It's May 1st here and that means it's only 4 months left until we're done. I've been making so much progress since I've started practicing on my own more and it's so exciting! In a way it makes the 4 months seem too short, wish I'd done this a year ago. haha.

So with all this freedom, I'm working on fixing some bad habits I have, healing my old injuries, and some strength and flexibility stuff which is all really great. The best thing of all though is that I have the chance to really discover my own style, my own way of doing things that best suits my body and my temperament. For years I have been struggling to imitate my teacher as much a possible, an important step, but now in order to truly become a 'master' I need to integrate those lessons into who I am as a person and a martial artist. I'm finally starting to get a hint of what that is, there's a long way to go still but it's already making a huge difference in how I feel about my kung fu. It's a little like the movie Kung Fu Panda when he finally gets the scroll and it's empty, Tigress tells him that the 'secret is you' and he sees his reflection. I know it sounds cliche but I really understand how he felt in that scene. I am just starting to get a sense of my kung fu and I have a growing confidence that it is enough and good and right for me.

Just a few thoughts that have been floating around in my head lately.

It's been raining a lot these past 2 weeks or so and as a result we've mostly been training indoors. It's basically impossible to do weapons forms or a number of empty hand forms in our space, even just finding a few square feet can be a challenge. Our training is a lot different, for basics we might still do kicks or stances, but we might also practice jump kicks, rolls, or acrobatics. There are a few weights (with missing pieces of course) and a chin up bar, as well as a whole bunch of smelly, old pads we can use. As a result I've been doing more strength training and acrobatics (if you can call what I do acrobatic that is) and less forms and stretching. It's kind of fun to have a shift of focus like this sometimes. I still have quite a bit of time to myself and I'm enjoying that too. It'll feel really good when it clears up to train outside again though, I'm looking forward to that.

A good friend will be arriving here this week so I'm excited. I miss my girlfriends at home sometimes and she sort of fills that gap when she's here. I love my classmates but there is something different about spending time with women that I miss out on while I'm here. Thank goodness for Mel! It can be hard to make female friends here because some of the guys are always in such a competition to try to get close to the ladies. It's ridiculous to watch, actually. Anyway, I'm happy Rachael will be here.

I just thought I'd include an update on the glute strengthening program I started almost a month ago. Originally, I started researching how to strengthen my lower back but I came across a really interesting article which said that proportionally weaker gluteus muscles could contribute to lower back pain and also knee pain (both of which I have suffered from on many occasions) along with lots of other problems. Here is the link to that article:

http://functionalresistancetraining.com/articles/re-activating-and-strengthening-the-gluteal-muscles

So after reading that I scoured the internet for exercises I could try that would strengthen these muscles. I read a lot. I tried a lot. I noticed a difference after the very first day. My knee pain was gone almost immediately. My lower back pain was gone quickly too. I embarked on a quest to learn how my glutes worked, what it felt like to use them, and try to correct a long time imbalance. I practiced walking slowly, doing tai chi, and climbing stairs while engaging my gluteus muscles, I became obsessed and talked to anyone who would listen about it. I was so excited to finally have found a solution to not just one problem, but many!!

Here's my favorite of all the exercises, I do this in 3 sets of 12 or 15 twice a week:

http://www.inspiredfitstrong.com/2012/blog/the-single-leg-deadlift-why-to-do-it-and-how-to-do-it/

So check out the first article and if it sounds like you, give some glute strengthening a try. It could be life changing!

Sometimes I run out of stuff to say and then I want to blog but sit here staring at the screen blankly first.

I was talking to my mom today about our family trip to Thailand in September, I'm very excited about it. We're starting to research places to go and such, which makes it seem more real somehow. One of my classmates is leaving a little early since he starts school in the fall and he says it feels really weird to be so close to leaving here. I can only imagine how that will feel, I'll have to wait a few more months though. I'm really looking forward to starting a new life again, it's still pretty far off though.

This week I did some spring cleaning and went through my cupboards and gave some stuff away. It feels so good! It's gone remarkably well, but I'm really looking forward to not having to share a room with Mel. I'm 32 years old, a little too old to be sharing a room with my sister. I really don't act my age in a lot of ways though, so I guess this is no stranger than most of the stuff I do. Sometimes I wonder how bizarre I must seem to family and friends at home. haha. I have a feeling that won't change too much after moving home either, I'll always be a bit of an oddball. I'm totally ok with it though.

We got back from our short class trip to Xi'an on Tuesday evening. It was a really fun and relaxing time. I barely thought about kung fu at all, never mind talk about it, which I think is a really great way to re-charge. They say a change is as good as a rest, and I had both. I got a fancy new paintbrush and it was so much fun to test it out yesterday, I fell in love with it as soon as I tried it in the shop.

If you're ever in China, check out Xi'an, it's the coolest city I've been to here...so much history.

Oh, and while we were there, guess who else was there to see the terracotta warriors? Michelle Obama! They shut down the entire exhibit just for her. I didn't see her or anything, it was just a weird coincidence that we happened to be staying in Xi'an at the same time.

So back to training tomorrow and I am renewed and filled with vigor!

Tomorrow we leave to go to Xi'an for 4 days, our last class trip. We've already been there but we didn't have the time (or funds) to go on a bigger trip so this place is easy to get to and we know it's  a lot of fun already. I'm already really looking forward to the food, it'll be so nice to eat something different! The hostel we're staying at has this pesto chicken sandwich that is to die for....yum! It'll also be nice to take some time off of training, I'm enjoying doing my own thing more now but I'm pretty sore after this past week. Some of my classmates have been here since the start of December and they really need to get out of here for a couple of days, they're starting to lose it.

So in my next post I can write all about the delicious food I got to eat. Yay! FOOD!

It's been sunny and lovely all week so everyone is much more cheerful in general. I don't really mind cloudy weather but a month straight, with rain, is a bit much.

I went through all my forms videos to pick out some of the things I want to work on during class time. The main flaw I saw was that my side kicks were too rushed, I hadn't really finished the kick before I was on to the next movement. I'll be working on really defining those kicks. It actually ties in well with something I've figured out this week: I have an imbalance between the strength in my quadriceps and the gluteus muscles. I've been relying too much on my strong (and tight) thighs and it's caused some problems. For a few months now I've noticed some weakness in what I thought was my lower back and I've been having periodic knee pain for a really long time. I thought these were unrelated but apparently they're both symptoms of underdeveloped glutes. So, guess who's going to be doing lots of deadlifts and leg extensions? This gal. It should also give me more power on those sidekicks too so it all goes together quite nicely and now that I'm doing so much individual practice, I should really get a chance to fix this stuff. It's gotten me all jazzed up for the next week of training!