Workout Recap - Week of May 26, 2024
A day late and a dollar short in posting this, but whatever. I don't think anyone actually reads these anyway, which makes it easier in a way to tell the nonexistent theoretical reader that I did consider quitting this gym over the weekend, though I decided against it in the end because that'd just give my enemies a win that I could easily deny them.
Monday
Muay Thai class
This class worked on singular power round kicks, either finishing off basic punch sequences or as a counter after defending. My padwork partner wanted to just plant themselves and keep holding for continuous repetitions, so I was glad for the defense mixed in to give me some recovery breaks. It was a tiring class, but that's a good excuse to focusing on trying to maintain good form while fatigued.
Tuesday
Muay Thai class
This was another leg day, which I realize in retrospect might be tying into the silly men vs. women running challenge that the gym is doing for June, though maybe I'm just picking up on phantom patterns in making that connection. In any case, we started out with repeated low kicks in padwork, then moved on to head-to-head drills catching body-level round kicks before finishing with practicing sweeps after catching the kick, so it was a steady progression from stuff that I find useful to stuff that's mostly just of interest for me to get comfortable being on the receiving end of the techniques. Still, I tried my best with the sweeps, with which I had limited success in executing them but was pretty much completely fine getting dropped by them. Incidentally, at the end of the class, the kru tried to encourage some of the newer people to be patient and trust that they'd develop over time by calling me out as someone who had sucked at first but was now very proficient technically. It was honestly a weird thing to say about me in a class with so much emphasis on one of my weakest skills, but I'm content to take it as a compliment in a form that I can accept, since I doubt she remembers that I'm nonbinary and so is unlikely to be buttering me up to join the women's team for the running challenge (I'm planning to stay out of the whole thing anyway, since I don't belong on either team and don't really belong in this gym either).
Wednesday
Muay Thai class
This class worked on elbow and knee strikes, so it was impossible for me to not enjoy it, although I will give myself a little credit for keeping all of my strikes on the pads despite a couple of opportunities to have reasonably hit my partner by accident (my partner for the day was someone who was already dealing with recovering from other injuries and who had generally been kind towards me, so I had no specific desire to add to their suffering for this day). For finishing calisthenics, the kru tried to have us do all the reps as a team, but the people who were supposed to be leading the counts for that were seemingly uninterested in being serious, which was my regular reminder of yet another reason why I don't belong here.
Thursday
Muay Thai class
This was a light sparring day. A few people tried to go harder than that probably warranted with me, but I took it in stride and didn't get baited into escalating (admittedly, it did help me feel good about that when one of them dropped themselves from losing their balance on a round kick). On the other hand, there was also something else that made it blatantly obvious that the only reason why I'm not more explicitly unwanted here is because nobody cares enough to learn about who I am.
