Once again it's been a little while. The updates seem to be haphazard. Adds to excitement!

I've been on a downer lately. It doesn't seem to be shifting much, but then again, I've been under a lot of stress in work, home and personal life lately. One way to try and combat this was to frequent the gym more often, and for longer, doing new exercises. I've found the 'dumbbell side bend' to be quite enjoyable. Hurts the obliques like mad, however.

The problem with my martial arts training is that when I go, I often feel I'm not doing well enough, or I can't see/feel any improvements. In the gym, the numbers won't lie. I started off doing 8kg dumbbell side bends, now I do 20kg. That was within the space of a week. A vast improvement. Same with deadlifts, treadmill, crosstrainer, etc. If the numbers are higher, you can say you're doing better. I can also go at my own pace and have a nice shower afterwards. Martial arts isn't like that. Add to that the fact that even though you're inevitably improving, so is everyone else, so you can't compete against them any better. It's frustrating.

Tomorrow is another tournament, the last official one of the year. Those who win overall in their leagues will get a trophy, or certificate or something cool when they go to the fight night in Dec. I don't feel particularly great about my chances of winning, but that is partly owing to the downer and partly owing to my being in the gym enough that I am knackered. Forcing myself not to go to the gym today and to eat and drink right. I'll be fine.

I'll write about it later.

P.S. I graded to green belt. IMO, I didn't really deserve it, but hey ho.