Morik's training log

Discussion in 'Training Logs' started by Morik, Oct 6, 2016.

  1. Knee Rider

    Knee Rider Valued Member Supporter

    Are you getting enough water Morik? I have found that a pounding head during training is usually caused by dehydration.
     
  2. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Yeah I think I was low on hydration. I had maybe 60 oz so far that day when I went to class. I drank maybe another 15 oz at class. For a guy my size I probably need more.
     
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  3. Knee Rider

    Knee Rider Valued Member Supporter

    Sounds like it. I've been in a similar situation a few times. It sucks!
     
  4. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Saturday January 6

    I've been thinking about my cardio/conditioning. I don't like running at all, but want to start doing some sort of conditioning outside of Muay Thai.
    I just recently moved, and 5 minutes from my new house is a local athletic club, fairly cheap, with a well equipped gym and a pool. I just signed up for a membership today and plan to start swimming at least once a week, hopefully more. I used to swim competitively as a kid & teen, and have always liked swimming.

    My thinking is eventually I want to be doing BJJ, Muay Thai, swimming, and weight lifting. Though I have no idea how I'd fit it all in.
    The vague plan in my head is to keep at Muay Thai for a while (at least til I get to the advanced classes), then when I want to jump back into BJJ cut down to 1 Muay Thai day a week (for 2 hours, beginner + advanced) for some time while I attend BJJ fundamentals classes for a few months. I could also continue shadow boxing & doing bagwork on my own.
    And then switch to something like 2x BJJ, 2x Muay Thai (beginner + advanced class) per week.

    Though reality is quite far from that right now--I struggle to get to 2 classes a week consistently. Or to do grip training consistently.
    I want to start going to 3 a week to get a beginners class with each different Kru.
    It will take time, but I try to keep building better training/exercise habits over time.
    So right now my goal is 2-3 Muay Thai, 1 weight training, 1+ swim, 3 grip training. And I would like to find some time to do more shadowboxing & bag work. Right now I don't really have any specific days/time I've set aside for that.
    Recording & analyzing takes a while, so probably without video mostly. Though I'd like to get a video every now and then to see how I progress over time. Maybe once every month or two.

    Weight Training, 1 hour

    First session in 3 weeks, so we went a little light.
    2 sets of clams (12x per leg), blue resistance band
    single arm lateral pulldown, 8x per arm, 80lb (pulley thing, so ~40-55lb)

    3 rounds of
    Half-kneeling high row with external shoulder rotation at the end, 8x per arm, 40 lb (pulley thing)
    Step ups with a 15 lb fat grip dumbbell, 8x per leg. I had no knee pain at all, these felt smooth & controlled. I'm really happy with how they feel now compared to ~6 months ago.
    Tall kneeling lat pulldown, 8x per arm, 200 lb (pulley thing)
    Bird dogs, 6x per side, burgundy cook band


    Grip training (Prohands & CoC)

    Crush 10x xx-hvy
    Hook 10x heavy
    Finger play 10x each finger, 10x (total) various finger combos, light
    tripod 10x x-hvy
    trigger 10x xx-hvy
    thumb press 10x heavy (2 buttons)
    power pinch 10x heavy (go up)
    crush 10x xx-heavy

    coc trainer 7x, 5x, 3x. Right hand too light, left struggles.
    coc #0.5 3 second hold with each hand as far closed as I could get it (1x)
    finger extension 10x white, 10x green, 10x green
     
    Last edited: Jan 6, 2018
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  5. Knee Rider

    Knee Rider Valued Member Supporter

    Those sound like more than achievable goals mate. Good luck.

    My missus used to be well into her swimming and I'd like to start too (although I was always hated swimming as a kid). Like you I don't know where I'll fit it in but I'm hoping we can go together to make it a joint activity. As you have a family maybe you guys can all go together and you can slip training into family time? Win win!
     
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  6. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Saturday Jan 6 addendum

    I went swimming for 30 minutes. I was panting a bit after 1 or 2 laps and had to slow down. I did breast stroke when I needed to breathe, and otherwise back stroke or freestyle.
    I was sweaty after leaving the pool & drying off, and got my heart pumping pretty good during the swim. I think this will be very good for me. And it may help with the shoulder too.

    Unfortunately my wife doesn't care for swimming at all. It would be really nice if she did, but such is life.
     
