Category: Muay Thai, Fitness

Saturday Striking… Thai 4 count and South Paw stance

1.5 hours of Striking class. I have had a really busy week and I really needed the sleep. I worked till late last night and was up till 12 am. So I slept in and missed Krav today. I am glad I did. My body needed the sleep.

Today in Striking class we worked on the Thai 4 count. However, to mix it up our instructor Kru Krysta Scharlach made us do it with right lead leg. Meaning in the South Paw stance. Just like in Kali, when you have to do something on the side of your body that you don’t normally work with it melts the brain. For instance if you are right handed and you train and make yourself write with the left hand. You have to stop, slow down, and consciously force yourself to make the moves. It is weird to try to force your self and watch your partner go through the same problem. In my case it is my brain telling me to throw my hook with my right hand instead of my left hand. Doing this you will notice several things, or at least I have noticed these things for me:

  1. Your punch, in this case the hook feels less powerful, and it is because you are not rotating correctly. Your body is used to throwing the hook with the left hand and you know how to throw your body into the hook.
  2. Your brain will say to throw a hook, and you will automatically with muscle memory try to throw it with the left hand. The problem with that is the way your body is positioned you will not have the power or the torque with witch to throw it properly so it will feel off.
  3. When you start to throw the hook with your left hand, and realize you are doing it, you stop, so you see yourself and your partner make a jerking motion stopping yourself from throwing it. As your brain says “no no no use your right hand. ”
  4. Because of the jerking motion you end up doing you lose some of the flow you have.
  5. When you go back to your original stance, in my case Orthodox or left lead leg. It takes a minute for your body and brain to sink back up, but then it feels right and you can throw in your hook in a more accurate way. It makes you hyper aware of your body and its movements.

It was a great class and I had fun. We all went out as a group to get tacos at a local taco bar, and it was great fun. The waitress had to bring many carafes of water cause we were all sucking down the water after our workout. We tipped her well for being so understanding, and putting up with 12 of us thirsty people.

Keep being awesome and get out there. Move your body, and do the things you love. Thanks for reading.

P.S. I was talking with one of my friends. I wanted to let people know that I post my info on workouts, my feelings, and such about my workout journey, not to fish for accolades. I am documenting my journey. I hope it does not come across as fishing. Don’t get me wrong like anyone it feels good when people say nice things to me and an about me. But I feel like it might be helpful for people to hear/see that they are not the only one that struggles through their journey. I am not perfect, never will be, but I will try to be the best at everything I do. I try to give 110%, but there are days when I can’t. My body says no, and I am becoming better about understanding that. I am becoming stronger, faster and a little better all the time. =)

Thursday Muay Thai and Kali…Left Thai 4 counts, Punyo Sumbrada, and a blooper

I just finished 2 hours of Muay Thai and Kali. I had a great time and caught a blooper, see below.

while I had a great time. I was having a hard time holding pads for my partner. I was not great. Toward the end I figured it out was able to hold for her. Holding pads or feeding pads is a skill in of its self. Holding pads well will make your partner look like a bad ass. We worked on the Muay Thai 4 count left kick, cross, hook, then right kick. Then we worked on the Muay Thai 4 count left kick, cross, hook, to left kick again. We also worked on the 1/4 step posting our hand on their shoulder and landing a left kick into their mid section to a cross. We then did a 1/4 step posting our hand on their shoulder to knee and right elbow. It felt good when a girl who had not worked with me in a long time, was amazed at the strength of my kicks. She said they were great. Much stronger than the last time I worked with her. Yay!

In Kali, we worked on something I have never done before. Punyo Sumbrada is what it is called. This is one of those days where Kali just clicked. As soon as I was shown it, and we worked a few reps in slowly I had it down. I knew it, and was able to do it pretty well with good flow. This was one of those nights where I was not having a brain melting problem. It all seemed to click. I was able to change from feeding the 1, 3, and 5 attack angles. In turn receiving the 1, 3, and 5 attack angles, blocking punyo attacks, and then also disarming, using the snake disarms.

It was fantastic. Here is a video of me working on the Punyo Sumbrada. =) It feels good when it clicks.

https://youtu.be/PVHKRI3GUkY

And then there are funny things that happen. These are contact sports/arts so there will be contact and sometimes the camera man gets it too. I was laughing so hard. It did not harm the person, just startled them, the stick landed in their lap, and knocked the phone over. Here is the video.

https://youtu.be/N7YAMjvM23w

Thank you for reading, and have a great day!

