Tag: exercise

Coronavirus, Stress, Mortality and Karate

Sunday October 4th, 2020

I spent perhaps far too much time reading the news yesterday and feeling stressed. So I felt this was perhaps a good topic to cover. Hoping others will find this helpful.

Coronavirus in the News

With so many of our elected leaders and their staff, acquaintances, friends and family afflicted with coronavirus, let us keep them in our thoughts and prayers. This disease, striking the powerful and the weak alike, reminds us of our own mortality.

The AIDS epidemic was the last time our nation faced anything similar to COVID-19 in recent memory. That disease, as frightening as it was, is not comparable. According to a CDC publication from November 1995, total deaths that year from AIDS had reached 311,381 persons nationally. The death rate for infected persons was a frightening 62%. Due to better education, activism and treatments that rate finally started to fall in 1996. Antiretroviral therapy in particular, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, was perhaps the key factor in that reduction.

This year, in the US, roughly 208,630 have died to date with this disease (KFF). The gross death rate is roughly 3 to 4%, so considerably lower than that of AIDS at its peak. However, unlike AIDS, it is highly contagious, and currently we have about 7.44 M people infected. So the likelihood that one might contract this disease is high. Also, similar to AIDS, a person can be a carrier for some unknown length of time and transmit the virus to multiple persons without being aware he or she is spreading the disease. Finally, unlike AIDS, we hope this first year will be the peak.

The rough, lower death rate for COVID-19 is misleading. This disease is opportunistic. It effects the more vulnerable. So the elderly, along with immunocompromised individuals, are more effected. Minority communities as well as those impoverished suffer from it disproportionately.

Stress and Karate

It is well known that a regular exercise practice, as well as mindfulness and mediation, can reduce stress. Karate, with its roots in Zen Buddhism, emphasizes breathing and meditation in addition to rigorous training.

Friday’s Class: Stances and Backwards Kata

Friday night’s class, led by my daughter F, was enough to move my mind from the week’s concerns. Rather than kihon, she had us hold stances for a minute and a half. I found this hilarious video of a karate father demonstrating how to get in a work-out doing this with small children:

Afterwards, she had us practice Pinan Sono Ichi backwards. Concentrating on this certainly focused my mind, at least for the duration of that exercise.

Saturday’s Class: Renraku

Yesterday morning, we met in a park in Burbank for a distance-respecting work-out. Sensei T led the class and called on me to teach kihon. I was a bit out of breath by the end of kihon, though we only did tens. Normally, for adult classes, we will do twenty of each exercise. Yesterday, we had a number of younger children in class. When this is the case, we do fewer exercises.

Senpai T covered the first three IFK basic Renraku exercises. Here’s another great video demonstrating some of the material we covered:

This gentleman demonstrates several more renraku. We covered the 9th and 8th. The 8th renraku is very similar to the 9th, but you lead with a kick, rather than a punch. The 7th focuses on blocks. By request from young Senpai TD, however, we jumped to the last renraku, which is all kicks! Then Senpai T called on us to do it on both sides. That was a challenge. I found a fun video that shows most of the renraku. Go to the end: that’s where you’ll see the kicking one!

This IFK group in Israel is awesome. Fun to watch!

Mortality, Nature and Karate

Queen of the Night opening Wednesday night

While karate certainly doesn’t dwell on our mortality, it does emphasize self-defense for the preservation of one’s life, as well as exercise for health.

Oyama also emphasized practicing karate and meditation in nature. Famously, he spent months honing his skills, alone, in the wilderness. The book I recently finished by him, “This is Karate,” is full of beautiful photos of karateka practicing on the beach, in the forest, in snow or before stunning landscapes. Hence, both our dojo, and now the club, tries to get out in nature to practice.

Queen of the Night

Wednesday night, the night of my son’s birthday, we had a rare opportunity to observe the opening of Jessica’s Queen of the Night plant. I had written about hoping to see this event back in July. We looked for it on the 22nd, and I described missing it on the 23rd.

This past Wednesday night, we watched its progress. By 7pm, Jessica came to watch its opening. She sat on a chair with the plant until the mosquitoes convinced to her leave. I offered to keep watch and send photos. By 10pm, the two blooms on the plant were completely open. They already had a smell then, but you needed to bend down to smell them. By midnight, they released the most amazing smell.

Queen of the Night, no flash, both blooms

I took several photos of each bloom from various angles, with and without the flash. Our outdoor light gave the white blooms a pinkish tinge. Some of the photos came out looking quite abstract, particularly the close-up ones.

The grandparents, kids and D came out with me at various points to examine and smell the flowers. Richard noted that it was a full moon, and asked if these plants primarily bloom during full moons.

