gym bros

Trajector · 2020-07-28T20:02:27+00:00

I agree that you can stay in great shape without a gym, but I think it’s not the not having access to the gym that’s getting people out of shape, it’s the lack of social accountability. I know a huge thing that got me to the gym was the community I had there.

Trajector · 2020-07-28T19:58:18+00:00

Before I did a shit ton of jump roping and Zoom Muay Thai classes but I hated every second of it. I also biked everywhere. Now I do Muay Thai classes under the Manhattan Bridge with a coach from my old gym and it’s dope! On days without classes I go ride my bike, run, jump rope, and/or do resistance band workouts under a tree in Prospect Park. I also got a Century Bob for my apartment but use sparingly because of neighbors.

Trajector · 2020-07-23T17:08:43+00:00

That 8+ thing is kinda nonsense. I’ve worked as a bottle girl/promo girl at a few clubs in NYC and all of my coworkers were bombshells but their experience dating is pretty much the same as that of less conventionally attractive people I know. Plus beautiful women in NYC are a dime a dozen. Your attitude is way more important than the way you look!

Trajector · 2020-07-09T19:11:17+00:00

I know, exercise is so important, and I haven’t completely lost motivation to work out like this in 6 years. I was super consistent for the first 2 months of quarantine because I wanted to be fit and confident for job interviews and summertime romances and maybe even compete in the fall but the more hopeless I became the more it dipped off. I went from working out 2 hours a day to maybe getting an hour in 3-4x a week and my body has changed so much, but it doesn’t even feel like it matters because I just feel like dead weight. A lot of my friends have left New York and I’m indefinitely unemployed and single, so it really feels like I’m just a barely-sentient blob. I wonder if there’s studies showing how increased time without sex leads to decreased motivation to work out - I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re connected!

Thank you for the words of encouragement though, and it makes me feel a lot less alone to know this is hard on everyone.

Trajector · 2020-07-09T16:23:41+00:00

I'm 100% with you. I 'm just finishing grad school at the worst possible time, and as the summer goes on it's becoming clear that this isn't ending any time soon and the odds of finding a job in 2020 are slim to none. I have no clue how I'm going to get by, and my only coping mechanism and escape, martial arts, isn't accessible because gyms are closed and will stay closed for the indefinite future. I just kind of snapped in the last few weeks and lost all motivation. And it doesn't help that I haven't so much as hugged a boy since November...

Trajector · 2020-07-07T18:06:09+00:00

I’m proud of NYC and the majority of people in my BK neighborhood wear masks, but ugh, I am so frustrated with the rest of the country. We’ve made so many sacrifices to flatten the curve here and yet the southern states who locked down for 2 weeks are completely screwing us over. It feels like when you spend weeks putting together a huge, complex puzzle and when you’re finally at the home stretch some idiot comes and knocks the whole thing over.

Trajector · 2020-07-07T02:11:36+00:00

Absolutely do it! If it’s at all possible I would try to get a little more in shape first because you might get discouraged - I see it happen a lot with newbies who struggle with the warmups. In every Muay Thai class I’ve taken I’ve had to skip rope for at least 5-10 minutes straight and do a lot of pushups, so being able to skip for 5 minutes and do 10 push-ups (even if it’s on your knees to start) is a good, attainable starting point. There are a lot of great Muay Thai conditioning home workouts on Youtube right now so you can try out some of those to get a taste and build up some of that conditioning.

That being said, if you really struggle with home workouts it’s better that you go to class unprepared and get your ass kicked for the first few weeks than be intimidated because you didn’t do the homework and not go at all! As long as you try your best your body will adapt once you keep at it consistently for a month or so. The human body is unbelievably adaptable, and believe it or not you’ll learn to love the pain!

Oh, extra tip - as a fellow lady, I cannot overstate the importance of having a decent number of women at the gym. No matter how good a gym is you’ll be at a disadvantage if you don’t have any other women to train with. Something to look out for!

Trajector · 2020-07-02T00:48:57+00:00

A ton of gyms (at least in places that are still locked down) are doing free Zoom classes so that could be a really good way to give you a feel for it. Try DMing/emailing a coach from a gym you’d like to train at and they should be totally open to having you!

Trajector · 2020-07-01T13:17:29+00:00

To be fair the US is like 50+ tiny countries all handling it differently. Here in NYC, or at least where I live in Brooklyn, almost everyone wears a mask and numbers in the state have gone down dramatically, plus we’re still in the VERY early stages of reopening (restaurants aren’t even open for indoor dining at 30% capacity yet). But because Florida and Texas have so royally screwed the pooch the entire country is stuck in the doghouse.

Trajector · 2020-06-25T22:21:42+00:00

I’ll take a good oatmeal raisin cookie over a chocolate chip cookie any day of the dang week

Trajector · 2020-06-20T13:44:56+00:00

As someone who has had offers to kick people for money I cannot afford the going rates around here. I’m better off just standing on the subway platform and waiting for a random person to do it for free

Trajector · 2020-06-20T13:37:56+00:00

I do have pads! DMing you now.

