Saturday Kali/Bo Staff and Striking… Bo Staff, Flow, Sore

2.5 hours of Bo Staff and Striking training today. Yeah you heard it Bo Staff training! Heck yes. I was and still am excited. We have started Bo Staff training, as an offshoot of our Kali training.

I have to say I am so pooped from class/training today, and I am going to be sore tomorrow. =)

Kali/Bo Staff

Did any of you ever want to be a Ninja Turtle when you were little? No? Maybe? Well I did. So getting to play with Bo Staves was so awesome.

We warmed up with single stick first inside the academy. We practiced (heaven watik, low strike, then high strike), (heaven redondo, low strike, high strike), (equise, low strike, high strike). This was a warm up for our Bo Staff practice.

We then went outside. Where it was sunny, but it was so so windy. It was so cold that after an hour I could not feel my fingers. I think it was about 45 degrees Fahrenheit or 7.222 degrees Celsius for those not in the states. But through all of that I had such a blast. Kru Krysta was amazing and she had her instructor Kru Mossy with her. We learned to perform the moves by pushing the top hand and pulling the bottom hand to perform a strike.

I felt clumsy and uncoordinated, but I was surprised how fast I was picking it up with a longer weapon. There are some things to think about when blocking with a longer weapon so save yourself from extra pain. Like moving your foot out from under your staff when you block so that your opponent does not slide down your staff and hit your heel. I need to remember to do my footwork. Kru Mossy hit my thigh to help me remember to do my footwork. Because we are learning a martial art that is meant to do damage, and I don’t want to learn bad habits.

Also for those that don’t know what a Bo Staff is, here is Donatello from Ninja Turtles to show you. We have not learned this move yet. *joking* =)

Striking, Sore

We worked on teeps transition to Thai four counts again. We also were working on a 7 count drill as well. In this drill my partner and I were working on flow and movement. So we were moving around, getting out of the box, and out of striking range, making sure to our feet moving.

7 count drill
Left Teep
Left kick
Cross
Hook
Cross
Right Knee
Right Kick

We also worked on elbows. Working on some on both sides, but one of note is we did a front teep/left teep, left kick, left knee, jab, left elbow. In this we were working on our distance management. Where for teep we are making them move away, we then do a kick, which is long distance, then move up to knee short distance, and jab shorter distance, then elbow shortest distance.

I am super tired, and going to be sore tomorrow. I should take a bath in Epsom salts. I held pads for Kru Mossy and he hits hard as he demonstrated. I feel like I might have some bruises from holding the pads. This may sound like a complaint but it is not. He is full of wisdom and he was helping us learn more. Not only that, feeling his full force, shows me what can/may achieve if I keep working at it.

I had a wonderful time today. Learned some things on a Bo Staff, and cannot wait till the next class Bo Staff class. I worked hard in striking and got a fantastic workout in. I feel accomplished.

Thank you for reading and if you have an questions, please let me know.

Thursday Muay Thai and Kali…Punctuate the sentence, Sparring, Silat kicks from the ground, Langkah

2 hours of Muay Thai and Kali and I had an amazing class. I was asked to spar in Muay Thai and while I was totally nervous I did it. Yay!

I am a little exhausted at the moment. I have had on top of my normal routine, two extra cake orders. You see if you did not know I am a Pastry Chef and I have people ask me to do birthday cakes, pastries, wedding cakes, etc.

I am not complaining by any means, but I am just tired. I have been trying to get more sleep in. My average sleep last month was 4.5 to 5 hours of sleep a night. Lately I have been averating 5.5 to 6. So that is an upward trend. I know it takes about 2 weeks for my habbit to stick that I go to bed earlier. That is good. Enough rambling back to my workout stuff.

Muay Thai – Punctuating the sentence, Sparring

Kru Kristen had us all warming up. Then we were working on elbows. Feeling the resistance from our training partners then doing a forward elbow thrust then a side in elbow, to tie up in a full plumb, and get knees strikes in.

Then I was asked to spar. I kinda made a meep sound and said yes… sure. Sparing is both hard and scary for me. I fear I will forget all the things I have been taught. I know that forgetting is normal, and I know we all forget some of what we have learned in the moment when the adrenaline drops. However, I want so much to do well, oh and also not get hit a lot. I have gotten better about being scared of being hit. I have been hit a number of times in the head, I have been kicked in the side, and kneed in the leg and kicked in the leg. However, the fear is still there. One day it won’t be so scary but it still is. I don’t plan on being a fighter professionally, however, part of me is excited about the next time I get to spar.

