Fri 4/5 Sleep: 8.5 hours (7.5 restful) Hrv: 67 Recovery score: 96% I noticed my HR while taking my HRV in the morning has been creeping down--it started in the low 70s last week, now it is in the low to mid 60s. I have been fasting since dinner last night and plan to break it at around 22-24 hours with dinner tonight. Shoulder maintenance session 1, 2 sets with blue theraband on each side: - 5 push-ups - 20x abduction - 20x external rotation @ neutral - 20x reverse fly Shoulder maintenance session 2, 2 sets with blue theraband on each side: - 6 push-ups - 20x abduction - 20x external rotation @ 90 - 12x Y-fly Swimming for cardiac output
Sat 4/6 Sleep: 10.5 hours (9 restful) Hrv: 59 Recovery score: 62% Strength training I felt really lethargic today, I did a few sets of rows and otherwise just stretched and did rolling/trigger point.
I've noticed my HR has been higher when taking my HRV this week; mid 70s to low 80s. Sun 4/7 Sleep: 11 hours (9.75 restful) Hrv: 62 Recovery: 87% This is a lot more sleep than I usually get... I don't know why I am sleeping so much. My wife did get a cold starting a few days before this, she theorizes maybe I'm fighting it off... or maybe I needed more sleep to recover from higher exercise load the prior week, as I'm not used to doing multiple 2 hour Muay Thai classes. Mon 4/8 Sleep: 9.25 hours (8 restful) Hrv: 64 Recovery: 91% Migraine all day. Tues 4/9 Sleep: 9.75 hours (7.25 restful) Hrv: 73 Recovery: 76% Head still felt off all day, but not bad like Monday. Weds 4/10 Sleep: 8 hours (6.75 restful) Hrv: 55 Recovery: 53% Head got worse again today, not as bad as Monday though. Thurs 4/11 Sleep: 7 hours (6.25 restful) Hrv: 72 Recovery: 80% My work team had a team outing where we raced go-karts. My left knee & left shoulder have been a bit messed up since (nothing major, but some pain with certain motions). I was thinking of going to Muay Thai but on top of the knee & shoulder my head feels like I'm still on the verge of the migraine coming back. Shoulder exercise: (blue theraband, 1 set) 10x abduction 20x external rotation @ 0 20x external rotation @ 90 20x reverse fly 10x y-fly 5x push-ups... my right wrist has been bugging me the past week or two when doing pushups. In an attempt to get my wrist on the mend, I did a grip workout finally (~3 months since my last one): Crush 10 xx-hvy Hook 10 x-hvy Finger play 10 each finger, medium tripod 2x10, light trigger 10 xx-hvy thumb press 2x10 x-hvy, 2 buttons power pinch 2x10 heavy, 2 buttons crush 10 xx-heavy coc trainer 2x6 (closed) coc #0.5 2x4 (left couldn't close) finger extension 15x white, 14x green, 12x yellow I may go to Muay Thai tomorrow, if I don't I'll try to at least walk on the treadmill a bit and/or swim. I do plan to go to next Monday's class.
Tues 4/23 I've been pretty terrible about getting exercise in the past few weeks. There are various excuses for a few of the days, but they are just excuses. I've done 2 20-30 minute treadmill walks, and just now I did a few minutes (more than 5, less than 10) of shadow boxing hoping to get my body a little warmed up for Muay Thai tomorrow, which I plan to go to for 2 hours. I've been tracking HRV & sleep, but I think I'll stop posting it here as it takes a bit more time than I'd like. My weight is back up around 300 lb, and has been for a few months now. I have started fasting again--I did a couple ~18 hour fasts recently, and a ~24 hour one today that I may break soon, or I may wait til tomorrow morning to break it. My right wrist is still not good. I made an appointment with an orthopedics doctor a week from now, as its been at least 3 weeks and it isn't really getting better. I haven't done any of my regular Saturday weight training recently. I expect to be back at that this Saturday too.
Weds 4/24 I only managed one hour of Muay Thai today--I was running real low on energy by the end and left after the beginner class. I only did half the warm-up jump rope round as I was running late, so maybe 90 seconds. Then we threw a bunch of kicks into a kick shield for more warm-up. We worked on attack/defense drills: punches into a defender parrying/deflecting/blocking/bridging, trying to break through their guard (but not wallop each other). Towards the end of class we incorporated some pivots/passes followed up with a body kick on defense. I got a headache a few hours after class, hopefully it won't keep me from sleeping well tonight.
