day 4 of 21 (Treena Glover)

Chicago, Chicago!!! It's day 4 for me!! My muscles don't feel as sore as yesterday (refer to day 3 blog), so I decided to hit the gym by 7pm and stay until their 10pm closing.

I started my exercise routine by taking a step class at Bally's. It was a great aerobic exercise...but DANG IT...I couldn't get some of the moves. Just when I had the instructor's 20 moves (steps) in her routine down packed...she'd switch up the choreography. It's been awhile since I took a step class, so I'd forgotten how intense it can be. I thought I was just going to use the class as a warm up, but the class was a FULL BODY WORK OUT!!!

I wish I could have stayed in the class an entire hour, but at 7:50pm, my sweat soaked body moved quickly downstairs to the locker room. I barely had enough time to change into my HapKiDo uniform and make it to my 8pm class.

Class was extremely crowded today! On Thursday and Friday evenings students training in Hapkido and students training in Taekwondo practice together. We collectively exercised together...with slight variations in how we did it. For example, Hapkido students did push ups with our finger tips. The Taekwondo students did the pushups with their knuckles. I can feel my arms getting stronger, because I can now do ten straight pushups (the hapkido way). In the recent past, I couldn't even do one pushup the old fashioned way.

I keep saying this, but I love training in Hapkido!!!!!!!!!! I learned two additional sparring moves, which now brings me to a total of seven out of ten required sparrring combinations under the white belt. When I have mastered all ten sparring moves, I get another stripe on my white belt. Having four stripes means I am eligible to register for the test and sit before Martial Arts Grandmasters to move up to the next belt...which is yellow for me.

Twenty minutes before class ended, students were called to the front two by two to show whatever moves we were working on for that day. Master Tim (our instructor) wanted me to show him the sparring moves 6 & 7 (under the white belt). I executed move 6 perfectly. I did exactly what Master Tim told me to do. I chopped my opponent's wrist bone with my wrist bone (his pressure point) and did a cut directly against his adam's apple. Both my opponent (who felt the pain) and Master Tim were impressed. I messed up royally on move 7 because I couldn't remember where the pressure points are on the side of the body. However, Master Tim demonstrated and then I followed.

When I sat down my opponent again said I did a great job, but Bridges; another Hapkido student (read post 1) said he wanted to meet with me after class. When I inquired why? He said I didn't have good forms and he wanted to help me. I appreciate any help, so I said okay.

When class ended, Bridges and I stayed behind. He and I spent about twenty minutes working on my forms. He gave me some good tips. He also helped me transition into the fighting stance a little better. He mentioned my legs again (read my post 1) and said I can really use the strength from my legs. He REALLY helped me, but it's funny...I didn't know that I needed the help.

When I finally made it back to the locker room it was almost 9:15pm. Though I wouldn't have long...I decided to spend at least 30 minutes in the sauna. I took a quick warm shower, followed by a freezing cold shower and went to the sauna. It was a little after 9:30 when I made it to the sauna. It was a little after 10:00 when I left the sauna. I finished up with my contrast showers (read post 2 to see what that is all about)

So on day 4 of 21 I exercised for 2.5 hours and took a sweat bath for 1/2 hour.

For breakfast, I ate scrambled eggs, half a plain bagel (with margarine) and one sausage. I drank two cups of water before breakfast and two cups of water after breakfast.

For lunch I had a southwestern chicken salad from McDonalds with a few sips from my sweet tea and 2 more cups of water

For dinner I had spaghetti and meatballs. I drank two cups of water.

After my Hapkido work out (& before the sauna), I drank two more cups of water. After my sweat bath in the sauna I drank two more cups of water.

So, in total I had 12 cups of pure water today! Good for me!

Until Day 5...remember to keep finding your internal beauty.

Treena Renee Glover
Producer and Co-Host of Self Portrait
selfportrait@rocketmail.com