Workout Recap - Week of February 4, 2024
Felt like a lot of two steps forward, one step back progress this week.
Monday
Muay Thai class
This was a pretty basic and grindy class, but working on fundamentals is always good by me. My lead leg low kicks were feeling a bit wonky to start out for some reason, but I got into the groove of them after a bit, so it was probably nothing to be too concerned about. Unfortunately, I was partnered up with someone who had very inconsistent effort, wavering between slacking and giving high effort even within a single drill rep, let alone between reps, which is a major peeve of mine. Not much to be done for it, though.
Tuesday
Muay Thai class
This was a head-to-head defense day, working on a couple of basic blocks and a couple of basic parries. The last time I had done one of these classes, one of the fighters advised me afterwards to be mindful of pivoting more on my round kicks, so I made that a personal point of emphasis and did seem to iron out some issues with previous inconsistencies about hitting with the blade of my shin. We had an odd number of people training this day, so people were taking turns sitting out for a drill, but when it was my turn to do so, one competitive fighter's partner dropped out partway through due to a nose bleed, so I got to jump in for a mini-sharktank that was pretty fun to do. I finished up doing a round of back and forth lead leg body round kicks with the big bodybuilder-looking person who I'd mentioned before; the raw size difference between us meant I was getting knocked around some, but it was a nice toughness check that I feel like I passed.
Wednesday
Muay Thai class
This was back to a basic padwork class. My round kicks were flowing smoothly, though my front kicks (particularly on the lead side) felt like they regressed some, so I clearly need to still be actively mindful of fixing my form there. On the plus side, my partner and I also both peppered in some defense checks, which it felt like I hadn't done in a fair while, so it was good to get back to making padwork a bit more realistic.
Thursday
Muay Thai class
This was another padwork day, with an emphasis on changing striking levels during offense. Honestly, I was kind of off-balance the whole class, particularly on my kicks, so I felt kind of weak and pathetic in general. The one saving grace, though, was that my body-level punches were ripping in nicely enough to knock my partner back a step more often than not. They didn't seem to cause as much discomfort as I have for other people in the past, but it was still a minor win for what was otherwise a rather sour note to end the week's training.
