Boxer Workout Plan Article

Want To Take Your Muay Thai Kickboxing Training To The Next Level? Want To Become A Muay Thai Fighter?

Want to know the exercises and drills the pro Thai boxing fighters use to get ready for a fight? Most of the training tips and techniques can be found right here. There are different levels of fitness needed for Muay Thai as you first begin, then get competent, and finally become ready for the fight game. You have to do the first things first and not rush through training your fighting skills.

As you may know Muay Thai kickboxing is said to be %95 conditioning so if you're in too much of a hurry to gain new skills before polishing the basics then watch out come fight night.

I jumped in the ring too early because I thought my previous martial arts experience would be a good enough foundation to get me through. I learned all the Muay Thai fighting techniques I could before rushing to have a Thai boxing match for the first time.

All I got for my troubles was a flogging and a missing tooth.

I forgot all my basics because I wasn't conditioned to keep them up for the whole fight. Learn from my (and many others I assure you) mistakes and take your fight training step by step and steady.

Training has to be sport specific, if you are confused about what you should or shouldn't be doing just ask yourself this question; "Is this going to make my Muay Thai better?"

If it's something like swimming or bike riding or 'body building type weights' then the answer is no. If it's hitting the bag then of course, yes, this will improve your Muay Thai but you have to do it the right way.

Nutrition

Most doctors, dietitians and fitness professionals agree that when attempting any type of exercise programme you must consider your diet as equally important. This is especially true of a sport and art such as Muay Thai. The training needed for fighting or just being proficient at Thai Boxing demands that you provide your body with the right fuel.

You might be asking "what types of food" and the answer I'll give you is very boring. A balanced diet of a mix of meat, fruits and vegetables. It doesn't get any more simple, easy or boring as that. Just look at the minimum daily requirements that the doctors always talk about and you can't really go wrong.

But don't think you can get away with eating good stuff but still have the occasional beer or sweets on top of it. If you think that a little bit of bad stuff along with the good stuff is ok when training for fights then you're in for a shock. You really can feel the difference when you train if you've been even a little bit bad the day before.

I get cravings for sugar when I'm training hard for a fight and if I indulge my training suffers. If you have to indulge a little then do it on your training days off not in the middle.

The first level of fitness needed for Muay Thai is..

Flexibility- "How Do You Get Limber Enough To Kick High?"

Flexibility is needed in all parts of your body before even attempting the basic strikes and techniques let alone the advanced kicking skills. I cannot go into detail here on how to stretch but if you have some knowledge on stretching techniques then focus on your hamstrings, quadriceps, groin muscles, shoulders, and surprisingly your lower back and side muscles.

You'll find once you've attempted the Muay Thai kicks and knees that you need flexibility in your back and side more than your legs.

When training for flexibility you need to be careful when stretching before a class because your muscles are not warm, plus stretched muscles are actually weaker.

I learned this the hard way when I was younger as I thought the key to not hurting myself was to stretch hard before class.

I would then sometimes pull a muscle during class and would reason that I had to stretch harder next time. The result was more injuries. I then learned later that most stretching should be done after class when the muscles were warm and were tired out anyway so that the fatiguing effect of stretching doesn't matter. Stretching this way has prevented injuries for me for a long time.

The second level of fitness needed is...

Endurance

If you were to front up to your first Muay Thai class and tried to follow along you probably wouldn't last the first 30 mins of an hour and a half to two hour class. Especially if the class started the way I described on the class training page where skipping and calisthenics take up the most of the first half hour. If you really want to get the most out of your beginner Muay Thai training then it's a good idea to start practicing skipping now. Remember; every fighter skips. It is one of those universal things that everyone does for very good reasons.

It improves cardiovascular fitness, endurance and footwork. A light plastic skipping rope will cost you under $10.00 and will be one of the best investments towards your fitness that you can buy. To go to the skipping page and watch a short online video on skipping then click here now.

"What is "roadwork" and why isn't it just called running?"

Running is getting into a rhythm with your stride and your breath to make it easier on your internal systems to go for long distances and durations. This is nothing like the exertions inside the ring. When you’re fighting you move in all sorts of ways, at different times and intensities, and sometimes it's like your sprinting and sometimes you’re jogging.

So this is the way fighters train when out on the road. They sprint, walk, jog, do push ups, sit-ups, run backwards. Anything to vary the effect on their bodies so they don't get used to it in the way you can get used to running at a certain pace which gets easier over time.

As you can probably tell, this type of training can not be sustained for long periods; and why would you? Amateur Muay Thai fights are only three by three minute rounds and professionals are five by three minute rounds; even world title fights. So limit roadwork to ten to twenty minutes a few times a week at the most.

This type of strength endurance training, as in sub-maximal loads for sustained periods, is necessary if you want to get through the bag training part of a Muay Thai workout.

"How Do You Improve The Work Rate Of Your Fighting Technique?"

One of the best ways to improve your Muay Thai fighting technique is through shadow sparring.

