My life is absolutely packed with spending time at the gym..... I've started three new classes. Jiu Jitsu, Power Training and Yoga. However, Muay Thai is still my favourite, and will always be. Occasionally, i'll update you on them. To give you an idea of what they're like, here are some pictures:

Jiu Jitsu:

Yoga:

Power Training:

Yesterday, I went for an hour and a half's session of Muay Thai. 

In my class, there are usually two girls (another girl and me), and about 9 or 10 guys, depending on whether they come to the class or not. It was a rather tough session, because we sparred for most of the time there. Today, it was the guys, me and one other girl. 

So, you'd think that sparring with the guys would be harder than sparring with that one girl? Nope. You might want to think again, the guys went rather hard on me, even though they're about twice my height. But wow, the girl was tough. She is the eldest there, around... 35? (The rest are 16 - 28-ish). 

I wasn't paying attention to when we were to start (I was too busy trying to make out what the punch bag had written on it), so she went in and punched me right in the nose (power punch), then gave me a hard upper-cut in the jaw (upper punch), followed by a punch in the stomach, then a kick in the shin. 

By then, luckily, I was protecting my face and temples with my gloves, and managed to duck-squat when she threw that kick. However, she still got away with those first punches - what an awesome combo to strike. 

So, I returned her favour by throwing a high kick at her head, but it didn't quite hit her temple because she was blocking her head. The fight wasn't really fair, seeing that she'd done Muay Thai for two years, and I've only been doing it for a month or so. Never mind, it was still a good round. 

Owch. My arms are aching, along with my back.... I think that I forgot to stretch after yesterday's class. Oops! 

Eating. Yes, as I am a kick boxer  I must stick to a strict diet. I must have lots of greens for iron, vegetables to fill up on, meat and protein so that my muscles can form well. Not too many carbs, because they'll turn to fat; however, some are good to keep up your energy.

Sugar is a big 'No', and that is definite. 

Most people know that sugar is bad for those who work out, but they don't always know why. 

Here's why:

Once consumed, most sugary sweets turn into glucose. Yes, they do give you a sudden hit of energy, but if it's not burned off soon, it turns into fat for storage. When you work out and you've had sugar, the exercise first burns off the glucose in your body, and then the fat. But you'd want to burn the fat off straight away, right? So if you've had no sugar, then the fat burns off first, and you're doing exactly what you want. Then once the fat is burning off, the muscles start to get going and build. 

If you're wondering about what kind of meat to have, try to avoid sausages, fried meat, duck, pork, the fatty bits of meet and processed food. Also, when you have any food, try not to add too much salt, as that clogs up your arteries and blood. Fish is very, very good for you.

I do Muay Thai every other day, except for Friday and Saturday, when I do it twice in a row. The other days in between, I workout at home with my gear. Soon, I'm hoping to get a punching bag! :D

To make it easier for you to stand, here's a timetable: 

  

Yesterday, to begin, we did a cardio workout with reps (push ups, sit ups, squats & skipping) and shadow fighting to get us going. Next, we partnered up, and performed a mixture of combos on each other to get us really sweating. After about 20 combos non-stop, we sparred. This is fighting each other with no boundaries. Yes, I got a few punches in the nose and jaw, and kicks in the stomach, and it was very hard work, seeing that I was only fighting 18-39 year old men. 

Luckily, I know how to kick up to their heads, but the problem is that they also know how to duck&dodge. I had to do loads of facial blocking, because I didn't have a mouth guard on. 

Then, after that, we had to stretch. I was particularly pleased because I can almost do the splits :D 

At the end, our trainer said that I was his main project, and is training me for the Champion League! Yay! 

I love you, Muay Thai. 

Tomorrow, I have to go and get some new gear.

This time I'm going for gold and black stuff - I have to get a mouth guard for Sparring, shin pads for lower kicks and general foot protection, MMA gloves for fighting/training, boxing gloves for punch bag work and hand/wrist supports for my poor hands that got bruised whilst using the hard heavy bag yesterday. Here's the pictures of the stuff that I've decided to get:

(Mouth Guard)

(Fighting/Training Gloves)

(Punch Bag Gloves)

(Shin Pads)

(Wrist/Hand Support)

Woah.

I've just come back from an hour and a half of Muay Thai, and all I have to say is,

....D-a-y-u-m.

That sport really gets you working hard, and just after an hour and a half of it, I came out looking somewhat like the mixture of a snowman in a sauna and an absolute tomato face - I love it. Muay Thai is now officially my favourite sport, which takes Hip/Belly Dancing and Zumba into 2nd place. This sport burns off tons of calories, tones your muscles and body shape, gives you great self defence techniques, as well as being extremely fun - Never thought that was possible, did you?

In today's session, we warmed up with 40 press-ups (using knuckles only), 40 sit-ups, 40 squats and lots of skipping. The skipping rope kept on getting stuck in my ponytail, so I had to try a different technique. To begin, I started off with throwing 6 different punches:

Upper-Cut Left

Upper-Cut Right

Hook Left

Hook Right

Cross

Jab

I tried to pull off about 45 of these in two minutes, but unfortunately didn't keep much track of how fast I was going - too busy remembering to keep the hand up not using up at the temple, hip swinging and the rest of those things that you must remember, otherwise the punch isn't perfect. 

Next, I combined those punches with nine of my favourite kicks:

Shin Left

Shin Right

Kick Left

Kick Right

High Kick Left

High Kick Right

Knee Left

Knee Right

Power Kick

However, this time I was striking them on the punch bag, not the trainer. Kicks are my favourite to perform, because they're so fast, choppy and neat. Have you ever played a game called Tekken or Street Fighter (Or any game like that, where you fight against another player using kicks, punches and throw-downs)? 

It's quite like that, except your opponent is a punching bag, the trainer or a partner. Pretty cool, huh? 

Hi ~
And just before you wonder - No, I don't look like this: