My Adventure in the Orient.

It has been just 4 days of training since I returned to China and I am in more pain than I endured during the whole years’ worth of time I spent here before. My back aches, my knees hurt, I have massive shin splints in both legs, and that all happened very quickly. Now, I stayed in shape during the months I spent back home. I attended a gym and even gained 25 pounds of muscle with the help of Manuel,  a personal fitness trainer at24 hour Fitness in Stockton.  I trained with Manuel for the last 6 weeks right before I left for China.. 


Even with that training I did at home, I am in massive PAIN! The extra muscles did come in handy.  I can do more stuff like pushups and the strength exercises but no amount of training you do elsewhere can prepare you for this intensive training. One reason I felt more sore than usual is that I started extra training from almost the minute I got back to the academy.  From training day 1 on Friday I began to practice my forms because shifu was going to check. Minor details had to be fixed but over all I was still ok with my forms. 


When it was time for mountain run I did not remember the walk to the mountain being this hard. I was exhausted by the time I reached the temple…I felt like a NEWBIE! But when I began my usual routine of bear crawls and hoping up the stairs, the strength I obtained back home helped incredibly. 


On the weekend I went into town bought a fridge, water cooler, some warm clothes because it was freezing here (I just packed for summer time) and other stuff to get used to the PAIN again. On Sunday Sam and I had dinner down the road to celebrate Passover. Monday came and it was time for more…PAIN. Reviewed more forms and when it was time for conditioning, Sam and I partnered up with a couple of new guys in class. 


Conditioning new guys is fun and entertaining. Long story short we conditioned them pretty hard. I told them, more pain you feel here the less you will experience out on the street. It’s true! 


As the week continued the PAIN didn’t cease. Since I came back, Master is making Liu Bin, Sam, Mathieu, and me start extra power training (the sprints and squats plus extra practice on our forms). And at night, Sam and I do extra weight lifting to get in good shape. We do all this while the rest of the people here at the academy are resting and recuperating for the next training day.   


This weekend is the temple performance and Shifu asked me to do my wingchun form. On Tuesday night the Shifus called everyone who was doing a form to rehearse. When I went to do my form, Xiangshifu called me FAT! When I couldn’t bend my arm as much, due to the fact I have more bicep muscle, my own shifu called me fat as well. I was shocked! I said, “NO! More power shifu,” while I flexed my muscle. I’m not too sure they are convinced. I told Liu Bin and he laughed and agreed with me that I am stronger not fat. It’s the middle of the week and I am in a great deal of pain. Hopefully it is because I’m getting back into the routine and not my body saying, “Hey dork, welcome back to HELL!”