Friday Feb 16 Muay Thai, beginners class, 70 minutes. The warm-up was three 3-minute rounds of jump-rope, with 10 push-ups after each round. I caught my feet a ton today, more than usual I think. My left achilles tendon was bothering me a bit, but very very minorly. More of an awareness that all is not well there, than actual pain/discomfort, so I went ahead with the jump-rope. (Where-as walking, sometimes when I step I get some mild to moderate discomfort.) I caught my feet so much I only had to pause for about three seconds to breathe in the 3rd round, once. (That never happens, I usually have to take five or more breaks in the 3rd round.) Depending on how it feels Monday I may talk to the Kru about an alternative warm-up that doesn't involve plyometrics. We paired off with pads & gloves for drills. I had my partner throwing really lightly to my left arm due to the shoulder injury, and I was throwing with no power at all on my left due to the knuckle. I did put a migraine strip on my knuckle before wrapping, and it worked really well--no discomfort when I clench a fist, nor when I was striking (usually some discomfort even at no power). And my knuckle isn't sore after class like it usually is, so I'm going to keep doing that. Drills (not sure I'm remembering them correctly, but I do recall all teeps were with the lead leg): 1. Jab, body cross, teep, hook, cross, hook 2. Jab, cross, teep, cross, switch kick 3, jab, body cross, teep, 2 rear kicks Swapped pads & repeated 1-3, then swapped back: 4. jab, body cross, teep, hook, cross, hook, rear kick 5. jab, body cross, teep, jab, cross, hook, cross, switch kick My partner held pads first, and I had to slow down to breathe some during the 2nd drill, and more during the 3rd. I was ok on 4 & 5 because I had 3 rounds to rest while holding pads. I wasn't kicking with much power. I hit my bone contusion a few times on the pad as they are sometimes held kind of wide, especially if I flexed my foot on the kick. So I ended up pointing my foot & mostly hitting with the lower part of the shin & top of the foot. I think next time I need to ask my partner to hold them pretty narrowly together so I can kick properly & not hit the contusion. (It's about 1/4 the way down my shin from the kneecap.) My left shoulder was feeling a bit worn down even though my partner was going light. I did keep my lat braced, and it felt like muscle fatigue was setting in in the shoulder (not the lat, but in the injured part). So not discomfort on the hits, but almost like I was trying to do too many reps in the gym with those shoulder muscles. I will talk to my trainer tomorrow to see about how to strengthen those muscles. My left achilles was hurting a bit during the drills, especially when I switch kicked (landing the switch & launching the kick were where it felt sore). I am not sure what to do about it, will ask my trainer for advice. I did stretch that calf pretty well before class. After the drills we did 5 minutes of ab exercises. I don't recall them all, but the last minute was a plank. I wasn't able to hold it. I was pretty worn out cardio-wise by the end of class, compared to Monday & Wednesday, though that is to be expected given I didn't do pad work on those days, but just lightly hit gloves.
It sounds like a worthwhile trip to the doctors! Plenty highlighted. With the skipping, I have similar issue which pain in my Achilles, or the muscles by the shin from my overpronation issues, it's not so bad with good footwear, but bare foot I can't go for long. If your Kru doesn't have alternative (but I imagine they would) you can work on the side to side jump rope technique, I find it useful for giving my lower legs a little break, without stopping the rhythm, then you can hop back into normal skipping easier.
Saturday Feb 17 Weight training, 1 hour I spent a good 10 minutes on my left calf with an eclipse roller and a softball. The achilles pain was entirely eliminated, no hint of it when walking. I'm ordering an eclipse roller for home--my calves could really use it. I also spent some time with triggerpoint dimples on both shoulders. We paused in the middle of the workout to roll out my quad/lateralis on the left side. I forget which exercise it was, but it was feeling tight/off. Rolling helped with that, though it felt tender during later exercise. I need to start rolling more often, right now I do it 1/week at weight training as my trainer always has me start with it, and at home very infrequently. Clams, blue band, 15x per leg, 2 sets 2 rounds: Bent over fat grip barbell rows, 8x Trx split squats 12x per side Fat grip farmers walk 40lb/hand Trx high row with external shoulder rotation 8x 1 set of 8 single leg hip thrusters on each side My trainer lent me a resistance tube with handles that I can use for low resistance external shoulder rotation exercises for the next week.
