Originally posted to my blog
November 10, and the link was cross posted on Kwoon Talk by my wife.
Level 10, Lazy or...
I just read Sifu Princes blog "Level
10" and had some thoughts on why I have often not operated at
level 10 myself. From the time I was an infant, I have had below
normal lung capacity and lung issues, but not bad enough to warrant
medical intervention. The side effect of this was that I did not
enjoy any type of exercise that required cardio endurance, which
happens to include most sports. I was not physically inactive, but
favored sports where I could put in a short burst of effort, then
rest. The other factor was that I am easily bored by repetitive
exercise, such as weight lifting (Zoning out about the time my
blood-oxygen levels would have dropped, I wonder if there is a
connection...).
I joined the military as a young
man, which has some mandatory fitness goals, and did OK in that
department, but never excelled physically. A funny thing though was
that the military uses push-ups as a disciplinary exercise, where any
infraction (real or imagined) earned push-ups as punishment. So
although I did a lot of push-ups, I did a lot less than many of my
peers, as I quickly learned not to be caught doing whatever it was
that was earning the push-ups.
Forward a few years, and I started
King Fu with my wife, who is much more motivated than I am, and some
things have changed. My initial motivation was to get rid of a bit of
middle aged spread, and learning some valuable skills sounded good
too. At this point the aversion to push-ups had to be dealt with, so
I did them, but never enjoyed them (they were still too close to
punishment in my value system). The main saving grace for me was a
combination of stubbornness and cheapness, as I did the math and
figured out that if I only went to one class a month, it was a very
expensive class, but if I went to all my classes and open training,
the cost of an individual class was pretty cheap, so I made a
decision not to skip classes without a substantial reason, especially
if the reason was that I was just feeling tired or lazy.
Now I am up to brown belt, and have
a medical diagnosis of COPD, a variation of asthma. I have discovered
that certain brands of toothpaste aggravate it, and have removed as
many other factors that could aggravate it as well (such as pet
dander from Sherri’s birds) and gluten from my diet. The learning
in this is that the asthma has been affecting many of my behaviours
towards physical exercise. The lack of oxygen during exercise made
sure that I was not very good at most of it, the lack of social
acceptance that came with the lack of physical prowess further
cemented the attitudes I was developing, and exercise used as
punishment was the icing on the cake. My normal reaction to doing
something that taxed my respiratory system was to avoid it or dial it
back until my oxygen levels came back up, which also explains my
aversion to weight lifting (it’s hard to concentrate on good form
with low blood oxygen levels). I had always assumed that I was just
lazy, and had many people confirm that self assessment, and was quite
comfortable with it until I became involved with Kung Fu. Slowly the
incompatibilities of “lazy” and “Kung Fu” became more
apparent, as I did want to learn, and did try to improve. I told my
doctor that I was concerned that I was winded after walking up four
flights of stairs at work, he said that I was in good health for
someone my age, I might just be getting old. I accepted this, and
carried on doing my best at Kung Fu, even pushing myself hard enough
at the shuttle run to become physically sick from the effort. My
skills were improving, I was progressing, but my stamina remained
poor.
This didn’t change until I failed
my annual medical breathing capacity test (someone my size should be
able to move 3 liters of air with my largest breath, I was actually
testing out at 1.2 liters). I work in a plant that contains asbestos,
silica dust, coal dust and many other nasty things that can affect
lungs, so Workers Comp mandates annual testing, then medical follow
up too rule out workplace causes. I was eventually referred to a lung
specialist, tested and diagnosed with COPD, or chronic obstructed
pulmonary disorder, with an unknown organic (read non-work related)
cause.
Drugs were prescribed, the house
cleaned and the birds moved to an area where their dust would not
affect me, and a connection was made with when I first started using
Sensodyne toothpaste and when I started having the more serious
problems. I have removed Gluten from my diet, as it can cause an
assortment of issues, including inflammation of your joints. My
joints have improved, and I no longer get the “arthritis”
feelings n my hands and wrists with weather changes, and if gluten
was causing inflammation in my joints, my lungs could have been
affected as well. I suspect that the gluten has been causing problems
all my life, and the toothpaste pushed things over the edge.
My lungs are getting better, my
stamina is noticeably improving, and with it many other facets of my
Kung Fu are also improving (one down side, at last Saturday’s
fitness class and forms seminar, my lungs held out enough that most
every other muscle was worked to exhaustion, with the following 3
days being painful to move)
The conclusion to this post is for
others to look at why they are not able to perform where they want to
be, and to see if outside factors are the root cause. The lung issue
has modified my behaviour over the years, it will take time to change
it, but I am seeing positive changes now that something has been
done. I hope that this post can help others in the same situation I
was in, as ignorance is not always bliss.
PS since this was published, I have
found that toothpaste alergies are far from rare, and gluten
sensitivity is quite common as well.
It was good to read your blog and come to know about you.
ReplyDeletesports doctor nyc