Fitness: Wushu White Belt!

Hello!

I am very proud to announce that I finally took my white belt test on Saturday… and I passed! I officially have a white belt, woohoo!

I started learning properly a few weeks ago. I actually finished learning the form within 2 weeks and was invited to take the test on July 3rd, but I wasn’t able to make it… then subsequently, they didn’t have time to test me… then I wasn’t able to make it again and… lol, let’s just say, on Thursday, one of my Sifus was like “You’re so ready, are you gonna take the test or not??”

I’m glad I had a bit more time to work on my foundational skills and my form to be honest. Now that I’ve taken the test, I think the extra couple of weeks’ practice helped a lot, both with polishing my form and with stamina increase.

Not gonna lie, I was so beyond exhausted towards the end of my test I could barely do my form properly lol. And then they asked me to do 10 pushups!

I freaked out because if my belt was dependent on pushups, I was 100% going to fail. They reassured me that I wouldn’t fail if I couldn’t do it; they just to see my upper body strength so to just do as many as I could. So, I gave it my best shot.

I started trying to do full depth pushups and my Sifu stopped me, saying half way is fine. He advised that in wushu, we need to practice speed and power, so half depth at a fast pace is what they’re looking for. I am so very, very glad I’ve been working on my pushups throughout my fitness journey.

I’d completed pushup #6 before they said, “That’s enough, you can stop now.” I was sooo surprised since I was still mentally preparing to push myself through the rest of them (they may have stopped me because I probably looked like I was about to cry with how hard I was pushing myself, but I was determined lol).

My Sifu said that I could probably do 15 pushups if I tried. I felt elated! It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you just put your mind to it. As a result of the test, my Sifu said that my current ability is probably between a yellow/green belt!

To be honest, I didn’t think I had done very well because I was absolutely knackered and wasn’t able to perform at my best, I got confused by some of the names of the foundational kicks and punches and made mistakes lol, and I even stumbled a bit at the end of my form.

Not to mention it was the end of an already exhausting week. My body was not at its best by any means. I felt drained and was aching all over, and even when I showed up to wushu class I was still low on energy. But they were very gracious and encouraging. Plus, I still passed! Ahhh! So happy! (But also they said this test was pretty easy anyway hahahah. It gets harder once you reach purple.)

I’m honestly so thankful for Martial Club for inspiring me to do this. I have been interested in wushu since forever due to my love for Chinese Wuxia TV series in my teens, but that never went further than a 2 week wushu summer camp when I was 15, and doing a bit of Taichi with my dad briefly around that age too.

I don’t think I would have tried even now had I not had the opportunity to hang out with the Martial Club family recently. Just seeing what they’re doing and what they’re capable of… it’s incredible! I’m excited to keep improving, and gotta make my MC Fam proud, after all.

Muchos love,

Bobbie

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Fitness: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 4

Image credit: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 4

7/10 – Day 4: Completed 18:36.
Videos Completed: 5min Warm Up, Epic Heat Day 4.
Equipment used: 5lb dumbbells, medium resistance band.

Hello, it is us. We have just finished day 4 of Caroline’s Epic Heat. Honestly I am very tired, feel generally quite fatigued and, despite my bright smile, did not like this workout overall. I am amazed I got through it, but the transitions were rough.

Even though Caroline showed what was to come, the 40s->20s->40s sets were a bit too much for me. Especially when the transition was more difficult to do, like the chest press -> pushups -> chest press. I found that I barely had time to get into position for the pushups before it was time to grab my dumbbells again for the chest presses. If I had been using heavier dumbbells, I might have injured myself trying to pick them up too quickly.

Jacky definitely struggled with trying to figure out what the exercises were, and a lot of the time, by the time he figured out what the exercise was, Caroline had moved on. This was especially the case with the 20s exercises.

I think my leg/glute strength has increased since I was able to do the squats for longer and the medium band was perfect to push me hard enough so that I needed to stop a couple of times but not give up. The jumping squats were a big phat n-o for me haha. I tried a few each set and dang, back to the regular squats it was.

The 5lb dumbbells were easy for the hip thrusts despite having my medium bands on. So that was kind of exciting… finally time to level up, methinks! Increased leg strength makes sense (and is kind of vital) since I’ve been doing wushu that requires different types of kicks and deep squats, but it is encouraging to feel a noticeable difference during my workouts too.

My upper body, however, was still aching from day 5 lol. Those pushup burpees, man. Today I barely attempted a real pushup and stuck with either knee or incline pushups. My energy levels today were insanely low. Not as bad as yesterday, but still low.

