Me & Fight Camp

Fight Camp 2 - Day 1.... so many campers! 

"Will you join Fight Camp with me?" I asked MOH. His response? "You want me to die izzit??!" :P

So, I signed up anyway. I don't usually train in a group and haven't done a "group" fitness activity like in years! Even at Saya Lone Chaw's place, I don't train in a group. I dunno, call me anti-social? Considering my training regime every mornings, MOH went like "Are you crazy??" Well, I am. I am crazy about training. And when I read about Fight Camp, I just thought - ok - why the hell not. It could be fun.

So, 6 weeks ago, I attended my first ever group fitness boot camp and 6 weeks later, I've survived the last class. How was it? Here's how I described it to my Mama & Papa - in the first week of class, everyone was excited and full of energy, it was hello, hello! how are you! The 3rd week saw us (me included), crawling up the stairs to the boot camp room, too tired to go hello! hello! how are you! Just a simple nod will do - that is if my neck wasn't stiff :P By the 5th week, we saw many drop-outs and that's always shitty because the less people in the class meant more eyes on you!! Noooooo!!!

In the 6 weeks of Fight Camp, my entire body had remained sore constantly. Problem was, I didn't stop my normal training and I was still chasing for that personal best in my sprints, in my 25km runs, in my swims, in my bike every time I'm training and with the additional ten million squats and infinity push-ups I had to do, my recovery time was very much shortened. Don't. Even. Get. Me. Started. On. The. Bloody. Burpees. I. HATE. BURPEES. I detest! I detest! I detest them vehemently.

But you know what? Fight Camp made me realize that many a limits are usually in da head. Many, many years ago, when I started being active, I could never do a full push-up nor a pull-up. As such, up till recently, I had never bothered attempting to do so. And that was me, being "pretty fit". When the coaches said "full push-ups" no "knees"... I was like shit. And then I did like 50 that first class (it was the bloody 10 kicks left, 10 kicks right, 10 FULL push-ups and repeat for what felt like ten million minutes!) And the pull-ups. God, I never knew! I could even "hold" it right up there. Yeah, it was much easier with the coach standing below you going "Hold it! Hold it! C'mon!!!!! Hold it!!" In the first pull-up attempt, I managed to complete 30 pull-ups in a circuit. I was literally quite impressed with myself. LOL! Who knew???

Then came the Death By Burpees. Aaargh. As many of those darn things you can do in 1 minute for 15 minutes. You see, in my head, I don't know why, but only 15 burpees registered. But then a fellow camper pointed out that if you worked out the math, it was 105 burpees in the 15 minutes (105 for me, more than that for those who were much fitter!). I was like - whoa!! What??? 105? I've never done that before!!! I. Still. HATE. Burpees. :P But you see, I'm now forcing myself to do them even in my own morning training. Sometimes, what you hate could actually be good for you :/

Needless to say, Fight Camp was awesome! It was good just to see how fit I really was - and I realized I'm not all that fit. It was good to challenge myself that much more - try 30 pull-ups and then going for Saya Lone Chaw's class the next day, taking it 6 rounds in the ring and another 12 rounds on the punching bag. And telling yourself, it's all in the damn mind.

I love training and I love pushing myself all the time. And I also love seeing really strong people. I like to see determination in people. And there were some serious campers who were awesomely fit. Best part was, we all go there and whilst we trained, we also had a good time laughing. Because by the 3rd class, we're exchanging understanding smiles. We saw each other's legs shaking while doing the Hell Squats, and we're like "yeah, I feel your pain, but I can't even really laugh now cos I if I did that, I would keel over!" And by the way, the coaches just have some seriously fancy names for torture. Who names 1,000 punches "Sweet Sixteen"???? Death by Burpees though, speaks for itself :P

Somedays, I went in to class, willing myself to try. God forbid if I embarrassed Saya Lone Chaw's good name! Then, there were days where I went into class and it's some crazy circuit (Hell Everything :P) and I'm hungry and I'm telling myself, "F***, Saya Lone Chaw can disown me for all I care!!!" :P

Who knew, despite not really going all the way out in Fight Camp because I've serious knee issues and a yet-to-heal sprained ankle, I would still come out gaining yet another level of fitness. I'm kicking harder, I think I've more strength in my upper body and best part of all - I am now able to cause Saya Lone Chaw some pain when we spar. And I think he realized that I've grown stronger because I no longer get a 1 minute rest after 4 minutes. I get a 1 minute rest after 9 minutes in the ring. By the way, I also managed to put on some weight cos I thought Fight Camp was an excuse to eat more... Wooots!!

I'm gearing up for my first triathlon race after a 4 year hiatus this coming October. It's not possible for a podium win but I'll die trying to keep my record clean at least :)

To the coaches (L & L) who brought Fight Camp to Yangon (who knew such professional training could be found in Yangon?? 3 years ago, there were only gyms with equipment from the 1980s!!), awesome classes. You can tell how much I hated burpees because not once was I ever late for class (every minute = 5 bloody burpees as punishment). I will never ever forget Death By Burpees and Buns of Steel. Sadly, I'll be missing the next Fight Camp as I'm gearing up to push all the way for my October race. Hope to be back next Fight Camp!

Meanwhile - to all the other Fight Campers - Fight On !!! And thanks for the laughs and thanks for those who held the pads for me. I truly sucked at holding them!

With the national Lethwei champ - Saya Lone Chaw