Workout Recap - Week of July 30, 2023

Well, I had been expecting to do sparring again this week, but Friday was a bad mental health day for me, so I skipped out to avoid being an injury hazard. Aside from that, things were up-and-down in a way that kept me very aware of being in limbo between newbie and veteran status. Realistically, I know I'll be here for a while, but it's still a frustrating place to be.

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Monday

Muay Thai class

We did a lot of work with knee strikes for this class, using them in combination with punches or as a counter while defending the opponent's hands. I'm not sure if it was the class set-up, my partner, or a mixture of both, but I found this to be one of the least stamina-testing classes I've had at this gym. Granted, there are still other secondary things that I can focus on improving, like eye discipline or being diligent to retract swiftly after striking, but it was a little letdown that I still felt pretty fresh by the end.

Tuesday

Muay Thai class

This was a head-to-head defense drilling day, and we even spiced things up by adding in 20 pushups between each round. There's an event coming up soon enough that the competitive fighters are tending to train with each other, so most of my rounds were with either newcomers or more recreational trainees, which meant I could focus on setting a fast pace and keeping myself protected while adjusting my power level to what my partners seemed able to handle. That said, I did do one round with the fragile-ego youngster from last week, and they wanted to go harder, which I was fine with obliging. The drill was to drop step back from a low kick and return a kick to the other person's hamstring, and in addition to letting a few yelps, they also switched their kicking leg (and so which leg I was hitting) about halfway through the round. I think that suggests I had the right idea in refusing to go along with it last week when they'd asked me to give them a low kick for real.

Wednesday

Muay Thai class

This class focused on front and round kicks, with some knee work mixed in as well. While there was one rear round kick where my plant foot slipped out that was good for getting a laugh, I actually felt like my kicking form was improving overall, in particular that I was more consistent with getting my hips involved in my lead leg front kicks. There was one drill where we were following a rear leg front kick with a lead leg round kick that felt awkward for me because I kept wanting to recover in my natural stance instead of coming down with a walking step, but I think it's hardly the end of the world if I need to work that more in shadow to smooth it out.

Thursday

Muay Thai class

In contrast to Monday, this class was all about burning down our stamina by setting a fast pace with short sequences. Granted, my partner was recovering from a back injury, so I tried to accommodate the workrate they could handle once I was aware of that, but I have no issues with that; we're all responsible for taking care of our own health and training goals beyond just what the kru says to do. For myself, my lead hook seemed to have notably better snap to it than usual, which was cool to notice. The calisthenic finisher was also particularly rough, to the point where even I had pause for an extra breath twice during the final three minutes of holding a plank (normally a task I can handle without issues), so that also gives me some more space for improvement.

Friday

Type: Pass/Fail

Close Pull Ups - 2 sets of 8 (pass) Handstand Push Ups - 2 sets of 10 (pass)

Bonus: none

Aside from being in a rough spot mentally this day, I had some lingering soreness in my glutes and hamstrings, so I decided to just focus on my upper body. This workout is nothing special compared to what I should be capable of, frankly, but it was good enough for me this day.