Sat 4/27 Strength training: just a few sets of lightish deadlifts & a few sets of rows, otherwise stretching. Was low energy... probably diet & sleep. I had a bunch of ice cream and other crap the past few days, and hadn't been sleeping well til last night (10.5 hours of sleep, catching up after a few nights of ~6 hours). I got up an hour before my workout, I usually need a few hours to feel all the way awake/energetic. Hand therapy Started hand therapy for my left thumb. 10 reps of 5 exercises, 2 times per day with theraputty. 2 point pinch (thumb & index fingertips) pinch and pull (thumb, index, middle, pinch putty, pull up) thumb flexion (thumb across palm of hand pushing into palm) lateral pinch (push thumb into side of index finger) grip (putty in palm, grip with all fingers and thumb) Shoulder maintenance 2 sets on each side with blue resistance band: - 10x abduction - 20x external rotation @ neutral - 20x external rotation @ 90 - 20x reverse fly - 10x y-fly Grip training Crush 10 xx-hvy Hook 10 x-hvy Finger play 10 each finger, medium tripod skipped (hand therapy covers) trigger 10 xx-hvy thumb press skipped (hand therapy covers) power pinch skipped (hand therapy covers) crush 10 xx-heavy coc trainer 2x6 (closed) coc #0.5 2x4, left almost but not quite closed all finger extension 15x white, 14x green, 12x yellow, 10x blue (hard to move, didn't extend much) Swam for 35 minutes (130 avg bpm), then 10 minutes in the hot tub, a cold shower, 7.5 minutes in the steam room, another cold shower.
Mon 4/29 Muay Thai, advanced class + hour of sparring Class started with a round of jump-rope, then a round of shadow boxing. We worked with just kick shields today. Low kicks, teeps, setting up various things like the Senchai fake rear teep into flying front teep. We also worked the question mark kick, both on its own and setting it up off of leg kicks & teeps. Then we did an hour of sparring. I sat out every other round or so (occasionally did 2 in a row). At the end I did 2 rounds in a row and then we clinched for a couple rounds. The last few minutes on the HR monitor were sweeping the mats, I didn't stop it til afterwards. One big thing I need to work on is not trying to drop my arms down to block leg kicks... I have this instinctive reaction to just drop one or both arms trying to deflect or block or something when there is an incoming leg kick. Not only does this not work, it opens up my head. Other than that I feel like I did ok for being new to sparring, though everyone was going really easy on me. I eat a good number of kicks, which is another thing to work on (both leg & body kicks)... but I also got off some decent combos.
Tues 4/30 Walked ~51 minutes on a treadmill @ 2mph (~1.7 miles). Average HR: 114 BPM. I haven't been doing much foam rolling/triggerpoint recently... I am going to try to remember to do so tonight when I get home.
I skinned the top of my foot kind of badly in class on 4/29, so I skipped the 5/1 class. I maintained my poor sleep schedule and diet, and didn't really do any exercise the rest of the week. (I have been keeping up with my left hand's thumb therapy exercises twice daily, aside from a few days when I forgot to do the 2nd set.) Then I missed my usual Sat strength training due to my stomach being off (from poor eating choices the night before)... and then I mildly strained my right glute moving a big rug later on Saturday. I kept out of class this week so far because of the strained glute & the still healing top of my foot. I plan to be back in class next week. I was also avoiding swimming due to the top of the foot having an open wound, but it has closed enough now that I feel comfortable swimming today. The glute feels almost normal again today. My right wrist is still messed up. I saw the orthopedic Dr. who says that it is a strained tendon, and that likely my overly-flexible joints caused it (hyper-extending the tendon or something) when I was doing something with the wrist loaded. She told me to rest it for a few weeks and then give a new therapy prescription to the hand therapist to work on alongside my left hand's thumb stuff. 5/8 Shoulder maintenance, session 1, 2 sets on each side with blue theraband: - 10x abduction - 20x external rotation @ 0 - 10x y-fly Walked 2 miles on a treadmill, at 2mph. Avg HR was 115 bpm. I should really start doing this more frequently. I can work while I walk (its one of those treadmill desks), so there aren't really any good reasons not to do it pretty frequently. Bad reasons include it makes me sweaty in my work clothes, and I can't be bothered to bring a change of clothes (and generate 2x as much laundry), so I end up sweaty for a bit (not soaked, but still pretty sweaty). Also laziness. Shoulder maintenance, session 2, 2 sets on each side with blue theraband: - 10x abduction - 20x external rotation @ 90 - 20x reverse fly Also 5 push-ups (on my knuckles, can't load the wrist in other positions due to that injury). I need to do these more frequently and build up a bit bigger volume than 5 at a time . I noticed yesterday my shoulder was a bit off, very minor. But it seems to be starting to trend downward again, likely due to me not doing the maintenance exercises recently. I will try to do them pretty frequently for a few weeks. Swam for 30 minutes (cardiac output), avg HR was 130 bpm. Then ~5 minutes in the steam room, followed by a cold shower. (I find the cold shower helps me not sweat for an excessive length of time after showering, though I still sweat some...)
