Wincing and Trying Not to Show It. Ah, the Joys of Class Exercise!

Well, you can tell right off the bat where I'm headed with this entry. I'm talking about exercise and the soreness that comes the next day after a really good workout. I think the degree of soreness I feel all depends on who is leading the class in the twenty minute or so warmups and exercises. Well, it depends on who is leading and what kind of workout they decide to give us. IE: If it's a day where we will be doing a lot of kicking, we will do lots of leg stretching.
Who leads the exercises depends on several factors. One: Which students are there. Two: Which instructors are there. And Three: Um. . .of course! Whatever the head instructor feels like having us do. That's definitely an important part right there.
Anyway,exercises can be really fun at times. They can also be very routine. Then there are the times when a student feels like running up and smacking the person in the front for trying to ‘work them to death’. I know I’ve had times when I’ve felt that way. But you didn’t hear that from me. Shhh! Don’t tell.
Sometimes everything goes very smoothly. Other days can be frustrating. I can feel the difference in how everything goes whenever I’ve been out of class for even a week. I can tell because I’m unable to stretch as far as I did the last time.
Well, on this class night, I definitely rediscovered some muscles I haven’t exactly been aware of. Most of the time the other blue belt or I lead the beginning workout. This night though, we had one of the instructors lead. She had us do several of the regular things that I include in my routine workout at first. But then, throughout the warmup, we did several new stretches, mostly focusing on the legs, to get us ready for a kicking night.
At the time, I noticed that I was able to go further in my stretches. Especially the butterfly (?) stretch. I was able to pull my head down to my feet. I didn’t think much of it during the time, but continued through the rest of the exercises, and through the rest of our two hour class with no problems. But the next morning. . .
Surprise, surprise!
I noticed the soreness as soon as I woke up. My first thought was "Ow, this hurts." Throughout the day, the constant soreness grew to being annoying. All those exercises based around the legs and kicking really got to me.
The pain reminded me of the night before. Usually, if we have had a more-strenuous-than-usual workout, one of the instructors will announce to the class that we need to do some light stretching when we get home so we won’t be sore in the morning. Well, no one announced this after class. Now the white belts might not have known, but all the colored belts, including me, should have remembered to do this. And as a responsible teen, I knew that I should have. I really did think about it. But once I plopped onto the couch and dropped my sparring gear beside me, all thoughts of a light stretch disappeared into the back corner of my mind.
Serves me right, I guess.
Well, I’m sure that being sore for the remainder of the week will serve as a good reminder to follow my instructor’s advice next time. Ow. . .yes, I believe it will. On the positive side, I actually like feeling sore — to a degree. It lets me know that the previous night’s practice was really productive. I’m trying to work on the same things that we covered in class so I will build those muscles up.

Oh, and another positive thing I almost forgot to add. . .we may be getting our class t-shirts at tomorrow’s class! I’m very excited about that for a couple reasons. The first is that I love to support my school and would love a martial arts t-shirt. The second is that we can opt to wear the class t-shirt and not the long-sleeved, hot, scorching, thick full uniform. I just wish we could have gotten them earlier in the summer.