2 Workouts… HIIT run, core…Muay Thai Trigg 10, Boxing 20, conditioning

So tired and dead, did not get off the floor to take photo.

I don’t often post about my Wednesday workouts. Just because they are the same as Monday or Tuesday. However today I had a great day! It kicked my butt in every way and I am going to feel it tomorrow in core, legs and arms. I am dead!

Workout #1: 42 minute HIIT run and core workout. 22 minute HIIT run. I got a twelve minute mile in woot.

V ups single leg
V ups double leg
Flutter kicks 
Kick back alternating leg

Workout #2: 1.5 hours of Muay Thai practice training. I left a puddle on the floor. We worked on the Trigg 10, and boxing 20, then did conditioning rounds. Regular conditioning rounds where we do three kicks on right three kicks on left and 4 knees then we push opponent away. After doing that a 4 times I finished off with. Two sets of 3 minute rounds. I did 56 kicks and 35 knees. I will need to get to 60 kicks and 40 knees a year from now if I want to do the Rank 1 test.

Here is a bonus video of me doing the boxing 20. When I stay more static for the first two sets my form and flow is much better. When in the last two sets I aggress I tend to square up my feet and lose my stance, and my flow gets choppier. We filmed so I can see it from an outside perspective.

https://youtu.be/jlQnyBPClE8

So yay! Two workouts in. I am tired, and going to be sore tomorrow, but pushing now will give me results in the future.

Thanks for reading. Let me know if you have any questions.

Tuesday Muay Thai and Kali…Thai 4 counts, snakes and vines oh my!

Today was 2 hours of Tuesday night training for Muay Thai and Kali. I had a blast in class, and although I think I am horrible compared to my class mates I am still showing up and trying every time. All I can hope is that if I keep showing up I will get better. My coaches/trainers and some of the other class mates that study with me, also say that all we have to do is show up and put the time in.

In Muay Thai we worked on the Thai 4 count. Right kick, hook, cross, to left kick, and also the right kick, hook, cross to right kick. Below is a video of me doing the Thai 4 count. I need to pivot more, I need to keep my left hand closer to my face. You can see when I don’t pivot correctly on my second set, that I hurt my foot on the pads a little. (It was slapping pain, I caught the edge of the pad.) Muay Thai is very much a skill set that when learning it is self correcting. Whether you working the bag, or you are kicking Thai Pads. If you kick them incorrectly it will hurt your foot. Not necessarily in a bad way, but will sting, cause a bruise or it can mess you up depending on how badly you hit the pads or bag.

https://youtu.be/O0GvCDULh8Q

In Kali, we practiced snake and vine disarms. These are not something you really wanna do with a knife, but when some one is attacking you with a blunt object or a stick these are effective. If you do it right. I have a lot to learn and am not great at this at all. Here I am practicing Kali, snake and vine disarms. Equal sign disarms, and plus sign disarms are the vine disarms that we worked on today. A vine disarm is one that uses a tool to help you disarm in this case we use our stick to create a fulcrum to remove the weapon from our opponent. The snaking disarms are the ones where we wind our arm around theirs and trap the weapon. In snake disarms we do not use another tool to create a fulcrum, we use our own bodies to trap the weapon.

https://youtu.be/izZckB6jT1s

You made it to the end, so thank you for reading. Let me know if you have questions. I must now shower and go to bed. I have an early morning, and it is almost midnight here.

Thank you Kru Krysta Scharlach, and Kru Kristen DeBruycker for great classes.

Saturday Muay Thai and Striking… entry, rhythm, and JKD (Jeet Kune Do)

I sit here writing this after a 2.5 hour training session, we also just refueled with some delicious Thai food. Because it is H’s birthday and we are celebrating. In most Asian families, long noodles are the thing to eat to ensure a long life. =)

I trained Muay Thai for one hour before our striking class. We worked on entries to get in and land our punches. We were working our range management. I am very short, 5 foot nothing, and my range is very short. In a fight I am going to get up close and personal. Where a taller 6 foot person is going to be hit me from further away. I have to get in close. There are advantages for the taller person. They can kick and hit from further out, and I have to eat a hit or kick to get into their pocket. However, the advantages for a shorter fighter are to my knowledge I have a shorter range, which is good cause I can then switch up what I am doing faster than they can. I can change my range with moving a little bit. I can cover up my actions by putting interference in their faces and then kick them without them seeing my legs move if I am executing the move correctly.