I slept super poorly last night... I think too much exercise after too much not-exercising. I was wide awake at bed time, but also exhausted, kind of like being full of coffee on little sleep. I went to bed around 1:20 am (I should have gone to bed earlier but was just feeling so awake I didn't try), it took ~90 minutes for me to fall asleep, I woke up several times feeling wired but exhausted, and then finally woke up at 7:10 am or so and stayed in bed until 8:30 or so, when I got up as I figured there wasn't much chance of falling back asleep. So under 4 hours of restful sleep, HRV was 59. Walked 30 minutes on the treadmill @ 2mph, avg HR 108 bpm.
I spent maybe 30 minutes foam rolling/stick rolling/triggerpoint last night--hopefully that will help loosen up my legs/calves. My right ankle had been bugging me occasionally while walking/etc. It seems to have helped some based on how things felt today. Slept a little better... 6.5 hours, HRV was 68 this morning. Still less than I'd like (woke up a lot, took a long time falling asleep, etc). Fasting today, last meal was around 9 or so last night. I will break the fast at around 23 or 24 hours for dinner tonight. Shoulder maintenance, session 1, 2 sets on each side with blue theraband: - 12x abduction - 20x external rotation @ 0 - 12x y-fly Walked ~30 minutes @ 2mph on a treadmill. Avg HR was 109 bpm. I felt a migraine coming on around the time I started walking... and I'm out of my prescription for helping with that. (I had requested another via a mail-order pharmacy and didn't notice it was unable to fill.) So I took some over the counter medication with caffeine in it and 2 different pain killers (I think ibuprofen & acetaminophen). That was around 3:30 pm, I'm hoping the caffeine doesn't keep me up. It was less caffeine than a cup of coffee, but I know having coffee after 1 pm or so tends to keep me up. Better than a migraine though. Shoulder maintenance, session 2, 2 sets on each side with blue theraband: - 12x abduction - 20x external rotation @ 90 - 20x reverse fly Also 8 push-ups (on my knuckles). Swam for cardiac output, ~35 minutes, avg HR was 134 bpm. Lately I've been doing a brisk breast stroke for most of the time, with a very occasional length (1/2 lap) of freestyle or back stroke, but today I did a bit more of freestyle & backstroke. Then 9 minutes in the steam room followed by a ~10 minute cold shower. I'm still seating a good bit now (~25 minutes later), but the cold shower definitely helps some.