Each bloom begins in a teardrop shape and puffs out over one or two days. In the evening, it begins to open slowly, but by midnight, it is in its full glory.

Flowers, Pandemics and Brevity

Like the pandemic, the night flower is also a reminder of mortality, albeit a more glorious one. The bloom is spectacular in size and smell, once fully open, but the fact that it opens just once, and only at night, makes it unusual. So to see it, you must stay up late. It’s quick, too: in just two to three hours, it will open completely. By morning, it has returned to its teardrop, but droops down.

However long we as humans may live, even our lives, when long, pass quickly, when compared with stately, centuries old redwoods or the ancient stars above. All living things die. We are no different. We come into the world totally helpless, and if fortunate, learn to crawl, totter, walk, run, dance, perform karate, walk, perhaps the totter returns, then nothing. All human life is brief. What more impetus do we need to treat each other, and ourselves, with compassion?

Meditation, Enlightenment and Karate

Monday August 24th, 2020

Yesterday, I got up a little earlier than usual for a Sunday and printed out the registration forms for my son for religious school. It will start after Labor Day, and we were asked to turn in paperwork yesterday.

D and I then tuned in to a livestream meditation and lecture by Anam Thubten, a monk of Tibetan Buddhism, and founder of the Dharmata Foundation. We have attended his lectures in person, too, and he is an excellent teacher. I was able to sit through the opening chants, prayers, and a few minutes of the meditation, then I left to drop off B’s paperwork with the Temple.

Yes, please don’t tell our rabbi we moonlight with a Buddhist monk! I’m kidding. In all seriousness, if our rabbi heard we’d listened to lectures on meditation, he would most likely tell us about the role of meditation in Judaism and draw interesting parallels between Buddhism and Judaism through, say, Kabbalah practices or even cite Ezekiel, who, according to Wikipedia, may have been the first Jewish mystic. So a real discussion with our Rabbi would probably end up along those lines.

The Temple was holding “drive through” religious school registration, beginning at 10 am and ending around noon. I did not want to be too late. When I arrived, my car was the only one in the parking lot, and the Rabbi and our Temple office manager were very happy to see me. They took my paperwork, gave me a packet of materials for my son, and presented me with a collection of shakers, tambourines, hand flutes and other cool little instruments, courtesy of the Temple’s music director. I chose a beautiful, polished wooden shaker for B.

The fact that I was the only parent there, of course, worried me. A parent, earlier that morning, had emailed me, disappointed that we planned to hold Religious School over Zoom. She has younger children, and said they are already struggling with school over Zoom. I emailed her that our school has to follow the city and county guidelines regarding opening. Rabbi was interested to know about this parent and hopefully he will call her. We may lose families who simply do not want to pay for Zoom classes. In any case, I chatted with the Rabbi and office manager a good fifteen minutes before the next parent arrived for registration. Then that was my cue to leave.

I’m glad I went when I did. After all, the teachings of Buddhism and the practice of meditation center, to some degree, on minimizing suffering. I fear if I had waited too long to drop off our paperwork at the Temple, I may have caused suffering, in the form of anxiety, in these two kind people. And causing them suffering while they are performing an important service for the Jewish community would certainly be unkind.

Karate transforming discomfort and pain into health

When I arrived home, D was still meditating with Anam Thubten, so I joined them. During the break, something occurred to me: karate, based in Japanese Zen Buddhism, has a different relationship suffering, or, at least, discomfort and pain. Normally we’d lump discomfort and pain in with human suffering and, by extension, the cycle of samsara. In karate, however, we learn to get “comfortable” with discomfort, and tolerate pain. Why? We expect this self-discipline to improve our health and, ultimately, reduce suffering. And they do.

Push-ups, sit-ups and squats can certainly make you uncomfortable in the moment. Pushing your body with jump rope, or going for a run, or by lifting weights can make your muscles sore and tax your breathing. The strength, endurance and increased cardio-vascular performance you derive from these will, then, improve both your mental and physical health. Karate, and other fitness regimens, does recognize that this apparent, short-term “suffering” does lead to better health. This better health, in turn, decreases human suffering by reducing disease and disability.

Karate, when performed properly, transforms suffering to health and strength. Its foundation in Buddhism courts this realization.

Through sanchin (a kata in which your senpais and even kohais may be called upon to hit you), kumite (fighting), self-defense and tameshiwari (breaking boards, bricks, stones, etc.), we learn techniques for tolerating pain, and even channel the energy from pain towards our spiritual practice. This sounds weird, so let me elaborate. The knowledge that we can defend ourselves against attack, through specific self-defense techniques, clearly grants some peace of mind.

