Just ramblings

I haven’t done anything to write about, I just want to cover two topics real quick:

Strongman Contest – I’m gonna do it. Chris and Scott both said some important things in the comments of that post. Most of them steer me away from doing it. I hate to chicken out of something on sight though, that’s just lame. So I’m gonna do it, I’m going to train for it while working on this diet thing and trying to shed a couple ounces. I am also not going to do the August contest. I’m gonna sit that one out. I may help like I did last year but I want to spend the summer losing weight and working out lighter and leaner. I’m saying it now so I don’t have to bail upon seeing the contest info. Idealy I would achieve the 231 weight class by next year but that may not be in the cards, I’ll just play that by ear. Basically I think I need to be in that range to be healthier anyway, why not take the easier weights too, although I will mention that in Maryland, that is probably the most challenging and competitive weightclass.

Tai Chi – It all started with a post on gripboard showing a video of Steven Segal’s testing video for his 7th dan blackbelt in aikedo. It made me think of the big guy from Bloodsport, Bolo Yeung who I thought was an aikedo champ too. So I went to his wikipedia entry to find out that he didn’t but does study Taijiquan, so I wikied over there. It turns out this is another name for Tai Chi. So I was reading about Tai Chi which I found very interesting. In the description of it, it talked about Solo Forms, which is basically what most of us think of as Tai Chi, standing in the park, by yourself going through prescribed movements. One of the lines describing these was:

“a slow sequence of movements which emphasize a straight spine, relaxed breathing and a natural range of motion”

This seems like something I am looking for. Good recovery, works the full range of motion and would probably improve static endurance (a term I just made up meaning the ability to hold a pose or position for an extended period of time comfortably and without the shakes).
So to wrap up my round-a-bout explaination… Laura and I decided to get library cards last night, I checked out a computer geek book and she got a cool looking science book that I may have to read later. Then we wondered around the library and I had to look at their fitness section. They had the usual options including and actual kettlebell book. They also had some DVDs, not many, I saw a Tai Chi one and thought I would give it a go for the heck of it. So that is what I will try this evening.