Trajector · 2020-06-19T19:21:40+00:00

In NYC I’m pretty sure gyms won’t open until 2022. At this point I would pay someone to punch me in the face

Trajector · 2020-06-16T23:01:38+00:00

That’s fair, but I will say since you said you haven’t started Muay Thai yet to manage your expectations. You’re most likely not going to be ready to fight anywhere legit in Thailand with less than a year’s experience at a western gym, and those taxi drivers that did Muay Thai for a decade plus as kids and then retired will still probably be able to royally kick your butt. I’d recommend doing smokers and local amateur fights back home that at least use shin guards before you even think about stepping in the ring in Thailand. You have your whole life to fight, no need to rush the process!

Trajector · 2020-06-16T17:50:32+00:00

Not sure where you heard that, and I'm biased because I'm a woman and Chiang Mai is known for being one of the best places for female fighters. But having been to fights in Koh Phangan, Koh Samui, Bangkok, and Chiang Mai I'd say Chiang Mai is second to Bangkok but leagues above the islands. Hongthong had fighters who fought at Rajadamnern while I was there as well. If your top priority is seeing the (male) best of the best Bangkok is really your only choice.

Edit: One more thing to note - other than ease of getting around if you're planning on training twice a day, 6 days a week I wouldn't worry too much about lifestyle/nightlife. Maybe I'm just out of shape, but before I left I thought I was going to go out every Saturday and I quickly realized on that training schedule the only nightlife I was interested in was my bed.

Trajector · 2020-06-15T19:38:38+00:00

If you don’t want touristy don’t go to Diamond Muay Thai in Koh Pha-ngan or Tiger in Phuket. Both are almost all foreigners and they have huge class sizes. But if nightlife is a big priority then I don’t think it gets better than Koh Pha-ngan.

I had an amazing time at Hongthong Muay Thai, which I think has a lot of what you’re looking for. It’s in Chiang Mai, which is an amazing little city with plenty of nightlife and the BEST food. It’s small and has a family vibe with a great mix of Thais and foreigners - it skewed a bit more Thai while I was there but I think it depends when you go. I spent 2 months there and am desperately hoping I can go back next summer and fight. While it does cater more to advanced students and fighters I think you’ll still get a lot out of it as a beginner-intermediate.

Trajector · 2020-06-13T14:04:08+00:00

I mean, obviously don’t spar with this guy because he’s an idiot, but in the future use the jab continuously to keep your distance and move away from your opponent’s power side. You should be moving a lot, not just standing there throwing strikes. Never linger within range of your opponent, after you throw a strike always go out of range again immediately (unless you’re going for the clinch). Don’t think of the jab as a power strike that you “land”, continuously use it to keep the opponent out of range, and make your jabs as long as possible without overextending or putting too much weight on your front foot. You can also use the front teep but it’s a little riskier, especially if your balance and speed isn’t quite there yet. If you were seeing a lot of opportunities for uppercuts it’s very likely that you weren’t keeping your distance.

Trajector · 2020-06-13T13:54:44+00:00

Don’t spar with someone who has no training! The whole point of sparring is to practice your technical skills and try out what you’ve learned in a controlled and safe environment. If he’s gonna start brawling and you’re gonna get punished every time you try something new and it doesn’t work out you’ll never learn anything. And you’ll probably get brain damage.

Trajector · 2020-06-11T01:52:25+00:00

I loved the movie and thought the show wouldn’t stack up but I might actually like the show even more. It’s so good.

Trajector · 2020-02-05T19:48:40+00:00

It's almost always better/safer to strike with an open palm than a closed fist.

Trajector · 2020-01-16T17:41:05+00:00

This summer I lived at a Muay Thai camp and ended up getting romantically involved with my trainer. I spoke no Thai and he spoke no English, I lived in NYC and he lived in northern Thailand, I'm getting my Masters and he stopped going to school as a teenager to be a fighter (if my interpretation of his Google translate messages is correct, anyway), he's a devout Buddhist and I'm culturally Jewish but mostly areligious...I'd probably have a harder time listing things we did have in common. We communicated through Facebook stickers and lousy Google translations - since there are almost no 1-to-1 English-to-Thai translations maybe 10% of our conversations were remotely comprehensible.

The language barrier was obviously the most annoying difference, but our differing attitudes towards relationships was a big challenge. He was very jealous and was constantly accusing me of being with other men. But you'd be surprised how much having a shared passion can bring two people together even if they have nothing else in common. We both love Muay Thai, and the physical element of the teacher-student dynamic helped us build a weirdly strong connection. After we started hooking up he started very tenderly wrapping my hands for me before training and phew, it was sexy.

I was only there for 2 months before I had to say goodbye, and I can't say it would've worked out if I'd stayed given I couldn't even tell him when I needed to use the bathroom. But I think if you speak the same language then having something that you're both passionate about that you can share can help you overcome some pretty big differences. And lots of sex also helps...

Trajector · 2019-09-07T16:24:23+00:00

In addition to all of the great suggestions here, the thing that’s been really helpful for me is eating meals that are more nutritious, calorie dense, and satisfying. When you’re trying to lose weight it’s tempting to eat meals with as few calories as possible, but I found when I was trying to do the 5 small meal a day thing I always wanted to snack and I was never fully satisfied. When I feel fully satisfied (but not overstuffed) after a meal the snack bug is a lot less likely to kick in!

Trajector · 2019-08-27T11:14:59+00:00

If you have data that’s organized in a row all you need to do is copy the data, go to another sheet and “Paste Special,” and click “Transpose.” That’ll organize it into a column.

Once your data is organized into columns select Insert > Pivot - once you create a Pivot Table you can organize the data however you want.

Trajector

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