Whatever your reason may be, whether you’re too busy to go to a gym or fighting school or you really just can’t afford the extra expenditure in your budget right now, I’ve got good news for you. Your home can be your gym. You don’t need all that fancy equipment, partners, and possibly even coach. You can learn Muay Thai Kick Boxing at home.
Especially if you don’t have the luxury of being able to have unlimited access to a gym or a coach, you might think it’s impossible to learn Muay Thai Kick Boxing. However, training at home is going to be your next big thing — and the best thing. There are a ton of drills and exercises that you can do right in the comfort of your own living room, which can contribute to your martial arts learning journey.
Although it is probably easier for you if you have some hands-on training with a trainer or coach, it sometimes isn’t possible. You can train Muay Thai on your own, whether it’s Muay Thai for fitness or for skills, this Muay Thai Kick Boxing Workout can be your guide to help you get fit at home!
Before we get into the actual workout, there are some things I need to run by you first.
Learning How to Train On Your Own
Concentrate: First Things First |
Learning how to fight and taking that first step, no matter what branch is your concentration, is knowing that you can’t learn it all at once. Having the patience to go about training to develop habits according to your muscle memory. Committing to a direct goal can help you focus on your training and make the larger goal easier to get to. Learning the techniques behind Muay Thai Kick Boxing and teaching them to ourselves takes self confidence and developing self confidence takes time. Make your goals S.M.A.R.T — specific, measurable, achievable, reasonable, and timely. Ultimately, to learn something new, you have to take it step by step and give yourself a break when it comes to taking it all in. |
Adopt a clear set of Principles |
Just like all the other martial arts branches, the training is based on principles and morals. Learning a martial art is more than just learning strictly techniques, therefore being able to adopt similar principles to the ones taught in a Muay Thai gym or school is also possible at home. If you search learn muay thai kick boxing online, you can find a few principles to go off of when you’re learning Muay Thai so that you can focus even when you’re on your own. |
Watch Muay Thai Fights |
Just like any sport, the more you watch it, the better you’ll be. You can pick up skills and techniques that only the pros know. Watching these professional fights shouldn’t just be done for fun as a pastime. It is an educational process and can be used to your advantage, especially if you are learning martial arts on your own. Learning Muay Thai should be an active process. Just like completing a Muay Thai training routine, it takes work. Watching fights takes analyzing and it takes effort. Although you can always watch fights for fun and recreation, it is more effective when you do so with a purpose. While you’re watching a fight, you should ask yourself a few series of questions: “What was the fighter doing wrong?” “Why was the winner getting an advantage?” |
You can either search for a Muay Thai workout routine pdf, a muay thai conditioning circuit or a how to learn muay thai pdf file or you can keep on reading.
I’m going to cover all the basics of what a good Muay Thai conditioning session entails and what you need to know to develop Muay Thai training techniques, even from your own home.
Any good training, no matter where you’re learning from, covers similar procedures and ingredients to learn Muay Thai Kick Boxing. Whether you’re learning for a goal of self-defense, getting Muay Thai fitness or developing the skills to fight, you should incorporate these concepts.
Concepts of Muay Thai Training
From a mental standpoint, you need to develop a few principles to go through the training properly.
