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I hate that part. Some people even act like their fun is gone when you don't drink... hahaha

Agreed, . Since first posting this question on the forum, have given up all booze for good now. Feel way way better, and don't even miss it. But maybe wasn't much of a sacrifice, never was a big drinker anyway. Seems like it's one of those things that's just socially expected of you.

AKA in Phuket can get you an Ed Visa for Muay Thai if you go train with them. I believe they work it to where you don't have to leave the country. I don't think fake marriage is the way to go fwiw.

Thank you all for the kind reception. It is interesting that the more I watch and learn and study of the origins; the more I am convinced that the core of Muay Thai is about maintaining awareness of "posture". I see this from the subtle corrections of Dieselnoi in training to the judging of fights where frequently blows to "posture" are considered to be just as damaging as an elbow to the forehead or a teep to the throat. As someone who needs to restore my posture: I'm convinced I'll be sticking around for a while. I guess this is day 13 of 200 knees, and I've added in 200 teeps as I had hoped. While I feel stronger; I also have had some nasty mornings. The first fifteen minutes of the day are hard. And if I sit down in anything soft for more than a half an hour; I have to start over. I would like to share to those following where my current focus is, and at least one resource I'm using to get my mind and body connected through motion. My injury (and re-injury) came about because of a few factors: I worked hard and pushed hard in everything I did (my posture was out of control) I had really weak glutes, lower back and flexors. (my posture was out of control) Lack of formal training of any sort, plus life style contributed a bit to (2). The first one; well... I was always the smallest, weakest, shortest and slowest growing up. My compensation was to push to the edge of my abilities. I often didn't break. Time, however, offers no quarter to "often". Oh. Gee. I guess my posture was... out of control. In the body, there are two central outer "lines of stuff" which hold everything together at a superficial level. Some texts use the term "myofascial lines". You can find tracks from these in several different disciplines. Just follow some acupuncture or acupressure charts and they are obvious. The "front" and "back" lines work together as we breath and move. They hold our guts in place, stabilize our breathing and ensure that when we do stupid stuff like try folding ourselves in half; that we don't actually fold in half. These are the same lines responsible for holding us in the fetal position while in the womb and then extending us the other way so we can start crawling with our head up. Cool huh. My draw to "Knees on the Bag" comes from the study of these two lines. I was struggling to answer this question: "Why wont my left hamstring shut off?" And "Why does my right foot hurt?" The simple action of kneeing a bag properly, with the mental queue of drawing your hands in an arc from your eyebrows down to your hips and tucking your heal to your butt happens to involve every actor along both of the text-book "front" and "back" lines. My pain goes away while I engage all of the actors. Interesting? But it can come back when I'm "resting" or static for too long. Why is this? The first obvious theory is that there is some binding occurring along the lines. I sort of know that, as I have an MRI showing me one such "binding". (It's really not that bad! Even if I had some surgery to scrape some stuff off, I'd then have to still fix the problem which is present causing the situation. And deal with the scar tissue and the recovery and .... ) To find the binding; I admit to enlisting some help. Pictures taken of me standing and walking revealed an obvious point. While walking, I was never fully shifting my weight into my left hip and my right arm almost didn't move. While standing and breathing, my rib cage was tipped with the front bottom "forward" and my pelvis was canted top-forward. To pull from text books; my bell (rib cage) was rung and my bowl (pelvis) was spilling. The "going into the left hip" thing has an easy solve. It's a pretty common pattern for us humans to fall into since we have more lung on our right side than the left. The solve for this may be as simple as just "switching stances". Although if something else other than our natural propensity to be right-dominant due to our anatomy is at play; more work is required. To identify that work; we must look at what can get the rib cage out of a "rung forward" position. The hips will probably follow. The suggestion from the person taking the pictures was a simple one "just breathe into your back". Sure. Easy. So then he showed me how to do that and almost on the first breath... "OMGWTFISTHAT!" was my shocked cry as some muscles in my mid back started into spasms. Once everything calmed down and I'd gone through some careful breathing sequences in the right posture; my rib cage and hips were back parallel like they're supposed to be. I felt nothing; no pain, no tension, no burning left hamstring feeling like it was going to snap my knee off. I also knew it wouldn't stay. I had what I needed for the day. Some data to work with. Some bits to study. What "breathing into my back" did for me was wake up by force some muscles and fascia which probably hadn't moved in a very very long time. Now to why I think this area is interesting for this forum. The area in mid back where I was bound up is directly related to the area of engagement in your back as you wind up for a cross. The back and front work together. Focus thoughts on the 5th rib next time you throw a strike of any sort at a bag. Below is a brief word map of the two lines from our waist up. Lets see if I can get my head around what's going on. (Bone attachments in Bold) Back: << stuff below >> Sit Bones --> Sacrum --> Lumbar muscles into erector spinae --> Occiput --> Over TopOfHead --> Frontal Bone (just behind your eyebrows) Front: <<from below >> --> Pubic bone --> RA --> 5th rib --> Some little bits near collar bone --> Mastoid Process (Jaw) --> Scalp Notice two things. First; these do not connect. Second; throwing knees, teeps, low kicks, a right cross ALL leverage a small contraction of the RA's at the 5th rib. Some of the acceleration of the weight transfer and the shock of impact goes through this attachment. At the same time the RA draws down, the erector spinea's (those ropey muscles on either side of your spine) also extend in coordination, but also in such a way as to coordinate around the fact that the rib cage is expanding and contracting in the center. I find facinating the mechanical (bone) attachments of these lines. In the back, we have a very strong double attachment to the sitbones + sacrum (which must move mostly together other than a little twisting), and then no anchor from the sacrum all the way to the skull. In the front, we have anchors at "root", "heart" , "voice", "mouth". Know why people clench their teeth when winding themselves up to deliver a strike? Oh! Cool! I'll be working on this area for the week. I of course welcome thoughts. To add a suggested reference for this: "Anatomy Trains" Thomas W. Myers. This is a wonderful book. There are several out there which cover this sort of thing, and I find Myers the most easy to understand and approach. I've used this book to help with some massage sessions for family injuries over the years; but never tried to apply much of it to myself. And some good pictures here since I probably shouldn't scan in anything from Myers. https://thetaichieffect.com/the-anatomy-of-connection/fascial-lines-in-our-body/ Adding in functional and spiral lines will be a topic for near future. I have a lot more to digest about how these superficial lines work first.

Since I started working out six times a week sometimes twice a day I gave up my moderate ( at most ) alcohol consumption and now I just drink on a very infrequent basis. I can’t afford to not feel my best at my workouts. (If I was still young and single I’d probably drink a little more) but now I focus on adequate sleep, fuel, hydration and very limited/infrequent alcohol i want to feel my best. Sometimes I get ’ tired’ during the work outs or class but don’t give up. ( plus there is no option to give up during my Muay Thai class. You do what he says. Period. Only exception is an injury ) If I drank I’d think i’d just suck wind and not be at my best. Not worth it to me.