Battered and bruised

One of the many things that I have to deal with in my recreational activities is various bruises to different parts of my body. Both karate and Ultimate tend to have stuff flying towards me at a rapid rate, and since I'm a klutz the object will usually hit me. At any given time I will have at least one bruise, unless it's been an unusually quiet week. Today I have a nice yellow bruise on my shoulder from karate. It is the result of a command decision on my part. We were doing shoulder rolls, something I've never quite gotten the hang of, and while I was upside down at one point I realized that I was either going to land very hard on my shoulder, or very hard on my head. I figured that I could probably get away with a sore shoulder, whereas I would be likely to require my brain fairly soon after class...say, when driving home. This particular bruise isn't really even all that noticeable to the casual observer, but it hurts like a sumbitch. :p

Personally, I find bruises kind of attractive...depending on how one received them. If I walked into a wall, a car or a coffee table (and I do all of these far more frequently than I'd like to admit) it's significantly less sexy than if I'd pushed my body to its limits and either taken one for the team (Ulti) or got to spar with a black belt.

A couple of days ago, I noticed some actual muscle definition in my arms and I've lost a bunch of inches in my waist. :D It's like my body suddenly has decided that it's going to show off the fact that I've been exercising for the last year. :) I'm pleased.

Exercise today: a little barbell lifting