Anyway I got into the ring and did it. I sparred again. I think this is my third time. I stepped up and did it. I did get punched in the face twice and I ate some leg kicks and a torso kick. But I got in a few face punches, some torso hooks, and I got a 5 or 6 good kicks in. I felt accomplished. We were sparring to help one of our team that is going to go fight in a professional fight. He is training and those of us who were asked to spar all helped him do conditioning. We were coached by Kru Kristen that when throwing we want to throw a cross in afterward. “It is like punctuating your sentence” as Kru Kristen says.

Kali – Silat from the ground, Langkah

We had a guest instructor named In Chun Kim. He was amazing. He brought us back to basics of Silat. He had us learning the kicks from the ground.

This video is similar to what we did. It is not me or my video.

Then we worked on foot work or Langkah and learning where our opponents balance breaks, so that we can better get our opponent off balance and it helps with our Basset Dal, and Basset Luar, Sapu Dal, and Sapu Luar. Or our foot sweeps inside and out, or our trips inside and out.

Langkah: Stepping and footwork
1) Langkah Lurus: Linear stepping
6) Langkah Persegitiga: Triangle stepping
4) Langkah Sigsag: Zig zag stepping

For this we did the above, 1, 4, and 6. All great practice, and really gave me insight to why and how we to do the moves better. If you understand the basics better you can understand the moves better. Sometimes I try to muscle the persons foot off the mat, but all you have to do is off balance them correctly and it becomes so much simpler.

Today was a great day and a lot of great information. I had a great amount of a-hah moments. Punctuating the sentence with a cross, and the langkah or footwork and how to do our Silat moves better. Where some of the things just clicked. I also had a good time trying something I did not know if I could do those cool Ground kicks.

Thank you for reading… if you have any questions let me know. Have a great night. I need to get to sleep. =)

Tuesday Muay Thai and Kali…Cross, elbow, Sapu Luar, Sapu Dalam

Two hours of Muay Thai and Kali. It was a blast. This day was not a huge cardio day for our class. Meaning we did not do a lot of conditioning today. However it was still a lot of fun.

Muay Thai – Cross

In Muay Thai we worked on the cross, elbows, and clench work. While not the exciting dynamic kicking, boxing 20, or Thai 15 routine. I believe there is value in taking a step back and working on the basics. For instance my cross. While I can hit a cross just fine, there are a lot of fine tuning things I need to work on so that I get full extension.

At 5 foot I am short and so I often short change my punches. Because I feel like I don’t or cant get the distance in. However, today I was working on just that. As an orthodox fighter, I have to step out to the left and pivot on the back foot, throw the punch where I turn my hand at the end and point my first two knuckles at the opponent. What this does is extend my body and covers my right hands side of my face with my shoulder.

Sometimes it is good to just focus on one thing and try to make it the best you can. Then trying to do all the things the best. Kru Kristen, says she would rather us be great at a few things than mediocre to horrible at all the things.

Here is a video of me practicing just that. Again not the cool flashy, fast drills that we do some days, but a necessary step back to get these strikes closer to perfection.

https://youtu.be/qZrqduN_RPE

Kali – Silat Sapu Dal, and Sapu Luar

In Kali we were working on Silat again, and while we did Basset Dal/Basset Luar before, where our back is toward our opponent. Sapu is where we are facing our opponent. Luar is outside leg sweep, and Dal is inside leg sweep.

We worked on off balancing our opponent only to sweep the leg out from under them just at the right time. This is very fun to do, and gets simpler once you understand the physics behind body movement.

We worked on a take down where you weave your arm between the legs lock out our elbow grab their hand. Pull their hand to the 3 point in the triangle and nudge them with your shoulder. This is a move you can do from the ground if they have hit you and you fell.

We also worked on if we are prone, just fallen, coming back up into combat ready stance, and then grabbing the persons arm and behind the knee to pull them down. Place knee on belly and then punch them.

Today was fun. We got to do sticky legs and work on some strikes where we take steps back and just work on our form and techniques.

Have a great day and thank you for reading. I am so amazed. I now have 51 international subscribers reading my blog. Who would have thought.

