I'll be honest. It's 3am here in Britain and I'm a tad bored so I figured I may as well start a training log. It's a good way of making sure I stick to my routine and it always helps to get constructive criticism and feedback. 28 / March Was supposed to train eskrima for three hours this morning but I woke up late with a hangover so missed the class. Went for a 3 mile run in the evening and spent twenty minutes practicing to compensate. Not as good as an actual class but the most I felt like doing. 29 / March Eskrima. 2.5 hours, covered some basic single stick twirling at the start, learnt my first double stick drill, then for the rest of the session practiced knife blocks and disarms, then did some sparring using rubber knives. Knife vs knife, and empty hand vs knife. No run on Sundays, 30 / March Woke up late again, I'm quite undisciplined with my mornings. In the evening went to the MMA class, on Mondays the focus is on striking. 1.5 hours. 10 minutes skipping, sets of pressups, situps, burpees, then shadow boxing. Light contact sparring/drills. 4 strike attack, 4 strike defence - i.e jab - cross - jab - kick, jab - jab - hook - kick. Been trying to keep my shoulders relaxed, I've been told I tense up too much which tires me out too quickly. Final 20 minutes, medium sparring. Got told by a regular 'you get better every time we spar' - made me happy. 31 / March (Today) Woke up on time for once. 4 mile run, 15 minutes skipping, then 100 pressups, 100 situps, 100 squats. Evening session, thai boxing. 1.5 hours. The muay thai sessions are much more disciplined than the mma classes. 15 minutes skipping, 10 minutes calisthenics - 50 pressups, 50 burpees (I think, somewhat drunk right now) - three sets. Then about 4 sets of various ab exercises, 50 reps each. The remainder of the session is split 50/50 doing padwork, half the time I hold the pads, half the time I hit the pads. Still trying to work on staying relaxed. I remain very impressed by my sparring partners, they seem to dodge and weave around my shots with ease. I'll get em eventually though. Training has been very tiring, but very rewarding so far. I am thinking of training double sessions (three hours total) every night from now on. Mondays and Wednesdays = MMA then Boxing. Tuesdays and Thursdays = Thai Boxing then BJJ. I started training so I could learn to fight, and so I could learn to control my more aggressive emotions. When I am training, when I am sparring, all my troubles disappear. I do not release my anger in the ring, I don't take it out on my partners. When I am training, I just forget it. And that is the best thing I have ever experienced. Hope this log will not be too boring to anyone who reads it.
1 / April 90 minute MMA class, focus on grappling. Learning ways to escape side control. Final 20 minutes was spent rolling. Went for a relaxed three mile run when I got home. Although not directly related to training, I also finished reading the book American Shaolin by Matthew Polly, it was pretty entertaining. It's an account of the two years he spent training in kung fu and chinese kickboxing at the Shaolin Temple in China.
Neat. Can any old shmuck fly to China and study with the monks there? Sounds like a fun vacation if so.
If you have enough money apparently so It takes place in the 90s so things might have changed since then.
2 / April 90 minutes muay thai. Lots of sparring today, all relatively light as people were told to go easy on me the new guy. Also got to spend a few rounds solo with the coach as it was a smaller class today. Came home and spent 15 minutes doing some shadow boxing and 20 minutes calisthenics.
4 / April Friday is my rest day, which was sorely needed. Back to training again today with three hours of eskrima. Mostly single stick with some empty hand thrown in, learned more counters to the 12 angles of attack. 3 mile run when I got home.
5 / April Two and a half hours of eskrima. It was a very small class today, only two of us plus our instructor, since it's Easter Sunday and the Sunday class tends to be smaller anyway. Just meant we got to train 1 on 1 the whole time, works for me We covered single stick blocking/countering, double stick twirling and drills, and empty hand, with time at the end doing padwork. Spent 20 minutes working on flexibility when I got home. I can finally get my legs up to shoulder height.
7 / April The gym was closed yesterday since it was a bank holiday. Back to it today with 90 minutes muay thai and a 3 mile run when I got home. Ran the final 1.5 miles in 8:50.
8 / April MMA 9 / April 3 mile run in the morning. Then in the evening 90 minutes muay thai followed by 90 minutes BJJ. It was my first BJJ class, it was good fun. I'll have to see how I feel tomorrow though whether I can train this often without getting too fatigued. But it will certainly help my ground fighting a lot if I can train BJJ twice a week in addition to the Wednesday MMA class. I'm now also reading 'Filipino Martial Culture' by Mark V. Wiley.
12 / April 3 hours of eskrima. With very short notice I'm retaking my white and yellow belt gradings next weekend as it's been a few years since I originally did them. I don't think I'll have any trouble and after that I can keep working upwards.
14 / April 90 minutes muay thai, 90 minutes BJJ. Went for a 3 mile run when I got home. Also tested my bench presss max after not having done any serious weight lifting for about half a year and was disappointed that I can only get up to 85kg, with my previous record being 110kg :cry: But I did manage 4 pullups with a 40kg weight vest on so I have improved in other areas. In a couple of weeks once I've gotten used to my new workload I'll start up with the weights again I think.
15 / April Practiced some eskrima on my own in the morning, then in the evening was my MMA grappling class. Then did some calisthenics when I got home.
