How do you log your classes?

MakePeasNotWar

Calorie burn is not my primary goal at Muay Thai, but I would like to try to log it accurately to help make sure I am eating properly for it. I do a 90 minute class but it is broken up into warm-up, conditioning, pad work, and burnouts, with time in between for watching the instructor demo combinations, and of course holding pads for my partner.

I am just wondering how some of the rest of you calculate your calories from classes? I try to err on the side of underestimation because I do want to drop about 15 pounds so I would rather undereat than overeat. Here is how I count a class:

Jumping rope - 6 minutes

Calisthenics, high intensity -25 minutes (out of about 40 spent on conditioning part - I figure I am resting while I watch the instructor and during transitions, as well as some partner exercises where I am not doing much during my partner's turn)

kickboxing, tkd, judo (or whatever the database exercise is called - you know the one I mean) 15 minutes out of about 45 spent in partner work and burnouts. This accounts for the time I am holding pads and the time to switch pads and watch demos. My guesstimate is 5 minutes for demos, 10 minutes for switching (we switch often) and 50% of the remaining 30 minutes holding for my partner. This leaves 15 minutes for actually hitting pads

I actually calculated this one time and then used the result to create a "Muay Thai class" exercise, so I don't have to enter so much detail every time.

At first I just used the kickboxing exercise but I think it way overestimates because it's not like I am going nonstop for 90 minutes, although sometimes it can feel like it

What do you guys do? Do you break it down, or ballpark it and make it a custom exercise? What kind of totals do you get? Also, if you count holding pads, which is still active, how do you count it?

verdemujer

Well - you really need something that you wear and can do monitoring on your heart or body metric data. I wear a BodyMedia armband. I have discovered that when I put down my 3 hours of martial arts class, this website wants to say I've burned about 3000 calories or some ridiculous number. From my arm band's data though, I'm actually about 700 give or take the class activities. There are days where it's more and other days (kata days) where its way less. I thank god I bought something that gives me real data about my body rather then trust this website. I think they must have figured if you list karate/judo/martial arts that you are going all out sparring style the entire time. And that's not the way a martial arts class works in my experience. My girls are looking at a fitbit flex and I may switch to that too in the next year. Though as that's on the wrist I'm not sure it will really work well in the martial arts classes. My armband sits high enough up it's out of the hit zone for the most part. There is also Jawbone Up and there are the garmins and other heart rate monitors. Pick the thing that works for you and you can afford.

I think real time data about my calorie use during exercise is the key to why I'm finally off the plateau. 1) I really know what I've used up and don't over eat based on this sites estimates. 2) By tracking my food I really know what I need to eat and have finally stopped under eating (a nasty bad habit from my teens and early 20 years). In the last year I am finally really seeing what it takes for me to lose weight.

j75j75

I just add the Judo/Karate/Kickboxing/Tae Kwon Do. It's pretty accurate for what I do

Alehmer

I just try to only log the time I spend in Randori / Sparring / Rolling. I will usually log an hour of open mat and a 90 minute class as 120 minutes to account for rest and technical work.

MakePeasNotWar

Thanks for all the replies!

@ verdemujer - I'm going to try the heart rate monitor next time, since I have one for my cardio workouts anyway. Not sure why that didn't occur to me in the first place. Maybe one too many shots to the head :laugh:

Alehmer

The hardest thing is that very high-intensity activity like sparring has a big effect on increasing your metabolism for hours afterwards. So an hour of rolling/sparring will have you burning calories for 24 hours vs. an hour of jogging that has you elevated for 2-3 hours.

Since it depends SO much on you personal intensity... we just have to accept these tools as very blunt instruments.

chellycakes

I log it as karate, judo, etc.
I wear a HRM and notice the classes can vary from 477-975 cals burnt!!! So I feel naked when I don't wear it.

grover0ca

I have only worn a hrm a few times just because it gets in the way..but I found I burn about 1500-1600 in a 2 hour training class for sparring--taekwondo. Our warm up alone can be 40 mins & I will burn approx 500 cals in that time. Even in the few minutes you spend transitioning from one thing to the next or switching off pads etc your heart rate is still up for part of that so don't count it all as downtime. I burn more when I am training at tkd than when I do other types of workouts that is for sure!

rayfu75

I try to log less than a full class to account for times when there are rest periods. However thinking about it now my heart rate does remain elevated if i'm holding pads or switching from pads to gloves. Even for the few minutes listen for instruction (specifically for kickboxing) I'm still not 100% recovered. So if I have an hour and 1/2 class I'll log an hour. For Judo or Brazilian Jiu jitsu I'll usually drop 15-20 minutes from the full amount I'm on the mat. We tend to drill non stop with 30-60 secs rest after conditioning/warm ups. Sparring we normally will start off with 3-4 5 minutes rounds with 1 minute rest in between. Second hour is a bit more intense with 10 minutes for the first round and 6-10 5-7 minute rounds with 1 min rest. That is after conditioning and drills for that class as well.

kendrafallon

I log my TKD class as Tae Kwon Do which is listed in the database and use a HRM (Polar FT4) to log the actual time and calorie burn - the burn generated by MFP is far too generous!