Fitness Journey…Annual Check Up 3/19/2019, how did I do?

I got myself a treat for adulting and doing the adult thing of going to my doctor.

The dreaded annual check up. I have a fear of doctors. Bad doctors and bad bedside manner when I was very young and in and out of hospital for my uterine problems… left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Tests tests, and more tests were their go to. Also had doctors tell me at the age of 12 I would never have children. Well I hiked up my big girl panties and decided I should get in for an annual heck up.

(note: I am not a doctor and you should go see your doctor if you think something is wrong. Don’t be like me… =) )

1st Doctor visit 3/13/2019

I am happy to announce that I am healthy. Well for the most part. My High Density Lipoproteins -HDL, and Low Density Lipoprotiens -LDL’s are perfect, my blood pressure is perfect, my triglycerides are slightly elevated but doctor is not at all worried about that. I am severely Vitamin D deficient, and doc is checking into me passing protein in my urine. More to come about that.

Nurses scared me saying I needed to come in for a consult due to triglycerides, and that my vitamin D levels were slightly low. So me being me I looked up triglycerides and vitamin D deficiency on WebMD and of course I found I am dying everything from kidney failure, to Cancer. (Note: I am saying this all tongue and cheek I don’t really believe I am dying but it is common when you look up symptoms there.) The nurse got them mixed up. She mentioned fixing my diet, drinking more water and getting more exercise. After which my brain went to, ok how do I tighten my diet up more, how do I squeeze in another workout, and I am going to have to drink more than 3 liters of water a day!

My triglycerides are fine, but my vitamin D levels are dangerously low. In reality Doc wanted to talk to me about the vitamin D and get me on vitamin D supplement.

The day in a half between doctor appointments I became an “expert” as much as I could on Vitamin D, Triglycerides, and protein in urine. =) Googling everything was what I did.

Did you know that vitamin D affects more than just your bones and calcium absorbtion? I did not. Also blocks the release of parathyroid hormone that will absorb calcium in your bones and make them brittle. It helps with muscle function and growth. It aids in your immune function. Research and controversy surround vitamin D’s affect on the body. Some researchers hesitantly say that it may prevent, breast, colon, and prostate cancer. But not enough evidence to prescribe for prevention. Some research points to vitamin D preventing and treating, Diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and Multiple Sclerosis. Also

Passing protein in my urine. This was the only other thing that had him concerned. So I looked that up. Most of the responses online were about kidney failure or about cancer. That did not help me at all. But you can also have this happen if you have a UTI, or stones, or a few other things.

2nd Doctor Visit for Vitamin D and protein 3/14/2019

Doctor visit went well, he has me on daily Vitamin D supplements. He is concerned about the protein in my urine. He said it might be dehydration so he had me do a test again. Doctor said everything else looks good. Nurse was mistaken. Triglycerides are fine, and he is not worried about any of my other numbers. I look healthy.

You might be wondering what a severe deficiency in vitamin D is. My score was 10, and a deficiency is 40 still. You want to shoot for a 50 to 60 point score. So I am very severely deficient. Yay me!?!

I said to my doctor I don’t know how I will add any more exercise into my life. I workout 5 to 6 days a week.

He laughed and said, “no you don’t have to do that. You do enough.”

I sighed and said thank you, cause I could not figure out how to add more to my schedule.

I got a call from the nurse saying they see protein again, and he wanted to see me. So again we go back in.

3rd Doctor Visit for protein 3/19/2019

I go in, and Doctor asks about my supplements. I said I take BCAA’s and all my other vitamins. He thinks that the protein in my urine may be from the BCAA’s. What ever supplements your body does not use will be excreted in your urine. This is natural. So he is having me not take any BCAA’s for the next week. We will test my urine to make sure that it is what is causing the protein.

He also wanted me to get an ultrasound just in case. I went today to get an renal ultrasound. Everything looks great. I do not have any kidney stones, I don’t have any cysts in my kidneys, I don’t have any fluid build up, and my kidneys look great.

Picture of my kidneys!

So now I wait to see what happens. To see if it is the BCAA’s that are adding protein in my urine. After that I don’t know what other tests we will be doing. Doctor keeps telling me that I am healthy and not to worry. He just wants to make sure its the BCAA’s

So I am healthy… for the most part. We just need to see what that protein is and where it is coming from.

