Training Restart (again)

Once again, it's been quite some time since I last was very motivated to do any training. It comes in waves. Suffice to say, it's all too easy to find excuses not to do it. But, the important thing is to keep picking yourself back up and keep on trying...or so I keep hearing. With any luck, and more than a little perseverence, I'll be able to keep the string of unbroken training days a lot longer this time around. I now have a job again, so I am simultaneously less depressed and flush with cash, with which I intend to get more bagua dvd's. In the meantime, I will continue practicing what I have. I don't even remember at this point what I was doing back in September, but it hardly matters.

My current plan is simple: train every day. Doesn't seem like much at the outset, but it would unquestionably be an improvement. Previously, I'd set certain vague numeric goals for my practice that were somewhat detached from anything concrete. I'd get into bad habits. Now, by focusing primarily on simply making sure I practice everyday, I'll get into the habit of doing so. And once that is achieved, I can simply continue to add more to my workload over time.

Starting out this time around, I've decided to take a suggestion from Jim in Knoxville: train for an hour every day, with ten minutes of standing, 20 of striking drills, and 30 of turning. It was about as much of a workout as I'd guessed, considering how generally out of shape I am. Stood for 10 minutes in Lion Representative, doing two minute intervals (one minute per side). Then for 20 minutes I tried to see how many sets of 50 Rising Sweeping strikes I could fit in, which came out to 6 (300 strikes). Unfortunately, by then my unsuspecting muscles had become worn out, and I only managed 15 minutes of turning (Lion) before throwing it in. End result: took over an hour due to rest breaks, and didn't quite finish anyway. But at least now I have a sort of baseline for myself; something to improve upon in the comings days and weeks.

After I've done this particular workout until it becomes easy, I'll start to add other things to it, such as other standing postures, other strikes, the 1-step, 2-step and 3-step striking drills, as well as some other stuff that isn't strictly bagua, like the (non-yin style) saber dvd's I have.

I've still got a long way to go, but I'm getting there.