Sanchin and tameshiwari, in particular, teach wisdom. How? Sanchin focuses on discipline and self-mastery. When we are completely focused during this kata, we are not thinking about a self receiving blows from other karateka, but rather, keeping the abdomen, thigh and arm muscles tight, correct breathing, and the next move of the kata. This kata is a mediation: the self, including that self receiving blows, is a trick of mind. The goal is to dissolve that self in a resolve to stay rooted, tight, breathing and in motion. Anam Thubten wrote a book called, “No Self No Problem.” Sanchin holds to this principle: there is no pain if there is no self to feel pain.

Tameshiwari pits our mind against our mind. The mind sees a brick and says, “I can’t break that with just my bare hand! It’s too hard!” But the karateka knows this thinking, like the brick, can be broken. Having seen Sensei and other karateka break bricks, bats and even cinder blocks with bare hands and feet, we see that that mind is not correct. Sensei teaches, demonstrates, coaches, discusses techniques, then orders, “Break that brick!” and you do! You chop through both the brick and your mental resistance.

The first time I broke a brick, I must have wacked it six times. It took me a while probably ten minutes or so. My right hand was sore after three wacks and I had to remove my wedding ring and switch to the left, but I broke it. During our holiday demo, the next time I attempted it, I broke it in three fast, successive wacks, but it took me less than a minute.

Sensei says, at the moment of the break, the Universe suddenly opens, maybe for just a split second. Those seconds are exhilarating. Enlightenment seekers want those openings. Of course, the enlightened karateka knows that breaking a break will also give your bones little micro-breaks. If these are allowed to heal properly, your bones will grow stronger. Breaking again too soon, because your mind craves that wonderful feeling, can leave you with broken bones instead of bricks! If your mind still craves the Opening of the Universe, it can seek it through meditation, at least until the body has healed.

So, we who practice karate, we play with suffering and enlightenment. We resist our own minds and try to trick the mind into finding an Opening of the Universe. Anam Thubten offers another, albeit more methodical, possibly slower but less painful approach. The goal is the same: the Self drops away and Consciousness becomes that Opening of the Universe, where we feel all existence–all conscious life–is one.

My Rabbi might say that, according to Jewish mysticism and/or meditation, we also leave the self to the One: “’ehyeh ’ăšer ’ehyeh “, or “I am who I am.”

Tuesday May 5th, 2020

Yesterday I got in my second set of exercises but I found it much harder to do extra push-ups beyond the sixty. I did maybe five to seven before stopping, and this was after resting after the sixty. Also, regarding sit-ups: I focused on lower abs. The “diagonals” challenge me the most now. Last month, I found toe-touches hard. They are still difficult but I am more accustomed to them now.

In addition, I ran for twenty minutes while listening to the Podcast, “Scattered.” The narrator, Chris Garcia, talks about losing his father, and his father’s dying wish to have his ashes scattered off the coast of his homeland of Cuba. I teared up listening to more than one episode of this on the treadmill, and I heard the final one. When they actually scatter the ashes, his religious sister leads them in singing “Blessed Assurance,” in Spanish. I recognized the music from many childhood trips to my Evangelical aunt’s Baptist church, and I have loved that song since I was young.

At work yesterday, we had a Zoom call with our top visual effects supervisor and studio head. Our department was there with the Rigging; they spent most of the time talking about issues related to rigging. They bickered, too, over why a blendshape solution that was purchased a couple years back did not get used, among other things. Most of this was not relevant to our department so we just listened politely. At one point, my husband wandered in and stood behind me for a moment. The VFX supervisor, seeing him, suddenly quipped, “S (that’s me) you have a stalker!” We laughed. I wrote in the Zoom chat: “I married that stalker.” That received a few LOLs.

The VFX supervisor did notice that my team was on-line, though we didn’t talk. My take-away from that meeting was basically this: he really trusts what the artists and supervisors close to him tell him. He wants to keep as many of us as he can, in LA. Having no paid work coming in soon limits what he can do.

This morning, I did push-ups, sit-ups and squats. I managed twenty more “chest” push-ups on my knees. I also got the Japanese count right during squats.

Karate class tonight! And exercises, second set–however many we do not do during class.

Tuesday April 21st, 2020

I write this diary in pen in a notebook in the morning and type it it into this site at night.

I did push-ups, sit-ups and squats, with ten push-ups on my knees as extras, so sixty on my toes and ten on my knees, and seventy for squats and push-ups.

Aunt Karen’s son brought her home from the emergency room, but she went to her apartment and not back to the nursing home. We were glad to hear it, but still worried about her. One of her sons will look in on her.

