Maya Flores

I actually did get seen for plantar, but the physician said it wasn't plantar!! I am surprised that you (michelle) guessed that, because I had another muay thai student also tell me to get seen for plantar back when I first started in muay thai!! She was an advanced student who noticed my limp in the beginning of class and had asked about it. I said it was probably an old heel injury and she said maybe it was plantar-something. She said there was a steroid shot and to go to a doctor, which is why I went home and went to the doctor about foot pain! The doctor said it was a good guess, but that I didn't have some kind of tell tale thingy that plantar has. I asked her for that steroid injection that people with plantar can get and the pain goes away, but she said no (I got anti-inflammatory pills that time). She asked what I was "using my feet for," lol, and I told her kickboxing from Thailand. She asked me to describe the movements so I stood there and kind of pantomimed a knee, an elbow, etc. I didn't think to ask her directly if there was a link between the foot movements and the discomfort. I just assumed it was some kind of injury or joint issue, but now I wonder if it's the super specific movements done repeatedly (like Sylvie said). I'll try to get seen by a general physician this coming month and I will ask about the repetition of foot movements in muay thai! I will come here and post what s/he says. :) Oh yea, I hope it's not that I'm hyperextending my toes because I always get told to pivot more and get up on my toes more, hahaha! Thank you, Michelle!

Thanks so much! By some weird hand of fate, my friend and training buddy at the muay thai gym is a licensed massage therapist!! I will totally ask her about her schedule and if she knows anything about sports massage (I only know she does deep tissue for sure). I will check with my insurance provider about seeing a foot doctor, that is also a good idea. :-D Yes, your English was great!

Thanks! :-D

I had a question about foot pain and being newly active physically. Before muay thai, I never really exercised. I took a judo course at the university and a dance class, but those were requirements, and I was already 30 years old when I started being active in actual sports. I've never competed before, or been on a team, not even in junior high. I'm 32 years old now, and I have been consistent with muay thai since May of this year (I was only going 1-3 times a week for about a year before that, very sporadically). "Consistent" nowadays means that I try to go every day for 1-2.5 hours, 5 days a week, for formal muay thai training. Anyways, my body is unaccustomed to physical activity any harder than clubbing at a dance club until about 8 months ago. My feet feel pain on a low level pretty much most of the day, outside of muay thai. During muay thai, my feet don't hurt. I can pivot okay, I can go up on my toes okay, but when I get home and walk around normal, the joints in my toes and in my feet feel sore and I have to kind of hobble around a little. I constantly crack my big toe, which bothers me if I do not crack it. Standing up from sitting makes me lean forward as my weight hits my feet and the pain makes me unsteady. My question is whether my history of inactivity is causing symptoms of "overtraining" or perhaps "not resting enough after training" symptoms? I have had an ankle sprain since starting muay thai (jump rope) and I took anti-inflammatory pills to reduce pain for that. The doctor gave me instructions to warm up with specific ankle exercises (rotate ankle in circle for like a minute each). I do those exercises, but I would like to know what to do about my toes and foot joints. I kind of modified the ankle stretching exercises to incorporate my foot joints (like bouncing on the toes of one foot to stretch the toes), but I still experience the throbbing in my toe joints, around the metatarsals and phalanges (although the area along the inside of my foot like the cuneiform hurts, too). Liniment oil? Massage? Heat treatment? for how long? I took a long rest over the holidays while the gym was closed, but my toes and feet joints are kind of throbbing at a low level right now, despite that. I asked my kru and he said to ice it or put heat on it, which I have started doing this weekend. Will my feet adjust to the rigors of muay thai over time or should I add something for joint management? I haven't taken ibuprofen or anything else, just the anti-inflammatory pills about a year ago and a lot of Icy Hot gel. Thank you!! :bunny: *dance club bunny dance dance