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  7. Knee Rider

    Knee Rider Valued Member Supporter

    As someone with a dodgy shoulder I'd be interested to see how the swimming helps you there. Good luck!
     
  8. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Sunday Dec 7

    Swam for 30 minutes. I had an easier time today than yesterday, so I pushed a bit harder. I did a couple sprints which got me panting pretty hard, a good amount of freestyle, some backstroke, and a lot of breast stroke to slow my breathing down.
     
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  9. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Tuesday Dec 9

    Monday I had a migraine so I didn't make it to class.

    30 minutes swimming. Mostly breast stroke, some freestyle, a little bit of back stroke.

    Grip training:
    Crush 10 xx-hvy
    Hook 10x heavy
    Finger play 10x each finger, 10x (total) various finger combos, light
    tripod 10x hvy (tried going up to x-hvy--couldn't do it with good form on the left).
    trigger 10x xx-hvy
    thumb press 10x heavy (2 buttons) (go up)
    power pinch 10x x-hvy (go up, maybe 2 buttons on medium)
    crush 10x xx-heavy
    coc trainer 8x, 5x, 3x. left struggles, but doing a bit better.
    coc #0.5 5 second hold, left struggle
    finger extension 3 sets of 8, green band

    My left hand is quite weaker than my right. My right hand blows through these and doesn't really fatigue. With my left I can close most reps now, but burn the muscle out almost completely. E.g., I can't type effectively afterwards with my left for a few minutes (or at all for the first minute).
     
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  10. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Wednesday Dec 10

    I've been getting exertion headaches throughout most of last week (bad enough to take 4 ibuprofen on 2 different days, and mildly on another), so I took 400mg of ibuprofen prior to class.
    I could feel a headache being muted by the ibuprofen towards the end of class, so I'm glad I did. I'm going to do this for 2-3 weeks and see how it goes after that.

    1 hour Muay Thai, beginners class

    The warm-up was two 3-minute rounds of jump-rope. I did reasonably on the first round, but not so great on the second.
    Then we grabbed a partner, gloves, and pads.

    For #1-#4, the padholder called which combo to do, and could choose the same one multiple times in a row.
    For #5, padholder paused for different lengths of time before the jab so we couldn't just slide right after throwing the cross.

    1) jab, rear kick. Or cross, switch kick.
    2) hook, cross, rear kick. Or cross, hook, switch kick.
    3) knee or switch knee (with optional modified clinch).
    4) double knee, or double switch knee (with optional modified clinch).
    5) jab, cross, slide to dodge padholder's jab, cross, rear kick.

    I had trouble with my breathing for most of class. I had to pause for 10-20 seconds once or twice during each drill.
    Hopefully with a rest day tomorrow I'll be better in class on Friday.
     
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  11. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Friday Dec 12

    Muay Thai, beginners class, 70 minutes

    I thought about doing grip work yesterday, but my forearms were pretty tender when I stretch or rub them, so figured I'd give them a break.
    My calves have been pretty beat up for the past two days, my left shoulder is still injured, right shoulder mildly tweaked maybe, and my lower back on the right side is irritated. All relatively minor though. I almost skipped class due to the calves & other issues to recover more, but ended up going. I forgot to take ibuprofen though.

    I thought I was in trouble before class even started--I did some stretching & moved around a little, then hit a bag for maybe 20 seconds with 0 power (no gloves, went just touch contact, same for the kicks). I was starting to breathe a little hard and sweat after this (the stretching + the bag)...

    The warm-up was three 3-minute rounds of jump-rope with 10 push-ups after each round. My calves started cramping a little way into the first round. I had to take lots of breaks for my calves, and in the 2nd & especially 3rd round to breathe. I got a second wind pretty quick after the jump-rope was over.

    We grabbed pads & gloves. I worked in a group of 3, which was a good pace for me (we switched pads every round and alternated reps). I was able to do the whole class without having to stop to breathe.

    I don't remember all the drills or the order due to how we were switching things up. I think there were 5 or 6 exercises, so 10 or 12 total rounds.
    I recall working on:
    jabs/crosses/elbows
    punching, then long guard against padholder aggression, then switch kick
    some combo with punches & sok sab elbow (new to me)
    more punching then defending with long guard, countering with teep and then more long guard, a couple punches/elbows and then a kick

    We also talked about boxing within our frame & not flaring the elbows out on punches & elbows.