All the great fighters throughout history in all different disciplines did shadow boxing or shadow sparring.

It's the best way to learn a new technique or improve on it before trying your new skills on the bag, pads or an opponent. There are ways to make it that you are working your endurance too so that when you need those moves in a fight situation you have the 'gas' to use them.

"How Do You Breathe For Staying Power?"

Breathing correctly is one of the most important ways to improve overall stamina and endurance for all fight sports like Muay Thai, kickboxing, and boxing.

A good trick right off the bat is to wear your mouth guard at all times during training.

That means running, skipping, bag work, everything. Put it this way. Just say you trained every day for a fight with an open mouth getting all the oxygen you needed then the day of the fight your trainer said "Put this ball in your mouth and keep it there the whole fight". You would get puffed out within a minute (plus you might swallow the ball if you got punched in the head but you get my drift).

Again be sport specific. Muay Thai requires you to wear a mouth guard so wear one when you train. Also the type you wear can affect you in different ways.

The way you breathe also affects your endurance in Muay Thai training and fighting so work out the way best way to breathe for you.

You have to breathe out sharply on every technique to keep the oxygen flowing and keep you relaxed.

Breathing out also keeps your torso slightly flexed so that if you get hit there whilst your attacking you won't get hurt.

The other ways of improving endurance involve basically doing Muay Thai. Remember I said that you have to be sport specific to improve? Well, just go in and kick the bags, hit the pads, and do the drills with your partner. Just make endurance your focus the whole time. If you feel like kicking the bag hard and powerfully, don't. If you feel like going as fast as you can on the pads, don't. Just work on your endurance for now and worry about the other fitness attributes later.

The Third Level Of Fitness Needed Is...

Technique- How Do You Know If You're Doing It Right?

When you were working on your endurance it was probably all you could do to just get through the kickboxing workout without collapsing, let alone keep proper form. This should be your next focus. After endurance training for a few months you can start keeping a close look on your form. Go to the technique page if you need to brush up on your Muay Thai skills.

This starts with your shadow sparring as you begin fine tuning your technique so that every move is perfect. If you have a mirror or a 'shadow' to watch you get instant feedback on what you are doing right or wrong but only if you know what you're looking at. Start asking your Thai boxing trainer on a regular basis to watch your form. Tell him you are looking to correct it and he will be happy to as he will see this as self discipline.

When hitting the bags for technique be mindful that you're not hurting yourself, this is foremost. If you jar your wrists and ankles when making contact with the bag you're obviously not using proper form.

Another thing to make note of is if the momentum of the bag is knocking you off balance; this is a sure sign of incorrect form. Make sure that everything you throw is directed through the target and you have good balance and grounding with the floor.

Other things to watch for are dropping you hands before, during, and after throwing a technique or combination. Keep your hands up. It's a fundamental tip but one you'll have to keep looking at throughout your Muay Thai training. Everyone has lapses on this point especially when you get tired.

When you do pad drills you'll hopefully have your trainer or partner constantly correcting your form so you won't have to. But keep yourself disciplined so that they don't have to say anything. Your goal should be to get through your whole pad training without your partner saying a word about form.

The Fourth Level Of Fitness Is...

Speed- "How Do You Hit Without Getting Hit?"

After you've gotten your technique near perfect you can start speeding things up. Doing incorrect technique at high speed is just asking for injury. When you first start trying to speed up your technique you may inadvertently try to hit harder. Just recognize the difference when you do both and work on the speed. Just tap the heavy bag without much follow through and try to get combinations working.

Doing more than one attack in a row will automatically speed up the individual techniques.

Remember that the faster the footwork, the faster the technique. Not only do your individual punches and kicks get faster but your ability to get in and out of trouble speeds up. You can get into attacking range, fire off hits, and get out unscathed if you have fast footwork.

Start working on the speed ball if your Muay Thai gym has got one. It has this name for a reason. Most beginners avoid this equipment because they can't even hit it but you will because you've focused on technique before trying speed.

The above exercises are good to improve your quickness but sometimes these methods are hard and can have some drawbacks.

Speed can be affected by many things; most of all by fatigue.

If you're trying to work primarily on speed in your regular Muay Thai training then the high work loads can work against you. You may want to punch faster but your muscles won't let you. Try setting aside some extra training or substitute one or two regular Muay Thai workouts for some specific speed work. Make sure you're fresh and do some explosive training like sprints and plyometrics instead of long slow movements like jogging.

Another technique to improve quickness involves hitting something that does not put up much resistance but enough to let your mind know that something is there. Let me explain. Your brain is a complex and clever thing and does things without you realizing it. If you extend out a limb quickly without something to stop it your brain sends signals to the muscles in that limb to slow it down so it doesn't injure itself by pulling a muscle or tendon etc.

This slows down your technique. If you have something big and heavy like a heavy bag to stop the punch/kick you stop dead which slows down your technique. If ,however, you get something very light like a rag or rope to hit at full speed your brain doesn't slow you down and neither does the object you're hitting.

