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Thailand training blog: Manop gym


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Hey guys, this is where i'll be making my daily blogs with training in Manop's gym, might be interesting to some of you and also good for me so i can remember experience i had in depth. I'll cover how hard it was for me physically, emotinally and mentally, physical and mindset struggles along the way.

I came to Manop's gym in Dec 2nd 18:30 had a long 24+ hr day with flights and so on so didn't train that day, got introduced to the people here, seemed fun and good people to be around with. I noticed one thing tho and i had big concern about training. As a person who has asthma i had hard time breathing just doing nothing, walking around or even laying in the bed, i thought this might be the problem because if i'll train it will certainly get harder. I used some of the meds but they didn't help 2 much. About 8:30 we all went to the market and this was the first time i had a taste of thai food , was really good and prices compared to my country seemed small.  Around 22:00 came back to my room went to bed,  this was 1st day, no training. 

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Day 1 of training: wake up 6:50 have a quick snack(dragonfruit) before running. 

7:10 we go run for 1hour and comeback to do the training. As for person with asthma this wasn't easy for me, but i tried to control the pace and managed to finish the run.

In morning  training after run we did bag work, leg kicks on pads, and some physical training, we finish training around 10:20 or 10:30 and did some light stretching , went out to eat and got some sleep before our next training. 

16:00 some people go run 30min some stay in gym and skip rope, i did rope skipping until guys came back from running. After that wep went shadow boxing 15mins. After that we went on the pads with full legs,elbows, knees,hands,  full package for 5rounds. After that 4-5rounds on the bag and after that 30min clinch. On clinch all people were better than me, considering they weight 65-70 and im 83 that just shows how important the technique and timing is. One guy hit me with a strong knee and it hurt bad , i didn't show, but i thought ok  l, he's 65kg, if 80kg guy would do like this to me, i might not be able to fight. Iv'e done ab work, but never felt a knee to the body, good experience for awareness. At the end we finish with some physical training and stretching.  I was tired on the end , but what was killing me the most after clinching was my neck, couldn't even keep my head up decently for some time. After training i was talking with Manop about fighting as a beginner , i never knew it's always 5rounds for 3min  , seen Sylvie fight 3rounds for 3mins and i thought i might manage that, but 5rounto5rounds considering my asthma, i just doubt i'll have enough conditioning for that amount of time. I have thoughts If i try to flight and don't finish fight in 3, i'll be out of breath and have no chance of winning. Anyways after training we go eat, came back and  went to sleep.  I was thinking eating 2-3times a day might not be enough for me  considering im 83kg atm, 3meals might not be enough for me to keep my energy , but for now i'll go like this and see how it goes. P.S also bought electrolites ,noticed dehydratation even tho i was drinking, 6l water a day.

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43 minutes ago, Oliver said:

Are you living in the gym dude? How much do they charge to let you sleep there I was wondering 🙂

Good luck with the training & fight 🙂

The place is kinda cheap. 10k for training 6k for room. Thanks!

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Day 2 of training:  Wake up 6:50, quick fruit snack and go run for 50mins..running today was harder than yesterday, breathing seemed more heavy and i could hear my lungs making a squeeky sound i was breathing out. Pace wasnt fast but im glad i managed to finish the run.. After that 15min shadow boxing, leg kicks on pads, after that some bag work, sparring and finish up with some physical things and stretching. After workout felt kinda good  ,went to eat and tried to get some sleep. Around 15:50 alarm went off, i woke up and felt tired, had loads of pain , some stress rashes and just some blue places in my legs from all the training and sparring i had. I thought i was going to skip this training , but i forced myself to go.

16:00 Calf muscles were sore so running was hard, did 25min instead of 30. After that shadow boxing, pad work for 3rounds bag for 6rounds. Then guys went to clinch and i stayed to shadow box and learn the front leg teep from Manop.  Did 200reps in shadow and i don't even know how many on the bag. The more teeps i did the more natural it felt and the quality of the technique increased, ofc far from perfect but as a beginner i felt an improvement so was really happy about it . After that just finished up with some physical training and stretching, training finished aprox 7:30. Went to have some food, now came back , going to sleep soon , wake up next day and try to do the best that i can. I hope my asthma gets either better or doesn't get worse, wouldn't like to have asthma attack, they don't know i have it + i have no insurance so that also wouldn't help, either way, so far so good. Really hard considering i came after 1month of no training, was suppose to run 30mins a day for 3weeks before i came, but had bad asthma attack and cought virus, so couldn't run, focused on recovering so i can come fully healed to train in Thailand. 🙂 P.S only today i found out you block body kicks with leg,  thought hand protection is enough, didn't know that doesn't count and scores points. 