    No headache, and I felt pretty good after class.
     
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  12. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Saturday Dec 13

    It's my right shoulder, not left, that is injured--misspoke in my last post. Left shoulder is mildly tweaked maybe (I think it may be better).

    Weight training, 1 hour

    I tried to work on my shoulders some before starting, using a softball. Rolled legs with a foam roller and hit my low back with trigger point stuff.


    Clams, 15x per leg, 2 sets blue band

    2 rounds:

    Cable lateral pulldown 12x per arm 80lb

    Z press 10kg (prep for rotation, checking shoulder)

    Z press with rotation. It stretched out the irritated portion of my back--I was having trouble with posterior pelvic tilt. It also loosened up my injured shoulder. Trainer thinks it is a mild pull since it doesn't bother me in most positions. I have therapeutic massage booked for it next week.

    Single arm pulldown cable 200lb 12x/arm

    Bird dogs burgundy cook band, 8x per side

    Trx split squat 8 per leg, then 5 per leg 2nd round

    I probably won't swim later, but will probably swim tomorrow.
     
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  13. icefield

    icefield Valued Member

    Can I ask what injury is your trainer helping you recover from?
     
  14. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    My right shoulder has had some pain on certain external rotational movements. There isn't a diagnosis on it. (My trainer has encouraged me to get it checked out, but it has been mild enough that I keep not getting it checked out). If I stretch my right arm across my body with my left arm, and then move my right hand like I would if I wanted to grip my back, it is moderately uncomfortable with some pain. Prior to injury this isn't at all uncomfortable/painful.)
    Pulling my right elbow in tight to my ribs, pointing my arm forward with my palm facing inward towards me, if I swing my arm out (keeping elbow tight to ribs) so that my arm is pointing to my right instead of straight ahead, is also moderately uncomfortable with some pain.

    My trainer thinks it is likely a strain/pulled muscle, as I don't get pain or discomfort in most positions/movements, and it hasn't been getting worse, and the overall level of discomfort and pain is not very high.

    I've done something similar to this shoulder before, both in BJJ & in Muay Thai. I seem to injure both my shoulders (mildly) somewhat frequently in Muay Thai, most likely during pad work. I do not engage my lats properly when doing a lot of shoulder stuff (which is something my trainer is working on), and I think I don't really use them when catching hooks on pads. I do try to meet the hook, but if I mis-time it or if my partner is blasting it, I think I end up hyper-extending my shoulder sometimes. (While my shoulder has been injured I ask my partner to go light on the hooks.)

    I used to have knee pain on a lot of stuff (stairs, jumping, etc), though my trainer has corrected that--no pain now on step-ups or going up/down stairs. We are progressing to trx split-squats, then unassisted split-squats, then lunges, he told me today.

    My low back also has persistent issues. My trainer is starting to get me to do more low back rotation as it seems to help loosen those muscles. Earlier in the session he had me lie on my back and press my low back into the ground. That was uncomfortable and it felt like it was tugging on muscles to do so. After the rotations that was much looser, so he said we will work on doing more of that.

    One common theme with me is that my body doesn't have proper movement patterns in a lot of cases. E.g., I use my shoulders without properly engaging my lats. I wasn't using my leg muscles properly (causing the knee pain). I basically never braced my abs during any movements/lifts/etc (which contributed to my ongoing back issues, I'm sure). I still have trouble with that, though I've gotten a lot better. When I started doing BJJ I kept (mildly) injuring my shoulders, irritating my knee, and irritating my back mainly due to this issue, I believe.

    The work with this trainer has helped a lot, I think. We work on recruiting the correct muscles for whatever the movement is. My knee has been completely pain free for a while now--I hadn't been using my hamstrings much at all during most leg movements and this imbalance was causing the knee pain. We are currently working on shoulder & hip stability.
     
  15. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Sunday Dec 14

    I went to a yoga class today but left part-way through. My wife goes somewhat regularly and usually picks easy classes. I tagged along thinking of getting in some stretching and light movement.

    Today it was an intermediate flow claas and my arms and legs were just too tired.

    Anyway the class was 75 minutes but about 30 minutes in I felt I wasn't really doing anything and left. (I had been spending a lot of time in child's pose.)

