"Fighting is an incredibly honest form of expression. There's no real equivocation in an elbow to the jaw, no pussyfooting about the gray shadings of meaning inherent in civilized and power-shielded discourse. It's a potent tie to our immediate and ever-present animal."

Eugene S. Robinson

http://www.eugenesrobinson.com/

I have decided to change my workout plan slightly. I've not specified any goals yet, I will do that when I get bored to keep me motivated.

Monday

Pull ups
Overhead tricep extension (or dips if feeling strong)
Shrugs

Roadwork - 45 mins minimum

Wednesday

Chest fly
Single arm row
Twist crunch (dumbbell)

Roadwork - 45 mins minimum

Friday

Jumping squats
Dumbbell lunges
Turkish get-up

Roadwork - 45 mins minimum

Each exercise will generally be done in sets of 5, containing 5 reps each with 2 minutes rest between each set and 2 minutes rest between each exercise. This means each day is around an hour of exercise in total including roadwork. Roadwork is running at a slow jog, usually for minimum of 45 mins but generally no longer than 90 mins.

I will be doing all of these with the equipment available to me at home - two 10kg dumbells, two 6kg handweights and a belt which I use to hand weights from my waist. Each week I will try to post with an update as to what I can lift with each exercise. If I miss a blog update, I'm also keeping a paper diary so will update from that.

I'm doing this in order to get stronger, basically. My weakness has always been strength. Once I've reached a level of strength I am happy with in terms of exercises here, I will start doing sprint intervals and hill sprints instead of roadwork. I will also start to work on speed and co-ordination (still researching this). While I'm not training regularly in MMA or Muay Thai and not training for fighting, I might as well get better at something!

This is a list of dudes whose striking techniques I plan on dissecting in order to make myself a better fighter. I'll be making a grappling one soon too.

Low Kicks: Pat Barry; Jose Aldo

Body Kicks: Mauricio "Shogun" Rua

Head Kicks: Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic

Knees (head & body): Yasuhiro Kido (not MMA, but applicable)

Boxing: BJ Penn

I'll add to this list in future posts when it isn't 2am!

Kieran

Forgot to mention in earlier post...

I've introduced a new structure to adult classes at Arbroath Thai Boxing.  A number of students were not happy with the balance given in classes between hard graft and technique work.  My structure gives a good warm up which makes the students work hard while also warming up all the major muscle groups.  I introduced tabata after the cardio and before the stretching.  This went down well with people enjoying being pushed and getting a good sweat on.

Padwork seen students rotating partners and taking turns on the pads for teacher lead drills.  We worked on throwing the left kick and how to throw it from different angles, covering your intentions etc.  To end the session we warmed down with footwork drills and demonstrated yaang saam khum.

Hopefully we can stick to this and make the class interesting but structured in a useful way for working within a one hour time constraint.

workout routine

I plan on fighting again, hopefully MMA in the summer.  With this in mind I've decided to start working out properly again.

I'm using weights for just now as well as bodyweight but for the first few weeks I'm only using weights. This is because it's much more fun to try new things and I've never really worked out with weight before. Plus, the only goal I have just now is to get stronger, especially in my back and triceps

Monday

Concentration curl - 10 reps/3 sets
Overhead tricep extension - 10/3
Chest flie - 10/3
Front raise - 10/3

Wednesday

Shrug - 12/3
Single arm row - 12/3(each arm obviously)

Twist crunch (dumbbell) - 12/3

I was going to do pull ups as well but because I've not really done anything for a while I was sore after Monday and thought I'd ease into it.  Friday is lower body, so its looking like this:

Friday

Jumping squats (up stairs) - my stairs x3
Dumbbell lunges 12/3
Hill sprints (make it up as I go along!)

Anyone able to explain how Machida won a round last night? I scored it myself based on effective grappling, striking and octagon control, as per the UFC criteria.  Shogun controlled the pace of the fight, aside from two forward attacks that Machida made in the final two rounds. Even then, Shogun countered effectively, thus nullifying the advantage machida had in initiating the attack. Shogun landed more shots, heavier shots and they were visibly taking a toll on Machida's movement, reactions and ability to counter. Effective striking - Shogun.

Machida mostly moved backwards into the cage, so he didn't display Octagon control at all, he rarely does and that is his whole gameplan. Octagon control - Shogun.

Shogun shot in and clinched a number of times but was unable to put Machida down and barely even unbalanced him.  Saying that though, Shogun left almost every clinch of his own accord, not because Machida forced him to and Shogun left every clinch with a number of effective blows. Machida clinched a few times at the start and landed a lot of solid knees from that position, but they did not seem to alter Shogun's intentions at all so surely they can't be scored as effective grappling or striking if they didn't appear effective?