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Day 3 of training: Had a bad sleep , couldn't fully fall asleep so felt kinda tired in the morning calf muscles keep hurting from the days before, either way i have to run. I found a temple almost 5k away from the gym,  good destination if you ask me. Run 5k, get beautiful sight reward and run back. At 7:00 i go for a run, comeback at 08:00. Did shadow boxing,  6rounds on the bag, but once it came to the pads i felt tired and out of breath, asthma triggered decently for the 1st time, couldn't even finish the pad work, needed time to breathe and recover. After a round i quickly rushed to my room and took my asthma medication, it didn't help 2much, breathing was easier but i couldn't fully breath in. Went back to the training like this, managed to finish knees to the bag , physical workout in the end and stretching.  Decided that today i'll skip the second workout because felt really weak and out of breath. Went to the drug store to look for more serious meds for asthma, but seems like in this smaller drug store they didn't have it. I felt kinda shity that i had to skip afternoon training this early in the camp, but at the same time i understand that might have been a good thing. Tomorrow i'll try to get both workouts in in hopes that i feel a little better, also will have to look for a bigger drug store so i can get better asthma meds that might help relieve my sympthoms. 

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Day 4 training: wake up and feel wayy better, more relaxed , breathing easier. 

07:00 go for 1h run . 08:00 back to the gym, 15min shadow, 3 rounds on pads with kicks 6rounds on the bag, and after that 5more rounds on the bag while others were sparring. Finish up with knees to the bag and some physical work + stretching in the end.  Session felt better but my left calf is killing me, as a southpaw i always have to keep heel up and it hurts real bad, so far i can push thru. 

2nd training session 16:00. Couldn't call 2sleep in the day so when training started felt kinda sleepy. 30minute jog wasn't bad, but same problem as before, left calf pain. After runs 15min shadow, 3rounds 4min full combo's on the pads, 5rounds on the bag, some knees to the bag , finish up with clinching. Last time i did clinching it was really hard, was falling loads of times, this time i went down maybe only 3times,  did couple takedowns myself, ofc far away from these guys, but im happy to see improvement. Finish with light physical work and stretching.  After this training felt really tired and calf pain keeps geting worse, i hope i can finish my morning run tomorrow . Oh and also Manop said i might fight next week, felt kinda weird, been off training for a while, come train for like 1week + and have a fight? Don't really have that cofidence yet, but if i fight it will def be a great experience. 

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Day 5 training. 

07:00 08:00 usual run, after that run felt belly bloating, was diarrhea. Spent 1hr in toilet, puking etc. Had to skip morning training. Didn't eat anything neither before or past run,good thing i had protein shake. 

16:00 30min run,  15min shadow,  5rounds on bag, 3rounds on pads and 3rounds on bag again. After that others went to clinch and Manop told me to do knees to bag. Learning the technique seems to be hard, feel stiff, especially on my right side, my right hip is always making a sound and i have a little bit of pain there each time i use leg or knee on that side , if i had to guess i'd say It's hip impingement. My knee technique is poor for now, my skin comes of after i finish the knees and there is blood coming out under the skin, i don't think it's the bag, it's my technique that sucks, have a day to rest , i hope my knees heal a little, if not i should focus more on leg kicks and teeps, elbows until it does. Going to look for hip impingement solutions on the internet, that hip doesn't help, teeps hurt, knees hurt and kicks also seem to be less of a quality, can't seem to turn hips as i can on the left side. 

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Day 6: day without training , bought some food, walked around and found 2 beautiful temples. Next Sunday i'll probably go visit Chiang Rai's White Temple, Wat Rong Suea Ten Temple and just look around the city, here are some pics from today's walk around.  🙂

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1 hour ago, Matty said:

Thank you for these posts.

I will be going to Manop's gym Jan 3 - it helps a lot to know what to expect 🙂

Will you still be there in Jan?

I hope it helps, seems like a fun gym. There is one girl that comes to training each day, goes only once a day tho, all other people who train here are guys, they are kind, funny and helpful so no worries. I'll be leaving on December 26th. Going to stay in Ubon Ratchathani 27-30 and if Sylvie can get a hold of Sagat i'll go stay in Bangkok 30-31 for privates with him. If not i'll just prob stay in Ubon, flying back to my country straight after new year. On Jan 1st. Will you go train 2times a day or only once?

