Swim Season Finished
Wow, it seems only yesterday when I announced the start of my summer swim season but since September 1 was the last day our outdoor swimming pool was open, I now have to immediately change gears into my fall fitness schedule. The swim workouts as expected, were great in getting my cardio fitness into top condition. As usual, by the end of the summer season, I’m at my best cardiovascular fitness of the year.
However, this summer was weird for the pool season. The pool water was usually chilly as I wore a wetsuit for pretty well all my swim workouts except for only a few times. And for the final two weeks of the season, I went into the pool about 4-5 times each week since the swim season was so short and I wanted to maximize what was left of it.
New Fall Season Fitness Schedule
At the beginning of the swim season, I had a recurring shoulder injury which prevented me from doing big swim strokes with my left arm. But I managed to get in all my swim workouts as the shoulder (rotator cuff) improved over the summer and I was able to do fuller rotations. It is still not perfectly healed but at least I was able to do my full swim workouts. But now it’s time to switch over to my fall season fitness schedule which replaces all the swimming with martial arts workouts.
Here’s what the fall season will look like for me until the winter ski season arrives.
Mondays – Martial Arts Forms (Empty Hand)
Tuesdays – Martial Art Weapons
Wednesdays – Weights & Super Stretch Plus Hike
Thursdays – Martial Arts Forms
Fridays – Martial Arts Weapons
Saturdays – Open
Sunday – Weights & Super Stretch
Nature Hiking Season
The fall also represents the start of the outdoor nature hiking season for my social Meetup group GTA Free Spirits. Each Wednesday starting in October will feature a midweek hike in the early evening somewhere locally and these are relatively short hikes – 30 minutes out, 30 minutes back.
So for Wednesdays, I’ll get in my weights and Super Stretch in during the daytime before the evening hike with my group. These hikes are usually pretty easy so they are a bonus fitness activity for the day.
Every other weekend with my social Meetup group will feature a longer hike that will be at a conservation area out of town. These are longer day trip hikes over some more varied terrain including some rugged challenging areas. My group usually hikes for 2 to 2.5 hours during these outings.
For the weekends which will have one of these bigger hikes, I may opt to do my Sunday weights on the Saturday instead if I’m hiking on the Sunday. Some of these hikes are on Saturdays in which case I’ll do my weights as scheduled on Sundays. I may also do an extra martial arts workout on some Saturdays as well since it is an Open day.
With this martial arts intensive fitness fall season, I hope to get my forms back to reasonably good performance condition in order to get them on new video before the season is out.
Super Stretch In Toronto GTA
Some of you might be wondering what Super Stretch is. Well, it is a series of intensive stretching exercises that I do to not only maintain flexibility, but to increase it as well. I’ve used these exercises throughout my martial arts career.
If any of you are living in the Toronto GTA area and would actually like to join me in one of my Super Stretch sessions, it is possible! I conduct an hour long session called Total Body Stretch a few times per year for my social Meetup group GTA Free Spirits and a final session will be run on October 5. If you would like to take in this session, just join up with GTA Free Spirits and RSVP for the Total Body Stretch event — and it’s FREE!
The Total Body Stretch including the Super Stretch exercises gives you a glimpse of the special flexibility exercises I do as part of my martial arts and overall fitness program.
And speaking of martial arts, another partner website called Free Spirit Activewear is holding a $10 special on t-shirts featuring my martial arts designs. See them at martial arts clothing.