I have also been extra lethargic lately because I’ve been fuelling my body with a solid diet of junk food and carbs for the past few days, so unsurprisingly all I wanted today was a big fat salad (which I thoroughly enjoyed for lunch).

Today’s workout was originally planned for yesterday, but I had absolutely no energy yesterday after eating way too much McDonald’s (I kid you not. They got me good with the $2 Big Mac offer. I had like 2.5 Big Macs and way too many chicken nuggets and fries), as well as some pizza and pastries. Talk about a massive cheat day… or 3. Lol.

That said, even if I were feeling in tip top condition, I still don’t think I would have liked today’s workout. The quick switches were just too much for me. Glad it’s over!

Tomorrow Chloe’s new challenge launches and I feel like it’d be better for my current fitness level, so I might switch over. I think I’ll take tomorrow as another rest day because… well, my body needs rest. Tuesday is my wushu day again, so let’s catch up again on Weds!

Muchos love,

Bobbie

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Fitness: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 5

Image credit: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 5

7/6 – Day 5: Completed 17:51.
Videos Completed: 5min Warm Up, Epic Heat Day 5.

“Hey Bobbie didn’t you just finish day 3? Where is day 4? Why are you on day 5 already?” – All great questions. I am… preparing for my hubs to join me in the next workout, and he hard refuses to do burpees. Lol, mood. Anyways, as such, I’m switching up the days so that Mr. Bob can join me for day 4 on Saturday.

He enjoys the dumbbell workouts. He’s for sure going to see this and say, “‘Enjoy’ is a very strong word.” I take back “enjoy”. He tolerates dumbbell workouts, better? :D

Either way, I ended up doing the burpee bonanza today. Um… yeah. It was… hm. Burpees :’) I am next level not a fan of burpees, but Caroline loves them so I can learn to at least tolerate them. I do appreciate the way that she made the workout more interesting by incorporating so many different exercises then doing the burpee version of those exercises.

30mins of burpees would otherwise absolutely bore me to tears, but this one kept me on my toes – literally. Not gonna lie, it was probably the toughest one so far for me because I am weak and have very low stamina, so I was rarely able to do the exercises for the full 45sec. But it’s still encouraging to look back on my workout footage and see my burpee form on point… for at least the first half of it lol.

Also very encouraging was watching myself do actual pushups!!! There is absolutely room for improvement, especially with how low I wasn’t really able to go, but I’m still thrilled that I have progressed to proper pushups. I did have to switch to knee pushups for some of the reps in the later exercises (because, hello? Exhausted) and I took a couple of longer breaks, but overall? Pretty darn proud.

The fact that I managed to get through it is a massive win in my book, especially since my lower body is still kind of aching from Monday and even more so from wushu class yesterday. I am not sure I’d want to do this video again, ever, but I’m glad I did it. I literally sweat so much I soaked through my towel by the end of it.

I realised at the end of the workout that my crotch sweat patch game was. next level. Honestly I didn’t even realise crotch sweat patches were a thing until literally yesterday when I watched Michelle Kare’s friends trying her home workout and one of them mentioned it. I am very, very glad this was a home workout lol.

On another note, Chloe’s new challenge (2022 Get Abs Challenge) drops on Monday and she released Ep 1 today. I wasn’t planning to do the challenge since I’m doing Caroline’s Epic Heat right now, but the trailer of it on Chloe’s Ep 1 HIIT video looks so unbelievably cute I’m very tempted to go ahead and try it.

The music is super cute, Chloe’s outfits are super cute, the concept looks adorable. I might just have to hit pause on Epic Heat to do Chloe’s challenge. It’s only 18 days so seems pretty doable… we’ll see. I’ll stick with Epic Heat for now, but if Epic Heat starts getting too intense, I might switch over to Get Abs.

I barely had energy to do one practice round of my wushu form before I just clonked out and needed rest after today’s workout. Those burpees took a lot out of me, to the surprise of absolutely no one. I’m going for my white belt test tomorrow! Need to retain some strength for it. Wish me luck!

Muchos love,

Bobbie

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Fitness: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 3

Image credit: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 3

7/4 – Day 3: Completed 17:13.
Videos Completed: 5min Warm Up, Epic Heat Day 3.
Equipment used: 5lb dumbbells.

Let’s not pretend today’s workout didn’t absolutely kick my butt. To be fair, I think I’m recovering something because I literally took a 2hr nap yesterday afternoon then promptly fell asleep again at 9pm, only to wake up at 10…am. Yep, I slept for about 15hrs and I’m still not feeling my best.

In fact, my right lower back was hurting a little and my right leg was stiff even before I started my workout, then within 3min of the Epic video, my head started hurting too. As the workout progressed, I realised my left knee was starting to hurt a little as well. It was not the best of circumstances so I’m just proud of getting through it. I’m also very proud of Mr. Bob who did the workout with me haha.

