Thursday, March 6, 2014

Fight Club

One of the things I really, really wanted to do was train Muay Thai with Fight Club Kuwait.

The opportunity came up for me to do so, so I jumped on the chance.

This meant adding another 2 hour workout 3 times a week on top of everything else and back to back with my Kajukenbo class.

A big part of me was overwhelmed with the thought of doing that. However, it's what I really, really wanted. So I decided to suck it up and just get on with it.

My first day of training with them was on Sunday.

Since I had been on a 10 day holiday, I was doing my workouts at home/outdoors. So on Sunday, I was back at the gym in the morning. We also had a break from Kajukenbo, and Sunday was our first day back. With that in mind, you can imagine that I was a little bit apprehensive about whether or not I would have the energy to do it all. Fight Club's coach is notoriously known for long, intense warm-up sessions. I wondered, for a moment (or two), whether I had bitten off more than I could chew.

Anyway. We had a good Kajukenbo class, and then I rushed off to change and get ready for Fight Club. Luckily they're both held in the same place, so no travel was required, and I could at least stretch/sit for about 20 minutes between classes.

Our warm-up: 30 minutes of jump rope.

Ya. 30 minutes.

I tried not to think of the time. It was broken down into 3 segments (5 min, 1 min rest, 10 min, 1 min rest, 15 min). I just concentrated on jumping. On the first day the coach had techno music playing. I just imagined I was at a club dancing around :) It definitely helped! For the second class, there was no music. It was a lot tougher. I tried to find something to think about to distract myself from the time, but it was tough.

Overall, I'm pleased with how I did. I had to stop a few times, but I made sure I was still moving (doing footwork) even when I wasn't jumping.

After that, we got started on technique practice and drills.

I loved it. I still have to take it kinda easy because of my wrist (which has been healing really well by the way), but it felt so good to put boxing gloves back on and actually hit something!

In terms of doing 2 big workouts back to back, I know that making rest and food a priority, like I mentioned in yesterday's post, has really helped. I want to do these classes, and I want to do them well. Any hint of tiredness has to do with my mind more than anything else. I just have to believe that I am strong enough to do this (because I am)!

When I was driving back from class on Tuesday, I thought to myself, at the very least, it takes a lot of mental resolve to even get through the entire class (Muay Thai) without giving up. You have to really dig deep and do it. That thought was particularly relevant that day because we had had quite an intense Kajukenbo session just before that.

I love being physically strong, but the mental strength that I've been gaining through my MMA practices as well as my general fitness improvements has been priceless.





1 comment:

  1. I have incorporated Muay Thai techniques into my fighting since before I even knew what Muay Thai was :-) They compliment kenpo perfectly.

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