First Circuit Training Day

Chinese word of the day: tan ji dan-means-OATMEAL

British word of the day: fancy-means-desire

Breakfast was great with my chocolate! Found another person who uses chocolate in their oatmeal. But he also puts in BANANAS! That sounds amazing. I might go to the market to buy some bananas to put in my oatmeal next week. (Any reader try oatmeal with banana?)


After breakfast was POWER TRAINING DAY 2. Every other Thursday we do a circuit workout. I was in the hospital the last time they had the circuit training but this morning I am healthy and ready to go. The circuits consist of 16 stations.


(editor’s note: Warning technical information ahead!)
Station 1 is a 25 pound weight with a string tied around it that’s maybe 5 feet long and at the other end is a wooden handle. At this station you have to grab the handle and hold your hands out in front of you getting the weight off the ground by rolling up the string with the handle with the weight dangling on the end. Then unroll it. We had to do this over and over for three minutes.

Each station was "only" three minutes Master Gou said.

Station 2 is two 25 pound weights tied with strings that were about arm length long with two loops each weight. Here we had to put one finger in each hole so two fingers per weight and lift it up and down in front of us for 3 minutes.


Station 3 is a weight I have no idea how heavy (maybe a 35 pound dumbbell?) and we had to squat down and thrust our hips up making the weight and your arm go straight in front of you then in the air switch hands and repeat.


Station 4 is a log about 4 feet long and about a foot thick. Here we laid the log across our arms with arms bent, sit in horse stance, and then push out our arms straight to make the log jump in the air and we twist our arms so the log lands on our forearms and repeat.



Station 5 is my favorite. We had to do blocks on the wooden dummy. Outward blocks, inward, downward. Hurt my forearms but was fun.


Station 6 is two 5 pound weights and we had to do our forms with them and punches in the air.


Station 7 is Climbing the rope. It’s about 8 feet high. Climb up and down and repeat for 3 minutes.



Station 8 is a punching bag and we hit it with palm strikes for three minutes.


Station 9 had about 4 bicycle inner tubes (like big rubber bands) tied around the pole and we put our hand on the end of the tube and do punches with the tubes pulling our arm back.


Station 10 is also a punching bag but with elbow strikes.


Station 11 is a 5 pound dumbbell where we would do the one inch punch.


Station 12 is a long bamboo stick and we had to hold the end of the stick and lift it forwards, backwards, sideways.



Station 13 is punching the pad on the wall. The pad wasn’t that thick so it felt like punching the concrete wall.



Station 14 is punching a stool with a pad then striking a pad on the ground with our knee. This station and station 13 punches are similar it’s a ‘chain punch’ which is done fast.


Station 15 is planks on two bricks.


And Station 16 is a bundle of chopsticks taped together and we had to twist them in different ways strengthening our grip and forearms.

(End of Technical information. ed)


When I started station one I was excited and ready for training. I haven’t done a lot of upper body training here so when I found out all these stations are mainly upper body I was excited. I started off with Station 1. It was tough! But was fun! When the three minutes were up I went to station 2. When I put the loops on my hand I noticed my left thumb was covered in blood and my palm had a lot of blood on it as well. I looked around for what was bleeding. My nose? No. My palm? No. It was my thumb. Some skin was ripped off from twisting the stick. I asked Master Gou could I go to the bathroom and showed him my hand and he said, "Ok go." I ran to the bathroom to wash my hand. I ran, not because I was bleeding so bad but because I wanted to get back to training! I ran back to class and jumped on the finger weights. 

After that I did station 3. My shoulders were already burning. I managed a good pace for the three minutes. Station 4 was hard. Tossing a log up with your arms isn’t easy. Good conditioning though. After each station I was hyped up and would be like, "Ok we got this guys!" My other classmates didn’t look so happy to be doing this circuit. Rodney was a station behind me. We would challenge each other like usual. Good way to push one another. After that station I did the Wooden Dummy. My favorite. Since I never did anything on the wooden dummy yet, Master Gou showed me some moves to do. I definitely want to buy one of these when I get back home.



Then I did the punches and then the rope. After I went up the rope the first time my arms were burning! I managed to climb the rope four times. Rodney said "Come on just four times?, GO! I can do that." I jumped up on the rope and climbed it again. Just managed to climb 5 times in a row. When I moved on to the punching bag my arms were dead but it felt great to hit the bag. I hit the bag non stop for the whole three minutes fast and hard. I went extra hard because Master Gou was walking around and looking at my station. 

Then the bike tube punches and the elbow punches were fun. The one inch punch killed my shoulders again. The bamboo stick was the same stick Master Gou had made me hold out on my first day. It hurts but I can tell it will strengthen my wrist. While I lifted the bamboo forward and back Rodney was punching the bag. I called to him, "Come on Rodney! You’re not even making the punching bag swing." Then he really went at it. And the bag did swing. After the bamboo stick I did the punches on the wall. I really got my chain punch down fast and hard.


Then by the time I got to the ‘stool chain punch’ my knuckles were dark red and my middle knuckle was turning purple. Right next to me was the ‘bricks plank’ and Master Gou was showing one of the guys how to do it. Master Gou started doing push ups with his knuckles on the bricks then he pushes up so his hands leave the bricks then lands on the floor with only his fingers touching the ground. From there he then pushes up and lands back on the bricks with his knuckles touching the bricks. I had to do that. When my three minutes was up on the stool, I went to the bricks and starting doing those push ups. My knuckles were already so sore from the punches and everything else it hurt so bad to land on the bricks with them. BUT Master Gou was watching so I had to show him I can do it. I was able to push on and off the bricks five times then I had to stop. 

