Hello from Thailand

[Pumpkin Pi]

Hi fellow nerds! I’ve been reading NerdFitness for several weeks now and thought it’s probably time I jumped in with some introductions.

 

I’m a 38-year-old woman from Thailand, but spent nearly half of my life in Scotland, having just returned to Thailand about 5 years ago. I’m 5’3.5†(that half inch is totally significant) and currently weigh around 55 kg. (I really hated it when people used to say to me: “You’re quite strong for a small person.â€) >:-(

 

I have always wanted to be physically strong and love the martial arts, though I’m a master of none. So far, I’ve dabbled in karate (up to green belt Shukokai style) but stopped when I left Scotland. I did judo for about 6 months until an accident during practice that split my right eyebrow and tore through 4 layers of skin and muscle. However, it wasn’t the accident that made me stop judo. I still went back a few times after my eyebrow healed, against advice from most of my friends, then finally realised that my trainer was a dick who did not even take responsibility for the accident in the first place.

 

Here’s what happened: There were a few pairs sparring (mixed ground fighting and standing sparring) in quite a small area with no one watching boundaries. I was ground fighting with my sparring partner and my trainer was standing sparring with another student. Suddenly a really bony ankle landed on top of my face! He (trainer) was the one who threw the kid onto me when doing a judo throw! (ankle meets eyebrow) With my blood gushing everywhere, he proceeded to finish off the class ‘cause, you know, he didn’t want the others to have paid for the class for nothing, while my sparring partner took me to hospital on the back of a motorcycle taxi – that’s three of us on the motorbike: the motorcycle dude, me squished in the middle with blood pouring all over him, and my sparring partner balancing at the end behind me, carrying my rucksack. My trainer followed to the hospital (after going to the wrong one!) after I was already all stitched up. He kept saying how bad he felt about it all. But then, following that evening, all he could talk about was all the various injuries *he’d* picked up in his various judo and MMA competitions, and how what happened to me was nothing compared to some of the stuff he’d seen. Hell, he even tried to blame the accident on me and my sparring partner … oh, something about us not watching where we were sparring and how we probably got in the way of him slam dunking the 16-year-old boy onto me. (Yes, I know, alarm bells should’ve been ringing, but I didn’t want people to think I quit judo because I was afraid of getting hurt.) And even when I tried to suggest that maybe we shouldn't have mixed ground and standing sparring at the same time, especially in such a small area or not so many pairs sparring at the same time, he refused to listen and kept trying to pass the buck somehow. Don't even talk about insurance. This is Thailand and there wasn't any.

 

So anyway, after an agonising few more months after that, that was the end of judo for me when I finally believed all my friends who had told me from the start that I should’ve ditched my trainer an age ago.

 

Other than that, I’ve dabbled in muay Thai on and off for, oh … gosh, nearly 10 years now, but I’m still barely past ‘beginner’ stage.

 

I had all these dreams of MMA glory, but I’ve finally come to accept that, at 38, I will never become an MMA fighter. Anyway, I don’t think I want to anymore. I do have a career and I don’t have time to train all the time for such a thing.

 

But I still love doing the odd bit of muay Thai training, albeit now just a beginner sort of class at the gym I signed up to.

 

And I’ve started weight training! I booked in a personal trainer and I told him that my first goal is that I want to do a strict pull-up. So he’s been helping me work towards that goal once a week. When I can get to the gym and train without his help, I use was he’s shown me, combined with some of the stuff I’ve learned from reading NerdFitness and GirlsGoneStrong, and go to muay Thai classes.

 

So, here’s my current training schedule:

Mon 7.00-7.45 am personal training (if I don’t have to rush off to work after that, I stick around and do a bit more weights + some heavy bag work).

Wed 7.00-8.00am  weight training – stuff my trainer taught me on Monday + a bit more if I’ve got time (some weeks I need to prepare for my lectures (I’m a

                               lecturer) so I can’t make it to the gym in the morning)

        5.00-6.00pm  muay Thai class: more of a cardio session as the trainer gets us to do bag work - stuff like 100 jabs, 100 crosses, 100 kicks, 100 knees etc

Fri   7.00am           weight training – more of stuff like Monday’s one

       5.00-6.00pm   muay Thai class: more bagwork but this trainer at least goes for more technique stuff and gets us on the pads individually too

 

I’ve been doing this since mid-July. My current goal is to do one pull-up by the end of the year.

 

I know it sounds like I’m doing OK, but I’ve only been doing this routine for just over a month and in the past, I have tended to go for the binge exercise right at the start of joining a new gym and then stop altogether about 6 months in. So now, with all the advice I’ve been reading up on on this site and others, I’m determined to go the long haul and not set too big a goal for too short a time period.

 

My long-term goal is to have killer arms like Serena Williams. OK, I probably never will, but I love her arms! The definition, the strength!

 

So, what do you all think? Does my goal to do one pull-up by the end of the year with my current training regime sound reasonable? Do you have any advice for me? I can’t wait to be able to do pull-ups!

 

Thanks for reading the longer-than-intended post.

 

Pumpkin

 

Oh, and my nerd credentials:

Science geek (biologist)

Computer game geek (favs are RPG, RTS, TBS, Adventure & Stealth)

Love Sci-Fi and Fantasy books and films

 

[Spear Warrior]

Welcome! I'm new here too, but not new to neither physical training nor martial arts. Your training schedule looks good. The only thing I want to comment on is the pull-ups. If you want to get better at pull-ups you have to do pull-ups. If you can't do one, do negatives (jump up and lower yourself as slowly as possible).

[Pumpkin Pi]

Hey Spear Warrior,

 

Welcome to you too! And thanks for the advice.

Yeah, I just started doing negatives a couple of days ago. First, I was just doing the hanging there and trying to pull myself up as far as I got every time, but after reading several people on this site saying that that's not as effective as negatives, I went for negatives. I will get there!