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Day 7 training. 

07:00-08:00 morning run, 15min shadow boxing, 5rounds on the bag 3rounds on pads, 5rounds on bag again, knees in shadow, kicks in shadow. Finish with light physical work and stretching. 

16:00 30min run,  15min shadow, 5rounds bag ,  4rounds on the pads, 5rounds on bag again, finish up 30min learning elbows on bag, light physical workout and stretching.  I noticed i don't have sparring most of the time even tho i bought expensive thick shin guards and i don't get to clinch often. Both most important parts of training if you're training for a fight and im not geting it. Had spar only once and clinch twice in this time while other guys always do it. Losing confidence as the times goes and fight gets closer,  training hard is good, but if you get no spar and no clinch you're not doing the most important part of the training. 

19:30 we finish training and leave, going to Chiang Mai Stadium watching one guy from the Manop's gym having a fight. First time in stadium like this, was nice experience.  Beautiful fight, he managed to get 2round k.o with leg kicks. 🙂

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18 hours ago, RB Coop said:

I hope it helps, seems like a fun gym. There is one girl that comes to training each day, goes only once a day tho, all other people who train here are guys, they are kind, funny and helpful so no worries. I'll be leaving on December 26th. Going to stay in Ubon Ratchathani 27-30 and if Sylvie can get a hold of Sagat i'll go stay in Bangkok 30-31 for privates with him. If not i'll just prob stay in Ubon, flying back to my country straight after new year. On Jan 1st. Will you go train 2times a day or only once?

Ah, I will have miss you by days.

And thanks for the heads up about the gym being all guys. Mental preparation is nice for this kind of thing 🙂

Sounds awesome to get to travel around for different gyms. I haven't start my trip yet and already wish I had more time... What gym will you train at in Ubon? If I remember correctly, Lamnamoon's gym there as well.

I plan to train 2 times a day and hoping to fight at least once. (I really was hoping to fight 2 times, but I'm afraid I don't have enough time) 😞

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5 hours ago, Matty said:

Ah, I will have miss you by days.

And thanks for the heads up about the gym being all guys. Mental preparation is nice for this kind of thing 🙂

Sounds awesome to get to travel around for different gyms. I haven't start my trip yet and already wish I had more time... What gym will you train at in Ubon? If I remember correctly, Lamnamoon's gym there as well.

I plan to train 2 times a day and hoping to fight at least once. (I really was hoping to fight 2 times, but I'm afraid I don't have enough time) 😞

Yeah, i'll prob visit Lamnamoon's gym in Ubon. How long are you staying in Manop's gym? 

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19 hours ago, RB Coop said:

.  I noticet of the time even tho i bought expensive thick shin guards and i don't get to clinch often. Both most important parts of training if you're training for a fight and im not geting it. Had spar only once and clinch twice in this time while other guys always do it. Losing confidence as the times goes and fight gets closer,  training hard is good, but if you get no spar and no clinch you're not doing the most important part of the training. 

 

I'm a female fighter and after 1.5 years of training with the last nine months being in a traditional thai gym with mainly very skilled male fighters I learnt you have to ask for it. It's awkward and hard. As a woman I had to force myself to get in the ring while the others were clinching and more than once guys who've been paired up with me have refused to clinch. I was also told to get out of the ring to kick pads while the guys did hard sparring. I insisted and for a while I was forced to wear a helmet (which felt humiliating) until slowly I was accepted and then fully included. 

I am not trying to hijack your diary (I really appreciate your posts btw) just to to tell you to not give up. If you pay for training you deserve to get what you paid for. 

 

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9 minutes ago, LengLeng said:

I'm a female fighter and after 1.5 years of training with the last nine months being in a traditional thai gym with mainly very skilled male fighters I learnt you have to ask for it. It's awkward and hard. As a woman I had to force myself to get in the ring while the others were clinching and more than once guys who've been paired up with me have refused to clinch. I was also told to get out of the ring to kick pads while the guys did hard sparring. I insisted and for a while I was forced to wear a helmet (which felt humiliating) until slowly I was accepted and then fully included. 

I am not trying to hijack your diary (I really appreciate your posts btw) just to to tell you to not give up. If you pay for training you deserve to get what you paid for. 

