Stress Wraps

I was late getting the dog to the groomers but that didn't matter as they were done way before we were ready to come pick him up. My son was thrilled to see boys his age entering the Child Care room at the gym just ahead of him. I had already affixed moleskin patches to my knuckles while we were in the car because I didn't want to waste precious time in the locker room. After a 10-minute warm up on the cross-trainer (instead of the elliptical) because the cross-trainers are literally 10 feet from the kickboxing machines, I sit down on the floor and proceed to tape my fingers and knuckles. Then I pull out new red cotton Everlast® wraps and try to remember how to bind my hands.

What I conclude is that 1) I need to practice this at home when I'm under no time constraints and 2) the wraps are woefully too short even for my tiny hands. I can't wrap my wrist 3 times, then my palm 3 times and still have enough wrap for each finger to be anchored with a turn around the wrist. No, this isn't going to work. What works is to only wrap my wrist and palm once before targeting each finger. My hand feels snug. I only do the fancy wrap on the tender left hand. The right hand seems fine with me just wrapping my knuckles and wrist -- no additional support needed between the fingers. I should note that I woke up this morning with sore hands, no doubt from my death-grip on the steering wheel as I drove my son home from camp, and then to and from his swim class two towns over.

My left hand's last two knuckles are still tender and whacking the machine isn't really helping. But it's not horrible. I clench my fists tightly. My nails are shorter and I've put tape over the entire pointer finger to prevent any unintentional self-inflicted slashing. The Beginner rounds go well and I feel thoroughly warmed up albeit a bit frustrated. Yep, every 4th or 5th blow lands a warning buzzer and freezes the action. A few rounds into the Intermediate program and I notice that the wrap is flapping loose on my left wrist. I need to anchor the ends at a different point next time. Luckily, I can pull the wrap a bit tighter and re-velcro it between rounds. I can't believe I need longer wraps!

My original Everlast® orange wraps: only once around wrist and palm before target fingers and it still ends short.

There are only two rounds where the machine gets the better of me because either it's not registering a lot of my kicks and sweeps, or the command sequence doesn't match what's being displayed. Those are the two rounds with odd combinations, and those are the combinations I need to work on. Unfortunately, there's no way to isolate the different combinations or know in which rounds they'll appear. Just got to keep at it!

A lot of regulars wander behind me to the CF area. Most of them do a few sets of DLs or bicep curls on the lone cable machine there. I see JF wander past with headphones. He's one of the daytime trainers who actually lifts. Yesterday I saw him do a few rounds on the Nexersys. He looked pretty good whacking away. I'm guessing from the Power and Lead Knee movements that he was doing the Intermediate level. Let's be honest here. Boxers have great arms. I want great arms. I cringe when I see women with "skinny fat" arms: those arms that seem to hang off the shoulders like dessicated chicken wings. My mother was skinny fat, a mere 90 lbs of unhealthy flab, with arms that looked like little tubes of petroleum jelly. Not a pretty sight.

I want to tell all those middle-aged women at my gym that they can do this too. But they're too afraid. Or worse, they'd rather be gossiping in a classroom setting. Safety in numbers, in flocks. I don't like crowds. I'm more like the lone wolf, or a hunting panther. I see the younger women though. They look without trying to stare. And I think, maybe they'll be motivated to try this, do this, too.

Thursday Workout

Cross Training

Warm Up

Calorie :   48 CAL
Distance: 1.24 mile
Speed :    7.38 mph
Duration : 00:10:06

KickBoxing

Lap/Rep :  14 Lap/Rep
Duration : 00:56:00

Photos posted for actual stats:

5 rounds Beginner Follow Me

9 rounds Intermediate Follow Me