The Spaghetti Arm Kenpo Struggle

I’m a terrible blogger, let’s just go ahead and get that out of the way. The older I get and the more things I add to my life the more sporadic my blogging becomes. I hardly remembered the password to this old thing, but I still think on it often, and occasionally am inspired to write up a post or two.

Today is one of those days;

I guess I always imagined that when I lost a lot of weight (85lbs so far) that I would just become Super Kenpoist and nothing could stop me. Actually, that’s precisely not the case, clearly I have one hell of an imagination. Lately I’ve noticed that once again the biggest struggle I’m facing with my own training is fighting against myself. Before I had no energy, I always felt weighted down, and there were some things that I just could not do because I didn’t have enough command of my body. I didn’t have enough command of my body because there was too much mass.

So I began to shed the mass, and after say losing 40lbs I felt awesome! There was this great ratio where I felt in control of my motions and had a good balance. Then I lost another 45lbs and now I’m in this odd stage where I don’t know my body. My limbs seem so much longer, and I’m weirdly lighter all over. Now don’t get me wrong, when I race my puppy up the stairs at my home I love how light I feel. But when I am in class and I hit someone with my spaghetti arm I’m not as happy. In fact I’m irritated.

I’m struggling to generate torque, I’m struggling on how to utilize back up mass because, well let’s face it, there’s a lot less mass there. Guys I’m just struggling all around, I need more muscle in a bad way, especially in my upper platform. It’s so very frustrating, I’m learning all over AGAIN! So now in addition to the cardio that has been a staple in my life for over a year and a half I’m adding some strength training. I use the word strength training very lightly, just like my weights are right now. “More reps less weight” I mutter to myself as I struggle through 20lb curls and promise myself there are tacos in my future.

I know this is just another bump in the road towards that Black Belt, and I know that I can overcome it with time and perseverance. Doesn’t make it any less frustrating. Have any of you experienced this before? How did you “get your groove back?” Anyways, I’m still working on Operation Build a Better Kenpoist. Good thing I know this is a life art!