Love What You Do |
Even if you are fighting or training competitively, you have to enjoy what you do. Having an interest in learning the various techniques and concepts will help you have the motivation to learn quickly and make progress. |
Be Patient |
Especially since you’re on your own, you have to have the patience to be able to work-through the tougher spots in training, especially the difficult techniques. |
Learn What Your Strengths Are |
You’ll find that certain things are easier than others to learn. When you’re learning, you need to find out what comes easy for you—what your strengths are so you can work on them and use them! |
Discipline Yourself |
Especially since you’re training on your own, you need to have the strength to be able to carry out the discipline on your own. If you don’t have discipline, you won’t be able to get very far in your training. |
Always Be Self-Aware |
Being on your own and training on your own gives you the responsibility to take care of yourself. To do so, you should set goals for yourself that are ambitious but also realistic. Listen to your body when you’re training and don’t push yourself to injury. |
Training Muay Thai not only takes mental capacity but you also have to be physically fit to do it. However, Muay Thai isn’t all about being fit, it’s about being specifically fit for Muay Thai training. To help with that, here are some physical principles to keep in mind:
Keep Hydrated |
Just like with any sport, you should drink enough water before and during training and competition. However, while you’re training, you shouldn’t drink too much, just a few sips. Many athletes drink half to 2 gallons of water per day depending on their weight and level of training. I my self went from drinking half gallon to 1 complete gallon of water per day and it made a Huge Difference in the way I felt, my stamina and conditioning. |
Before every training, you should wrap your hands properly to protect your joints when you’re throwing punches or working on your technique. |
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Warm Up and Cool Down |
Not only does this work on your flexibility, it also gets you prepared for your fight and for your next training. It’s an extremely important part of your workout and your development in martial arts, especially Muay Thai. |
Recover and Stretch |
You have to stretch not only before or after your workouts, you need to get flexible to be able to train at your best. Taking one day off is also necessary as part of your recovery . |
Fuel Up Properly |
There are certain tips you can follow to make sure you are eating and fueling up properly for training. Before training you should be eating the proper foods to give you the energy you need to give your best at training. Diets such as Keto Diet, Low Carbohydrate Diet, Paleolithic Diet and many others have been popular with combat sport’s athletes. Choose one that is best for you and stick with it. |
Depending on which branch you’re training with, you should have the proper gear for training. Not only should you have hand wrap, etc., you should also make sure that you have proper sneakers or running shoes to train in so that you protect your feet and joints. |
Without further ado, here are a few training basics that you should implement into your home Muay Thai training.
Fitness Muay Thai Training Basics
Whether you’re training in a gym or on your own at home, there are not only guidelines to follow but also certain checkpoints to make when you’re looking to make a Muay Thai Exercise Program.
Not only should you be specifically training for Muay Thai fitness and developing technique training, you should also be maintaining your endurance fitness. To cover everything you need to be a Muay Thai fighter, here is a list of a few training basics.
Endurance |
Basic Running: This running training—basic running—helps build your endurance and your stamina to last through an entire fight or training session. Pretty standard running also generally strengthens your leg muscles. You should be running a mixture of long distance and interval sprint training to cover the fitness you need to be in to fight. Muay Thai Running: This specific running style has you running on your toes in small steps. It is engineered to help train you to be light-footed and ready, especially when you’re in combat. This type of running should be done on soft ground because it’s harder on your joints and your ligaments. Skipping Rope: Just as you’ve seen in every fighting movie ever made, skipping or jumping rope is a very important part in your endurance training. This works not only on your endurance but also your coordination, timing, concentration, and breathing techniques. |
Bodyweight Exercises |
Not only should you be fit in general, endurance-wise, you also need to work on strength training. Whether done before or after your Muay Thai-specific training, you should fit in bodyweight exercises to gain strength specifically tailored to your body without bulking up. Bodyweight exercises include but are not limited to: ab exercises like crunches and planks, upper body strengthening like pull-ups and chinups, and lower body strengthening like squats and kicks. |
Not only should you have a generally healthy and good fitness level you should also develop your Muay Thai fitness training to strengthen your muscles, increase the impacting strength you’ll have in the ring, and develop technique in congruence with endurance and speed to conquer whatever or whoever you take on.
Specific Muay Thai Training
Instead of simply being fit, what sets Muay Thai apart are the specific training techniques and exercises that come along with the martial arts branch. These specific Muay Thai exercises help you work on your techniques and transitions training to fighting smoothly.
