STORE-BOUGHT OR HOME-MADE, HERE'S HOW TO HANG YOUR BAG

By Randy Pilares

You’ve finally bought or made a heavy bag for your home workouts. Your excitement is through the roof! 

You can now train Muay Thai at home any time you want to.

Hone the basics...

Perfect your favorite combinations... 

Drill Muay Thai until you drop....

The mere presence of the heavy bag will seriously upgrade your Muay Thai training at home!

You got one slight issue before you can start enjoying all of that, though. You will need to hang the heavy bag first, and it is not as simple as it first seems.

Before you hang that beast up, there are a few things to consider:

Location, Location, Location

Once you have your heavy bag, the first thing you need to do is to find the perfect location for it. 

The location needs to be just right. A lot of things could go wrong if you happen to select the wrong spot to hang your heavy bag.

It needs to be an area that offers plenty of space...

SHADOW BOXING FOR ALL, NOT JUST FIGHTERS

By Evan Lee

Shadow boxing might look silly to the layman (though not to the pro Muay Thai fighter).

"What good could punching and kicking at air be?" wonders the layman. Turns out... quite good.

If you’re a beginner to shadow boxing, just try it for a good ten minutes. You’ll be sore tomorrow, I promise you that. But there are more benefits to it than just building some muscle.

Shadow boxing is one of the best warm ups you can do before a training session. When you look at the warm up for any sport, it’s almost always just a lighter version of the sport itself. Basketball players dribble and take some shots; powerlifters bench, squat and deadlift; and Muay Thai fighters shadow box. If you want to warm up well for your sport, you need to use all the muscles involved in that sport.

But not only is shadow boxing a fantastic warm up, shadow boxing is also by itself a fantastic workout. Think about jump roping. All you’re...

THE MUAY THAI GUYS PODCAST: EPISODE #131

By Sean Fagan

Motivation is a substance. Did you know that? It's a real thing!

But it's nothing you can feel; nothing you can see, or touch, or weigh, or quantify easily. There's no such thing as "1 motivation" or "2 motivations."

You either have it... or you don't.

So how can something so nebulous be SO integral to a fighter??

That is what Paul and I are discussing today! It’s so easy in life to lose track of why you started doing something. When we’re having to grind every single day, it’s so easy to forget that you started doing this because you love it. That’s why Paul and I are here to talk about all that today.

Let’s get into it!

• Why Paul wanted to talk about motivation;
• Why we should be more afraid of complacency than fear;
• Balancing enjoyment and ambition;
• The importance of surrounding yourself with good people;
• The power of an arrogant belief;
• And much, much more...

What's YOUR Muay Thai...

LIGHT UP YOUR OPPONENT WITH SPEAR, STAB & SKIP KNEES

By Evan Lee

The knee is the hardest bone you can possibly throw at your opponent, and it’s powered by the strongest muscles in your body. In other words, getting kneed sucks, which is exactly the reason why we need to master our knees! Instead of the ones being hurt, let’s be the ones who bring the pain.

Think about the legendary Dieselnoi. He is the knee and the clinch specialist. He’s universally considered to be one of the best Muay Thai fighters ever and possibly the best Muay Thai fighter of all time (him or Samart). In fact, he was so feared that he was forced to retire because no one would fight him. That just goes to show how important knees are.

But you know what they say: "seeing is believing" - and the same is true for these KILLER Muay Thai knee combos!

KILLER Muay Thai Knee Combo & Technique Drill [Spear, Stab & Skip Knees]

KNEES: THE FISTS OF THE LEGS!

Just like Sean said in the...

TRY A NON-TRADITIONAL HEAVY BAG

By Matt Filart

When do you opt for a specialty heavy bag instead of the traditional types? 

We’ve talked a lot about picking up your own heavy bag and awesome solo workouts to pair with your new home bag so you can scratch that training itch whenever you want.

Hell, if you want to, you can even make your own heavy bag!

But we haven't touched on a key question:

"What if I don't want the traditional style of heavy bag?"

Or maybe, you wonder:

"What can I add to my home gym to spice up my heavy bag routine(s)?"

Are there other options available?? In fact, there are! Here are 4 great options for non-traditional, specialty heavy bags. Which one makes the most sense for you and your training?

#1: RINGSIDE COBRA BAG

You've probably seen this one before, as vids of boxers working on it are popular on Instagram. The Ringside Cobra is mainly used to train the timing of your punches, your reflexes, and even your...

