Workout Recap - Week of February 2, 2025
This was actually a somewhat notable week for me, for a couple of reasons. First, I surpassed 500 martial arts training sessions, which neither says nor means much on its own, but it feels like a nice indication of how committed I've been to learning. Second, I due to a chance occurrence of a free Saturday morning, I also got to do more classes than usual this week, and my body handled it well. There are a number of other trainees who complain about getting old despite being some five-to-ten years younger than me, and while I don't call them out on it or anything like that, it is a minor point of personal satisfaction that this body which has betrayed me in so many other ways has been holding up well in this one.
Monday
Muay Thai class
This was a classic Monday stamina-burning class, using lots of short sequences ending in a round kick to push for a high rep count. We even finished up with a couple rounds of doubled kicks for good measure. There was no BJJ class today because the kru wanted everyone (including the fighter who does the BJJ coaching) to do clinching practice for the second session. This was fine by me, since I actually enjoy that.
Tuesday
Muay Thai class
This was another day of high-volume/simple-sequence training, with some emphasis on different levels of round kicks to finish off this time. Unfortunately, one of the people in the trio I was working in was a very frustrating partner because they've been here for months and yet still can't be assed to learn basic things like that the pads should be held differently for a straight punch compared to a hook punch. I have given up on helping them and just try to do my best to improvise something useful when they're holding, but overall, this was a forgettable class for me.
Wednesday
Muay Thai class / BJJ class
We had a lot of relatively new people in the Muay Thai class today, so we focused on fundamental stuff. It was nice that the person I was partnered with actually tried to follow my advice when I gave them feedback, even if they slacked as they got tired, and it was also encouraging that the kru repeated a couple of my tips for them (since that implies I was doing well at judging what advice to give). Once again, the BJJ class was just the coach, me, and one other trainee. We kept things simple with drilling on a two-on-one arm drag back-take eventually flowing into a rear naked choke. It was kind of a prolonged sequence, but I don't mind that sort of thing since, once understood, one can jump straight to later steps upon noticing that they're in an equivalent position. This sort of thinking is also why I like to approach grappling from a perspective of concepts and body mechanics rather than strict technique (and striking as well, though the positional jockeying is more subtle there). Anyway, it was a good day of training.
Thursday
Muay Thai class
This was a boxing day, with lots of long sequences that wouldn't make sense to commit to doing in full in reality but are good for conditioning. I definitely felt myself getting slower towards the end, but I was happy that I seemed to still be consistently getting my striking-side shoulder into good defensive position and maintaining some leg bend to drive into my punches. That's not to say that I couldn't do better at both, but I feel like those details aren't holding back my skill level so much that they still need continued focus for now, so I can shift my mental emphasis to other areas like knuckle placement and wrist alignment.
Saturday
Muay Thai class
I had a free morning by chance, so I filled it in part with some more training. The class was a review of fundamentals, for which I personally focused primarily on having good balance/flow and secondarily on being fast. There were a few reps here and there when I felt my technique was lacking and had to be more mindful about it, but I think I did fairly well overall with respect to my personal goals. I must also admit that, despite not focusing on power, it felt good that I was still cracking the leather hard enough to hear an echo and to knock my partner back on my front kicks. It's always surprising how much power can come from just being efficient.
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