My senior student and I trained together on the beach this morning.  It was a bit windy and the extra motion added a bit of intensity to the usually calm beach experience.

We did a bit of a warm up, then concentrated on some of the pilates core strengthening routines he’s using to rehabilitate a lower-back injury.  It is interesting to me to do the different exercises with the focus on muscles we don’t normally train.  I know I’m getting it, as I can feel my inner muscles responding after a few sessions.  I believe everything we do for our training becomes part of our karate-do.

We put in more than an hour doing kata on the sand at a modest pace to ensure we weren’t overdoing it for his back.  Getting the balance between enough exercise to loosen and strengthen and not so much to exacerbate the problem is the key to recovery.

A lovely long mediation under the warm rays of the late morning sun and a chance to put our feet in the ocean was a lovely way to finish the training.

I am so pleased to train with my the Senapai in the morning again.  I look forward to his full recovery.