A TRIO OF SHADOW BOXING WORKOUTS TO SWEAT TO

By Matt Filart

Recently, we’ve been talking a lot about getting your heavy bag and working out with them. A heavy bag is a great tool for any nak muay to have at any time, especially in times like now... but they can be expensive and you might not be able to set one up in the place you live.

This leaves those of us without a heavy bag with even fewer options when it comes to our solo Muay Thai training. This means that most of us are going to have to stick to shadow boxing to get our training fix. This sounds straightforward enough, but shadow boxing is, like most things in Muay Thai, a lot harder than it looks.

It takes a lot of focus and intent to shadow box correctly and to get a workout from it. This means it can be hard to start shadow boxing without a coach or someone else guiding you along, especially if you are somewhat new to Muay Thai.

So, to help you out we’ve compiled three of our best shadow boxing...

BLAST YOUR OPPONENTS WITH STUPID PUNCHING POWER!

By Sean Fagan

Want to increase punching power?

Want to learn how to punch hard so you can land the perfect knock out punch the next time you fight?

Want to know the best tips and great exercises that are sure to help you improve your punching power?

If you answered yes to all of those questions, scroll down to find great boxing, MMA and Muay Thai training tips and the best explosive exercises to increase punching power!

Top 5 Exercises To Punch Harder

Explosive Pushups – Plyometric exercises like explosive pushups are sure to help you increase your power punching. An explosive pushup is very similar to a regular pushup except you are pushing yourself off the ground as high as you can.To make it even more of a challenge, try doing explosive push ups like the guy to the right!

Clean and Press – This full body power lifting exercise helps increase the power and explosiveness of your entire...

MY #1 WAY TO KEEP WARMUPS FUN, ENGAGING & EFFECTIVE

By Sean Fagan

Before each and every training session, I do almost the same exact pre-workout routine. It involves foam rolling, skipping rope, dynamic movements, and some light static stretches.

I find that performing this dynamic warm-up routine before banging the heavy bag or doing any other type of Muay Thai training helps me get prepared in more ways than one.

Probably the most obvious benefit of having this pre-workout warmup is that it gets my body prepared for a hard training session. My muscles loosen up, the blood starts flowing through my veins, and the important areas of my body are ready to put in some work.

Besides being physically prepared to train, having my pre-workout routine gets me mentally focused and in the zone. This short 15-minute session gives me the right amount of time I need in order to get my mind zoned in on what I want to accomplish during my Muay Thai...

By Funk Roberts

Can you really improve your overall strength and conditioning by doing an intense bodyweight workout routine?

I can remember when I started to train for my Muay Thai fight in Thailand back in 2010.  Before I stared I was 195lbs and training with weights, kettlebells, sandbags, etc. But when my Kru told me I was going to fight at 175lbs and that I had to stop using weights, I was a bit reluctant and scared at first but I had a task and goal set so it was time to adjust my training.

I sculpted my body using mostly weight prior to this and I felt that strictly using bodyweight exercises over the next 8 months was going to kill everything I had worked hard for… or so I thought!

I started implementing the best bodyweight exercises to create intense bodyweight workouts and circuits to help with endurance, explosiveness, cardio, strength and fat burn while...

MY PERSONAL STRENGTH & CONDITIONING ROUTINE FOR MUAY THAI TRAINING

By Sean Fagan

Strength and conditioning for Muay Thai can be a tricky bitch sometimes.

I don’t know about you, but I get overwhelmed with the amount of choices I have when it comes to strength and conditioning.

Should I use kettlebells? 

Or should I focus more on Olympic lifts? What about body weight circuits? 

Should I be doing interval sprints or are long distance runs better? 

Is Crossfit a good form of strength and conditioning?

What if I did plyometrics?

See what I mean? My brain hurts just thinking about the different forms of exercises and the various ways of structuring a proper strength and conditioning routine for Muay Thai.

Fortunately, there are guys like Don Heatrick who geek-out about this kind of stuff. All of Don’s posts on strength and conditioning for Muay Thai are top quality and always provide me with useful, practical information and exercises to...