In Striking class we worked on JKD (Jeet Kune Do). ” Jeet Kune Do, “The way of the intercepting fist” in Cantonese, abbreviated JKD, is a hybrid philosophy of martial arts heavily influenced by the personal philosophy and experiences of martial artist Bruce Lee.” Wikipedia

We worked on both orthodox fighting and south paw fighting. What this means is we had to change our stances. We had to change our lead leg. Orthodox fighters have left leg forward, and south paw fighters have right leg forward. We had to faint, high, and low jabs, then work on entries into and range management to get the crosses, hooks, upper cuts, and then lead pendulum kicks a.k.a. Nao Tek.

From a technique point of view, this is hard to switch up. When I an orthodox fighter has to switch up to south paw, or right lead leg. It takes all your mental acuity to just make sure your throwing a hook with the right hand and not a cross like you would with orthodox stance. We then worked on a pop the leather practice where we try to use the tools we learned in JKD to asymmetrically spar our opponent. It was a fantastic training session, and I had a great time.

I have rambled on enough. I hope you have had a great day. Talk to me if you have questions or thoughts.

Here is a video of me doing some training on the bag. I was working on some left and right kicks. As you can see I am a orthodox fighter and I have left lead leg.

https://youtu.be/cVVcN8lvy3Y
Working on Muay Thai Kicks



Thursday Muay Thai and Kali…Working with New Students, Full Box with all the Weapons

my crazy messy self after 2 hours of workout

Today is a good day! I was energized and raring to go to class. My teachers and I too have come to value working with new students. When we started and were new they kept reiterating that the senior students (which I am considered now… that is crazy) like to help the new students. Not only does it help the new students. But it helps us older students to help teach them, and lets us go back to the basics and review things we may have not been isolating.

So today we worked on the left leg or lead leg kicks. That is teeps, leg kicks, and torso kicks or round houses. I was working with a new person, and he seems timid. He does not want to kick or hit hard, and when he gets tired his form breaks down like we all do, but his was faltering more than I expected. I kept checking in on him to see if he was okay. He said he was, and that he was just tired. Today was hard cause he would move away from the teeps, and drill kicks we were doing, so it was hard to get my reps in. But I was able to get him kicking harder toward the end. Hopefully he will see that he does not have to be so nervous in future classes. We worked on catching the kicks again, but this time putting our knee and shin across and into the torso, while clenching up and framing so that your opponent can’t do anything and in the ring the ref would have to break you up. I got dumped by the new guy by accident but he was so afraid of catching the kick that he did not have my leg right and I fell on my side and hip. I hope that my back does not scream at me tomorrow.

Kali, we worked on full box. Using double stick first, stick and knife, double knife, single knife and then stick and shield. We used all the weapons at our disposal, and each change we made to our weapons brought new interesting variables that we had to change for, or exploits we could use more for with one combination than the other. For instance with double stick we had distance and could keep people at distance. Stick and knife we had to get up closer and see where we could cut the opponent all the while keeping an eye on that stick that has more range. Which weapon we used to check and trap changed as well. With double knife, we had to aim more for areas where cutting would not only cause damage, but we had to make sure to place them so that we could control the opponents weapons. Cutting above the elbow to control one knife arm while then simultaneously coming in with another attack. All very much fun, but brain melty.

I had a great day. I loved the workout. I love Muay Thai and I am growing to love Kali as much as well. I am icing my back as I type this up. I hope you are all having a good day, and continue working out. Get up get into the things you love to do. Live and love life. If I let my physical “limitations” stop me from doing things I would just be in the house, babying my back, and afraid to hurt myself. I have scoliosis as I mentioned in my Working Out Through Herniated Disk post. Listen to your body, but don’t be afraid to get out there and do things. Believe me it takes me a minute to quick check and tell myself, that I could just lay there waiting and worrying about getting hurt, or I can just go live life, and see where I can go. How far can I get?