Overall I had it scored as 50-45 to Shogun. Machida lost every single round. Goldia and Rogan both scored the first two rounds to Shogun, the third to Machida and the 4th to Shogun, giving at the very least a split decision to Shogun if you take their word for the scoring.

Saying that, Cecil Peoples was on the judging panel so I guess he just rolled dice each round to score it.

My second Muay Thai fight took place last night in Grangemouth. I was 7th on the 13 fight card. I was fighting a lad called Craig Allan from Base Muay Thai, the camp who were promoting this card.

To cut to the chase, I lost again. saying that, it didn't feel like I lost. At the end of the 1st round I took an accidental groin shot and was unable to continue. A draw you say? Nay, for this is Muay Thai; where real men only need apply (that's sarcasm btw). I was counted out and a loss was recorded against me: TKO. Technical Knock Out.

Do I think it is fair? Well, thems the rules and I knew that unless it was repeated fouls or a purposeful foul that I would have to continue or get counted out. Do I think that is right? Not at all, I have always despised the "macho" thread running through Muay Thai and the idea that unless your cup breaks from the contact of the illegal strike then you must contine. I think it is unnecessarily masochistic to expect a fighter to recover from a full force kick in the nuts in ten seconds. I certainly didn't recover after ten minues, never mind ten seconds! The most annoying thing is not losing the fight or even being kicked in the nuts, it is the way that my opponent showed very little respect in a sport that is supposed to be synonymous with the word. As I was on my hands and knees on the canvas due to the excruciating pain of having one of my testicles crushed and pushed into my stomach, he was jumping up and down celebrating his victory. Yes celebrating. It makes me sick that he would celebrate a victory achieved in such manner. I would be ashamed to have won by hitting someone so hard in their testicles that they could not continue. I certainly wouldn't count it as a win if it had happened just over a minute into the first round where neither of us had any real advantage over the other. I can only hope that he was happy to have won because he felt he was close to losing. That is really the only excuse I would accept.

During the rather short period I got to display myself, I was doing everything that I wanted to and scoring well. Watching the fight back I think it looks like he got the better of the clinch but only because he threw knees as I punched him - knees in the clinch look better and judges will score them higher because the fighter is showing a wider range of techniques and skills, despite effect. His knees were completely innefective and I didn't even realise he was kneeing me until I watched the video afterwards. His main strength was his hands and his left has given me a black eye. My main strength is also my hands, meaning we traded black eyes essentially.

I am happy with my performance and I have a feeling that he was already beaten and it was only a matter of time before I knocked him out. I was completely calm and exectuted almost everything I wanted to - I was relaxed enough to block his kicks, I landed a few of my own and even my weakest element, push kicks, were used and landed to the effect I wished. I only wish I could have kneed him as I had intended. His ribs would have broken for sure because I am quite happy to stand up and say my knees are very powerful and a few exchanges would have seen his breathing become very laboured due to the damage his body had taken. I planned to use my knees in the second round and onwards and to attack his thigh and chest mainly, using my hands to set them up and also possibly playing possum and a slight counterattacking game.

I'm not annoyed at my performance like last time and I am not at all disappointed. I am taking this as a no contest despite what was officially recorded. My balls are quite tender and Lynn pointed out I have been walking like John Wayne! Nothing else is really that sore and I could probably fight next week if I chose to.

Back to training on Tuesday and I'll be busy doing my first two Uni assessments for the next two weeks!

Kieran

In two weeks I will have fought my second muay thai fight.  My training is going quite well and my reactions and speed are much better than last time. My main strengths are looking to be match winners and I have developed a new weapon for this fight which I am looking forward to testing.  In addition, my weaknesses are getting stronger which is bad news for my opponent.

I always seem to have some sort of injury though. This seems to be common with fighters who are training seriously and fighting at the top level. I can only assume that I have not prepared for my serious training well and my body simply isn't used to training this hard. My diet is ok and I am getting enough rest so it must just be hard acclimatising. I'm certain I will be 100% fit to fight but it is still annoying to continually have niggling injuries.

Mike - We are still in the Cafe Project for Muay Thai from half 7 to half 8 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I grapple with an informal group on Wedensday 4-6 and Saturday mornings 9-11 in the Sports Centre at the High School although it is justan invitation only thing at the moment I think. I really want to try out ammy MMA as well, I would need to get my ground a bit tighter though! Lynn and I plan to move to Dundee when she gets a job, however I start university in Dundee on the 14th and expect to be there a lot in any case. Still wanna meet up and roll with you.

Until after my fight, good day to you all. x