    I'll rest the rest of today, plan to swim and maybe do some shadow boxing tomorrow (holiday, no Muay Thai), and take Tues as another rest day.
     
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  16. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Thursday Dec 18

    I did the Habit test and got the results recently. It says I handle fats poorly, but carbs well. They suggest 18-35% of my calories as protein, with a suggested macro ratio of 45% carbs, 35% protein, and 20% fats due to how my body handles fats. They say to eat fiber-rich carbs and very lean protein.

    I've been really lazy this week. I didn't exercise since last Saturday. Mostly lazy, wasn't feeling well yesterday or I'd have gone to Muay Thai.
    The intermittent fasting was going well until this past weekend. I mostly stuck to the schedule, but my eating went into a death spiral (ice cream for dinner -> really hungry & low energy during fasting the next day -> feel not so great, compensate with more bad food -> repeat).

    I think one issue is that I wasn't getting enough calories last week. With both swimming & Muay Thai, and the fasting, I think I ended up with just 1300-1500 some days. To maintain weight I need around 3200 calories last I checked, on each day in a week on average, and that is counting around 3 exercise days (2 Muay Thai + 1 weight training). I didn't adjust for swimming. In the past I usually go for 2300+ per day, but haven't really been keeping track. And when I have salad with chicken for lunch with just a bit of dressing, that isn't a lot of calories. I've started adding some bread (7 grain) when I have that for lunch.

    My snacks were low calorie as well that week (mostly veggies). So I think I kinda flipped into starvation mode after a week of insufficient calories building up and just sorta went nuts on eating and stopped wanting to move around at all. I'll try to be more conscious of how many calories I'm getting over the course of a few days, and maybe break fasting if necessary to get extra calories. Though I hope to fit them in during an 8-hour eating window, it is hard if I follow Habit's advice (which means I probably don't want to do a lot of peanut butter/similar high fat snacks, which are the ones I find easy to use to add calories).


    I swam for around 40 minutes today, mostly breast stroke with some freestyle & backstroke. Then I hit the hot tub for about 5 minutes, while pondering whether to try ice baths like axelb. I bet I could keep something like 10 ice packs in the freezer (if I can make enough room) and add those to a tub full of cold water to accomplish it... I may actually give that a shot some time... though I imagine it is pretty uncomfortable.
     
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  17. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    I read up a bit more on ice baths & I think I won't do them as a regular thing. They sound helpful for certain types of injuries though.

    If I want better recovery it sounds like doing a cool-down after more intense exercise is good. I could shadow box for 5-10 minutes after class before I drive home, and stretch there. I don't always stretch, but when I do its been at home an hour or more later (generally when my muscles are warmer from showering).

    I'll see how I feel as I ramp up on exercise, and play around with adding a cool-down if needed.
     
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  18. axelb

    axelb Master of Office Chair Fu

    Ice baths seem to be most effective for soreness in the legs and lower back, mostly for the logistical reason that they submerge easiest. Some people submerge their upper body also, but it is were your organs live so your body won't react well to it.

    In winter in only doing it for about 5-6 minutes as it is a lot colder than it was on summer. Most research I saw said for the average athlete don't do more than 10 minutes, and get out if it feels like your skin is burning.

    Followed with a quick hot shower to take the cold edge of the skin.

    General soreness is a good sign as the inflammation is related to muscle repair, but if you have another session coming up it helps reduce that inflammation enough to have a quality training session.
     
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  19. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Friday Jan 19

    Hah, I just realized I've been putting "Dec" as the month for the past couple weeks... oops.

    I woke up a bit early today, with about an hour less sleep than usual. This was so I could get to a therapeutic massage appointment without cutting too far into work time. This was the deeper type of massage I mentioned earlier--they call it neuromuscular therapy. Anyway I had a 90 minute massage focusing on my right shoulder & low back. The right shoulder had a lot of tenderness overall, and my infraspinatus was referring pain/discomfort directly to the area that feels injured when I move my arm as described a few posts up (which feels like my upper deltoid, but I could be off--I forgot to ask her which muscle was right where the pain is). She assigned me homework: I'm to roll my infraspinatus on a lacross ball against a wall and stretch the pec on that side every day. She wants me to come back for one follow on appointment in a few weeks, which I plan to do.

