Back to Tiger: Crossfit

After getting in touch with the softer side of things for a couple weeks at the Shivagakomarpaj Thai Massage School in Chiang Mai, I decided it was time to go back and beat people up again. Tiger Muay Thai was more than happy to have me back.

This time, instead of straight fight training, I decided to mix it up, start doing some more weights and taking part in their Crossfit/Bodyfit challenges; like Beach Day.

Beach Day is a 2 hour montage of pain sprinkled with humiliation.

First off, we load a van up with a bunch of these tires attached to ropes.

Then we drive to this picturesque beachside cliff.

Then we all lose our minds.

We begin the exercises by doing backwards pushups up 5 flights of steps; 2 larger and three smaller. We do this 4 times. We sweat a lot.

Sometimes we take breaks.

It kinda looks like this…

Afterward, we form up in groups of 3. We take turns running up and down the 2 larger sets of stairs carrying one of these lovely tires overheard, and doing 10 squats at the top and bottom of the flight of stairs, handing it off to a partner each time we come up or down. After one has done 10 squats at top and bottom, then drop to 9 squats, top and bottom, then 8, and so on until you reach 0.

Then tourists decide they want to act the part…

Then we sweat some more.

So, that was a pretty good warm-up for the real monster exercise of the day… The Hill.

The Hill doesn’t look like much at first glance. It’s about 200 meters downhill to a 90 degree bend in the road where it goes out of sight. We are supposed to split up into teams of 3, grab a tire and run up and down the hill twice performing hundreds of various exercises at the bottom, midway, and top.

What you don’t realize the first time, is that the 200 meters of the road is just the beginning. The road is roughly 1 kilometer each way. Thankfully, traffic is light and usually just the occasional scooter, so if you do fall down from exhaustion, you probably won’t be killed by oncoming vehicles.

This is where most of the “first-timers” walk away. From the stairs to the top of the hill, somehow half of the people disappeared. That left myself and Joe as a 2 man team to drag the accursed tire rather than 3.

I wish I could say I was more of a help than a hindrance, but Joe took the tire almost 90% of the way. He was a powerhouse.

Finally, after buckets of sweat and a handful of “I Quit” moments, we dragged our tire and tired bodies to the top of the mountain. We would have celebrated if we had any energy left. As it was, we just lay there for a while, baking like roadkill in the sun.

After everyone could walk again, we made it to a little beachside bar and got a round of fresh coconuts to rehydrate and laugh about how crazy we all were for doing this willingly.

Tiger is one of those places in life where you can work as hard or as little as you like. The half asses sort of sift to the bottom of the pile, and the people who really go for it form a fantastic friendship through the blood, sweat, and tears of it all. I’d like to say this will be an annual vacation for me, but I’ve no idea what’s in store for me after this trip. I do know this; I will be back again. This was just too much fun.

Wrap-Up:

Tiger Muay Thai and MMA

http://www.tigermuaythai.com/

tmtphuket@gmail.com

TMT Office:+66 (0)76 367 071

TMT Office (alt. nr):+66 (0)76 367 072

Night Office:+66 (0)86 596 9090

Bookings:+66 (0)80 519 8234

BlackBerry Messenger:310208FD