Hi. I hope as always your keeping well, and that you are staying safe.  At the moment with gyms having shut their doors and the UK being in a state of lockdown it’s important to stay fit and healthy.

Despite the outbreak and authoritarian restrictions, it’s good to stay positive and stay focused and most importantly, even it’s through phone or video call stay in touch with friends and family.

When it comes to training it’s been nice to see martial artists such as Sylvie Von Douglaas-Ittu sharing regularly sharing home training videos as well as the Warrior Collective keeping us all motivated with useful drills and training tips we can practice at home.

If you’re lucky enough to live in a martial family then maybe you’ve got someone to hold pads for you and if not it’s worth considering picking up a cheap bag to set up at home to keep sharp and fit other than just via shadow boxing and running or cycling. In terms of outdoor exercise, I’d suggest making the most of it whilst you can.

I’m upping the ante next week to running 4 times a week as well as my usual bit of cycling. I’m also making sure I dedicate more time to home training than I have done this week. I’ve found it useful whilst watching some of Sylvie’s training videos to shadow box at the same time she is.

It kind of gives that training together feeling and if you’re anything like me you’re a people person. I miss seeing my friends as regularly as I was but we’re keeping in touch and my gym has a Whatsapp group that we can all share training videos and tips through.

Right now, the state of play is that we might be under lockdown until June, so the worst thing we can do is let our training fall to the wayside, and our tools get rusty. I keep focused on training goals for the rest of the year and I can’t wait to get back to the gym.

I’ve always been someone who takes my art home with me, but that’s just me and as I’ve always said, I’ll be training when I’m 60. I think in these ever turbulent times it’s important to remember that nothing is permanent and everything changes. Tough times only ever make tough people. All we ever have is situations and opportunities to be the best we can possibly be.

From next week onwards I’m going to start blogging about what I’m working on in particular and what drills I’ve been practicing over the course of the week,  if you follow me on Twitter you’ll see me tweeting stuff like “jab and teep from one side of the living room to the other..” or ” block off the rear leg, lead teep, rear leg knee”

It’s not just my train of thought, well ok it is, but it’s what I’m working on too. Maybe that will help give others a little inspiration for shadow boxing drills from home. They’ll be a little more from me on home drills this time next week as I’ve said and On that fairly positive note, I think I’ll leave you with this video from Sylvie on things you can train from home. I hope it helps you stay motivated. Never give up and train hard…and just like the last time, I’ll see you on that road.