Locomotoring

In the above picture, the red line is the outline of a shin bruise. I started kickboxing recently. First came online videos and boxing/kicking air from the comfort of my room. Then, more recently, I joined a gym and that meant actual heavy bags. This bruise came from the first day of landing repeated shin kicks on a heavy bag.

It has been a long journey from couch potato to kick boxing…

When Covid had boxed us in, I too found a few extra hours in a day. These hours eventually went into developing movement practices. At some point, I had looked at a body in its fifth decade and extrapolated it to the eighth decade and I didn’t like what I saw.

They say that if you want to do something in your eighties, you need to do them now….

The movements had started with yoga, a practice I was familiar with in my childhood. Then came Qi Gong. Then came a passion for the forests, i.e., hiking. Cross-training followed – to combat the repetitive stress injuries that were a result of working from home, without significant movement for 8-12 hours a day. My routines have now became so varied that I feel like a NASA astronaut (link). And yet, all my activities had been solitary and quiet activities, meditative even. Bulk of my activities were conducted within the confines of a 10 ft x10 ft room, a bedroom turned into an office room. And when not in the room, I was outdoors, on foot in a forest, or on a kayak on the Bay.

I am not a fan of a gym. Loud music and windowless spaces make me claustrophobic. And yet….

I was proud when I signed up for a trial power kickboxing class. I was surprised when I loved the class. The day after, I was surprised when I was upright and not in significant pain. I was even more surprised when I survived half a dozen more of the same. I decided to graduate up from the softer freestanding bag to the heavy bag. And then came the bruise. And I went back for more.

I am told that the bruising would go away in 1-3 months…