Even though she still needs care, going back to the nursing home was not an option. Her doctors have not yet confirmed COVID-19, but it’s still a possibility, so for her sake and for the other nursing home patients, she can’t return. Wow–what a conundrum.

Karen told Richard she’d gotten to know a woman down the hall recently. Suddenly that woman was gone. Karen’s son told Richard that both rooms on either side of hers Karen’s were empty and the nursing staff would not say what happened to Karen’s former neighbors. Hopefully they are also alive and in their own homes with family, like Karen.

Goals today: it’s Tuesday, so we have Kihon as soon as work is done. I plan to change into my gi during lunch. Our class start time has moved thirty minutes up to 7pm. This makes sense for the kids in attendance, including mine.

I still need to email Sensei about this site and join his Facebook group. Ah Facebook.

Every morning, I wipe down the counters, table and other frequently used surfaces, including light switches, door knobs, fan controllers, etc., with a super-diluted bleach solution, then leave these surfaces to air dry.

In the kitchen, I pick one area to clean thoroughly. This morning, I tackled the expresso machine area and, because I wanted coffee, was rather impatient for it to dry. I grabbed a magazine fanned it.

Suddenly I remembered fanning aloe on the bright red skin of a sunburnt child after a trip to the beach. F always loved the ocean and a few times we stayed too long. That first time I brought her home after staying out too long, she was so red. I felt such guilt. Will she end up with skin cancer at my age? It has afflicted more than one person in my family.

My son is more fair, and has gotten sunburned a time or two, but with the second child, you figure out better methods. I bought him rash guards and slathered him opaque with sunscreen. F doesn’t like rash guards or sunscreen but will “humor” me, at least until she thinks I’m not paying attention. Then she pulls off the rash guard and runs back into the ocean, thinking I won’t notice. Sometimes I pretend not to. We miss the sand and surf.

Monday April 20th, 2020

I did push-ups, sit-ups and squats this morning. After 60 push-ups, I huffed and puffed, but pushed myself to do ten more on my knees. Seventy squats often tire me out as well. During squats, I alternate sets with punches with regular sets. Ab exercises do not make me quite as tired, but they are starting to.

My father-in-law’s sister Karen is staying in a nursing home in New Jersey after she fell and broke her knee-cap. Recently, she’s had a fever of 100 and some shortness of breath. Karen’s son called last night to say they were taking her to the emergency room. They worry she has COVID-19. She is older than Richard, my father-in-law, and he’s 81. We hope she will be okay.

That reminds me to call Shannon tonight and see how she’s doing. Shannon is my age and in good health. Her husband is sharp, so if he is not sick, he’ll take her to a hospital if she takes a turn for the worse. Calling or texting to check in with her will put my mind more at ease.

Today I plan to run on the treadmill for twenty minutes and do my second set of exercises. Those are my goals, besides working and updating this website with this entry, and one further back in time. Sometime this week, I want to figure out how to get the posts to show up in the order I want them–by the date in the title and not the timestamp in which they get entered as posts.

How much of this journal will actually be interesting to people?

While writing outside, I hear birds, an occasional wind chime and the trash truck: picking up cans, brightening the lives of many a toddler. I remember taking first Rebecca then Joey out to watch the trash truck. I remember running down the sidewalk with both kids so they could watch it pick up one more can.

In ten minutes, I will clock into work on-line, but first I want to get dressed.

Wednesday April 15th, 2020

The Back Log

I did push-ups, sit-ups and squats last night and this morning. We also had a Kihon class via Zoom with Sensei yesterday evening. That was nice. So 15 of my push-ups, sit-ups and squats for the evening happened during class, then I did 45 afterwards (that’s 30 on the floor plus 15 on the thick exercise matte.)

Sensei had us do Kihon exercises in sets of 3 moves with a more quiet “shi-shi-shi” as our kiai. Those were challenging. Daughter F, my son B and I were pooped when Kihon was done. We kept F in the middle because she has such perfect form, or at least beautiful form. I may not be the judge of perfect, but I definitely know beautiful.

Sensei ended the class with a couple simple Tai Chi exercises. He practices these in the morning to center himself. I like the symbolism: pulling down energy from the sky, stars and universe, then lifting up good energy from the Earth to your heart, so you will be grounded. Finally, bringing that Earth-heart energy to your own Chi, where you combine it with that sky energy you previously brought into your Chi. Through you, by way of your heart, Earth and sky mix.

He had us feel the heat between our hands, which is particularly strong after exercising. Sensei demonstrated stretching that heat–our Chis–first left and right, on the diagonals, up and down, expanding oneself. He also instructed us to reach behind to gather up all our intentions and things things left undone, and bring those forward to combine with our Chis. “Resolve that what needs to be done will be done,” he said.

