Monkey steps

Oh do I ache, boy do I ache.  For some reason the Tai Chi workout (can you really call it a workout?) has left me aching in places where I didn't know I had muscles.  As I don't feel I know the routine (or form) properly, I spent this afternoon watching it on a dvd and trying to emulate (whilst being confined to a two square metre area in my study).  If anyone saw me at the window they probably thought I was mad - "Look mum, a weird woman waving her arms around and moving slowly in a small space - is she mad?"  "No dear, she's a teacher"

Anyway, to the class.  We do a 10 - 15 minute warm-up at the beginning of the class, loosening all the major joints and warming the muscles, then we work through the form a few times concentrating on a different aspect each time (or in my case, just trying to remember what to do)  At some point we add a new element and practice that a few times before we try to put it all together.  Finally we finish with some sort of cool-down/meditation exercise.  It takes one and a quarter hours all together and there's no sitting down and relaxing.  Believe it or not, I'm not the most unco-ordinated person in the class but it is a close thing and being taller than most of the others, I tend to take longer steps which could result in collisions if I'm not careful.  Short steps, better placed would be preferable but I'm just glad to get through the whole thing without falling over.  One of my goals was to improve my balance and, touch wood, I haven't made contact with anyone yet although just about everyone knows not to stand in front of me if we're going forward.

I'm not sure what caused the achy-ness today but could it have been the walking backwards while pushing forwards with our arms?  Didn't I mention we are walking backwards now - monkey steps, it's called, bloody difficult is what I call it.  Still, onward and upwards or in my case backwards and outwards.