Wednesdays in the Church of Sweat

[saffronhare]

There are a lot of religions represented in the pretty excellent people I know, so it's no surprise that I've been hearing a lot about Lent (despite not having been a practicing Catholic for lo, these many years). It's actually a concept I respect and a practice that gets a lot of traction in my ritual brainspace.

At TKD the other night, one of the black belts was saying we wouldn't see as much of him over the next six weeks because he'd be spending more time at church. We all nodded our heads and then I thought, huh, I'll probably be spending *more* time at TKD in the coming weeks. Because, for me, it's a lot like church. (Wednesdays are particularly heavy on the "blood, bronze, and fire" quotient.)

There's an opening ritual (bowing to the flags and such), sacred space (the floor), a set order to how we proceed through practice, a give-and-take between solo and partner work, and a definite raising of energy. At least once during the class, we do *something* that has *somebody* saying, "oh, god." That counts, right? Ha.

Comments

[rio-luna.livejournal.com]

hell yeah that counts

[starseeking.livejournal.com]

I said a *lot* of that while learning how to fall in TKD apparently I liked having my noggin knocked.

[zylch.livejournal.com]

Today I made an offering of humility in the Church of Sweat -- namely, I took on the barbell bench press, shoulder press, and back squat (rather than the machine versions of same) in the presence of guys lifting a couple hundred pounds, despite the fact that I had to do them with little to no weight added to the bar. Sure, I could have done them on the machines, but my body would prefer that I build better stabilizer muscles, and machines won't do that. So humility and shrugging in the face of stares it is.

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

I prefer using the bar to the machine for almost every iron-pushing escapade. And most serious lifters are going to give you some props for wanting to focus on form before force.

::applause::

There's a smith machine in the workplace fitness room. I haven't yet worked myself up to using it. Mostly I feel *very* embarrassed by how much *smaller* I need to make the settings! It's a good thing diermuid has a pretty good set I can use at home. (Man, I should have left that last bit for Innuendo Thursday.)

LOVE the Church of Sweat. :)