 

Im def not giving up, but this is kinda frustraiting. They say im kinda heavy as other guys are 10-15kg lighter than me and have fights coming up, but so do i. I guess as they are staying here longer and representing their gym he wants to be careful with his fighters but i have upcoming fight 2, seems unfair that they don't let me do what other ppl who train there are doing, especially considering i'll have a fight. If you're not going to let me spar why sell expensive shin pads that im not even using. 

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1 hour ago, RB Coop said:

Im def not giving up, but this is kinda frustraiting. They say im kinda heavy as other guys are 10-15kg lighter than me and have fights coming up, but so do i. I guess as they are staying here longer and representing their gym he wants to be careful with his fighters but i have upcoming fight 2, seems unfair that they don't let me do what other ppl who train there are doing, especially considering i'll have a fight. If you're not going to let me spar why sell expensive shin pads that im not even using. 

That seems like an odd excuse, weight differences are common and I often see thai trainers sparring with less experienced heavier guys. Usually the head trainer knows how to control these differences. Are those fighters foreigners or thais? Is your fight confirmed? Sometimes it can sound like things are determined when they are really not...

It can be hard to understand communication in Thailand. Some times things that are not necessarily true are said to save face or to avoid discomfort. 

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1 hour ago, LengLeng said:

That seems like an odd excuse, weight differences are common and I often see thai trainers sparring with less experienced heavier guys. Usually the head trainer knows how to control these differences. Are those fighters foreigners or thais? Is your fight confirmed? Sometimes it can sound like things are determined when they are really not...

It can be hard to understand communication in Thailand. Some times things that are not necessarily true are said to save face or to avoid discomfort. 

Foreigners, 3of them. 1had fight yest, other has fight on friday and 3rd one has fight on 15th in bangkok. Well as far as i know i'll fight, but i've seen how they treat foreigners in stadium.. As long as they know you don't know Thai lang they can mess with you. The guy thay fought yesterday, they wanted to mess with him again, they once put him in a ring with a guy 10kg above hi's weight, but this time he knew some Thai lang so they didn't go with it, he informed Manop and it went smooth. He got different fighter, but it wasn't 10kg above, might have been again if he wouldn't know the language. As far as i see manager of this gym and promoter seems like he doesn't break hi's word. From experiences iv'e seen and these guys told me. 🙂

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Day 8 of training: 

07:00-08:00 morning run, after 5rounds of sprints with tire, 15min shadow , 5rounds on bag, 4rounds leg kicks on pads. Finish with knees to bag,physical and stretching. 

16:00 30min run, 15min shadow, 3rounds on pads with full body,punches, elbows, knees, kicks etc. 6rounds on bag. 3rounds extra on bag to practice correct kicking technique. Finally got 30min clinch today, he's a beginner but so was i, so wasn't 2bad, i need to learn to use trips and angles because now seems i only use power without any trips. The guys that have fights coming up already finished training so clinch or spar with them was no option. Tomorrow or friday the one that had fight returns to training, so should be good for clinch and spar. 

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Day 9training : 07:00-07:40 run, 2much knee pain, started to feel more and more after 15k runs each day, had ACL tear a while back, probs the reason ant. ended up walking the rest 20 minutes to finish 1hour. 15min shadow 5rounds on bag, 3rounds on pads, 5rounds on bag again. After training we had a talk, they said at my weight there are 0fights right now, they said I'll need to drop 7kg by the time that fight comes,  i said no chance. Best i could prob do healthy would be 2-3kg. Anything more is really hard on the body, also considering i had 0fights and these guys are going to be 20-30plus fights, if also lose 7kg, im not only in experience  disadvantage but also cuting 7kg drains power and stamina, especially on such short period of time as 1 week. I hope someone comes up in like 79-80kg. Im 82'4 atm. 

 

16:00 30min run, 15min shadow, 3rounds on pads,5rounds on bags, teeps on bag for 300reps.  Also today learned a little more about how to throw the roundhouse kick correctly , was working on it for 30min. Elbows on the bag, light physical work and some stretching. 

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Only 1st half of Day 10 of training.  07:00-08:00 run. After that sprint for 5laps with tire and a brick. 15min shadow, 6rounds on the bag, 1round extra just for low kicks and hands. After that 300knees, 500teeps, some ab work and stretching. I was the only one working out today, because one guy fighting today, other guy fighting pakorn on sunday in Bangkok. As i finished workout Manop came out and said someone told him i have asthma and now he's afraid i'll have asthma attack in the fight,  so he said he's going to give me even more hard training from monday to see if i don't gass out or have asthma attack. That's kinda not fair  , one guy was training here for 2months, he gassed in 2nd round and ref stoped the fight. I have no problem going out the same way, but i think i could do better. But to withdraw me like that without giving a chance feels really unfair, especially considering he let that guy fight who gassed in 2, but is afraid to let me in. That's the reason i didn't want them to know about asthma, shouldn't told the gym friends, even tho i said don't tell Manop, seems like someone leaked. I hope in the end i get to have the experience regardless of the fight outcome. 

