Rediscovering pain

As I mentioned two days ago, I had tonight my first class of Krav Maga. And what to say? The first thing that came to my mind afterwards: the pain, the pain! Not during the exercises, but afterwards. And it is not the moves, attacks and defenses themselves that truly hurt: it's the darn pushups, situps and what have you near the end that did me in. We were two newbies, one young woman/teenager and me. The coach asked what was our favorite numbers. She said 7. I said 21. So he asked all to do 28 pushups, then situps, then other things. I didn't do as many. Next time, I will learn not to push my limits too much. And I will bring a bottle of water.

But the lesson itself was a great fun. The instructor was very welcoming and he encouraged me without being condescending or making me feel like a hopeless case. Which I might be, I don't know. I did learn a a lot of things in a first lesson. The class seems like a great bunch of people, all very friendly and warm. I also love the martial art itself, more than I ever thought I would. It is not falsely elegant, it is sober (which makes it elegant in itself) and straight to the point. And on every Wednesday, that breaks my week into two nicely. And break myself, I guess. Of course, it made me remember the famous line from Nietzsche: "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." Which is very much the case of Krav Maga. That is also what I was told by the instructor: it will make you healthy and strong. I could do with that, especially the healthy part. Until next Wednesday, I will have time to get over the pain. It is not nearly as natural to me as acting, which was my old Wednesday evening activity, but it will keep me busy and make me feel like I accomplish something.