Martial Arts, my body, and my goals

Currently I am taking Tae Kwon Do at Semper Fi Tae Kwon Do in Swansea Ma. I met the owner one night at Outback. Him and his wife were there to eat dinner and I noticed the school's logo on his jacket. I had asked him whether or not he was an instructor. He told me that he owns a school in Swansea. For the next two hours him and I talked about his school, something he was clearly passionate about.

I joined that school a month ago today, I have attended nine classes already. Currently I am a white belt with two stripes, and one more stripe away from being able to test for my yellow belt. I missed martial arts thoroughly over the last ten years. I had always said I was going to return and that I had wanted to and meeting Gil Woodside that one night at Outback changed everything for me. Hearing him talk about his school and his students inspired me to join.

Out of 100 white belt students, only 2 receive their black belt. I will be one of those two. When I finally test for my black belt years from now, I can look back on it knowing I made the right decision, and that I have finally earned a life-time achievement I can put next to Husband, Father, and Engineer.

Dr. Woodside is now one of my mentors and I look up to him. He is an x-marine who served two tours, a third degree blackbelt, taught as a history teacher for over 30 years among many other achievements. Yesterday was a great day for me because I had expressed interest in one day instructing at his school, and he informed me that he already had me pegged as a future full-time instructor. Something I would genuinely enjoy, and something my children could benefit from as well. (Aidan anyways)

I have been strength training now for almost three months, and I've reached the point where I need to decide if I want to gain more weight, or start working on my endurance which would entail more reps of lighter weight. I have packed on nearly 25 pounds since I began, made my eating habits much better, and I feel stronger. I'm currently doing the Stronglifts 5x5 program and I love it, every time I work out I have a new challenge as it is 5 sets of 5 reps adding 5 pounds every workout. Currently I am benching 110 pounds, squatting 115 pounds, overhead pressing 75 pounds, which doesn't seem like a lot, but I can do it 25 times in the minimum in one session.


My goal for the next three months is to be able to bench my body weight, squat my body weight, and over head press 100 pounds for the full five sets of five reps. I would also like to stretch for fifteen minutes every morning I wake up so I can make my kicks as high as possible.

I am training now so that someday I can compete in tournaments and fight for my school.

All of this would not have happened if I did not have such a loving and caring wife behind me, coaching me and pushing me to reach my goals.