Last Monday (the 19th) was a holiday and I didn't do any training. I got sick on Tuesday night and have been sick since, bad cough with phlegm, feeling run down. Skipped training during the week & am also skipping strength training today. Hopefully I'll be better for class on Monday.
Still a bit sick... I don't think I'm going to be able to go to class tomorrow either--my lungs are still clearing out mucus and I can't breathe deeply without coughing still, but I'm feeling a lot better than before. I'll probably skip rope & do some shadow boxing at home tomorrow, depending how I feel. Grip work (prohands & CoC): Crush 10 xx-hvy Hook 10x heavy Finger play 10x each finger, light tripod 2 sets of 10, hvy trigger 10x xx-hvy thumb press 2 sets of 10, hvy, 2 buttons power pinch 2 sets of 10, medium, 2 buttons crush 10x xx-heavy coc trainer 7x, 5x, 3x (left not fully closed on last rep), 1x (left not fully closed) coc #0.5 5 second hold as far closed as I could, left couldn't close (but almost), right closed and was easy finger extension 15x white, 10x green, 10x green My left thumb has been really irritated lately (its always a bit irritated from past injuries, but has been worse the last few months). So I've added an additional set of the exercises I'm doing with it (tripod, thumb press, power pinch). Other exercise: external shoulder rotation with green resistance tube. 2 exercises (up/down, inside->outside), 2 sets of 12 reps of each exercise on each arm.
Still not fully well, but I got some movement in today. 3 minutes of jump-rope: I tried the lateral jumping axelb suggested (I failed to look up video first) and wasn't able to do much with it. I could do maybe 2 or 3 jumps (if that) before catching the rope on my feet due to the different jumping rhythm (I think). I'll have to look up some tutorials. So I mostly stuck to regular jumping. My left achilles has been mostly better, just a slight soreness occasionally when stepping/shifting weight on that leg. I haven't been rolling that calf out for a while as it is still tender to light contact (presumably from going at it with a softball + eclipse roller a few days in a row). I have an appointment with the neuro-muscular therapist tomorrow, so that should be enough. (I don't want to irritate it more before they get in there.) This one round had me breathing pretty hard afterwards. I also did three 5-minute rounds of shadow boxing. It hit my breathing a bit hard, but not to the point where I had to stop (though I was going pretty slow).
You'll get it with practise, I still struggle with that skip, mostly because I don't practise it enough, or crossovers. I mostly do it when I get started, or getting back in when I catch instead of putting the rope behind me.
Grip work (prohands/coc): Crush 10 xx-hvy Hook 10x heavy Finger play 10x each finger, light tripod 2 sets of 10, hvy trigger 10x xx-hvy thumb press 2 sets of 10, hvy, 2 buttons power pinch 2 sets of 10, hvy (couldn't do medium 2 buttons on the left) crush 10x xx-heavy coc trainer 7x, 5x (last 2 not closed on left), 3x (last 2 not closed on left), 1x (left not closed) coc #0.5 5 second hold as far closed as I could, left couldn't close, right closed and was easy finger extension 15x white, 10x green, 10x green I also kicked my heavy bag 10 times with each leg. I should do that regularly (maybe every day) for shin conditioning. I may build up the reps later, but 10 for now.