INTENSE, HARD, TRADITIONAL MUAY THAI WORKOUT PLAN

By Sean Fagan

Almost all Muay Thai gyms in Thailand run basically the same type of workout routines because it’s intense, hard and focuses on the all the important aspects of Muay Thai that you should be working on day in and day out!

This type of training routine together with quality Muay Thai gears and equipment is used by some of the best fighters in Thailand and all around the world!

When I was in Thailand, it was pretty set in stone what my Muay Thai training routine would consist of:

• Skipping Rope
• Running
• Shadowboxing
• Thai Pad Work
• Heavy Bag Training
• Clinch Work
• Sparring
• Ab Work
• Stretching
• Meditation

Scroll down for a breakdown and descriptions of the best traditional Muay Thai workout routine!

Traditional Muay Thai Workout Routine:

Everyday in Thailand, my training program is basically this type of workout:

• Group run – 2-4 miles
• Skip Rope – 3 rounds
• Shadow Box...

THE BEST PLYOMETRIC EXERCISES FOR MUAY THAI STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

By Sean Fagan 

Muay Thai fighters rely on fast, explosive movements like hopping, jumping, kicking, pushing, punching and throwing. Since fighting involves these types of explosive, powerful movements, it’s super important for all a nak muay to incorporate plyometrics into their training routines.

Performing plyometric exercises, like the ones listed below, help build explosive strength using natural dynamic movements from bodyweight training, kettle bell movements and other types of exercises. It’s crucial that a fighter develops these fast twitch muscle fibers to perform the intense energy bursts that are needed throughout a fight.

Needless to say, a Muay Thai fighter who trains with plyometrics will have more explosive, powerful strikes as well as better cardio than their opponent.

Plyometrics is the science examining the explosive movement generated by muscle power, with particular...

HOW TO DEVELOP ENDURANCE, STAMINA & CONFIDENCE

By Cormac Sheehan

Scenario 1:

You gasp for air, your throat on fire as each breath scorches your chest like napalm. Your hands feel like 10-ton breezeblocks and your shoulders ache like you’ve just done one hundred pull-ups.

You can barely lift your leg to check the kick you see telegraphed a mile away. You see openings – a low guard, an easy sweep – but when you tell your body to move, it ignores you.

“I can’t…I can’t…I can’t…”.

A sense of panic pervades. Your opponent, technically inferior, steps into the clinch and throws you to the ground. The final bell goes and it’s called as a split decision. You think you’ve done enough. But when the referee raises your opponent’s hand, you wish you’d done more.

Earlier: the alarm goes off and you slap it down, turning over and going back to sleep…you tell yourself ”I’ll run...

To be a complete badass, you need to be performing solid workouts that will target power, strength, muscular endurance, cardio, abs and core, explosiveness, and mental toughness. Sound tough? Too bad. Time to work your ass off!

Welcome to The Funk and Flex MMA 5×5 Station Circuit – By Funk Roberts

This strength and conditioning workout is ideal for fighters, but also anyone looking for all-round fitness. If you want to be ready for anything life throws at you, this is your workout. That’s why this method of training is also ideal for those in the military.

This circuit is called the 5×5 Station Circuit because it involves making your way through five stations, in five minutes each. Pretty simple. At each station, you go through the listed exercises one after the other. You keep performing these exercises in rotation for five minutes, and then you move on to the next station.

...

THE BEST MUAY THAI WORKOUTS, COMBOS & DRILLS FOR THE HEAVY BAG

By Sean Fagan

Doing intense, focused heavy bag workouts for Muay Thai is easily one of the most overlooked and under utilized aspects of training.

If used properly, the heavy bag is a super effective piece of training equipment for improving your cardio, power, speed, technique, focus, and movement.

All Muay Thai fighters should incorporate heavy bag training into their overall strength and conditioning workouts on a regular basis in order to improve overall fitness as well as striking skills.

Routinely using the heavy bag is something that I find most fighters don’t do enough of. And for the fighters that do use the heavy bag, they are usually making these common mistakes and end up not using it to it’s fullest potential and getting maximum results.

These are 5 of the most common mistakes that most Muay Thai fighters make while hitting the heavy bag. Fortunately there are ways to fix and...