Sidelined

igillman

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Well, I have been sidelined for the time being because of very high blood pressure. The doctor doesn't know what is causing it yet (blood work came back just fine) so until they figure it out, no more TKD.

I have decided to still do forms downstairs in the basement a couple of times per week and to practice the step sparring just to keep in touch with things.

I have also had an idea and I think it will work. I am going to learn the mirror image of the forms (I have time) because I want to try something in the do-jang and see how it looks.

I am going to have two people stand back to back and do a form. One person will do it normally the other person will do the mirror image. In theory it should look like one person doing it with their back to a mirror. Depending upon the form we choose they may even end up passing each other at the end or, hopefully, finishing with a punch and ending up fist to fist.
 

bluekey88

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Sorry to hear about that. Take care of yourslef and train carefully until you know what's going on.

Let us know hiow the mirror image training works out..sounds cool.

Peace,
Erik
 

Miles

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Sorry to hear about your (hopefully temporary) blood pressure issue. It is good that you are still thinking about training and finding ways to learn which are not harmful.

Good luck and keep us informed!
 

jim777

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Sorry to hear about the blood pressure, hopefully if they put you on medication it won't be one of the ones that's crazy expensive; some of them are cheap but some of the new ones are anything but.

The mirror image thing sounds cool :D
 

Mimir

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Take care of yourself and I think it is a good idea to keep doing your forms. Doing them slow is a good way to get to the nit-picky things like bent wrists, etc. :) Hope you get it taken care of!
 

Kacey

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Take care of yourself - moderate exercise is supposed to be good for high blood pressure, but please do be careful!
 
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igillman

igillman

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Thank you everyone for your comments. I will know more in the middle of next week when I see a specialist.

I have been doing forms and step sparring in the basement this week. My goal is to know all of the forms up to and including the form above my belt level (Taeguk Sa Jang) as well as all of the step sparring for the belts below mine. If I get permanently sidelined I will teach myself the higher forms just for something different to do. I plan to keep on doing the forms Tae Chi style which means no hard blocks, hard punches or hard kicks, just slow and gentle moves. I am also practicing combination kicks as slow and gentle moves too (no jumping and spinning). You would be amazed what you can actually learn without straining yourself.

I did Taeguk Sa jang last night as a mirror image. It was rough, I had to stop and think out the next move each time but I finally did it :) I picked Sa jang because it has some nice moves up the middle and because it is the form above my belt level so if I do get back into TKD I will not mess up my next testing.

Once my mirror image gets good enough I can visit the do-jang before my sons class and get him to do Sa Jang while I do the mirror image as a pair. It might give our instructor an idea for the next forms competition. Synchronised Forms, the next Olympic Sport :)
 
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igillman

igillman

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Before the medication - 195 over 145
The highest I ever recorded was 205 over 153
With the medication - 155 over 110

The medication is not the small stuff either, my doctor said we need to hit it with a baseball bat so I live long enough to see the cardiologist next Wednesday. Ironically one part of the combination drug is an ACE inhibitor and back in the 90's when I did pharmaceutical research I worked on ACE inhibitors for a while.
 

Mimir

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:eek: That is still way high! But don't get discouraged, it took several different attempts to get the right combination of meds to get my BP under control.
 

Deaf Smith

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Ok Igillman,

The rate with medication is not that bad. Bit high but you won't stroke out or crash with that (not saying to go back in... do what the doctor says) but it's not that high.

Oh, and you can drop it a bit more by taking some aspirin (if the doc allows it.)

There are other ways. Lecithin, Garlic, Hawthorn, etc.. plus Yoga and exercise and Bud-light (just kidding with that last one.)

The internet has some very good sites on high blood pressure and ways to lower it.

Hope that helps.

Deaf
 

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