    My excuse-making mechanism is a wily devil. I had to struggle with it to get to class today. Between the hour less sleep, how cold it is*, and being unsure about whether I need to let the shoulder rest from the massage**, but I did end up going. I took 400mg of ibuprofen before class to prevent exertion headache, but I don't think it was necessary in hindsight.

    Muay Thai, beginners class, ~70 minutes

    I got to the gym early and did my usual active yoga type stuff for my back:
    - cross feet at the ankles while lying down, rock hips left & right
    - both feet flat on floor with knees bent, drop both knees to the floor on each side, keeping the knees together the whole time
    - cat/cow
    I also stretched, especially my shoulder, and did some hip/leg movements.
    I usually get to the gym early & do the above, and then shadow box/hit a bag with no power for a bit. I think I've read or heard though that stretching prior to exercise isn't as effective as stretching afterwards.

    The warm-up today was three 3-minute rounds of jump-rope with 10 push-ups after each round. I caught the rope in my feet a lot and also needed a few breathing or leg fatigue breaks during the 2nd & 3rd round. Afterwards I was able to recover relatively fast I think, though it helped I held pads first.

    We drilled:
    - jab; jab, cross; jab, cross, hook
    - jab, cross, rear uppercut, lead hook, lead body hook (My partner & I messed up, there was supposed to have a been body cross in there somewhere)
    - jab, jab, cross, rear uppercut, lead hook, lead body hook
    - jab, cross, teep, cross, not sure what was after that
    - jab, cross, teep, superman punch, switch kick
    - cross, hook, rear kick, teep, superman punch

    We spent some time talking about the technique for superman punch (and the Thai name for it), and how to set it up in Muay Thai.


    I felt really good this class. I was able to strike with higher power and didn't really gas out. I didn't throw my kicks very strongly for the most part though.
    One issue I haven't mentioned is that I think I bruised my knuckle bone. A while ago now (not sure exactly, at least a month I think), I had asked the Kru how to throw the long hook (much straighter arm) properly. I was practicing it before class attempting for light contact on a heavy bag (wraps on, no gloves), as I often do. But the technique he showed me (which is how he says he likes to do it) involves sort of corkscrewing my arm a bit, and that added more power than I was expecting. That day in class I noticed maybe half-way through that it was starting to feel bruised, and figured I just bruised it normally. But it took a long time to start getting better--for a while (3 weeks?) just putting my gloves on would press on it and hurt with a bruised-like feeling, which got worse when I closed them to a fist. But overall relatively minor pain. More recently putting on gloves doesn't make it hurt, but it does start feeling bruised and gets progressively more painful for the rest of class, even if I pull back on striking power. I haven't mentioned it because it has been relatively minor, but today striking harder got it pretty painful which prompted me to talk to my Kru about it. He suggested icing it and putting more layers of wrap on my knuckle area when wrapping up (I usually do 3 times around the knuckles).

    * The gym isn't heated well--I couldn't feel my feet/toes at all when I was putting my shoes on after class, and they took a while to get feeling back. The rest of me was warm enough though once we warmed up.

    ** I may have messed it up more today... My partner was blasting hooks at first and I had him go slower, but when we got to the superman punches a few of them landed with a lot of force on the very top part of the pad, and hyper-extended my arm back with a bit of pain, despite me trying to meet it with the pad. This was just due to the angle I think--after having that happen twice holding the pad a lot higher helped. I did talk to my partner about it but I needed to ask him maybe 4 times to tone the power down.
     
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  20. Morik

    Morik Well-Known Member Supporter MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Saturday Jan 20

    My knuckle is pretty sore--there was some discoloration yesterday & today, and it is pretty tender (in a bruised-like way). I'm hoping it is just discomfort and it will heal eventually, and that I'm not damaging it with continued striking. I should probably not use a ton of power on my left for a few weeks...

    Weight training, 1 hour

    Clams, 15x /leg, 2 sets

    2 rounds:
    Single arm lateral cable pulldown 80lb
    Zpress with back rotation 10kg 3 rotations per side
    Bird dogs 8x per leg burgundy cook band
    Hip thrusters 8x per leg

    Then:
    Trx pec stretch
    Cook band assisted high plank with sandbag drag 4 rounds of 15 sec on 15 sec off.

    I need to get back to my grip training--I'll do that later today or tomorrow.
     
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