A SIMPLE 'DIY' FOR AT-HOME HEAVY BAGS

By Randy Pilares

Every Muay Thai enthusiast has thought, even for a second or two, about rigging up their own Muay Thai heavy bag at home. It's cheaper than buying one and will fill the user with a sense of pride and confidence.

And to be clear, we're not talking about buying a pre-made bag from a reliable heavy bag manufacturer or anything like that. No, no, no. We will be making a heavy bag ourselves - from scratch.

Whether you make a standing heavy bag or a more common hanging one, the key is that you will make it on your own.

Yes, make your own Muay Thai heavy bag and train to your heart’s content!

Making Your Own Muay Thai Heavy Bag At Home

To start the process of making your own Muay Thai heavy bag at home, you will need to prepare the right materials:

• Duffel Bag
• Pillows
• Duct Tape
• Hanging Hook
• Ropes
• Sand or Sawdust (optional)

After you have gathered all of the necessary materials, you can start making your own Muay Thai heavy...

LOW ON HANGING SPACE? TRY A STANDING BAG

By Matt Filart

There are a lot of Nak Muay's who have been looking to get their training fix ever since quarantine measures were put in place all around the world. While we all know that following the guidelines and staying inside to keep ourselves and others safe is smart, it becomes boring, especially for people like us. S

ince lockdown has been happening around the world, we've been posting about home Muay Thai workouts and we’ve even talked about some heavy bags to look out for if you’re in the market for one.

The problem with standard heavy bags is that you need to hang them up, meaning you’re probably going to need to install something to hang them off of. This is going to be hard for most people and impossible if you live in an apartment. If you can hang something, you have to consider how heavy the bag is compared to how strong your ceiling is and how much swinging the bag will do.

This is where freestanding bags...

'NO YOGA? NO MUAY THAI' - WHY STRETCHING IS ESSENTIAL TO FIGHTING

By Evan Lee

Recovery is one of the most essential factors of fighting and training yet it is also one of the most neglected. Yoga will not only help you to recover faster and prevents injuries, but I will wager to say that it will also make you a faster learner of Muay Thai and any physical activity.

First things first. Let’s talk injury prevention. As you might expect, tight muscles aren’t good.

Just imagine two scenarios. Let’s say you have a rubber band that’s been frozen, if you stretch it… it snaps. However, if you have a rubber band that’s nice and warm and has been tanning in the sun for a while, you can stretch it and it'll do its job without problem.

Yoga is a way to warm up your body so that you are ready for the strenuous exercise that is to come. Remember: don't be a frozen rubber band.

You wouldn’t try to stretch a frozen rubber band, so do not try to...

THE MUAY THAI GUYS PODCAST: EPISODE #128

By Sean Fagan 

We’re all living in tough times right now, but that doesn’t mean we need to be beaten down. It’s an incredibly stressful time for the entire world right now, but I believe that we can come out of this having learned some great lessons and grown tremendously. With that said, let me introduce our guest.

Today, Paul and I are chatting with Chad Mueller! He’s participated in our Thailand training camp once before and is the owner of Maryville Boxing.

Right now is an incredibly difficult time for small business owners and specifically businesses like ours where there is so much physical contact. Our hope today is that not only can we provide you with some sweet entertainment but also some useful tips to keep you moving forward despite everything on your plate right now.

We’re dealing with challenging times, but times like these are opportunities for us to rise to those challenges that await!

...

HOW TO THROW A SWITCH KICK FOR MUAY THAI

By Evan Lee

The switch kick is a fantastic tool to add into your Muay Thai arsenal.

Actually, switch-hitting in general is an amazing weapon. I mean, just look at Andy Ristie.

Andy Ristie managed to knock out Giorgio Petrosyan, the "Floyd Mayweather of kickboxing," just because of how incredibly weird his switch-hitting style was. But today we’re not trying to be Andy Ristie; we’re just trying to build a good switch kick.

Let's talk a bit more about why the switch kick is so useful. If you throw a regular rear-roundhouse in a closed-stance fight (orthodox vs. orthodox or southpaw vs. southpaw), you’re probably going to catch an elbow or kick your opponent’s back.

If you’re in an open-stance fight, however, the rear kick is open because both of your rear sides are open. A switch kick allows you to make use of this opening even if you’re in a closed-stance fight. When Buakaw was young, he landed nasty...