Workout Recap - Week of January 19, 2025
Grappling class attendance continues to dwindle, but I remain committed to learning as much as I can while I can.
Monday
Muay Thai class / BJJ class
In a break from the norm, this was a boxing-focused class, with some knees and elbows mixed in as well, so I was having a good time with it. My hook punches were feeling more accurate, so whatever was going on last time was hopefully just a fluke. Following on with the fun, we even finished up by doing some spinning backfists; I seem to be getting better at controlling my dizziness with those, which probably doesn't mean much for the technique itself since it seems unlikely to be useful in most situations, but it could be good for maintaining control and balance when being spun around in general. For BJJ, we did a lot of general calisthenic conditioning, followed by working on a duck-under back take into a rear naked choke, which was pretty much right in my wheelhouse. My training partner seemed to be trying grappling for the first time, so I went fairly slow in our finishing sparring round and used it to focus on threatening them with positional reversals, holding on for a moment before settled for a reset once they gave some sensible resistance. That sort of thing is a weak part of my body of knowledge, so it was useful to get some intentional practice with it.
Tuesday
Muay Thai class
This class focused on long offensive sequences, with repeated transitions between punches and kicks. I'd been wanting to focus on improving my speed and balance when recovering from a kick anyway, so this lined up pretty nicely with that interest. All in all, not too much else to say; it was tiring but productive.
Wednesday
Muay Thai class / BJJ class
This was a head-to-head back-and-forth defense drilling class; a welcome return after what felt like a long break from those. There were a lot of fairly new people, so there were plenty of opportunities for reminders to keep their faces forward and their hands up. We finished up with a few rounds of freestyle combo-for-combo exchanges, during which I got in a nice round with one of the competitive fighters. Afterward, I was the only person who stayed for BJJ (aside from the coach), so it ended up being like a little personal lesson with plenty of useful tips about improving my takedown technique. It was a good experience, but I was pretty dead tired by the end after having just done the Muay Thai class as well, so I suggested wrapping up without doing a sparring round when the kru said we had to finish up so that she could close the gym. Potentially a missed opportunity, but honestly, I was so tired that I just didn't think it'd be productive to press on this time.
Thursday
Muay Thai class
This was a kick-focused class, once again doing various kicks on a kick shield. There was some extra spice at the end, though, when we finished with a round of freestyle padwork on Thai pads; that's something I always enjoy, rare treat though it may be. Once again, Thursday BJJ was a myth, though this time it was seemingly because the coach had a tumultuous day personally, so maybe next week will break that streak.
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