Muay Thai week: Day 1

As part of my backpacking-through-Asia journey I planned to spend a week at a Muay Thai training camp in Phuket : I've always enjoyed kickboxing and self-defense courses, and the camps here are world-renowned, plentiful and cheap. 

I arrived at the camp yesterday, a Sunday- the day that all camps are closed. I wanted to do a week : I spent 3,000 ($100) baht on unlimited classes at Phuket Top Team, and 3,500 ($116) baht for a budget room (with A/C!) at Studio 77, a cute guesthouse next door (recommended by PTT). I chose Phuket Top Team (http://phukettopteam.com) because it offered Brazilian jiu-jitsu, was centrally located (near the other camps- on Phuket Island, halfway between Phuket Town and Rawai beach) and had good reviews. What I didn't realize is that (a) most of the people training there are seasoned fighters, many of them MMA (mixed martial arts) professionals, and (b) how helpful and gracious everyone would be to someone who was in wayyyy over her head.

From first arriving on Sunday I've been getting great tips and helpful suggestions from the other people training- 

'Beware of staph infections; a bunch of people have been getting them. Buy a good antibacterial soap and take a shower directly after every work out.' - MMA fighter from Toronto

(Anti septic soap - it smells like industrial solvent used for cleaning chemicals)

'Be sure to drink lots of electrolytes- you can buy packets of them from the pharmacy.' -ex military chic from Wisconsin 

'Stop leaning back before you jab- you're trying to make the shortest distance possible between your body and the punching bag' - British dude

Needless to say I'm learning a lot (considering I came in knowing nothing). Plus I'm getting a kick ass work out- we have two 2 hour Muay Thai sessions every day, one from 7:30-9:30am, another from 5-7pm (or 4- 6pm, depending on the day). 

The workouts are broken down in a similar way : 

10-20 minutes skipping rope

10 minutes running drills

10 minutes stretching

Shadow boxing 

Bag work 

Sparring (using boxing gloves and shin guards)

Clinching (which I had never done before - really up close body work, in which you knew your opponent)

200 kicks, knee kicks and sit-ups 

Bows and dismissal

They give you little 'breaks' throughout, to get water and rest, but not before you do 10 push-ups 

There is so much sweat - just running off of me, all the time. Even grosser is that a lot of the sweat isn't mine; it's from the people I'm sparring or from the last person who used the boxing gloves (I bought my own hand wraps- 250 baht- but since I have no room in my backpack I didn't want to invest in good gloves)

Needless to say I am exhausted. I wanted to check out the Brazilian jiu-jitsu in the late morning but needed to go home and pass out instead. Never has A/C felt so good. 

I'm already super bruised and have an open wound on my elbow from when a drunk idiot pulled my arms out from under me during a plank competition on Koh Phi Phi, so the Thai guys training us go easy on me come elbow- strike time. 

(Elbow is wrapped in gauze with antibiotic ointment for the training)

Other than that though- I'm training alongside a LOT of experts. I have no idea what I'm doing. But I'm trying to keep up and thankfully the trainers seem to appreciate the effort I'm making.

Unfortunately my legs, back and core aren't so forgiving :/ 

Sexy bruises everywhere!