We both struggled pretty hard, and you can bet I dropped my equipment for plenty of the exercises and my lower body was still getting very much destroyed. Oh, and I 100% am not doing jumping lunges lol. Regular lunges are plenty enough for me for now. I actually laughed out loud when I saw Caroline’s final tip of “Go low!” for the finisher squat pulses. Caroline, girl, if I tried to go any lower than this (more or less) standing “squat” of mine, I’ll just drop straight to the floor.

I don’t think I got to failure for most of the exercises because I was trying to avoid exacerbating any injuries. I wanted to be careful not to use my back or knee to compensate for my weak legs. Don’t you worry, I still felt like a massive weakling today. Like, I felt like I went to failure, but my perceived rate of exertion was probably higher than my actual rate of exertion, just because I wasn’t feeling my best to begin with.

Mr. Bob managed to get through most of it but had to give up after the toe lunges. My legs were shaking during those but he said his legs were completely destroyed from them haha. He did super well though, I’m proud of him! I’m also proud of me for actually getting through the whole thing.

I mean, I survived an entire Caroline Epic Heat video and did all the exercises, despite being sick/injured. I’d consider that a win. I didn’t have energy to practice my wushu form after the workout to be honest. I wasn’t feeling well and my body was hella weak.

I already had a rest day yesterday and I’m very glad I did. We were originally planning to go to a relative’s house for a July 4th celebration dinner but decided against it when I couldn’t wake up from my afternoon nap. We’re glad we didn’t go in the end because I don’t think my body would have been able to handle it. I’m also very glad I have the day off from work today because I am still not feeling my best.

Hopefully I’ll be back to normal tomorrow!

Days 4 and 5 look absolutely insane. I’m scared but I’m still looking forward to them. I’ll be back in wushu class tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll be doing day 4 on Weds, then day 5 on Friday. We will see! If I need an extra rest day, I’ll take it. I’ll need a lot of mental preparation

Muchos love,

Bobbie

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Fitness: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 2

Image credit: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 2

7/1 – Day 2: Completed 19:02.
Videos Completed: Epic Heat Day 2.
Equipment used: 5lb dumbbells.

Welp, as you can see from my completed videos list and my workout completion time, I absolutely was not about to have a good time with this workout haha. I’m actually amazed I managed to complete the workout at all because I was feeling absolutely exhausted all day.

I felt fatigued and groggy and ended up (unintentionally) taking a solid 2hr+ nap on the sofa after eating way too many rice cakes smothered in chocolate hazelnut spread. Lol, even after knowing how bad sugar is for my body I just craved it even more and overate. Ah well, it was one of those days.

It was also getting close to dinner time my hubs was hungry, I didn’t want to delay our dinner too much so I decided to skip my warm up. That very likely affected my performance at the start of the workout since I felt like I needed to stretch more first.

I was able to get into my stride shortly after though and still enjoyed the workout overall. My legs were already aching from the previous workout and, well, now my shoulders are aching too haha. I tried to keep my core engaged, but I also felt a lot of it in my forearms too. Ah, my weak lil noodle arms.

I liked that there were exercises that focused on one side first then the other, and for the movements where you used both arms at the same time on one dumbbell, I tried to let my left side take more of the weight. Oh man, those diagonal pushes were so hard. And I have never struggled to ‘drive a car’ as much as I did during this workout.

The 30sec rests between each superset was much appreciated and necessary haha. That’s something I really appreciate about the way Caroline structures her workouts. I can confirm I was definitely getting close to failure for a lot of the exercises during this workout. 5lb dumbbells were plenty heavy enough for me with the amount of time under tension per movement.

Unfortunately there was no time for me to do any wushu practice after the workout because we needed to head out for dinner, but I don’t think I would have been able to lift my arms anyway and my legs definitely needed a break haha. There wasn’t that much for me to practice anyway though, so it worked out fine.

Wushu-wise, I’ve finished learning my first form today! We did the Lian Huan Fist since I have no belt yet, and my Shifu said I could take the test to get my first belt, woohoo! White belt, here I come :D I’m particularly pleased since I only started learning it last week.

I’m very much still enjoying Epic Heat so far and am looking forward to day 3, which I’ll be doing on Monday since tomorrow will be a rest day. I’m a bit apprehensive since it looks like it’ll be an intense lower body workout and I… kinda need my lower body for my wushu class the day after lol.

I also don’t have a yoga block, so, um… yeah I guess we’ll see how it goes lol. I hope the DOMS don’t destroy me.

Muchos love,

Bobbie

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