The Fifth Level Of Fitness Needed is...

Power- "So You Want To Knock The Other Guy Out?"

If you've been following along properly with the training you would have realized something; the less you try to hit hard, the harder you hit. As you've been trying to hit the bags and pads quicker you would have heard and felt the difference in the impacts. This may seem strange to you but not if you look at it with physics. Force= mass x acceleration. Just the mass of your arm increases the force if you increase the speed.

Also; Power= Force x distance/time.

Again, if you decrease the time it takes your hand to hit the target then you increase the power. So the best way to knock someone out is not try and knock them out. Just try to hit them as fast as possible as many times as possible and you have the greatest chance of putting their lights out.

There are some strategies, however, that definitely can increase your power and therefore your knockout potential.

First, pick your shots. Like I said before fatigue can decrease your speed and therefore your power. In a Muay Thai fight you get tired quicker than perhaps any other sport so only throw shots you know will connect. Pace yourself so you go harder at the end of the round just before you get a rest in the corner.

As you read earlier Power= Force x distance/time so if you gradually increase the amount of force you can generate without sacrificing speed you will increase your power. Explosive plyometric training as indicated in the speed section are good for this as long as you can progressively overload your muscles. Basically you need to measure this type of training. If you are doing sprints then start towing something light behind you and increase it's weight each time.

You could of course use weight training to increase the mass of your muscles which in the equation, Force= mass x acceleration means that you will have more force. You have to take in to the picture, though, that an increase in mass will make you go up weight divisions. Plus, the extra weight will increase your fatigue which in turn affects your speed and therefore your power. You can, however, use weight training to improve your Muay Thai fighting ability but only if you do it in the right way.

Supplementary Training

"What Extras Can You Do To Improve Your Muay Thai Fighting?"

Physical Preparation

Calisthenics or body weight training should be the staple of your general fitness training. All Muay Thai fighters training for competition should do at least push ups and sit ups. Free weight squats should also be on your agenda and you should to do some type of climbing or chinning movements to even things out.

These should be done after your regular Muay Thai skills part of the workout because fine motor skills should be practiced before gross motor skills as you get more tired and uncoordinated. This rule changes from gym to gym as some people believe that pre-exhaustion before skills training gives you the feeling that a couple of rounds in the Muay Thai ring will. I believe that a bit of both is necessary but drilling bad habits into yourself because you have no energy left is counter-productive.

Kettlebell training has been getting some good press lately especially after former world champion Kostya Tzsu did an interview saying that he had always done it since he was a little kid and it was a contributor to his power and fitness. Kettlebells resemble a cannon ball with a handle welded on and you use it by swinging, pressing and lifting it in all sorts of directions. I was like everyone who first sees it and couldn't see the difference between kettlebell training and training with dumbbells.

Then I tried them and was completely hooked. The difference in explosive strength, anaerobic conditioning, and recovery time after regular Muay Thai training was incredible. All the fitness systems needed for Muay Thai fight training are drilled during kettlebell training. I train this way 2 times a week and have stripped fat off quicker than any other form of weight reduction training.

Improving your skills and combinations after you have the basics mastered is something the more advanced fighters pay some attention to. But only after they have the basics down. Working on unique combos and making pad work as close to fighting as you can get can give you the edge if your fitness is equal to that of your opponent.

Mental Preparation

After you have physically prepared to fight then the next big consideration is your mental training. This is automatically factored in to most of your physical training anyway. When the Muay Thai training sessions get tough you have to get tough mentally to get through them. If you spar at your gym the toughness required to face an opponent (even a training partner) is considerable.

But the real test is in the ring and everyone knows it. The amount of guys who say they want to fight, put in the training, then as fight night draws near some mystery illness appears is high. This is just fear and if you want to test yourself fully you have to face it, it's as simple as that.

Spiritual Preparation

Muay Thai kickboxing comes from Thailand which is a Buddhist country and Thai boxing shares some of the Buddhist traditions.

Even if you don't believe in the Buddhist religion or practices you should try to understand them for the sake of your Muay Thai training.

A lot of the rituals like the wai kru, ram muay, bowing, and wearing the mongkon (ceremonial headband) have great spiritual significance and many believe influence the outcome of the fight.

Even Australian Muay Thai champion John 'Wayne" Parr said that after a while he got sick of doing the wai kru and ram muay rituals before fights and stopped doing them. He lost several fights in a row so he began doing them again and started winning again. Go to the spiritual page to find out more on this integral part of Muay Thai.

If you are not spiritual in nature and don't believe in such things learn a lesson from "John Wayne" and just go through the motions anyway. It can't hurt. If all things are equal between you and your opponent then what do you have to lose.

As you can see when training for Muay Thai fighting you have to take everything into consideration and every level of fitness there is. This is why many consider Thai boxing the toughest sport on earth because there is no area of fitness that isn't required to the highest degree when fighting. Conditioning for Muay Thai means conditioning for pretty much anything you can think of that you might face.