On a side note:

The imaging center I went to get my ultra sound at looked and felt like a spa. I was surprised at how nice it was.

In the end on the way home. I was so happy that my test came back great, and I don’t have another kidney stone and have been stone free for 3 years. That I got myself a treat. An Oreo custard ice cream sandwich. It was so tasty.

Thanks for reading as always. Have a great day! I am off to my Martial Arts training for the night.

Weight lifting workout for week of 3/18/2019…Melting Face?

Have you ever seen those girls go to the gym wearing make up and leaving looking great still? I have… and I got to conduct an experiment today to see how much my face will melt. I accidentally forgot to take off my full face of make up before going to the gym today. So I got a chance to see if and how well my make up stood up against the onslaught of my workout today.

Let me get into my actual workout first, then we can get on to the silly stuff. Ok for this workout this week. I did a 46 minute workout. 20 minutes of HIIT Run, and 26 minute of weight lifting. I did the weight lifting workout in a super set.

Super sets are two exercises done back to back with out a rest between them. Usually using differing muscles but not always. So you do a set of lunges for example and then you do a set of push ups. You take a small break between the two groups of exercises then do a your next set of lunges and then push ups right away. The reason for doing this is it is a good way to train in Hypertrophy.

Hypertrophy is where you make your muscles fatigued and make them active rest like you do in a HIIT workout. Suffice to say you put your body in a position to build more faster. There is plenty to read on it, but you get the gist. Knowledge is power and, reading up on this will only help you get better.

I will be doing this workout Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I will be doing Muay Thai and Kali Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

Workout for 3/18/2019:

  1. HIIT run 20 minutes. 3 minute warm up, 10 minute HIIT, (sprint 1 minute, run (active rest) 1 minute), then 3 minute run, and 4 minute cool down
  2. Superset of weight lifting workout each two exercises were done together one after the other with rest only after both sets of exercises are done.
  3. Reverse Lunge and curl 12 lbs each hand reps 12, 10, 8
  4. Squat and Press 20 lbs each hand reps 12, 10, 8
  5. Tripod tricep row 30 lbs reps 10, 10, 14
  6. Hip thrustors 30 lbs reps 12, 14, 16
  7. Lat cable pull downs 70 lbs 10, 10, 8
  8. Alternating pike ups 30 seconds for three reps

Let me just say I am so amazed at how well my make up stayed on. I really thought I was going to look like a melted clown.

However as you can see my make up stayed on. Yay!

Both these were before my workout. So clearly on and not a problem.

This was after my HIIT run, and clearly I was sweating. But it stayed on.

This is after my complete workout. I have survived and I did not melt. Wow!

I used Urban Decay eye shadow primer, and eye shadow, and I have Bennifits Hello Happy foundation on. I am amazed and it all stayed on.

Thanks for reading, and have a great night. I am off to work.

Grrrl crop tights and shirt… Thicc Girl approved

*Note* I am not paid by GRRRL. I bought these products with my own money. I just want to review them and let you know of a great company that I support. I have a link at the bottom of this blog post that they gave me and if you do buy something I will get a help with my next purchase. Please don’t feel obligated to use my link and you don’t have to buy anything. *end note*

I loved the dragon scale pants I got from Grrrl clothing so I decided to get some more. There was a great sale going on, and I was able to get this pair of crop tights, and a shirt on sale.

Crop Tights

I went down one size in pants. These pants straddle two girls sizes, and while they fit fantastically I wanted to see what the lower size felt like. I am happy I did. I wanted to see how a light colored pair of pants would fair in the squat test. I have to say I am over all pleased with the pants again. Its the same awesome soft satiny feeling fabric. It has great stretch and compression for my hard Thai workouts, and great for running.

These tights retail for $44.00 dollars. I have bought tights from ~$14.00 when I was starting out my journey, to ~ $60.00 for some of the more name brand tights like Nike, and Under Armour, just to give you a range. One of my favorite brands is still Under Armour. These are fantastic pants, really great quality, so super comfortable, and a great price point. I don’t have to tell you the $14.00 tights did not last long, and were not manufactured well.

You get what you pay for, and when you start out your journey it may be the correct answer. You don’t want to start a journey, try to get your habit established, and drop a lot of money on clothing. However, after you get your routine going, and you start building out your wardrobe and equipment. Shopping for and getting the best quality will make your workout all the better. Bonus points for making you laugh or making you feel special when you wear the clothing.