I went to my chiropractor yesterday, to find out my hips were out of alignment and I had a dislocated rib. I live with back, neck, and lower back pain. So small things like that don’t tend to bother me. Till they accumulate and then they bother me. =)

Well that is enough rambling from me. Thanks for reading this far. I hope you have a great rest of your day, and talk to me if you have any questions.

Tuesday Muay Thai and Kali…Free Feeding, and Knife/Stick/Knife and Stick High Box

Do you ever have those days that you really just don’t want to do the workout? Not just a meh day. I have had just a meh day too. But a day where you are so tired you don’t want to go do your workout. You want to lay under covers and not come out. You are tired and don’t want to do anything, except maybe breathing. Yeah… I had one of those days today. I took my pre-workout, I stretched, and I made myself go to the gym and while I was waiting for my training/class to begin I felt this intense desire not to do anything. I almost gave into it. When I am meh feeling I don’t give into those feelings and force myself to do the thing. Today though I almost bowed out of training. I however, did not and I am so glad I did not.

My back and hips have been complaining at me, and my hip has been feeling like that burning sensation I get when the nerve is compromised. I have to get into the chiropractor tomorrow. This may have been a leading contributor to my feeling the way I did.

Muay Thai started and we were warming up. I still had that feeling of not wanting to do anything. However, as Kru Kristen started talking about what we were going to do I focused on that, and now 2 hours later I am feeling much better. My hip is feeling better and I am happy I pushed through.

In Muay Thai we worked on kicks. Right side only, or for those of you left handers/south paws, rear kicks. We worked on teeps, leg kicks, and rear round house kicks. I was happy when we had to do pyramid kicks, where you kick 1 round house kick, then two consecutively, then three kicks up to five kicks and back down again. I was not gassed and I felt like I could do another set right there. Yay!

This is a video of me practicing my right side, or rear kicks. These are teeps, leg kicks, and round houses. I am laying in the leg kick so as not to hurt my feeder. I don’t know why I spread my fingers on my left hand when perform a kick. But watching me in the video I can see the things I need to work on.

https://youtu.be/t5TUtPCtzXo

In Kali we worked on the high box. We used first the double stick, then the stick and knife, double knives, then stick and shield. Changing the length of weapon changes ranges you need to hold to just attack and defend in the drill. I noticed when my Kru Krysta asks if we know what the high box is at the time my brain goes no. But apparently at this time my body knows what to do. I have muscle memory of the high box and can do it, but if you were to ask me out of the blue I would stumble to tell you the terms and moves. I was told from a student who has been doing this for 5 years that this is normal, and he has the same problem. Today was a great day for Kali, I have a lot to fix but I felt good doing it.

In Kali we worked on the high box. In this video I am practicing here the high box with double stick.

https://youtu.be/LgI8-lrSjNU

This is the same high box drill with us using knives that I was practicing.

https://youtu.be/cSlTndwdfaI

I need to go to sleep because I have a 5 am wake up, and it is 11:47 pm here. I am amazed you have read this far and thank you. These are my thoughts for the day. Talk to me if you have any questions or want to see something in my blog.

Krav and Striking Class…single Leg take down, elbows, and asymmetrical sparring

This 3 hour workout training time was a welcomed diversion. Had to deal with a customer who was being a racist bigot last night at work. Trying to cause trouble and get a coworker fired because of her skin color. So when it came time to hit and kick things I was ready.

In Krav we worked on our jab, cross, and hook, stepping off the line to get a rear hook in. This set us up to do a single leg take down. Putting your opponents on the ground. We also worked on the kicking from prone position then got up to combat base.

After Krav I worked on Muay Thai with my husband. We worked on hooks, horridontal elbows, to faking missing horizontal elbow to spinning back elbow. This all felt good and I am at a point that I more or less know the moves. I need to work on them but if you tell me to do a sequence of say jab, cross, right round kick and left round kick, I can do that. This is both cool and amazing cause we are working on ways to string our skills together and ways to mislead your opponents and get a hit in. When I first started out this was daunting but sparring is becoming fun.

In striking class we worked on asymmetrical sparring. This makes us work on different entries into strikes. So for instance one person gets to do only kicks and the other person Ann only do punches. You know what your opponents tools are so you can work on blocks for those but you only can use certain tools as well.

