Feeling The Stretch On Knee's Ligament

I started my first yoga class in May under Jazamine, however after 3 classes, I stopped for the whole month of June due to my tight schedule in various activities. I started again last week and train under two different instructors from Fitness First Leisure Mall branch.

Out of the two different instructors, I can't help but to say that I like MC's class. Yes, MC is a guy instructor (I'm straight, I date girls only). I really like the way he conduct his class.

Besides conducting classes like the other 2 instructors, MC has an extra edge for explaining to us anatomical terms. For instance, we were asked to perform Upavistha Konasana (Wide-Angle Seated Forward Bend), and I felt some stretch on my both knee's lateral ligament, and I think it's very common for beginners to do it wrongly and feel the stretch on the knee, which wasn't meant to be. And MC explained to us that we are NOT supposed to feel the stretch on the knee, which previously I thought it was okay. If we feel the stretch on the knee, all we need to do is to reduce the split and bend our knees a little.

Upavistha Konasana (Wide-Angle Seated Forward Bend), infact is the same to my Taekwondo warming up routine, "Split-forward-down",just different command. I'm starting to think weather my ACL Tear has anything to do with wrong guidance on warming up by our Taekwondo instructors ? If it's not totally related, but at least partially? I remember clearly on how we were forced to open up our split as big as possible and straighten legs, while being pushed from our back.

My Tears Rolled After Watching This

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. Compared with Dick Hoyt, I fail.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.
Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.``He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an institution'

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain'

"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.'' Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still,
he tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore for two weeks.''

That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon. ``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.''

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''

Watch the video at Youtube

Link: www.teamhoyt.com

Signing Up With ISSA

1 week before I left for Indonesia, I finally got a reply from ISSA USA stating that candidates from South East Asia could still enroll with them directly although Human Principles of Singapore is the representatives of ISSA in SEA.

I enrolled immediately in ISSA's Certified Fitness Trainer programme with my father’s credit card with the total fee of USD495 + USD 60 for shipping (Roughly close to RM2K after exchange rate). My study material was shipped to me within 6 days instead of the estimated 7-14 days for International shipping.

Study material being packed nicely in a box, shipped with FedEX

Being greeted with a welcoming letter from ISSA's Executive Director, Dr Sal Arria

Inside the box, there are 2 textbooks; Fitness: The Complete Guide and Fiscal Fitness, 1 CFT workbook & Study Guide, 1 CD-Rom with workout programmes, and other promotional leaflets.

ISSA's courses are offered as open book courses with the given time frame of 2 years to be completed upon enrollment. Therefore, I can take my own sweet time to study and complete it within 2 years.

I haven't really start reading up yet since I've just settled down from Indonesia's trip, and with tons of college work to catch up after being on study leave for 1 week. My goal is to complete this course within 1 year instead of 2 years.

For those who are interested in enrolling as ISSA's candidate, please do let me know and let me be your reference. For more info on ISSA, click here. ISSA is an affiliate of National Board of Fitness Examiners.

Temptation for Taekwondo

Update @ 12:13
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After watching a YouTube video on 2nd MTF National Junior Taekwondo Championship 2007, I'm starting to doubt my capability in this sport. I doubt I could even shuffle my legs like last time, or execute combo kicks. The most I could do is perform turning kick using right leg only. Or just use punches which would not contribute to any points but counting on aggressiveness to win?

It's not the pain that matters. Pain is temporary, But I'm afraid of undergoing another surgery that might cause me to limp forever.

The feeling I'm having now, is the same feeling I had after my 2nd surgery. It makes me feel like killing myself.

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I went to see the head instructor ( a 7th Dan Kukiwon WTF Taekwon ) of TAR college's Taekwondo club with 2 of my friends ( both also haven't been training for quite sometimes ) telling him that we are interested to join the Inter-Varsity Tournament that is going to be held from 28-29 July 2007 at Tunku Abdul Rahman College Sport Complex. He seems to be very happy after we told him about each one of our experience taking part in competitions. He keeps encouraging us to start training as soon as possible.

But It seems that we must first register ( in a way, asking you to pay money first. No Money, No Join !!) myself as the college's Taekwondo club member, then only we can represent the college's team in the tournament.

I have not even kick a sand bag or attempt to do so since my ACL and meniscus surgery back in August 2005. Since this is the case, I've asked the instructor to give me a try out session first in attempt to spar. If I feel uncomfortable or my knee could not take it during training session, then the competition will be off for me.


Based on Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development;

the excitement of competition versus the guilt of body

Registration Form

Who To Sign Up With ?

I've been having the thoughts of bringing my skills and knowledge to another level by getting myself certified as Fitness Trainer with an Internationally recognized body since I was working as an Assistant Instructor in my college’s Co-Curricular Gym Workout programme.

So I went searching around in the internet with the help of Uncle Google and found out that there are hundreds of independent bodies that offer such certification. Out of the hundreds, I've short listed NESTA, ISSA, ACE and FISAF.