These pants also pass the squat test. There was a little bit of panty showing. However, keep in mind I wore dark panties, navy blue with a very light colored pants. I am still happy with how much it covers up.

These pants made me laugh. I graphics they have all over this fabric.

Muay Thai T-Shirt

I was also able to get a shirt that I have wanted for a while. It says Kick Like A Grrrl. With an image of a female Thai fighter on the front. It makes me smile when I see it, and bonus it is slightly glittery.

I was pleasantly surprised about this shirt. I thought it was just going to be cotton when I bought it. However, it is really a super soft and a little stretchy cotton shirt. Here is their description.

“We’ve finally found the perfect fit tee shirt. Made from glorious soft af cotton, this shirt has the softest, finest touch of fabric you’ve ever felt. It nearly feels like bamboo. WIth a style that is not fitted, and yet not a sack, the Lift OH Ali shirt is a perfect semi-lightweight tee that will delight all the senses.

If you look closely, the screen print is encrusted with sparkles, so when you kick like a grrrl, and bust some ass…. you can do it with some extra glitter and sparkles.”

It is $19.99 and so worth the money. Now when I kick the crap out of the pads I can do it and sparkle at the same time. =)

Again the packaging was fantastic, everything came as I ordered it. The manufacturing of their clothing is fantastic. I could not ask for more.

If you have not seen my other post about Thicc Girl Approved pants, let me give you a little info about this company. It is called Grrrl, and it supports all women of all sizes. It celebrates us all, and makes clothing for all girls.

“GRRRL – OUR WHY….

We exist to empower women to share their experiences and to come together as one to make the world a better place.

We will do that by fighting to remove the barriers that get in the way of women realizing their potential.”

They want to empower women, and have us raise each other up, instead of competing.

Thank you for reading and have a great day!

If you are interested in ordering from this company use this link that they gave me.

https://www.grrrl.com/ref/652/?campaign=Thinks.Spinks

Saturday Krav and Striking…Reaper, Inosanto 18 count, Southpaws are SOL

After roughly 4 hours of martial arts training, I am pooped. Today was fantastic, and I got to learn a new 18 count routine. Writing down what a Soutpaw has to do to change the counts to work for them is mind bending and I don’t have the capacity for it tonight. =)

Krav – Reaper Sweeps

Today we made it to Krav Maga on time, and we got to work on Reaper Sweeps. I have had some late nights at work so I have not been able to make it to the Krav classes. The reaper sweep is a dump where we gain an entry after an attack and do a modified T position. We cinch in your arms off balance the opponent and leaver pull your leg up while levering forward. We got to do outside reaper sweeps, and inside reaper sweeps.

My back was not happy with me this morning so I let my instructor know and we modified the dumps for me, where my training partners, performed the moves, and I would get on the ground although not so gracefully. We learned how to follow up with more hits to the head and posting off of their wrists to jump up and get out of harms way. I try not to let my physical impairments get in my way of training, and try to work around it. Just be honest with your instructors and I find they are understanding. If they are not, then perhaps they are not the instructors for you.

Between class we worked on Muay Thai training to keep warm and to hopefully get better. Here are some of the things we worked on.

Here I am practicing my Muay Thai double kick. I start by placing a leg kick so as not to hurt my partner/pad holder, and then throw in the torso round house kick. We are working on timing and changing levels. This is because you are not always going to kick just the leg or just the torso in a fight.

https://youtu.be/XJP_wk1F-nI

Below I am practicing just my Muay Thai round house kicks. These hurt on the right side cause I have three bruises on my shin. Those bruises are from shielding a kick and a person ending up kneeing my shin instead of getting a kick in. These are normal bumps and scrapes that happen Muay Thai but it does not mean it does not hurt. =) Although I can say I have gotten more used to them.

https://youtu.be/MRAUQ5EUpl0

Striking – Inosanto 18 count

Today we got Kru Krysta back! I was excited to see her, and she wanted us to work on the Inosanto 18 count.

For the whole class we broke the 18 count into digestible chunks, then we strung them together so that we could do all 18 count at once. I just realized I had not described what a # count means. An 18 count means 18 individual strikes. Below are the individual strikes in the Inosanto 18 count.