In an fight/adrenaline situation you don’t know what tools will bubble up, so training all the tools and getting proficient in them is very helpful. My Kru Kristen always says “you don’t rise to the occasion like most people think. You will fall back on your bad habbits and things you drilled the most.” So if I have a habit of dropping my hands when I am tired I will do the same in a fight where the adrenaline dumps.

Class was fantastic and wonderful, I am exhausted after 3 hours but so happy I did it.

Thanks for reading this far. Have a great weekend.

Thursday Muay Thai and Kali…Thai Rank 1/Level 1 test and Espada Y Daga

Today was an exciting day! A welcomed exciting day because yesterday while I trained Muay Thai for about 2 hours and got good training in. I had a bad head day. I could not get out of my head yesterday so it colored my training yesterday.

I did get into the store and did some retail therapy, I got a pair of jeans that are 2 sizes smaller than the jeans I have at home. Yay for non scale victories. They are from the same manufacturer as my previous jeans… yay! But that is neither here nor there.

Today was exciting, because a friend of mine was going up for her Rank 1 test. We need to celebrate each other. I was excited for her, and was happy to give her pep talks just to stave off some of her nerves. To give you reference. I am 3rd arm band in…or orange. She went up for Student Level 1/ Rank 1. The solid blue band on the chart above. I have 4 bands between me and that test. *eye twitch* Yeah its a bit daunting but I will take each test one at a time. I may be up for testing for green arm band next month. We will see.

We got a chance to work with another person D, and learn some of the things he learned. You see he just got back from Thailand and was able to train at some 8 gyms in Bangkok and is a wealth of information. After training with him, we all stopped to support A, encourage her, and help count her kicks and knees. For this Student Level 1/Rank 1 test she had to get so many knees and kicks in during a three minute round. She had to do two, three minute rounds back to back. She did fantastic and she was awarded her blue arm band. I am so very proud for her. She did fantastically.

Here is a video of one of the rounds that she had while testing.

https://youtu.be/hX-u8Rddfso

In Kali we worked on Espada Y Daga again. This time it was not so melty of the brain. I was able to get off the line and figure out my angles. I was able to gunting the 1-5 attacks, and deal with a dagger attacks from the other hand. Today Kali was clicking. I was getting it. My muscle memory was working. I was getting the shots in, and returning with what would be devastating blows had they been real blades.

So over all a great day. I got some clothes that fit better, and got to help support a friend for an awesome nerve wrecking Thai test. I got to practice Kali, and it did not melt my brain today. It seemed to all click. But I am prepared to run into trouble later, when we add another move and I need to wrap my brain around that move and get my body to do the thing my brain is telling it to.

If you got this far and are still reading, thank you! I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. Keep up your work, and keep trucking as we say around here. As always if you are feeling frogy drop me a comment and let me know what you think.

The Team I Love!

Tuesday Muay Thai and Kali… when bad weather cancels your training…

  • Snow
  • Sweat

When bad weather cancels your training you adapt and make your muscles pay for the weathers bad decisions.

So I just found out that my training/classes are not happening today. We have a huge winter storm coming in, with snow falling now to sleet and then freezing rain. I completely understand they want the instructors to be safe and I am totally for that. Now I have to come up with a workout to do today… maybe some shadowboxing, cardio and movement. Will fill you in when I get back on what I did. Off to change and brave the cold.

This for sure was not as fun as Muay Thai and Kali, but it was a workout, and my muscles are sore again. So it did its job.

Workout: 50 minute

  • 30 minutes on recumbent bike hills setting. I did 6 miles and broke a sweat yay!
  • 10 minutes of shadowboxing, punches, elbows and kicks
  • 3 sets of planks 45 second, 30 second, and 30 second
  • 50 crunches
  • 100 flutter kicks
  • 1 minute of straight leg lift
  • 3 sets of 10 stability ball pikes
This is a stability ball pike if you were curious, I love this exercise.

So yeah… made a workout out out frozen failed plans. If the weather is stopping you from going out, do a workout in the house. If you have youtube and a small amount of floor space, you can get one in.

Thanks again for reading and have a happy warm night. Stay safe if you are in my neck of the woods, and if you are some where warm, think of me. =) As always if you have questions or comments talk to me.

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