Saturday 5/11 Strength Training 16kg kettlebell single arm press and hold with 8 leg raises and 8 ankle circles, 2 sets each side Sandbag pull apart with black resistance band step out, 12 steps each side, 2 sets Trapbar deadlift 125lbx1x5 175x1x8 225x3x8 Interleaved the last 3 sets with yellow resistance band wall glides (12) Half kneeling single arm cable row 200lbx2x12 (on pulley it's not actually 200) Hip adductor rocking stretch & half kneeling hip flexor stretch
Sunday -- rest Monday 5/13 Walked 35 minutes at 2mph, avg HR was 109 BPM. Muay Thai, advanced class + fight team sparring We started with 5 minutes of jump rope (I still have to take breaks to breathe and sometimes for my calves, but not as often as I used to). Then we did a bunch of kicking for further warm-up. Low kicks of various sorts into kick shields, and body kicks into Thai pads. Go for 2 minutes, then swap to holding pads/kick shield, repeated several times. After that we did a bunch of sparring drills: - Jabs only (but can throw a large variety of jabs, as Kru pointed out and demonstrated) - Jabs + low kicks - Jabs + low kicks + lead teeps - One partner only punches (any punches), other partner only kicks (any kicks), then swap & repeat - One partner only tries to clinch, other partner only punches, then swap & repeat - The last two drills again (another 4 rounds total) with a new partner I was paired up with one of the fighters, and he was fairly intense for me in terms of pace & how much power he was using (not heavy sparring, by any means, but a good bit more than the super light technical sparring). I had to sit out for some, as I was gassing out and unable to do anything really but shell up. The first break was a little before 1 hour where my HR falls into the green zone. I came back in for a bit and had to sit out again after. For the fight team sparring, we did some shadow boxing first, then a bunch of sparring rounds. I sat out every other round, and once for 2 rounds. Against people who were going really easy on me, I did ok at defending and attacking reasonably (I think). Some people went a bit more intense in terms of the pressure and I feel like I couldn't really do anything--I'd take a bunch of hits (and defend a few), and as soon as I try to strike back they are out of my range. I feel like I could see some openings some of them had, but I couldn't react or anticipate the opening in time to do anything with it. (E.g., one guy, a southpaw, was throwing a lot of body shots and his head was a bit open while doing that, but I didn't really figure that out til towards the end of the round, and when I did I couldn't really do anything with it as my strikes were really slow.) After that we did some clinching, where I feel a little more comfortable. I still have a ton to learn there too, but I feel like I have a little more idea what I'm doing.
Tuesday 5/14 I think I will record sleep & HRV sometimes, instead of always (which was too much of a pain) or never (where I have to go dig through an app that isn't very user friendly for viewing history easily). I'll record it when I think its relevant to stuff. 10th-11th (Fri night): 6.5 hours sleep (5 restful), HRV 66, recovery score 84%, felt fine & plenty of energy for the strength training I did. 11th-12th (Sat night): 9.75 hours sleep (7.25 restful), HRV 65, recovery score 89% 12th-13th (Sun night): 9.5 hours sleep (7.75 restful), HRV 69, recovery score 78%. I forgot to mention in Monday's log that I feel like I was able to push harder on the warmup & other stuff than usual, maybe due to the walking I started doing recently. Last night: 7 hours sleep, 5 restful. I feel like this is usually what happens when I work out harder than my body is used to... I woke up a lot and was unable to fall back asleep for a while, multiple times. HRV was 64, recovery score 86%... I haven't felt unduly tired today though. I am hopeful I'll get some better sleep tonight and be good for both the beginner & advanced Muay Thai classes tomorrow. If I'm feeling tired/don't sleep well, I'll probably just do the beginner class. Shoulder maintenance session 1, 2 sets on each side with blue theraband: - 15x abduction - 20x external rotation @ 0 - 15x Y-fly - 8 knuckle push-ups (one set only, at the end) Walked 45 minutes @ 2 mph on a treadmill, avg HR was 114 bpm. Shoulder maintenance session 2, 2 sets on each side with blue theraband: - 15x abduction - 20x external rotation @ 00 - 20x reverse fly - 8 knuckle push-ups (one set only, at the end) I'm going to try to remember to foam roll my legs & hips/glutes out pretty good tonight, as I'm a little sore everywhere.
Weds 5/15 Unfortunately I didn't get great sleep--turns out an inspection for some construction I have going on needed to happen at 7:30 am, and involved setting off all the fire alarms in the house multiple times. So I got 6.5 hours of sleep (5 restful). My HRV was 66, recovery score 89%. Walked 30 minute @ 2mph on a treadmill, avg HR was 112 bpm. Muay Thai, beginners class Traffic was terrible and I was running a bit late, came in with ~2 minutes of warm-up jump rope left. We got gloves, shin guards, and mouth guards in and worked with a partner on footwork drills off a switch or step kick. Things like floats or gallops to get back to your stance, and attacks or fakes off of that later. I got a bit winded at some points as we were kicking for a round, then switching to defense for a round. The last few drills we went 3 for 3. My right calf has been feeling pretty jacked up, so I only did 1 hour today.