Inosanto 18 count: (note: Sorry you southpaw fighters are SOL right now. Cause that stuff is confusing. If you really want to know the southpaw Inosanto 18 let me know. I will ask my husband to translate to southpaw for me.)

  1. Scoop the incoming teep
  2. Right leg kick
  3. Left torso round house kick
  4. Cross
  5. Hook
  6. Right torso round house kick
  7. Cut Kick as opponent Right kick comes in and land a Left leg kick
  8. Right leg kick
  9. Left torso round house kick
  10. Cross
  11. Hook
  12. Right torso round house kick
  13. Scoop incoming cross
  14. Cross
  15. Hook
  16. Right Elbow
  17. Right pushing knee
  18. Right torso round house kick.

This 18 count was a lot of fun. I could be wrong but it feels like I picked this combination up quickly. When we first started almost a year ago I had trouble remembering more than 4 strikes in the Thai 15 count or the Boxing 20 count. So when I would come home to try to write it down so I could practice it I was stuck. However, today we learn a 18 count and I can mentally move through each strike/counter and see what we did. Now I think there are a few things going for me on this. One being I understand the moves much more clearly now. I would say that this is marked improvement. So yay!

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great weekend. Let me know if you have any questions and I will try to answer them.

Thursday Muay Thai and Kali… Encouraging the body, Puta/Basset from Pummel

It has been an interesting week to say the least. Sick kid, turned to emergency allergic reaction to meds kid, all while I am trying to keep the household in order, and work life going. I had my own yearly check up. Which I am happy to say I am healthy, but had some miscommunication so I was a little concerned.

Muay Thai- Encouraging the body

In Muay Thai today, we had a blast. I was sweating up a storm. I don’t know if you can see how soaked I am in this picture. Anyway, we worked on the 8 version of 4 count today again. Video of the full 8 are on this weeks previous Tuesday Muay Thai and Kali post. We then worked on clench work with a take down, where you off balance a person so they fall down. This is where our Kru Kristen, also shows us how to “Encourage the body”, where if they are not going down you kick the knee. sweep the leg, kick the ankle. In training we do not do that, but we place our foot in the correct position. If we did it in training, we would be hurting our partners and that would be bad.

We did ladders as well, where you start at one kick on each side, up to 5 kicks on each side. Those are brutal and fun at the same time. I will add these to our Wednesday training sessions.

Kali – Puta Kapala and Basset Dal from Pummel

So today in Kali, we worked more on Silat and take downs from the Pummel entry. We worked on “swimming” with our partner where we move back and forth trying to get underhooks in. We are working on feeling our partners energy. By energy I mean, when we can feel where our partner is going to based on the movement of center of gravity. When I can feel it change, I can get a better handle on when it will be advantageous for me to move them and get them off balance. Then I can put their bodies where I want them to, and can do the most damage.

This was fun, because we have now done Puta Kapala, and Basset Dal, from the shield block entry, from the striking entry, and now from pummel entry. I am starting to see where all of this connects and it is awesome. When I make that mental connection it clicks more for me.

Anyway thank you all for reading. I am amazed I have readers from all over the world, and I want to say hallo/hello to you all. Have a great night, I need to be better about getting to bed on time.

Tuesday Muay Thai and Kali… 4 more Thai 4 counts, and Silat Basset Dal

forgive me I have wild hair

Getting to kick and hit things in Muay Thai was very cathartic. I have been carrying around some anxiety about a lot of things including my son being sick, and having a horrible allergic reaction. Having to watch him like a hawk to make sure that he is still breathing.

We found out that my son is allergic to the quinolone antibiotic. That is what was causing his reaction. So he is off of those antibiotics, we are hoping his infection is cleared up, and now we have to dose him with Benadryl.

Muay Thai, 4 more Thai 4 counts

On to more fun things. Today was Muay Thai and Kali. It was 2 hours of hitting and kicking, and it was great! I love learning, and trying to get tweak my movements to make them better, faster, more powerful.

So today Kru Kristen was back. She went to the Inosanto instructor camp. They did some Thai 4 counts that she wanted us to do today. So we added them to our normal 4.

