Supplemental Training and Brain Bubbles

It is no secret that am an advocate of exercises to help build strength, explosiveness and power for martial arts. Normally, I do this mostly through body-weight exercises (push-ups, crunches, lunges, etc.) and only a little with weights. The reason for this is primarily the fact that weight lifting makes me feel absolutely terrible--I get nauseous, lightheaded and get that sick feeling in the back of my mouth like I'm about to vomit, and it takes over an hour for the effects to fade. This has happened to me my entire life, and I have not been able to figure out why it occurs (neither has anyone else for that matter) but it has definitely caused me to be hesitant with the use of weights.

Despite this issue, I have started going to a gym. My wife signed up for a membership and gets to have a free guest every time she goes, so I now have access to a fully equipped facility to do some supplemental training. This past Sunday was my first workout, and I was able to exercise for 45 minutes and only feel slightly lightheaded with the beginnings of nausea, so something must have gone right. I warmed up on an elliptical machine (I strongly recommend these over running or using a treadmill, if you have the option) for about 5 minutes, then went through back extensions, seated crunches, rows, chest press, preacher curls, tricep extensions, thigh adduction and abduction, and leg presses. It wasn't a complete, full-body workout but it was pretty close.

Performing Passai Sho at my last rank exam

While the exercises I did have applications in my karate training, they are not karate. I always recommend practicing your martial arts at home to supplement your training at the dojo, and I follow this advice as well. I do at least three kata every day, and I try to make one of them a Naihanchi kata and the other two more "advanced" kata like Gojushiho, Passai, Kusanku or Chinto. That doesn't include the training I do at the dojo. That said, I have noticed that for the past few months I have been having a lot of brain bubbles in class when running kata. Just last night, I was going through the "advanced" kata with two other students (a junior black belt and a Nidan) and kept messing up Kusanku and Gojushiho. For whatever reason, my training at home is not carrying over into the dojo, because I have been having no issues performing those kata on my own. This type of thing is very frustrating, particularly after having been told of my looming rank exam, which I believe will be February 16th.