That’s my timer. Richard, my father-in-law, came down and we had a nice talk about radio waves.

I skipped my usual leg stretch on the bookcase. What’s one stretch?

Saturday April 11, 2020

The Back Log

I am taking the day off from exercises but I did run on the treadmill for twenty minutes, plus five as a warm-up and five minutes for a cool-down.

Last night, I got on the scale and I was 110 pounds. That’s up from my usual range of 93 to 97 pounds. I’ve noticed other changes: I can’t put my wedding ring back on, and a pair of pants that once required a belt to stay up actually fit in the waist now. Needless to say, the extra weight worries me.

For folks who don’t know me or do not know me well, I’m just over 5 feet tall. Some of that extra weight is muscle from karate exercises, but that would accounts for, say, two to five pounds, realistically. The rest is due to to the fact that I no longer work out at the dojo for three to five hours a week. On Saturdays, I would sometimes take two classes and I regularly attended an hour and a half class on Tuesday and Friday evenings.

My morning and evening push-ups, sit-ups and squats, while better than nothing, is no substitute for a ninety minute class. I do not walk four flights of stairs before and after work, because I work from home. Though I take walks during the day, those are not exactly strenuous. Additionally, F and B bake a lot of bread, pies and cookies, and D and I drink wine or make mixed drinks just about every day.

So, given I am:

  • 1. eating more sweets,
  • 2. drinking more alcohol, and
  • 3. exercising less

I guarantee some of that weight is just, well, excess weight! I don’t look particularly fat, granted, but that’s how it starts: a little more here and a little more there. Over time, it adds up.

The black belt test requires cardio fitness, and mine is in August, if we are able to do it. Might as well start now, before I get too out of shape.

The treadmill is in F’s room, but we all use it. Richard walked daily when F was in school. I put on a podcast and got on the treadmill with bare feet. Jogging on the treadmill is not something I enjoy.

I’d tried to talk D into going with me to look for a place to run outdoors. We do not live far from Griffith Park. It rained all this week and now it’s beautiful outside! On a Saturday! My idea was to drive to the zoo area and see if we could walk or jog along one of the horse trails. D thought everyone else in Los Angeles would have the same idea.

He’d previously emailed me an article about how people exercising outdoors could potentially spread the virus faster. Apparently it is also critical to be more reclusive for the next two weeks. Folks are being advised to limit our already limited contact. So I borrowed a pair of loose, old shorts from D, put on a podcast and got on the treadmill.

I admit, during that first five minutes of walking in bare feet, I considered getting off the treadmill to put on shoes. “But no,” I thought, “I’ve finally started and it’s important to push through.” My mind wants to get out of exercising, I told myself, rationalizing procrastination. I’ve started–I need to stick with this. So I did. At the end of my jog, the balls of my feet burned.

My daughter came into the room to tease me about running in front of the window. “I want the neighborhood to see my newly-muscled back. Why not?” I told her. “There might not be a lot of muscle back there by some people’s standards but it’s much more than I had!”

That’s the great thing about being fifty, I told her: you become shameless. “You know what?” I said. “I wish I’d lost my shame earlier!” She laughed.

She’d talked to me about the weight thing earlier. “A few extra pounds will not hurt you!” she said. “You do not need to diet.” I agree.

For context, one of F’s friends was hospitalized for an eating disorder shortly before the pandemic started. This poor girl–a beautiful kid and an overachiever–top kid in her middle school last year, was downright skeletal when she came to our home in January for F’s birthday party. She was quite ill by the time she was hospitalized in late February.

So I told F, “No diet. Just exercise more and eat less sweets. That’s all–just don’t let the weight gain get out of hand. And maybe I should drink less.”

So I was proud of myself for getting on the treadmill and jogging and walking a full thirty minutes, but boy, I blistered the balls of my feet. I showed F. We laughed. “You wear shoes if you go the treadmill, okay?” I told F.

Full disclosure: we both like running around in bare feet. I already had calluses on my heels from wearing Keenes as my normal shoes, even to jury duty. (Once, in the elevator in the court house, a dude in a suit, probably a lawyer, said to me, “Those sure look comfortable.” I responded, “Yeah, they help me get to court on time when I’m parked a good thirty minute walk away.”)

I popped the blisters on my feet with a safety pin dipped in rubbing alcohol, squeezed out the puss, then took a shower. Afterwards, I put salve and bandages on my feet. I wear two pairs of socks for extra padding, and sandals if I need to walk.

Goal for tomorrow: get on the treadmill with sneakers!