Hello lovely people who are reading my blog. So many times we talk in training… I say talk in training, but it is more a helpful hint (yelling in my ear) while training, “keep your hands up when you are tired”. Our instructors say this and have said this while we are drilling, because it is important to get into your muscle memory that you keep your guard up, and your hands up when you are tired.
Why? Why keep your guard up/focus when you are tired?
I have written about this before, but I will touch on it now again. The reason you want to keep your hands up when you are tired is it helps burn into your muscle memory. When you are tired you return to your base level of expertise. What does that mean? You are only as good as your lowest level of understanding. You may be able to throw that kick perfectly when you are not tired, but when you get tired you will get sloppy, your kick will not turn over as well, you kick will not come up as high, because your muscles are tired. This is normal.
What are we trying to do?
We are trying to train ourselves when we are tired that we keep our form up. If we learn to keep our guard up, and keep our form proper, we have a much better chance of avoiding getting hit, and being able to hit our opponent. We make less mistakes. Easier said than done, but never the less we work on keep our hands up when we are tired. We work on keeping our form proper when tired. We often slow down so that we can work form when tired and not worry about power.
The truth is you are going to get tired in the ring. It is what you do when you get tired that is important.
A fight is not won in the ring. It is won in the gym, in the training you do. Let me say that a little louder for the back of the room.
A fight is not won in the ring, it is won in the training you do in the gym.
Last Sunday during training I rolled my ankle. I accidentally stepped on my opponents foot, and landed on the side of my foot and ankle. It hurt. I have been training around it and through it.
As I was training I noticed, no I realized something. Training and keeping focus while injured is harder than doing while tired.
Yes I just waxed on above about training and keeping focus and your hands up while tired… but man when your ankle and foot are sore, and you are worried about stepping on it, rotating on it the wrong way. Guess what drops or did for me. My hands. My hands dropped I did not keep my guard up, I reverted to my base level of understanding.
So while training I was repeatedly reminded to keep my hands up. Take it slowly so as not to hurt myself any more, but to keep my hands up and keep my focus.
My injury kept pulling my focus away from what I was doing. When you get into the ring you are going to get hurt. You are going to get hit, you are going to sustain some damage. It is inevitable. Being able to compartmentalize that and keep going is the key.
This last week was a lesson for me in training that way. I had to compartmentalize my pain. I know that it hurt, I know that I needed to be careful spinning on it, and I know I also had to keep my hands up, and my focus up.
These are some of the ah ha moments that happen in training for me now. We are making small tweaks and cleaning up form, flow, power, etc. But I know the basics. So when new ah ha moment comes up, I make sure to focus on it and mark it.
The smaller injuries like a well placed leg kick, or an accidental elbow spike to the knee are often forgot about in adrenaline rush while training. Injuring a part of the body that feels less stable is a much different injury. The next hours/day/week you still feel that instability till it heals. For the bruises you feel it when they are hit again but it does not pull away from your focus till then.
I am always learning and progressing. I look forward to the next lessons that this martial art I love will bring.
Week 2 of Maintenance
Ok this week is looking similar. I mentioned to my partner that my maintenance week is look a lot more like a lighter mini cut. I on average eat the amount of carbs and fat my body needs for the macros. However, I just miss the protein side.
So in order to try to keep making changes for the positive. I have decided to wake up earlier on days I don’t have to work so I can get a meal in before my workout. I have been waiting till after, and that is a good chunk of time that I miss out on eating. So by the time it comes to bed time, I can’t make up the difference. I also added a second rest day in. Wednesday and Friday!
I originally thought I over did carbs, because I had a few days there… but I came under, and I hit my fat macros… it is the protein I will keep trying to get in. In all forms, animal, and plant. But I am happy my I am narrowing in on my macros.
I will try to do another week of maintenance… and will see if this change in my schedule will help me hit my macros this week.
| MACRO AVERAGES | ||||||||||
| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Average | Goal | Difference | |
| Protein | 76 | 164 | 124 | 184 | 134 | 139 | 130 | 135.857143 | 210 | 74.14285714 |
| Carbs | 182 | 238 | 111 | 281 | 238 | 314 | 213 | 225.285714 | 245 | 19.71428571 |
| Fat | 82 | 127 | 90 | 96 | 102 | 170 | 87 | 107.714286 | 109 | 1.285714286 |
| Calories | 1770 | 2751 | 1750 | 2724 | 2406 | 3342 | 2155 | 2414 | 2801 | 387 |
Monday Training 04/26/2021: Workout: 55 minutes – 10 minute battle ropes, upper body weight lifting
I rolled my ankle in Muay Thai yesterday abs it hurts a little so I am just going to baby it. No running for me today.
Instead I did a Tabata battle rope rouitine for cardio.
I also went up 5 lb in my bicep curl and added reps in some of my exercises. Woot!
Tabata Battle Rope:
45 seconds on 10 seconds rest
3 x each exercise
Chain them together with only the 10 seconds rest between them
1) single whip x3
2) double whip x3
3) double rope rotation x3 (left, right, last round 1/2 left 1/2 right)
Weight lifting:
1) standing barbell row- reps 8, 8, 6, 6, 6, 6
2) seated cable rows – reps 20, 20, 20, 20
3) seated dumbbell shoulder press- reps 10, 10, 8, 8, 6
4) seated dumbbell lateral raises – reps 10, 10, 10, 10
5) dumbbell incline fly – reps 12, 12, 12, 12
6) dumbbell incline bicep curls – 10, 10, 8, 8
Tuesday Training 04/27/2021: Training: 1 hour of Muay Thai
Today we worked on the same drills as last Thursday.
