Workout Recap - Week of January 12, 2025
Unfortunately, I'm not sure how much of a sustained thing the grappling classes are likely to be at this gym since they get scant attendance from what I've witnessed. Still, I intend to make the most of it while I can.
Monday
Muay Thai class / BJJ class
Yet another stamina-burner Monday class. This one was built around sequences involving multiple kicks to help stress those caloric reserves. It was tiring, but I endured. The BJJ class worked on using some grounded sweeps to get into S-mount for either an armbar or triangle choke, which is something that I had only a little previous experience with, so it was nice to be a beginner again. We finished up with a bit of sparring (those who've stuck around are seeming to get a little more willing to do that), and I managed to get a tap to a von flue choke for the first time against live resistance. That's something I've always wanted to get good at but struggle to lock in cleanly, so it was nice that my persistence was finally rewarded.
Tuesday
Muay Thai class
This class focused on defense and countering; it was good to get back to some more intermediate drills after what feels like several weeks of working on getting newer people up to speed on beginner stuff. We finished up with some stamina-burn, which I tore through quite satisfyingly.
Wednesday
Muay Thai class / BJJ class
The kru was finally feeling over her sickness, which apparently warranted a class focused exclusively on kicks into kick shields to get some sly body conditioning in for the padholders as well. We did a mix of low kicks, body round kicks, and front kicks, which was all in all rather fun for me. Surprisingly, the kru also made all of the competitive fighters who stuck around for further training participate in the BJJ class this day, so there were about double the usual amount of trainees, and we got to use the whole gym for a change. The BJJ coach kept things simple to accommodate; extended warm-up followed by drilling on a single takedown, and then a submission off of that, and then a round of sparring. I wish I could say it was nice to measure myself against some new people with the toughness of competitive fighters who also had a size/strength advantage on me to offset my skill advantage, but the person I paired up with for sparring seemed to tap as soon as I got an arm around their neck with minimal resistance, so I'd be reading too much into it. Still, the most interesting thing to me was how much the competitive fighters seemed to be physically overwhelmed from the warm-up; while I'd certainly sucked at this kind of stuff when I'd first started to train grappling too, I seemed to still retain my usual stamina edge compared to the more experienced grapplers, yet the fighters here were struggling to stay on their feet by the time we got to drilling. Underestimating my athleticism is a habitual flaw, it seems.
Thursday
Muay Thai class
This was a boxing-focused class. I was off in judging the trajectory of my hook punches, so that's something to get polished up going forward. On the plus side, my shoulders felt like they were in good defensive position consistently, and I was launching bombs with both hands when I was getting good contact. We also finished up with a fun little meatgrinder. I'm not sure why the BJJ coach seemingly didn't show up, but I guess I should just assume the Thursday classes are a myth until proven otherwise after two straight weeks like this.
Comentarios