5/16 I worked from home today so didn't do a walk. I've been fasting today. In general I've only been eating lunch and dinner lately, and occasionally just dinner (for a 24 hour fast). Swam for cardiac output, 1 hour, avg HR was 135 bpm. Then 10 minutes in the steam room, followed by a cold shower.
I've been thinking about my training schedule a lot lately. My eventual goal, which may be unrealistic (I'll have to see what my body can handle), would be something like: 3x muay thai (1-3 hours per session, usually 2 I think) 2x bjj 3-5x cardio (in addition to the walking I can do at work) 2-3x strength training (Varying # of cardio/strength sessions based on my current goals, focusing on either conditioning or strength at one time, not both.) If I do end up competing, I can adjust training. E.g., take a few months off bjj & do 4-5x muay thai if I want to compete there, or drop some or all muay thai for a few months to really pump the bjj if I want to compete there. I'd have to stack cardio & strength training & martial arts training on the same days sometimes. My thoughts around this are: - BJJ is probably more 'doable' at competition levels at an older age than Muay Thai is. - Maybe instead I just wait 5+ years before going into BJJ and just focus on Muay Thai... but I don't really want to wait. I may end up doing this option if I can't handle the load from both while still doing enough cardio & strength training. Right now, I am working on building up my conditioning/fitness to a level where I can ramp up training volume over time. Currently I am at (per week): - 2x Muay Thai, one 2-hour one 1-hour. - 1x strength training - 2-3x cardio conditioning I think in a couple more weeks I'd be able to handle two 2-hour Muay Thai sessions sustainably. Once I get a handle on that (maybe stay there a month or two), I'd add a 3rd for 1-2 hours. When I finish rehabbing my thumb & wrist (hopefully I get the thumb to a spot where I don't feel like it is really easy to re-injure in BJJ), I would probably drop the 3rd Muay Thai session temporarily and add 2-3 BJJ sessions a week, all fundamentals classes. No live rolling in those classes, just drilling, so it wouldn't be as tough on my body. Once I get a blue belt and feel like I have the fundamentals down well enough, I'd transition to 2x BJJ sessions a week (one Gi, one no-gi). I'm less concerned about getting really good at BJJ right now, and more interested in just starting the long learning process. My focus while I'm still relatively young would be on the Muay Thai. As I get older & scale back on Muay Thai I'd ramp up BJJ more and compete there if that is something that I am interested in. Ramping to 5 training sessions a week will be tough if I go really hard in all of them. My thought there is that I'd take the BJJ somewhat easy, focus on learning technique.
5/17 I got 8 hours of sleep, 7 restful. My HRV was 75, recovery score 51%. I was planning today as a rest day anyway. Shoulder maintenance session 1, 2 sets on each side with blue theraband: - 15x abduction - 20x external rotation @ 0 - 15x Y-fly Walked for 30 minutes @ 2mph, avg HR was 118 BPM. Shoulder maintenance session 2, 2 sets on each side with blue theraband: - 15x abduction - 20x external rotation @ 90 - 20x reverse fly
5/18 10 hours of sleep (8 restful), 72 HRV, 80% recovery score. Strength training was pretty light today. I had some discomfort in both elbow joints on certain movements, and my left knee has been bugging me for a few days as well. My trainer did a bunch of fascial scraping and we did some stretching as well. I got most movements feeling normal/smooth again, instead of feeling off/tight/tugging. I did a few sets of hamstring curls & single arm rows. I'm not terribly concerned with strength training right now--I do it 1/week to get some benefit over not lifting at all, and am focusing my energy into conditioning & building up training volume of Muay Thai + conditioning. So I am ok with spending a session working on recovery. I've been eating really well lately in terms of food quality. Very little junk or sweets. Last night I did get a 'cheat' meal compared to my usual meals, which was eggs benedict with chorizo hash, home fries style potatoes, and fried pickles with chili aioli. This is a big step up from my usual 'cheat' meals which would be things like a couple pints of ice cream or a massive amount of chocolate.
