Well, I didn't go tonight. But I did a light weight routine last night- boy, what being sick for a week will do to your muscles. Weakling!

I haven't been to the gym in years.

That's how I keep my girlish figure.

I went to spin class.

Going again tomorrow, too.

I'm getting ready to do a strength benchmark, after a warm up, as many reps of body weight in the bench press and again with the leg press.

Yarking is a sign of over-taxing oneself, glad you're making improvements.

I did squats and push ups and crunches and bicep curls in my apartment. Because I can't afford to belong to a gym at the moment, and it's too cold (OK it wasn't today) for me to run.

I'm sore. I've been going to day taekwondo classes for women (housewives) and night taekwondo classes that are full of teenage boys who have taken the sport for half their lives. I'm supposed to test for my black belt this summer, so I'm really trying to gear up. I've only been taking the class since May 2006, so that's pretty quick to make it to black. But now I'm sore.

My what?

Slap my arse and ride the waves ...

You want to be careful with Tae Kwon Do brittanie, it is easy to over stretch or extend and do yourself serious damage. I assume you are well aware of this as you must have been doing it for a few years to be able to get to black belt level.

It is a sport for young people and as such not suited to all. However, the high kicking and hopping about and sparring is a good grounding for capoeira which can involve more 'intelligent' game play and can be more friendly to various body types (as long as you are flexible). If you can get to a roda led by someone from Senzala de Santos (or another good Angola school) you should see some interesting game play. Mestre Sombre has made at least one female mestre. Sombre still plays in the roda at the age of 65, which is a good indicator that the practice of capoeira can be sustained throughout ones life.

Neither are much use in self defense, but they help with balance and guessing intention. It might be something to think about if you ever find that Tae Kwon Do is not giving you what it used to.

Personally, i don't do any weight training. I am working toward strengthening my rotator cuffs, which will involve one of those rubber band things after I have finished the static stage of the program. I understand that in weight training it is best to work up from easy to hard during a session, with a very small number of reps at the hard end of the scale.

Mestre Sombra, damnit.

Not bad. Wednesday was my first trip back to the gym since last Monday, when I got the HPV vaccine and my arm hurt for a week. Wednesday was a good solid workout (30m elliptical + arm and leg weights), and yesterday I took it a bit easier--30m on the elliptical and 10m on the erg, then some pilates and lots of stretching. I'm not going today, because I ache all over, but I'll be back on Saturday, and then I have a hike on Sunday.

So it's good.