Breathing was important.
Felix knew this to be true from all the times he had been running cross-country or racing around an orienteering course. If he didn’t breath properly when he ran, he’d be in trouble when it came to pushing himself over a steep hill or getting that extra burst of energy when it came to getting to the finish line in a short time.
Same could be said when it came to Pankration training. It wasn’t a case of how hard he hit that decided whether he won a fight- it was how long he could keep hitting. Moderately his breathing worked wonders for him as he seemed to unleash punch after punch with effective energy for hours. Concentrating on breathing from his diaphragm and slowly out his mouth did wonders for him.
Taking time out after helping out all morning and most of the afternoon, Felix made his way to the Palaestrae in the Baths to work out there for a while. It wasn’t that he was stressed out or needed to let off steam. No, he just wanted to work out. He didn’t mind that the other campers nearby were too busy with their own workouts to spar with him- he had his own thing to do. Clad in his much favoured orange Camp Half Blood t-shirt and dark blue flannel workout shorts, the wiry built son of Apollo pulled on his grappling gloves and took time to stretch almost every muscle in his body out. Carefully he pushed his workout gloves into place so that they sat tightly to the contours of his hand and didn’t slip about.
Taking up a fighting stance in front of one of the workout bags hanging from the rafters of the Palaestrae’s roof. Fast out- fast back…Felix unleashed a series of punches at the bag and deftly moved around every so often, so that he could stop the bag swinging bag and hitting him. Moving...always moving.
It felt good to feel his punch connect with each strike he made and to know that even if he wasn’t carrying a weapon, he could still defend himself against- even kill, a monster. Felix knew that in a battle, his job would be to pull wounded campers to safety and tend to their injuries, before they could be taken to the infirmary. To that end, his hands (literally) would be full, so he could not be carrying a weapon. Being able to use his hands to defend his patient was a result of this. In addition, there had been occasions when there was a need to resolve ‘issues’ with other campers that didn’t involve lethal options. In short- sometimes you need to beat the crap out of loud-mouthed bullies and make them ‘tap out’ to have them see they were wrong.
Felix decided that after punching the bag for a while, he could change up and start kicking it and maybe combine the two later on. Later, before he finished he would take the bag down and use it as a throwing dummy- just to keep the workout balanced. So intent was his concentration at what he was doing, that he had no idea that someone was watching him at that moment.