Among all 4 of them, ISSA's Certified Fitness Trainer topped my list. This is because they offer the flexibility of studying with 3 different study options and giving us our own time up to 2 years to complete our exam. Besides that, what attracted me the most to ISSA is their assistant to their trainers upon being certified. ISSA's Master Trainers will assist their trainers in handling special cases. For instance designing a training programme for a client whom had a certain injuries.

Currently ISSA is having "Summer Savings" where $100 discount is given to any of ISSA courses. Sadly, when I inquire about it, my emails were forwarded to Human Principles in Singapore, whom represents ISSA in South Easy Asia. Their course fees are way higher than ISSA USA by at least RM600 after converting for the same course. I've tried asking if I can enroll directly with ISSA USA, however I do not receive any reply from them yet since 3 days ago.

Then coming to ACE and FISAF. Their exams are hosted at particular testing location and time. Which I'm afraid it might clashes with any other of my commitments. That alone is a total turnoff to me. So I’ve decided that if by the time ISSA's Summer Savings end and I still do not get a reply from them, I would enroll with NESTA instead.

But the drawback with NESTA is the time limit of completion; Exam must be completed within 90 days upon ID assignment (as mentioned in their website, for more info click here). And the troublesome part is they have a different testing policy for International Students outside of USA. We need to find a proctor that is acceptable to NESTA by filling out and submitting the Proctor Agreement Form at least 30 days prior to preferred exam date or exam deadline, or else we’ll be forfeited of exam fees.

Songs that brings back memories

I arrived at college 45minutes earlier for my lecture. The lecture hall that's going to be used for my course's next lecture was still occupied during the time I arrive. But I still went into the lecture hall first. Just to relax myself with the air-conditioned hall.

I don't know which course are they from, but they were having Music studies. The lecturer was playing songs after songs, asking her students to catch how many strings of sounds, type of vocal and etc.

The lecturer of that subject actually played a song that I haven't been listening for very long, which actually brings back some memories about my past break-up with a girl back in 2002 that I love very much.

It was Nicholas Teo's Huang Hwen ( Correct me if I'm wrong , I just know the song, not the artist and title of the song. LOL)

I don't know why? But after my break-up with the girl mentioned above, I just keep listening to that song, without knowing the lyric and meaning. But just the music and singer's voice, hit me with sad feelings during that time.

I was analyzing myself for quite sometimes about my emotion and songs that I like to listen from time to time. At different time, I like listening to different types of songs, depending on my emotion. When I'm frustrated or sad, I would listen to songs that vent frustrations, Eminem for instance, and when I'm heartbroken over a girl, somehow I would just want to listen to sad love songs.

And I realize, sometimes, when I enjoy listening to sad songs, I'm actually being sad as well, but unconsciously.

While typing this post, I'm actually listening to Jordan Chan's Chui Sui Ji Gok. And yes, I like this song very much at this very momment.

Guess why ?

sigh~

Course Preview - 4th Semester

In our 1st semester of our 2nd Year in Diploma in Social Science(Counselling), we''ll be covering 4 very interesting subject, and 1 not so interesting subject.

We'll talk about the interesting subjects first.

Developmental Psychology
Lectured by everyone's favourite lecturer in the School of Social Science, Mr Phillip Chung.
Tutored by a part-time lecturer, an alumni in our course. Which means, she's our senior. She's young, very pretty and of course, very fun to be in her class. ( I mean the way she teaches ok, not her physical looks. ) In this subject, we learn about how we ourselves develop, physically and psychologically. A very useful subject for those who are interested to be involved in pre-school education.

Family Counselling
This subject sounds boring to many. But to me, it sounds fun! At least it allows me to explore more about the various types on family, family conflict and so on. An old man, retired 10 years ago is teaching us this subject. He's so old that sometimes he forget where he put his things, but thankfully, he still knows his stuffs to teach us. He's no other than Mr Kuan, or better know as Kuan Ti to mischievous students who give people names.

Vocational & Career Counselling
My ambition is to be a Sport Psychologist, or anything related in the sport field. However, according to our lecturer, the lovely Miss Eva, with this subject, it MIGHT change my thinking. We'll see by the end of semester. Besides learning how to counsel people in this field, it also helps me to explore what I really want as a career.

Leadership Skills
It was one of the very few subject I was looking forward to when I browse through our college prospectus. It's much more of a practical subject, plus with some theories. Theories do help us to see what are the kind of leadership qualities that we have and do not have, how to develop and sharpen your skills. Of course, theory without practice is useless. That is why we have practical classes to conduct activities. This subject is taught by one of the top leaders of the School of Social Science itself, she's no other than Dr Cecilia Chai.

and ... the not so interesting subject...

Basic Management Principles
From the name itself, it's a Business subject. And taught by a lecturer from the School of Business Studies. Boring to me, but still, there's always something useful to be picken up from there. The reason we have this as our subject is to equip students who do not want to major in any Psychology field, but in Human Resource instead.

Interesting... but it's going to be a very busy semester after I read all my assignment task.

besides, I was secretly hoping that the college sports coordinator would call me back to be our college’s Co-Curricular Gym Workout programme assistant instructor. Until now, there's no phone call.