually talked about in an old post, back before I migrated my blog to WordPress. The website has ‘themed’ workouts based around superheroes, movies, video games and other popular media figures. Exercise and pop culture references? That’s my kind of workout!

That gave me just the motivation I needed. A Batman themed workout one day, a James Bond workout the next. Once again, exercise was something fun and not a chore that I needed to fit into my day. My old pants started fitting me again and I had much more energy throughout the day. I’m not a believer in diets of any sort, so I still eat pretty much whatever I want, but I try to keep everything in moderation and stick to my regular workout schedule.

I also keep up with martial arts from time to time, though it has become more of a personal fitness tool than the art it once was. I’d really like to find a solid karate community in the near future and re-build that aspect of my life. Now that I’ve settled into a new job and found some measure of stability, I may even work on creating such a community myself.

It’s certainly been an interesting journey from a scrawny, athletically-challenged kid to a college martial artist to an adult who sometimes plans his week around workouts. There have been occasional hurdles and stumbles, but I seem to have finally found a fitness path that I can happily follow. I can’t wait to see where the next stage of my journey takes me.

This is the conclusion to a five-part piece (which was supposed to be just one post, and then a trilogy, and then…) about my relationship with fitness. The other parts can be found here, here, here and here.

Fruitless Quest

When I landed back in Dubai 5 years ago, it didn’t have the best effect on my health.

I had left my whole life behind me and was feeling quite empty. It was a void I tried to fill with food. A combination of depression and home-cooked food sent my appetite into a frenzy, and it wan’t very long before my clothes started feeling snug again.

In the US, I led a very active lifestyle, taking long walks every day, training karate at least 4 times a week, and trying out new activities with my friends. With all that gone, my energy was sapped and I mostly just sat around, trying to invest myself in TV shows or just browsing the internet for hours on end. Things were looking grim.

Eventually, I decided to get back to karate, training on my own for an hour each day. I kept up that routine for a while, but after missing a few days due to other obligations, the whole thing collapsed. A little research had led me to a local karate club that wasn’t too far from home, but I procrastinated on getting in touch with them.

After another 6 months of no activity (and buying some new pants that were a size too small because I was still thin, dammit!), I finally contacted the club and started training with them. It felt good to be back in my uniform, even though it didn’t fit me as well. The ends on my karate belt were significantly shorter when I went to tie them at my waist, but it didn’t matter. Things would go back to the way they were soon, I thought.

Training in Dubai was a different experience from what I’d done in the US. For starters, I had made quite a few friends in my old club, having regular get-togethers and parties and finding stuff to talk about, karate-related and otherwise. None of the people at the Dubai club spoke much English, so my conversations were limited to pleasant greetings for the most part. Everyone was also something of a workaholic, or had families to get back to, so there was no question of hanging out. And even if we did, what would we talk about?

And of course, there was the training itself. I’d mentioned before that in my old club, we had learned karate as an art and as a system of self-defense, striving to understand mechanics and the flow of the techniques and movements we learned. Not so over here. Karate was seen purely as a sport, something to show off one’s skill and athleticism and gain accolades from peers and superiors. You’re not throwing a punch to effectively use the power of your body to deliver maximum force with minimum effort, you’re throwing a punch fast so you can score a point in a fight. It was disheartening, to say the least. That’s not what I was training for, and competitions didn’t motivate me. I wanted to walk on a path to understanding, not trophies.

After a year of training and trying to get excited about this sort of karate, I called it quits. I’d stick to training in my living room. But once again, my motivation evaporated with time. During a period of unemployment, the steady routine of exercise had kept me chugging along, but once that came to a stop, I went back to laying around on the couch and my waistline began its campaign for expansion anew.

Changes

Life is a journey that takes some strange turns now and then. I was taking a karate class in my senior year, in a desperate bid to halt the expansion of my waistline and get some college credit out of it. Even though karate was something I’d grown to resent through my childhood, I gave it a begrudging shot.

It was a little intimidating walking into the cavernous gymnasium; I felt like a complete dork, probably because I was one. There were also preconceived notions that martial arts movies had instilled in me. Grueling training with lots of flying kicks, punching of boards, and a hardass instructor with gravelly voice and a permanent scowl. I was quite surprised to instead find a beautiful young woman in a karate uniform and an attendance sheet, greeting each new student with a smile. Maybe I could get on board with this whole martial arts thing.

As expected, I flailed around awkwardly during my first lesson, but it was such a rush! Learning the finer points of each technique and movement appealed to the engineer in me, and gave me a goal to aim for. By the end, I was exhausted, having used muscles that had been lazing around for a long time, but I was eager for the next class.

With the progression of the semester, my interest in karate grew exponentially. At least part of it was thanks to the instructor, who I had a schoolboy crush on. Turns out she was engaged, though, so that wasn’t happening. However, I did strike up a friendship with her (and her future husband, who was also part of the karate club), one that’s been going strong for 10 years now, even though we’re halfway across the world from each other.

Over the course of my training, I learned how misunderstood the martial arts are. We didn’t do any crazy spin kicks, there were no boards to break, and I didn’t have to avenge anyone’s death by fighting ninjas in a ring of fire. Instead, I learned all about making precise, controlled movements to efficiently and effectively use my body as a weapon and a shield. I learned that karate should be a last resort, something to be used when combat was unavoidable; don’t use your fists when words will do. I also became fitter, stronger and more agile by following a regular training schedule. Karate truly is an art, one that challenges both the body and the mind. And it’s one that I found myself completely absorbed in.

After a long series of ups and downs in my personal life, and in my karate life (broken and mended friendships, forged and broken relationships), I finally reached the point where I was ready to take the next step n my training. In November of 2008, almost 4 years after I’d started training karate, I finally attained the rank of black belt. It was a major milestone for me and is, to this day, my proudest achievement. I poured my heart and soul into training for that test, and I’m glad I was able to make my teacher, and myself, proud.

It as the start of what should have been a long journey but, alas, a mere two years after that, I was ripped away from the world that I knew and found myself in a familiar land that now seemed so strange. Having moved back to Dubai from the US, I had to start over in many ways, including with karate. I needed to find a good local club that would help me in continuing to hone my skills.