Shanghai (12/12 - 12/13): 7 Days Without Wushu Makes One Weak.

In the longest absence from wushu since I started up again, I finally made it back to the wushu guan on Tuesday. If you’ve been keeping track that was a whole week since the last time I had done wushu. I realize that to most people who aren’t training regularly that doesn’t seem like such a long time, and during the past year it didn’t seem like all that long to me either (I had gone months and months without training, after all), but when you are in the midsts of developing yourself (again) and working on wushu regularly, a week really does seem like a long time to be out of the game.

I have been experimenting and analyzing my own return to wushu training over the past 2 months and have come up with a system/program/schedule for re-inserting wushu into my life that seems to guarantee that I will both develop at a somewhat consistent pace and remain relatively injury free.

Unfortunately this past week was not part of the program and after training on Tuesday I could tell that I might have taken too long of a break from training. It’s nothing serious, mind you. I am just a bit sorer than I usually would be and some of my chronic problems (right inner groin and thigh muscles) are more tender than usual — but it’s nothing to be too worried about. I just know now that I really need to stick to my plan and make sure that I keep on track.

What is my plan? Well, to be honest I would prefer not to discuss it here mainly because it is somewhat specific to me. I’m guessing the rest of people reading this blog (yes, both of you) are not just about to turn 37, have trained for 12 years, specialize in nanquan, and have access to a Chinese training environment 6 days a week. If you are, feel free to email me and I will let you know what my plan for getting back in to wushu shape is. However, since you probably aren’t, I would not feel comfortable spelling it out here. Let’s just say it is something that I believe will work for me. (Plus, I’m not your coach — this is the sort of thing you should really be discussing with them.)

In any case, the class itself went quite well. While the week off didn’t help me, it didn’t necessarily hurt me too much either. And since I was returning to a workout that I was familiar with it was a good opportunity for me to gauge how much I had improved since the last time I was training in Shanghai.

I’m happy to say that my improvement was (at least to myself) noticeable. Higher endurance, better power and strength, and some increased flexibility. I’m not sure if Yang Laoshi noticed at all, but I sure did. I could do all the warm ups with the kids that I would have had problems doing before and I kept up through the taolu for several rotations. It was when they started doing a lot of nandu work that I had to bow out. But at the end of class he told everyone (and by everyone I mean 6 boys and 1 semi-adult, plus myself) to do self-training and I was able to do 3 lines of frog leaps, several lines of nanquan and nangun basics and it felt pretty good.

However, after class my chronic stuff which I mentioned before started flaring up. I know from experience that the best remedy for it (at least initially) is to just get some sleep and rest, but I didn’t actually get to sleep until later in the evening so the next day I let the coach know (via SMS) that I would not be in that afternoon and would be there on Thursday instead. I spent the day working on organization projects instead.

Another reason I didn’t go (and this is more a personal comfort thing) is that my hot water heater is on the fritz and until I can get it fixed I can’t shower. I can get my hair washed around the corner for 15 RMB ($2.00 USD) so that’s not a problem, but I still feel kind of grimey and not showering while training is a seriously smelly/gross/yucky affair. I’m supposed to have someone come over Thursday to fix it so I hope that things will be okay after that.

I also noticed something else about the foods I eat. (This is quite the entry for random observations, isn’t it?) While I was up in Shandong I was eating local/street food for most of my meals. I didn’t eat any fast food or western-type stuff and as a result I think it actually cleaned up my system. The truth is, the food you get in the little restaurants and stalls around Jinan are quite carbo-loaded, deep-fried and oily. But they aren’t “processed” as much as western foods which might seem “healthier”. When you buy a meat-filled bing you’re really just getting the base ingredients — flour, salt, corn-starch, some green onions and a bit of meat with seasoning. That’s it.

But when you eat a lot of the fast-food or western food options many of the sauces or ingredients are filled with starchy simple carbs, poly unsaturated fats, trans fats and high fructose corn syrup. Your body has a much harder time processing those “processed” foods than it does something made with simpler ingredients and as a result they don’t actually have as bad an effet on your as you might think.

I’m not saying it’s super healthy to eat nothing but meat bings all day, but it’s no worse than eating a grilled chicken burger from KFC too. In fact, it’s probably better (at least for my personal digestive system).

But the main point is that my body had adapted to digesting much simpler foods. When I came back to Shanghai I tried eating a burger from McDonald’s and I ended up having stomach problems. Maybe it was just the burger, but I tried something relatively simple from KFC too and that did the same thing. I bought something at a convenience store and it made me feel yucky, bloated and tired.

So, now I’m making sure I just eat simpler, local food which my body can easily digest. It might not be the most appetizing, and possibly not the super-healthiest either, but it certainly does make me feel better.

Of course, I still cook for myself as well, and then I typically have good control over what I eat. But when I eat out, I now tend to go local instead of … imported.

In fact, this is probalby one of the factors that contributed to my problems coming back to wushu after 7 days. My body was trying to deal with this crappy food I ate and didn’t have the resources to take care of my workout too. Well, lessons learned. From now on …

1. Eat healthy, simple foods

2. Don’t go more than 3 or 4 days without training.

Cross your fingers that tomorrow’s class is a good one.