Cartwheels, The Matrix, and a Guy Named Indigo

Ok, so my favorite movie is the Matrix and I still want to be like Trinity. I remember seeing that movie for the first time and just being in complete AWE. What I was really impressed with was the martial art acrobatics performed in that movie and always wondered "how do they do that?"

Well golly gee, I found out tonight in my Capoeira class, the Brazilian martial art that uses acrobatics, groundwork including sweeps, kicks and sparring. Indigo (pronounced in-djo) is the instructor and he is amazingly fluid with his movements. His name makes me think of my favorite fiction book series--"Indigo" by Louise Cooper.

The first half hour of the class was ALL stretching. It was actually quite nice, since I worked out so much this week. Then came the fun part....

First was cartwheels! I couldn't believe it! I haven't done these since I was a kid and amazingly enough I can still do them! Then movement by movement we added kicks, spinning kicks, and eventually "the dance" such as in the above video (although not quite as advanced!). I felt pretty clumsy for a lot of it--trying to coordinate my hands with my legs and keeping the regular rhythm, but I started to get it and now can't wait for more. We'll see how far I get in the 8 weeks I'll be spending here in Florida...

Earlier today at CrossFit we did the following:

for time:
-2000 meter row
-50 wall balls
-1000 meter row
-35 wall balls
-500 meter row
-20 wall balls
Time was 32:08

This was a tough workout. For the wall balls I used a 10lb medicine ball and aimed for the 10' mark in order to push beyond what I had been doing. About 50% of them were at about 9.5 feet so technically I'm still at an 8' wall ball. Nonetheless it was still an improvement.

Tomorrow will be rest day....darn.