After that the circuit was done. I had fun and I was in a great mood and also drenched with sweat. The other classmates still didn’t look so happy. I asked Rodney so how many times HE went up the rope at station 7. He said, "Oh about 17, 18, 20, 35 times, around there." I did a total of 5 and I bet he only did 3! But he did push me to work harder so I didn’t complain. I decided I will do this workout every weekend. It’s a fun work out and I think I need to do more upper body training.


Usually we have two classes before lunch but today we had a longer break. But during this break I still trained on my own until lunch for my grading tomorrow.


After lunch I ran with Rodney. We talked how he didn’t want to leave. Unfortunately he is leaving next Friday. I told him, "You can’t leave because i won’t have anyone to challenge and make me work harder." But he has to go back because he got the job offer he wanted. 

When we got back to class it was San Da day. While we stretched, I told MAster Gou, "Xia wu Hao." He Laughed said it back and then said, "Wa an Hao or Wan Sheng Hao. Means Goodnight." I said, " Ah Wa an Sheng Hao?" Then he corrected me and had me pronounce it differently until I got it. After drills I partnered up with Rodney since Gertle was still sick. Gertle was my partner last week who would bop me on the head with the pad and say, "Guard up!" With Rodney I would throw punches at him making him duck like the drills we did and have him do combos. Then we would switch and I would have to duck and dodge and hit the pads. Rodney said, "I like training with someone who makes me work hard." Rodney and I both hate San Da but when we trained each other it was actually fun. When class was over Master had us do a few line kicks and then 20 push ups on our knuckles before we were released.


Washed up and then got ready for dinner.
Dinner was hilarious. It was dumpling day so it was tasty food. When I got in line I was close to the end but I had a few people behind me. By the time I got back in line for seconds there were about 7 guys in front of me. I knew there wouldn’t be any dumplings left by the time I got there. Eveyone gets two dumplings each so before I got my dumplings I asked the server lady, "San?" That means “3?” She laughed and said a few things which probably meant, "You greedy foreigner!" Well that’s what Rorey jokingly thinks she said. 

I sat at a table with Rorey and Ben. Ben is from Quebec, he is the joker around the academy. One time he hid underneath one of the other student's bed and when this student came in the room from dinner to lay down Ben grabbed him from under the bed and scared him pretty bad. On the side of the wall by the front door of my room, there are about 3 bricks. (I recently realized how I can use those for conditioning my knuckles when I do my knuckle push ups in my room.) But about two weeks ago I went out of the room to use the restroom at night around midnight and when I came back to my room the bricks were piled up in front of the door. It happened about 3 nights in a row and Sam and I had no idea who put them there. Then it stopped and we forgot about it. 

Well at dinner tonight Rorey was telling us about some pranks he did back at his work and Ben asked me if I remember the mysterious bricks in front of my door. He told me he was the one who was doing that! We laughed but hey if that’s the prank he does to me id rather he put bricks in front of my door than hide under my bed! Then after we discussed a few more prank jokes from work and I told them a few pranks I did like tying up and kidnapping my friend on his birthday and other pranks. We started talking about how Rorey heard a bang up above him at like 4am this morning and his room is right underneath mine and he asked if I had fallen out of bed. I was actually dreaming and I guess I kicked in my sleep but then my foot hit the floor. 

Ben also said sometimes when he is dreaming he would turn and smack his head on the wall and Rorey said he did the same thing. I knew exactly what they were talking about because I did that a couple times as well. Then we started talking about dreams and how bizarre my dreams have been since I got here and both Ben and Rorey said, "Everyone has crazy dreams here. It might be the Qi or energy of this place or even the Masters playing tricks on us but EVERYONE has weird dreams." We started talking about our different dreams we had and I even said that Sam has crazy dreams too because he sleep talks at night and I’m a light sleeper and I would wake up to him saying some random things. Then in the morning I would ask him if he had a wild dream and he would tell me the craziest dreams. I never thought I would be talking about dreams at a Kung Fu academy but it was pretty hilarious. 

After that Ben told us it will snow soon. They both live in places where they have all four seasons. Back home in Cali we only have HOT and COLD weather. But in Quebec and London they have all four seasons. I told them how I have never seen snow fall before or ever woke up seeing snow everywhere. Rorey was so shocked and he said it’s the coolest thing ever. It looks awesome, it’s an amazing feeling, and snow is just fun. Ben warned me that when we have the first snow fall he will be looking for me and we will have a snow ball fight since it’s my first snow fall. Then I looked around and we were the only guys in the dining hall left. We just had a blast talking and didn’t even notice people leaving. The dining hall servers were even starting to clean up. 

Well I said ok let’s get out of here and we all headed to the rooms. Got back to the room and since I didn’t have a Mandarin class tonight since its Thursday I will get an early sleep. Tomorrow I have to go into town and get my Visa extended. I also have grading tomorrow so I asked them if I can deal with the visa on the weekend or next Monday. The translator told me the visa office is not open on the weekend and my visa expires on Sunday. I said ok that’s fine I can just grade another day. I’d rather not be thrown in a Chinese jail due to my visa expiring. The translator went to speak with my master and said if we aren’t back in time for grading he will set an extra time for me to grade. I’m guessing that will be Monday. Tomorrow is a big day so I will say….

Goodnight

-Scott