Kaewsamrit Muay Thai

The training is always the same.  I've done it countless times but it's always tough just to get through it.  I just had dinner and my last training session was about 3 hours ago.

Yesterday I arrived in Bangkok after one of the most grueling flights of my life.  It was so long and tiring.  My first flight took about 13 hours from SFO to Hong Kong.  I had to wait in Hong Kong for about 2 hours before I caught my 2nd flight which was from Hong Kong to Singapore.  That flight was about 4 hours.  As soon as I landed I literally had only 10 minutes to catch my last flight to Bangkok.  Singapore to Bangkok is no big deal as it was only 2 hours this time.  But together I spent about 19 hours in a plane.

After going through customs and immigration I was picked up by Ken from Kaewsamrit Muay Thai.  Four years ago Ken picked me up on my first trip to Bankok.  Ken looked hard and cool and that time four years ago asked me point blank "how many fights have you had?"  I was little perplexed but I said 10.  I wasn't lying but I was counting my Tae Kwon Do and grappling tournaments.  I've never kickboxed competitively.

This time around Ken picked me up, had a smile on his face, and whisked me away from the Airport and back to the gym.

Sunday was uneventful as I just checked in, paid my dues, and waited for the next day for training to start.  Monday morning I woke up at 6 am and ran for 40 minutes.  The marathon training came in handy as I was able to complete the run with no incident.  Afterwards I checked back into the gym, stretched out, and I was then told to wrap my hands.

As I was sitting there wrapping my hands the fighters all started to trickle into the gym.  I was then ordered to shadow box and after throwing a few techniques Cheng, the head trainer, stated to me "you lost weight didn't you?"  I told him that I had and he smiled simply saying "I could tell."

I was then told to get in the ring and start training with Ong.  Ong was putting me through the paces known as pad work.  Your trainer is holding pads and you throw whatever technique he asks you to throw.  Whether it be a jab, cross, upper cut, kick to the leg, you have to throw it and you have to throw it 100%.  In Muay Thai everything is thrown at maximum strength.  Even the combinations have to be thrown with full force.  For example a combination would be a one two (for me since I'm left handed it would be a right jab and then a left cross), followed by a right hook, and then a kick to the body with my left leg.

The pad work, although grueling, wasn't so bad at first.  It gets difficult during the later rounds when you're dog tired and your trainer is throwing techniques at you.  So you may be throwing your moves but after you're finished your trainer would counter with a kick of his own.  You're supposed to either check it, block it, or evade it.  For some odd reason I just can't react fast enough to check the kick to the body.  Ong always gets me.

Pad work is 4 rounds with 5 minutes in duration per round.  After that I headed over to the heavy bag to work on my timing and power.  Again that took about 4 rounds.  Then the morning session finishes up with the extreme physical fitness of sit ups and push ups.  The exercises wouldn't have been so bad if I could just push them out but we're all supposed to do them in unison and count after every rep.

After breakfast I went to sleep so that I can rest up for the afternoon session.  The afternoon session is just like the first except it is a little harder and longer.  You do pretty much everything like the morning session except you add a 2 mile run AFTER the session.

Dinner sucked, well at least for me it did.  There was nothing wrong with the food but I was just dead tired and sweating profusely.  I had already taken a shower a few minutes earlier but my body was just hot and dripping sweat.  In laymen terms they call this the after burn in which your body is burning calories after the workout.  The food was so hot and spicy that it made it even worse.  I didn't eat much, told the guys I'd see them tomorrow, and now I'm here typing away.

One day down and I already lost 5 pounds.  Crazy to think how much I'd lose after I'm done with this trip.