02/23/2026
I had a super-dramatic moment in my body yesterday, and I'm not entirely sure about the results yet, but I THINK this is a positive moment. 😅
I was talking to Cassandra about kick height, and how I can Send my kick higher than the height I can Lift the leg to.
She asked about it, so I gave a visual demonstration by showing my kick height by lifting my leg straight out to the side and up, and then showed her the height by picking the knee straight up, pivoting, and extending the kick up from that central chamber, looking like a good third-degree black belt.
And the pop/bang was so loud.
Now, context storytime, I've been super thrilled with the way my body has responded to my attempt to return to being a martial arts athlete at 39 after nine years of treating my body terribly and not working out. Six years later, at 45, I feel pretty good about my ability. And then Master LoPresti gave us the instruction not to be complacent with our performances, so I started working on my height again, and I realized that my left leg kick height had never really come back. There was something about the way the top of my right leg responded to lifting my left leg that was super-limiting beyond about elbow height. So I've been working to try to loosen and change that.
Little steps day by day.
And then yesterday, the angle I aimed for was mistakenly about 2 inches higher than I've been going yet.
So my body did the math, and let me know that I was kicking too hard for the tension at the top of the right leg to arrest the force of my kick, and that I had my foot planted too well for the tension to sweep me up and on my face, so there was really only one option, and that was that the top of my right leg was just gonna have to be the correct shape.
KAPOW!!!
 Something around the head of the femur and the many stringy connections therein made the loudest pop I've ever heard in my body make and suddenly I had about complete freedom of movement in my right hip.
The kick looked good. 🤙🎉
And I saw in Cassandra's eyes that she knew from that sound and her senses that something epic had just happened, and everything felt fine, but I had a seat, which was a good idea, cause I spent the next 10 minutes full of shock chemicals. 😰
And I think everything is the best it's been since I was in my twenties. But a lot of chords in there feel like a rubber band that have been stretched for a long time, suddenly slack, and crinkled. The message I get is that "it needs a second to figure out how everybody moves now", and my hamstring has gotten temporarily super unflexible with the resulting inflamed lockdown.
A hot bath did some good, and I've almost stopped limping. 😂 Good Gracious is my butt sore.
It feels to me like, once I stretch the hamstring back out, and the area calms down, I'm gonna have a tremendous increase in hip mobility.
I went outside with the dog, near the end of my shock, and instead of standing at the top of the super-steep hill in our backyard like I usually do, I just trotted down the hill after him because it was no big deal to bounce my legs like that. 😳
And the main feeling I get from that part of my body is relief, and a nagging feeling that now my Left hip is the less flexible one. 😂
More to come! And soon, fire! 🔥