I've been back on my usual intermittent fasting (16 hours fast, 8 hours eat) for a couple days now. I had stopped when I got sick. I'm still not fully better from this cold, but probably better enough to go to class. However, the massage therapist I saw yesterday (who did a ton of good work on my left calf & both shoulders) told me not to go do an hour-long class today, and to go easy on the calf for a few days. My Achilles has been a bit irritated feeling anyway, so I opted to swim today instead. Swam for 1 hour, alternating laps of breast stroke & either freestyle or back stroke. 10 kicks on the heavy bag with each leg this morning, and another 10 kicks with each leg after swimming.
10 kicks to heavy bag on each leg in the morning. Strength training today, took it a bit easy as I'm still mildly sick and didn't get great sleep last night. Clams, 2 sets, 15 per leg, blue band 2 sets of 12 single arm lateral pulldown, 60lb Started to do step ups but my left knee hurt on the way up & on the way down, did trigger point and hip extension stretch (it was tight) with foot behind me on a medicine ball. Repeated that several times, testing step-ups. Got to no pain after also rolling out some tendon towards the outside front of my knee, above the knee cap with a peanut. TRX Pec stretch--deltoid felt funny on the left. various Indian club exercises for back and shoulders Hands wall walk, yellow resistance band around wrists, keeping arms long and shoulder width apart. Windmills on the ground with a foam roller for support of one leg.
Muay Thai, 1 hour, beginners class Got in my 10 kicks on the heavy bag with each leg prior to class. The warm-up was 4 minutes of jump rope (I needed a lot of breaks), and then 4 minutes of shadow boxing. We worked on slipping punches today. Things like, jab, cross, slip, cross. We also worked on 'splits', a term I hadn't heard before. It is where you strike as you slip. It is called a 'split' because your head goes to one side of the punch, and your punch goes on the other side of it. This class wasn't too bad cardio-wise, which was good for me. Though we did end with kick catches & teep parries: one person threw rear kick, switch kick, alternating over and over. The other person catches the kick. (This was with shin guards & not kicking hard.) Then after swapping so both partners have done it, we threw alternating front/rear teeps, which the other person parried. This was a bit of cardio--I was breathing a bit heavy by the end, but overall did ok. My achilles was fine, I plan to roll my calf with an eclipse roller & softball a bit later, and do some stretching for the calf.
Still sick! Day 14... this cold has been persistent. I am gradually still improving though... still occasionally coughing (a bit of chest congestion, but mostly cleared up), and my head is also a bit congested still. Energy levels are basically back to normal though I think. 10 kicks with each leg on my heavy bag this morning. I'm not sure I'll keep doing this regularly, but I've started (today) doing a 60 second plank occasionally. I did 2 today. I swam for 30 minutes, 50% breast stroke, 25% freestyle, 25% backstroke. Grip work (prohands/CoC): Crush 10 xx-hvy Hook 10x heavy Finger play 10x each finger, medium tripod 2 sets of 10, hvy trigger 10x xx-hvy thumb press 2 sets of 10, hvy, 2 buttons power pinch 2 sets of 10, medium, 2 buttons crush 10x xx-heavy coc trainer 8x (last rep not fully closed on left), 5x (not fully closed on left on last 4), 3x (2 not closed on left), 1x (not quite closed on the left) coc #0.5 5 second hold as far closed as I could, left couldn't close, right closed finger extension 15x white, 10x green, 10x green
10 kicks to the heavy bag with each leg this morning. Missed class due to the storm near me dumping snow.