Normal 4 counts include:

  1. Left kick (torso or leg), cross, hook, right torso roundhouse kick
  2. Right kick (torso or leg), hook, cross, left torso roundhouse kick
  3. Left kick (torso or leg), cross, hook, left torso roundhouse kick
  4. Right kick (torso or leg), hook, cross, right torso roundhouse kick

We added these four for a total of 8:

  1. Jab, cross, left kick (torso or leg), right torso kick
  2. Jab, cross, right kick (torso or leg), left torso kick
  3. Jab, cross, left kick (torso or leg), left torso kick
  4. Jab, cross, right kick (torso or leg), right torso kick.

These are not any new moves for us, but it is a new way of drilling and getting repetitions in. Because, we all know one of the key ways you improve is to get repetitions in.


“

Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”

Pablo Picasso

The key is to over train your body, and mind. You do this so that your muscle memory and your actions become automatic. At first your learning is forced. You are so focused on the how, and mimicking others, that it is hart and you have to slog through it. Think back to learning how to read, and how it felt like work. Well eventually it is a automatic thing. You can read things fast, and glean the knowledge you need from just a glance. Eventually we hope to have our bodies move in Thai as if we are just walking, or running. It is automatic, rote, or something you do without thinking. When my brain see’s something coming at my head, my brain will eventually send signals for my body to react and cover to protect the head.

Here is a video of all 8 Thai 4 counts

Kali – Basset Dal vs Sapu Dal

In Kali we worked on Silat again. We learned that Basset means facing away, and Dal means in between the legs. Where Sapu means facing the opponent, and Dal means between the legs. So today we focused on Basset Dal, where we entered from the similar Thai 4 count. Left kick, Cross, Hook, Right kick.We answer the left kick with a destruction, then we slip the cross, then we had to high cover the hook and perform a posting choke, where the thumb is right under the adams apple, then we block the right kick while pushing the opponent away. After that we move to control the arm by rolling the bicep and forcing them down, off balancing them and then dumping them.

This was fun, and we are getting to a point where we know some of the basic moves, such as basset dal, and puta kapala, that we are now just fine tuning it, trying to make them more smooth, more flowing, and more finding the entries.

I got dumped multiple times and better yet I got to dump a lot of people. It is fun to feel where body mechanics takes over and your actions cause peoples bodies to just move to your whim. Because I guarantee you if you push on a persons knee they will move it back. Their body is smarter than you think and will want to preserve functionality, by avoiding being hurt.

We got to do a sticky legs drill, where we got to feel just that. Where your partner/opponent can feel when your body is about to move, and you have to re-position, and get them in a hold again.

Thank you all for reading my blog. I started this and continue to do this to log/write down my training, and my journey. So I am surprised that any of you read it. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

Pablo Picasso had it right… I am going to keep learning Muay Thai, and Kali like a professional fighter would, and then I can perform it with my flare like any great martial artist.

Weight Lifting Workout…3/11/2019

When your son breaks out and has a horrible allergic reaction it will put a crimp in your plans. That is what happened today. I got my 17 min HIIT Run in, and he started presenting with welts and itching all over.

I stopped called the advice nurse for our pediatrician and had to administer Benadryl. We have stopped his meds for eye infection and have an appointment tomorrow for him.

Worried Mama is worried, and stressed out.

I only write this, so that you all can seen its a thing to have some one or something mess up your workout schedule. You do what you can when you can and you move on. I used to worry about it, stress about it, and get all bent out of shape cause I did not get my full workout in on top of dealing with the other stress. I have learned though that you have to take care of you and your family. It seems stupid to say this… but a person like me can get very single minded and stress over the fact that I have say a cold, or the flu, or some other thing stopped my workout.

I used to worry that missing one thing, was going to send me right back to where I started and that is just not the case. Your body is smart and missing one day is not going to through you off.

Anyway this is what I planned to do, and will do the rest of the week universe willing.

Workout:

  1. HIIT run 17 minute, 3 minute warm up, 1 minute sprint, 2 minute run, lather rinse repeat, 2 minute cool down
  2. Kettle bell swings
  3. Squat and press
  4. hip thrusters weighted
  5. bulgarian split squats
  6. double leg pike
  7. planks

Anyway I did not get to the weight lifting part, but I did get my run in. I will shoot for Wednesday for weight lifting and running. I try to do Mon, Wed, Fri, weight lifting with Martial arts on Tues, Thurs, Sat.

Thanks for reading and have a great day. I am going to try and not worry now, and go to work. Leaving husband to deal with kiddos.