A Man Reborn

After what seemed like 2 of the longest weeks ever, I finally got back into Muay Thai class! I’ve really truly missed going… can’t say that enough.

Today was a fun class too - lots of sparring which I always love. We started with the normal warm up and then did some back and forth lead and rear-leg Thai kicks to the lead leg of our partner. We then progressed into doing some back and forth, blocking a jab/cross and then responding quickly with a kick, then a little more freestyle, where we’d block a combo and respond with a kick or interrupt the combo with a kick.

After that we did composure drills… which are always a blast ;) You basically stand against the wall while your partner tries to combo you endlessly and you try to keep your eyes on what they are doing and block accordingly and counter with kicks. Halfway through we switched to composure drills with the spin thrown in - same thing really, except before you start, you put your head down and get spun around 10 times and then have to defend yourself while dizzy. Good times!

I thought I’d be really out of it after 2 weeks, but I felt pretty good. Not 100%, but pretty high up there. Tomorrow is Konditioning class… which I’m sure will absolutely kill me as it always did even before the break. :D

I feel really great right now. It’s good to be back in training and I feel like a fog has been lifted from my mind. I’m not sure I’ve been thinking straight lately… maybe all I needed was a few punches in the head to knock some sense into me. I definitely got more than a few of those today!

My tattoo is almost done healing and I finally got back into the gym today for a workout. It’s been almost 10 days since my last real workout and it’s really been bugging me. I know I’m not going to instantly plump up or turn to jelly in 10 days time, but I definitely felt like it in my head. I’m dying to get back to Muay Thai class too - counting down the days until Monday when I get back for the first time in 2 weeks!

I was actually smiling as I drove to the gym because I was so excited to finally get back into it. I put on my favourite workout playlist and did a quick 10 minutes of HIIT on the elliptical machine to get my heart going and to warm up. I then did a full lower body weight workout oriented towards strength - lots of weight, low reps and lots of rest between sets.

Now I’m home and I’m tired, sore and exhausted. But man does it ever feel great. I feel back to normal. I feel like myself again.

Yesterday’s workout was pretty much a copy of the day before. I got up to 7 sets of 10 push ups through the day and was up to 15 pull ups and 15 chin ups. I was doing more pull ups when my pull up bar slipped off the door frame.

I came down pretty hard and hit the back of my head on the corner of the wall. Wasn’t too bad, but I have one of those Fred Flintstone lumps on my head now. The crappy part is that the bar chipped off a little piece of the doorframe at the top, so it may not be safe to use anymore. I’ll check it out later on and see what I can do - hopefully I can keep using it.

A couple of weeks ago I finished a 9 week challenge that my Muay Thai school: Kombat Arts held. I tracked my progress pretty faithfully and that lead to me making some good improvements in all the areas we tested. I really liked the idea of having a set of numbers to strive for / beat and I think that brought out a level of determination in me that I didn’t have before. Since it worked so well for me, I’m going to start off my own 9 week challenge tomorrow.

I want to get in good enough shape to compete and if I can keep focused and make similar progress jumps like I did in the last challenge then I will get there with time. So, starting tomorrow, I’m doing another 63 day countdown. During the last challenge I made some big jumps and it will be tough to match them, but I’m going to try. I’m also going to add in a couple of new goals to strive for as well.

Here are my starting numbers:

Starting Stats: July 7th, 2008
Weight: 218 - coming off weekend cheat
Pull Ups: 4
Broad Jump: 77 inches
Push Ups: 36
Longest Run: 2.2km
Rope Skipping: can’t do it at all - need a lot of practice to get the movement down

Target Stats: September 9th, 2008
Weight: 198
Pull Ups: 10
Broad Jump: 87 inches
Push Ups: 50
Longest Run: 4.5km
Rope Skipping: 10 minutes continuous

I think that I can reach these if I focus and work hard. But there is a bit of a catch - during the challenge I hit my 1 year goal of getting to 220 and as a reward I got more tattoo work done on my left arm half sleeve. I ended up getting it done this past Saturday and it’ll be about 2 weeks before it’s healed fully. During that 2 weeks, I can’t get sweat on it. Which pretty much rules out any prolonged intense exercise. On top of that, I still have to sit another 2 hours to get it finished - probably halfway through August, which will require another 2 weeks of healing.

So how to keep active, make strength gains and cut fat with an entire month of not being able to sweat? For the 5 weeks I’m not healing, I’m going to really bust my ass. I’m going to make sure I avoid over-training, but otherwise I’m going to do as much work as I can take. For the 4 weeks that I am healing, I’m going to do late-night/early-morning long walks - I’ve already downloaded a bunch of audio books and loaded them onto my iPod. As far as strength work, I’m going to do a lot of micro-sets throughout the day - small bursts of exercise split up over 20-30 instances spread over the day: 10 push ups, 10 squats, 5 pull ups, etc. It won’t be optimal, but it’ll get my heart rate up a bit and at the very least, keep me from losing strength during the healing periods.

It won’t be an official competition or anything like the first one, so I’ll only be competing against myself - but then, that’s really how I looked at the first challenge anyway, so what’s the difference?

I tried to take it easy today as my hamstring had been hurting the last few days. It felt a lot better today but not 100%, but then I noticed that my groin muscle on that same leg felt really tight and a bit painful too. Not sure what’s going on with my leg, but it doesn’t feel too serious at least.

Today I did a bunch of rounds on the heavy bag - 12 rounds of 2 minutes each with 1 minute of rest in between. I started off simple and gradually got more complicated. I tried to work my defense and really mix up my combos with more combos using the same hand sequentially. I also paid attention to my footwork and technique.

I did some stretching and did a couple of slow-light rounds of low kicks on the bag just to see how my legs felt - I didn’t really notice any pain during those rounds so I’m sure I’ll be fine by tomorrow, but I didn’t want to push it too much - just wanted to keep it active.

Since I couldn’t get my tattoo this ink, I’m going to try to make it in a few times this week, as long as my leg is feeling good.