Thurs the 8th & Fri the 9th I wasn't feeling well, worked from home & skipped exercise. (Stomach issues.) Saturday my weight trainer was not training, and I didn't do any make-up because I was being lazy. I'm not sure if I'll make it to class tonight (if so I'll post again), but I wanted to get some thoughts down. (I had about 2 hours driving to & consulting with the surgeon I'm talking about below, so have a bunch of work to catch up on.) I will be delaying checking out that other gym with the no-gi BJJ/MMA. I've decided to get a dermatofibroma removed from my leg--its a spot I keep catching, causing it to bleed sometimes in class/bagwork/etc. I imagine someone's leg or foot could also rip it open in grappling (it showed up after I stopped BJJ, so haven't tested that). That will require, according to the surgeon, at least 4 weeks no contact, preferably 6. I should be able to do most other exercise though (no swimming 2 weeks, but can run/skip rope/weight train/shadow box after probably 48 hours). I'm going ahead and getting one on my upper arm removed too, since I'll be out for the leg anyway. (The arm one doesn't really bug me often, I wouldn't bother with it if it was just the arm one. It gets itchy sometimes but that's it, no bleeding issues.) This should be similar to ~1.5 years ago (Nov 2016 in this thread), when I had one removed from my lower arm (that one bugged me a lot--I was constantly hitting it on things). So that is scheduled for early April. I hope I can stay motivated to exercise & keep some conditioning up.
Oh: Missed my 10 kicks a day on each leg from Thurs - Sat. Did them on Sunday, haven't done them yet today but will later.
Muay Thai, 1 hour, beginners class I did my 10 kicks with each leg prior to class. The warm-up was 5 minutes of jump-rope. I did ok... I was using a rope that was a bit short for me and caught my feet a good bit. Didn't get gassed or muscle fatigued, probably because of how much I caught the rope. After that was 3 minutes of shadow boxing with our gloves on. We paired off and drilled a bunch of kick defense, and also some kicker things. Defense was emphasized--properly keeping the other hand up when catching/parrying. - Catching kicks (going 10 kicks before swapping, 5 rear & 5 switch, alternating) - Catch the kick, then the kicker gets in close & goes heavy on their caught leg, transitioning into clinch as they get their leg free. - catching teeps (same thing, alternating front & rear teeps) - parrying alternating teeps - parrying & counter attacking off alternating teeps. Front teep parried -> cross, switch kick. Rear teep parried -> lead hook, rear kick - Same thing, but the teeping partner catches the kick at the end of the counter We finished with 2.5 minutes (total, not sure about the breakdown) at a heavy bag doing switch step knees, then alternating teeps, then back to switch step knees. My cardio was ok before the finisher. I was completely gassed at the end of it, and got a bit of an exertion headache. Took me about 40 minutes to recover (to the point where my headache was gone). Self Care Rotator cuff exercises (so I stop injuring my shoulders all the time). 10 lb resistance tube, 2 sets on each arm--10 reps in first set, 12 reps in second set. - external rotation at neutral (note to self: keep forearm parallel to the ground, I have a tendency to lift it a bit which makes the exercise a lot easier/less effective) - external rotation at 90-degree abduction I should add a wall crawl with external rotation. My weight trainer suggested doing these 3 or so times a week. I also foam rolled pretty well. My right glute was unable to relax on the drive home (left was fine), so I rolled that out pretty well, cursory rolling on the other side. Both quads were quite tender on the foam roller--I should roll them out regularly. My left calf I spent a few minutes on with an eclipse roller & a softball. I also do pelvic floor exercises daily, and have been doing so for roughly 5 months, though there were a few large gaps in there where I missed them for around a week.
Grip workout (prohands/CoC): Crush 10 xx-hvy Hook 10x heavy Finger play 10x each finger, medium tripod 2 sets of 10, hvy trigger 10x xx-hvy thumb press 2 sets of 10, hvy, 2 buttons power pinch 2 sets of 10, medium, 2 buttons crush 10x xx-heavy coc trainer 8x, 5x, 3x, 1x. Lots of problems closing it on the left today, only closed maybe 6 total. As usual no issues on the right, everything feels easy. I'm surprised at how large the strength difference is between the sides. coc #0.5 5 second hold as far closed as I could, left couldn't close, right closed & was easy finger extension 15x white, 12x green, 12x green (This is the only exercise where I appear to be about equal strength on both sides.)
reading your log reminds me I need to have a proper rotator cuff exercise plan. I do them infrequently and they are very good injury prevention. Foam roller always makes me cry on my quads and calves
