Your ideal Muay Thai training session.
Whether you’re a beginner to the sport or a seasoned fighter with a granite chin, we all want to know what the ideal Muay Thai training session would look like according to different people, that being said, I want to say that this is my personal opinion and it is by no means a professional telling you exactly what to do and what not to do. I’m simply offering my take on the topic, do what you will regardless, it’s your journey!
Session duration
Usually for Muay Thai, the time of your training is very important, on one hand, you want to get a solid workout in with some good technical work as well as sparring-tested techniques. On the other hand, you don’t want to be absolutely killed by the training session’s length, so you have sufficient time to recover and improve with some gas still left in the tank. From my experiences in Thailand and other gyms, I personally agree with training sessions taking up anywhere from 1 hour to 1 hour 45 minutes. This length for a training session allows a solid warm up to take place, as well as a full length training session to push your limits without overly exhausting you. You can even get a great training session in with as little time as 30 minutes, as my coach and I used to 1 to 1 sessions that were extremely intense in short bursts.
A variety of products can help you along this training session providing valuable insights into your performance, such as a fitness tracker watch many fighters wear and use, a Fitbit. (https://amzn.to/4iQyBNy)
Another product that you should consider investing in is a good interval timer to track your rounds and timing throughout your session. You will see these timers in any gym you go to and that is for good reason. (https://amzn.to/404iKUa)
Partnered drills and techniques
I feel strongly that this is something that should be incorporated into most if not every training session you ever do, it is a core aspect of training that you will see no matter the gym you visit or train at. Partnered drills are very important as they allow you to polish up your fundamentals as an advanced fighter or learn very valuable basics as a beginner. Basic combinations such as a jab, cross, left hook and rear leg kick are often seen in these drills. Master these combinations and you will be well on your way to becoming a great fighter, and as my striking coach used to say “stick to your bread and butter”.
It’s important for you to look the best, to be the best, oftentimes training gear that looks good actually is good in martial arts, check out this Under Armour compression shirt to look the part in your next training session. (https://amzn.to/3VSqXIC)
Having a good set of gear is also very important so you can rely on your equipment in training sessions, if you want to learn more, check out our beginner guides section!
Testing your technique and drills
This part of your training should most certainly not go unnoticed, and it is as important, if not more than the previous tip I talked about as this is where you are made as a fighter, through pad work to practice your combinations and techniques, and perhaps the most talked about aspect of combat sports, sparring. I consider techniques to only be “legit” if they are pressure tested just like a product with quality control. Learning a combination or technique is just as important as practicing and mastering it. I would recommend for most training sessions to have this integrated into them, be that through intense pad work, technical or situational sparring, or fight simulation sparring. This will allow you to develop what you learn in your training. And of course, as Bruce Lee said “Fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks, but fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times”.
Every fighter should at least consider getting themselves a set of focus mitts or pads to unlock the possibility of practicing at home when the gym is closed or you can’t go. (https://amzn.to/406J3JF)
It is also essential to keep all your teeth when you’re training, wouldn’t you agree? Here’s a good mouthguard you can use in sparring and drills, don’t make the same mistake I did, wear your gumshields guys. (https://amzn.to/3DuBaVy)
Cooldown and finishing the session
In my opinion, this is also paramount to any training sessions that you do, depending on your coach, this will be done a different way, some just end the class without any special instructions for the end, but some coaches will do something called a “cooldown” or they can call this a lot of other things. The main idea here is that all people that participated in the class gather round and you all do a circuit of exercises, very often being abs, call me a sadist or whatever, but I love doing these at the end of the session. This gives you a nice ab workout on top of the training you already did, strengthening your abs to are body shots without flinching. Another very beneficial session-ender is stretching. The exercise of stretching already warmed up muscles that have just gone through a workout in the shape of the training session has many more benefits as opposed to stretching before a session, at least in my opinion. Sometimes your coach may choose to do both a cooldown and stretching session. Regardless, it is a very good idea to incorporate these into your sessions.
Sometimes these sessions and cooldowns get you sweating, you don’t want to be that one really sweaty guy so it’s worth investing in a good sweat-absorbing gym towel. (https://amzn.to/4iJRpOt)
Another thing you might very well need at this point in the training session is a solid water bottle to keep you going and hydrated. (https://amzn.to/3BT7CjI)
Rest and recovery
After your training session, it is important that you take some time to properly rest your body and allow it to recover. For beginners, I would recommend a more relaxed training schedule of 2-3 days per week (if you’re an advanced fighter, or in fight camp, I recommend training every day) as your body hasn’t physically adapted to training yet but you are welcome to train more if you think you can. It’s important to give yourself proper nutrition before and after training so that you’re energised coming into training, as well as properly fuelled for recovery and development. I would recommend something light to eat before training like fruits, or something like a smoothie bowl, after training, it’s worthwhile to dig into some protein rich foods like meats and eggs if possible. I remember how I neglected my nutrition and focused on more practical rest like just doing nothing for a while or sleeping and hoping for the best. Sleep is very good for recovery, but to work effectively, it needs to be paired with a balanced diet and adequate amounts of rest. This method of doing nothing for a while and sleeping kept me going, but I was dead tired most of the time, feeling like shit. My body was able to train and keep up with session frequency, but I neglected nutrients that actually determined how I felt throughout the day.
Something to help with meal prep or just cooking for yourself in general that is handy to have is a good weighing scales to make your recipes all that much better. (https://amzn.to/3Duis08)
You can also find recovery rooms in your area that help with any type of fatigue through various methods such as ice baths, saunas, compression therapy or even cryotherapy. You’d be surprised at how well these tools work when it comes to sports.