Tae Kwon Do & PKD

As I've been working on my flexibility, I've started setting some goals. I want to be able to do the splits 3 ways: right leg in front, left leg in front and the middle splits. So far I've got the left leg in front down and almost have my right leading leg split down. The middle split is something different altogether. I can sit on the floor with my legs out in a "V", lean over touching toes and put my chest flat to the floor, but that doesn't matter in Tae Kwon Do. If I can achieve my middle splits, my kicks will be amazing.

I'm also trying to get back my gymnastics. I can do handstands, roundoffs, front walk overs - all kinds of stuff that most 38 year-olds can't. What I want to achieve is my back handspring - or a flipflop (what we called that in the '80'). In order to start working on this, I've been trying to work on my backbend. This used to be an everyday thing for me. I guess I haven't tried doing backbends since I got pregnant. I know that I did them frequently before pregnancy, because I did them in yoga - or a type of one. Here's where it gets weird.

When I do a backbend now, my body feels FREAKY. I can feel my kidneys from the fact that they are growing larger from having PKD. In my last ultrasound, my left kidney was over 17 cm. My right kidney is the smaller of the two, measuring at 16 cm. Even though the right is smaller, it's the one that is the most painful. When I do a backbend now, my kidneys feel like two water balloons in my back. I can feel them pushing into my other organs. It sucks. It's also painful.

For now, I'm going to stick to the splits, doing great kicks and learn to "sting like a bee" when I punch. I overheard my instructor telling a black belt student in class that I punched unusually hard. I liked that. When I punch that bag or target, I am punching out all of the shit that I've been through over the last 3 years. It's the most cleansing thing that I've felt in a long time.

Today I picked out a stationary punching/kicking bag for my garage. It's starting to look like a dojang in there!!! :-)

Joey, my awesome husband, is incredibly supportive and has also purchased punching gloves on his own! It see some sparring in our future!!!

Class is tomorrow, so I need some sleep.

Kihap!

Dedie