However, today I worked slower and more deliberately. My foot and ankle are still sore from rolling it Sunday. So instead of pushing it, I worked on form and worked slowly.
Avoiding the things that hurt and kept training around my injury.
Thank you Khun Kru Krysta for a great class.
Thursday Training 04/29/2021: 1 hour of Muay Thai training
First day since I rolled my ankle I did not baby it so much. It’s sore now but I worked all night and and had fun. Will keep working it. Gonna give my body a second rest day tomorrow. H convinced me too. I have been only taking one day a week.
It was a lot of fun today, thanks for the class Khun Kru Krysta!
Training:
1) jump rope
2) cross, parry, cross rear kick plus sign drill
3) opponents turn
4) jab, cross, hook, rear kick
5) fed pads for H
6) jab, cross, split the cross
7) fed pads for H
8 ) jab, cross, hook ( high elbow cover + hit or dump)
9) held pads for H
10)jab, cross, hook, rear kick (catch kick, dump, spike quad, elbow, and or dump)
11) held pads for H
Saturday Training 05/01/2021: 4.5 hours- Mile run, Leg Day weight lifting, Muay Thai, and Kali
What a day! But I got it done!
I realized something…We often talk about how important it is to keep your hands up. Your guard up when you are tired and still training. It is natural for your hands to drop lower in guard cause your arms, shoulders, body is tired. That’s hard to do but we train that way and drill it into our heads.
You know what else is supper hard to do? Keep your hands up, watch your form (make sure it is right) when you are injured. You may be modifying what you are doing, maybe babying or favoring that part of the body that is sore or hurts, and you have to remember to keep your hand up so you don’t get hit.
Thank you Khun Kru Krysta!
Training:
1 mile run
Weight lifting leg day: glutes hamstrings
1) dumbbell Bulgarian split squats- each side reps- 8, 8, 6, 6, 4, 4 (up 5 lbs each hand)
2) barbell stiff leg dead lift – reps – 8, 8, 8, 8
3) single leg dead lift- each side reps – 10, 10, 10, 10
4) dumbbell b stance hip thrusters- each side reps – 8, 8, 8, 8
5) dumbbell frog pumps- reps- 10, 10, 10, 10
Super set do x3 all exercises as one set no rest till you you through a set
1) knee crunches into leg extensions- reps 14
2) straight leg Russian twists -reps- 14
3) dumbbell v ups – reps- 14
Muay Thai training:
1) jump rope
2) jab catch jab, cross parry cross, hook bob and weave hook drill
3) held pads for H
4) scoop Teep, rear kick, lead kick, cross hook, rear kick
5) held pads for H
6) cut kick away from rear kick, rear leg kick, lead round house, cross, hook, rear kick
7) held pads for H
8 ) part and split an incoming cross, lead hook, rear elbow, rear knee, rear kick
9) held pads for H
10) jab, cross, lead kick, slip cross, hook, rear kick
11) held pads for H
Kali:
We worked on
1) cob cob, high standard and low
2) heaven six, standard six and earth six
Earth six was hard, earth six with earth grip was harder. Gotta work on this.
Sunday Training 05/02/2021: 2 hours 40 minutes Muay Thai training, and Weight lifting Leg Day
Training: 2 hours of Muay Thai training
Thank you Amanda, Khun Kru Krysta, and H for a great training session.
Love that spinning back elbow to spinning back fist combo.
Now on to Leg day weight lifting. Yay! I think I got enough cardio in today.
Workout #2: 40 minutes weight lifting Lower Body Quads and glutes focus
Got my weight lifting workout done after Muay Thai training today.
I got elbow spiked in the knee today and forgot all about it till I went to squat. 😂 lol. But it’s all good. It surely does not hurt as much as it did when I first started. De sensitized to the typical injuries of Muay Thai.
I went up 30 lbs in my barbell hip thrusts. Woot! It was hard for the last two 6 reps, but doable
Weight lifting: 40 minutes
1) barbell walking lunges – reps – 20, 20, 16, 16, 12, 12
2) barbell sumo squats – reps – 8, 8, 8, 6, 6
3) barbell hip thrust – reps – 8, 8, 8, 6, 6
4) goblet squats – reps – 15, 15, 15
5) hyper reverse frog pumps on bench – reps – 20, 20, 20
Superset: do these three exercises in a set no rest between each exercise only rest between each set.
Do each Set x 3
1) dumbbell Russian twists – reps – 20
2) reverse crunches – reps – 15
3) dumbbell upper crunches – reps – 10
When you train do you try to keep focus/your hands up when you are tired?
Have you tried to push through a rough workout, and compartmentalize an injury?
If you are looking to train to fight in the ring, remember the fight is not won in the ring. The fight will be won in the gym before you ever set foot into the ring.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you are all having a great week. If you are not subscribed and want to keep up with my adventures, recipes, and cool products I get to try out please subscribe. If you liked this post please hit the like button so I know. As always if you have a question or comment please feel free to do ask/comment.
Als always remember, Don’t Photo Edit, Just Go Get It!
Thinks with Spinks 