Worn Out

One of the things about being a middle-aged martial artist is that your body doesn't hold up the way the youngsters' bodies do.

Take yesterday, for example.

Yesterday I had two hours of classes. The first hour was grappling, which isn't my best art--I don't know as many techniques as some of my contemporaries. My shoulder still hurts from some dang thing Larry did to me, something that took me by surprise because I'd never seen it before.

Then I had an hour of black-belt-prep class, which I'm still taking though I'm not testing this fall.

We start each class with 55 push-ups (in 10 sets, starting with 10, pausing for 10 counts, then 9, pausing for 9, etc.). By the second class, between exhaustion and my shoulder hurting, I probably did about 40 and held myself in position for those I didn't do. I hadn't skipped any push--ups for a long time.

Then at the end of the black-belt-prep class, I was askd to do 100 pushups in as few sets as possible. I was totally wiped out by that point. I did 40, then three sets of 20.

I was so worn out, I slept for an hour before dinner.

According to one website, doing more than 31 pushups at my age before quiting from exhaustion is "excellent." To enlist in the army, men 37 to 41 need to be able to do at least 24 pushups.

I'm 52. So I feel like, given my age, I'm doing very well on pushups. I'm being asked to do more. I hope my body holds up.