Glad I saw this, I just got socked in the eye the other day and nobody knows I wear contact lenses. I let my guard down, got punched lightly, my left contact lens went swimming somewhere in the gallows of my eye, I couldn't see, my eye teared up heavily, and everything was blurry. I finished the round with one eye shut. So, contact lenses during sparring is not allowed? Should I tell my kru about this and see if he thinks I should practice with no sight correction? At the time, I didn't think much of it, but now that I am reading this I am thinking that I should stop wearing contacts during sparring class. Does it make a difference if my contact lenses are those disposable, 1 month lenses? Thanks! :confused:

On your being a southpaw and sparring---do you find it's easier or harder to spar with another southpaw? A woman at the gym is southpaw and we spar now and then. I tried switching to southpaw and that worked okay for avoiding her southpaw kicks, but my offense was mostly punches because my left kick telegraphs a lot. From your perspective, would it be worth it to keep sparring lefty with a lefty and righty with a righty? Or should I just stick to righty and try to improve that side a lot? fyi, I sometimes switch to lefty without realizing it and then I'm stuck as lefty for a while. Thanks! ♦

Great idea! I just looked for him. I did send a thank you message to him! Thanks, I really wanted to make sure he knew I really appreciated the time and energy he spent on me.

Hi!! Thanks for the good advice! I really do feel that it is a good place for me and I get to spar, too. I am grateful for all the advice and encouragement and it means a lot because my new trainer is willing to let me fight in an amateur competition after December, like in 2016. :)

Loved this line about loyalty not being a one-way street. I really think this sums up what bothered me deep down. Thanks!

Hi, I am so sorry for the late replies. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply! I will comment on all replies today. New update: there was an amateur fight where both my gyms attended this month. My former head trainer (now in a different city) greeted me with "What happened?" He seemed to be surprised that I would leave. He repeated this a few times, and I was looking at my training friend like, "oh no," so I explained that gym #2 lets me spar and he didn't push any farther than that. The new trainer from gym #1 (who took over after my first head trainer left) did not acknowledge me at any point, but that is understandable since I was there for only 3 months under him. Overall, I feel a little better now that everyone knows and I have said hello to everyone. I still feel kind of remorseful though. The one trainer who spent the most time training me was not at the fight this month and I am still feeling both indebted to him for what he taught me and guilty for leaving him.

Hi! I'm Maya and I'm a beginner in muay thai. I have been doing muay thai inconsistently since 2013. I've been consistent since May, 2015, but before then I was kind of in and out of this one gym in my town (gym #1). Now I've been at gym #2 in the same town for about 3 months and I am happy there and I go consistently, but I feel this confusing guilt over leaving gym #1. I was quiet about leaving, mostly because I thought I'd come back after a month, but this new gym lets me spar, whereas gym #1 said I could not spar until they decided I was ready (I asked several times over the course of a year if I could spar and got emails that said, "when you're ready"). Gym #2 lets me spar (I understand that gym #1 didn't want me getting hurt...but I was driven to try sparring). My question is about everyone's experiences on changing gyms. What has been the reaction of both gyms, as well as your feelings about changing gyms? Why did you change gyms? Do you ever run into people from your old gym? How does this affect your idea of loyalty, especially as it relates to the values of Muay Thai? I heard it is common in Thailand for Muay Thai fighters to adopt their gym's name as their last name (Buakaw Banchamek, formerly from Por Pramuk gym), so it is a big deal to the tradition, right? I tell myself I was not at gym #1 consistently enough for anyone to notice my absence, but that might not be accurate. I ran into a fighter at a local muay thai competition and he joked about how long it had been since I'd been to the gym (gym #1). I told him about how I was going to gym #2, which is in the same town, and there was kind of an awkward silence. In both gyms, the word LOYALTY is painted on the walls in giant, black letters. I stare at this word while jumping rope and I wonder if I have been disloyal. I feel a bond to my first gym, but I feel that I couldn't achieve what I had my heart set on: advancing into sparring. Thoughts? Personal experiences? Thank you! :thanks: