Photo: Lorna Tedder and 5-year-old Aislinn Bailey at a fencing event in Niceville FL.
Kenpo is my favorite P90X workout–though I had no idea what Kenpo was before the DVD program arrived. It’s also the most difficult of the workouts I do because of a previous knee injury (which is why I’m doing the Lean version of the program and avoiding being a plyometric jumping bean!). The little twists I do in Kenpo are hard on my knees, but I’m usually over them within a day or two…probably good that the next day is my recovery day.
I started the workout on Day 6 of the P90X Lean program. I had no idea what to expect. I’d heard “kick-boxing” and “karate” but I had never even heard of Kenpo.
I fumbled through the first 30 minutes…and had to press pause at least twice the first time because I couldn’t keep up. Then something rather miraculous happened near the end of the session.
The kicks were new to me. The idea of throwing punches was new to me. The lunges and foot-drags were…familiar. And then…
I suddenly remembered something during the arm blocks. My muscles recognized the movements. They were exactly as I used to do when I fenced with my daughters years ago. I started laughing–and loving Kenpo.
Now, every time I press play for the Kenpo workout, I imagine having a sword in my hard again, thrusting, parrying, blocking, lunging. Plus kicks (which they didn’t allow in fencing tournaments, ha!). Starting with the second day of the Kenpo workout, I have never slowed down and the hour-long session goes by super quickly.