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5 hours ago, RB Coop said:

Only 1st half of Day 10 of training.  07:00-08:00 run. After that sprint for 5laps with tire and a brick. 15min shadow, 6rounds on the bag, 1round extra just for low kicks and hands. After that 300knees, 500teeps, some ab work and stretching. I was the only one working out today, because one guy fighting today, other guy fighting pakorn on sunday in Bangkok. As i finished workout Manop came out and said someone told him i have asthma and now he's afraid i'll have asthma attack in the fight,  so he said he's going to give me even more hard training from monday to see if i don't gass out or have asthma attack. That's kinda not fair  , one guy was training here for 2months, he gassed in 2nd round and ref stoped the fight. I have no problem going out the same way, but i think i could do better. But to withdraw me like that without giving a chance feels really unfair, especially considering he let that guy fight who gassed in 2, but is afraid to let me in. That's the reason i didn't want them to know about asthma, shouldn't told the gym friends, even tho i said don't tell Manop, seems like someone leaked. I hope in the end i get to have the experience regardless of the fight outcome. 

Oh no I'm so sorry. Hoping it will work out! 

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7 hours ago, LengLeng said:

Oh no I'm so sorry. Hoping it will work out! 

Yeah, so far so good, today when we went to watch fight in a stadium Manop introduced me to some people and we went to check my weight. I should have a fight before i leave, fingers crossed. Also fighter from my gym today lost by k.o sadly, he was just after sickness, was hard for him ,  but i enjoyed hi's fight, takes courage to go in, especially when you were sick. 

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    • Hi, this might be out of the normal topic, but I thought you all might be interested in a book-- Children of the Neon Bamboo-- that has a really cool Martial Arts instructor character who set up an early Muy Thai gym south of Miami in the 1980s. He's a really cool character who drives the plot, and there historically accurate allusions to 1980s martial arts culture. However, the main thrust is more about nostalgia and friendships.    Can we do links? Childrenoftheneonbamboo.com Children of the Neon Bamboo: B. Glynn Kimmey: 9798988054115: Amazon.com: Movies & TV      
    • Davince Resolve is a great place to start. 
    • I see that this thread is from three years ago, and I hope your journey with Muay Thai and mental health has evolved positively during this time. It's fascinating to revisit these discussions and reflect on how our understanding of such topics can grow. The connection between training and mental health is intricate, as you've pointed out. Finding the right balance between pushing yourself and self-care is a continuous learning process. If you've been exploring various avenues for managing mood-related issues over these years, you might want to revisit the topic of mental health resources. One such resource is The UK Medical Cannabis Card, which can provide insights into alternative treatments.
    • Phetjeeja fought Anissa Meksen for a ONE FC interim atomweight kickboxing title 12/22/2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu92S6-V5y0&ab_channel=ONEChampionship Fight starts at 45:08 Phetjeeja won on points. Not being able to clinch really handicapped her. I was afraid the ref was going to start deducting points for clinch fouls.   
    • Earlier this year I wrote a couple of sociology essays that dealt directly with Muay Thai, drawing on Sylvie's journalism and discussions on the podcast to do so. I thought I'd put them up here in case they were of any interest, rather than locking them away with the intention to perfectly rewrite them 'some day'. There's not really many novel insights of my own, rather it's more just pulling together existing literature with some of the von Duuglus-Ittu's work, which I think is criminally underutilised in academic discussions of MT. The first, 'Some meanings of muay' was written for an ideology/sosciology of knowledge paper, and is an overly long, somewhat grindy attempt to give a combined historical, institutional, and situated study of major cultural meanings of Muay Thai as a form of strength. The second paper, 'the fighter's heart' was written for a qualitative analysis course, and makes extensive use of interviews and podcast discussions to talk about some ways in which the gendered/sexed body is described/deployed within Muay Thai. There's plenty of issues with both, and they're not what I'd write today, and I'm learning to realise that's fine! some meanings of muay.docx The fighter's heart.docx
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