by Devina

To see the progress/struggle:  The Muay Thai Diary: Week 3 & 4, Muay Thai Diary: Week 2, The Muay Thai Diary: Week 1

I decided to go back to training when I got my voice back, sort of. I still sound like a shrew, but at least I wasn’t sore all over like the past couple of weeks. To be fair, this was my 7th week with Muay Thai (in my life), but then I am counting it per training week.

Oh, I got my Muay Thai gloves. Named them Luke and Leia.

So I went on Monday, and my trainer was happy to see me. Surprised when he heard me speak, but it was expected.

I’m sorry I sound too sexy when I have flu.

Considering I was still sick, my trainer reduced the jogging time by half. That made me happy. Apart from that, everything else was murdering me. I asked him if he felt sorry for me at all, to which he responded, “Of course I feel sorry for you. Look at you! Poor, sick little thing. But you are a strong woman. You can do it.” It was inspiring until he fell back into laughing at my strikes again.

He also let me leave early, so that I could catch some rest and recover.
I got home and passed out. Also, my punches were still tilted to the side.

Merde.

On Tuesday I went again. This time, my trainer added my jogging time by two minutes. He told me that I was a good runner, and I really should do longer time since I got good endurance.

Sure, I guess. But I told him to be nice to me. I was still coughing and sneezing all the way through the warm up routine. And every time, he’d take few steps back, calling me “living germ” and I thought that was fair.

There was a girl who took the private course, and her routine looked a hell lot different from mine. Her warm up routine was much shorter, nothing intense, and she was smiling. On the other hand, I was losing the feel of my arms and legs while wondering if martial arts routine could kill.

I asked my trainer, “How is her training so much more fun?” but when he offered me if I wanted the same kind of routine and training, I said no.

The only way I could be stronger and better, was if I trained harder, not more fun or easily.

He gave me 7 minutes to jog, which was due to my sneezing all over the mat. However, seeing that I could do a lot of sit ups and push ups, he tripled that part of the warm up.

I also learned new movements. And when I watched myself in the mirror, I looked like a damn fighter. Not bad, little Devina, not bad.

As a result, my arms got more toned and my pale abs took stronger form.
So this was worth it.

Friday, I was stretching when two girls walked in and joined my session. One of them had trained a long time ago with my trainer, and she was big. I felt so intimidated, but I thought, I probably would never meet her again after that session.

So, my trainer told us to jog. I told him to shorten my time, but he insisted that the other girls were strong runners and I should go with them.

Surprisingly, I went past them three times during the laps, because they stopped or walked when the trainer went out for some water. And in the end, seeing how tired the girls were, the trainer decided to stop us.

Back in high school, when I was on the track and field team, we were trained to keep going even when we couldn’t feel our legs anymore. Our keyword was “endurance” (and “the Flash! Run like the Flash!” because majority of us were nerds) and for the first time in my life (after college’s running stuff), I felt grateful for being on my high school running team.

If it ever gets to you, Mr. Baker, I want to thank you for pushing us to never stop until the finish line. I did cry a lot after our training sessions years back, but now they’re tears of joy.

So that’s how sappy Muay Thai has made me.

On the other hand, apart from me looking so fine during the warm up routine, the actual boxing murdered me.

The big girl was amazingly strong. She could join the Avengers if she wanted to, or apply for a superhero position in DC universe. The other girl was new to this, so she was enjoying her time.

Meanwhile, I was checking the time – making sure that time actually moved and that I was closer to going home than before.

So after so many training sessions and tears, my left hand still refused to coordinate with certain moves and my right arm just failed me completely more than a few times. Good news is that I move faster now.

Result: More toned arms, and they’re also bigger than they’ve ever been – oddly. My thighs got bulky. My calves feel like rocks. It’s a bit embarrassing to be in photos now, to be honest.