Workout Recap - Week of May 14, 2023
I've made some good progress with my healing; only a few things like round doorknobs remain uncomfortable to use with my injured hand, and motion feels good enough that I can crack the knuckle of that thumb now. I ended up taking the Friday to rest rather than doing a self-workout to try boosting that along, but in all honesty, it didn't seem to make a different in how much I improved from one day to the next, so I don't plan to do that again.
Monday
Muay Thai class
The focus of the class was doubled leg strikes from the same side, whether they be kick>kick or knee>kick. It was a stamina-burner for sure, but I feel like I held up decently well on that front, and it was a good opportunity for checking that I'm returning to my stance with good balance after using my legs. I also got a few compliments from my partner on how hard my knee strikes were, which was cool since it had been a point on my mind to be more mindful of involving my hips on those instead of sometimes relying on just my leg muscles. We did medicine ball slams to finish, and I was comfortable using a 30-pound ball for that even with my hand issue, which I'm taking as a good sign for my ongoing recovery.
Tuesday
Muay Thai class
Another class for burning stamina, this time working on long sequences with some defense mixed in. Once again, I got a boost of confidence from holding up pretty well; admittedly, I did need to take a few breaks when we did a round of working on spinning backfists near the end for some fun, but that was from getting dizzy rather than from getting tired. The finisher for the class was an interesting mix of repeated round kicks and calisthenics, and while my balance could've been better while doing left kicks, I managed to do better with it than I'd expected.
Wednesday
Muay Thai class
Stamina seemed to be the underlying focus of the week; this class was working on long sequences of going from punches to kicks to punches to kicks. I think it was good practice for getting in the habit of maintaining offensive momentum, even if the complete sequences themselves would be unrealistic to pull off against a competent opponent. Perhaps more importantly, it was also good for checking my comfort with flowing between different strikes in atypical combinations (compared to what we usually practice in drills), and I did like how I managed with that. The thumb is still bothering me some, but I was getting enough power with it coming from either leg's round kicks that my padwork partner had to shake out their hand a few times after feeling it.
Thursday
Muay Thai class
This was a boxing-focused day, with a mix of head-to-head defense/counter drills and padwork. My mind was not engaging fully with reality on this day, unfortunately, so I was in a bit of a fog and had a lot of trouble coordinating my footwork with my striking. Despite that, though, I did at least do well at maintaining a good high guard, and just working that into automatic reflex is a very valuable thing, so it still felt like a useful class even if it was a poor performance for me.