Here are some specific Muay Thai training exercises:
Shadowboxing: |
Once you learn a new technique, it’s helpful to be practice them by shadowboxing. Not only is it helpful to shadowbox to practice your new techniques but to find your rhythm when trying to put them all together in combinations. Shadowboxing should be part of your warm-up in training and be used to perfect your technique when done slowly. When you shadowbox, you should be performing form as correctly as you can. Once you get your form right, you can then increase your speed. The point of shadowboxing is to mimic a fight so that you can get yourself as ready as possible. When you are training and shadowboxing, you are developing your muscle memory that will help you during a fight because it helps you develop your footwork and striking techniques. When you’re shadowboxing, especially since you’re on your own, try to use a mirror or film yourself so that you can watch your form and compare it to professionals or coaches based on certain tips and guides that you may be following. Some benefits of shadowboxing include: footwork, combinations, techniques, and timing. If you are fighting later, shadowboxing can also help you visualize your opponent and get prepared to predict what he or she will do. Something to remember is that when you’re shadowboxing, you should not only train to attack you should also train to defend. Learn and train how to bob and weave, working in defensive move into your shadowboxing technique. Part of learning how to perform Muay Thai especially on your own is learning how to be critical of your own technique and spotting mistakes on your own. Here is a video to help give you some tips when shadowboxing Muay Thai at home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8W0J49PSHY&t=48s |
Bag Work: |
Even though you are training Muay Thai at home, you probably don’t have access to a heavy bag. However, if it’s possible to make one on your own or purchase a cheap, used one—I think it’s well worth it. Bag work helps improve your strength and develops power behind punches and kicks. When you’re training with the heavy bag, there are a few things to not to remember—especially if you’re on your own. When you’re training with the heavy bag, combine a series of various strikes, from low to high to middle kicks, jabs, elbow and knee strikes, etc. You should also train with a heavy bag in intervals that simulate a fight. This piece of equipment will help you prepare for a fight because it moves around when it’s being hit. The key when training with the heavy bag is to never be caught still. As the heavy bag moves around, you should also move around. Therefore, the heavy bag helps improve your coordination and timing. As it swings back and forth, you should know when and where to strike. Training with the heavy bag also requires specificity when it comes to rhythm and combinations. Before you get in front of the bag, know what you’re going to do before you do it. Separate certain techniques into different rounds where you can work on them specifically, all techniques included. This will also help you focus and keep your mind concentrated while you’re training instead of spacing out—leading to poor technique and forming bad habits. If you’re looking to have a good workout in your Muay Thai exercise program, you should definitely incorporate the heavy bag. It helps to hold yourself accountable by keeping a timer with you and simulate the length of a fight. Even if you don’t have a heavy bag, there are ways that you can mimic this piece of equipment without the extra cost. You can use a tree or build your own heavy bag. When you’re punching and hitting the tree or heavy bag, you should focus on your precision and proper form, as I mentioned above. This goes above the step of shadowboxing—incorporating everything you just learned with shadowboxing to hitting an actual object with little give. |
Shadow Sparring: |
Since you are on your own, shadow sparring might be a little bit of a difficult aspect of training to come by but if you have a friend to help, this is a great way to train and prepare for a fight. Shadow sparring is one of the most realistic fighting simulation that you can get to when training without actually fighting. When you’re sparring with someone else, I’m encouraging you to wear protective gear during a training session to avoid injury as much as possible. When you’re shadow sparring, you should be focusing on the performance of your legs and lower body, meaning you should be training kicks, blocking kicks, and knee strikes. Which means, when you’re shadow sparring, you should definitely wear shin guards. You need to be careful when you’re shadow sparring because there is actual contact with other fighters and with two people of their own control you never know what could happen. This may be harder to come by when you’re training at home because you are probably often on your own, however, if you can—spar with someone a little more advanced in Muay Thai so they can give you pointers and they know what they’re doing so it is less likely that you get injured. |
Pad Work / Thai punch training: |
This is also difficult to do when you are training on your own at home because pad work often requires a coach or another person to hold the but if you can, you should work on pad work by setting it up and rigging it somehow in your home. If you can get someone to help, make sure you have enough protective equipment and train both offense and defensive techniques. |
Strength Training |
When you’re training Muay Thai, it’s also really important to develop strength. As I mentioned before, most of this strength training should be focused on bodyweight exercise but you can also incorporate extra weight if you want to. Whether you are training to fight or training to get fit, it’s important to improve your strength—not only to last in the ring but also to get through the other aspects of the training. When you are strength training, you should focus on the weaker parts of your body to promote and strengthen them so they won’t be your weak points anymore. However, before you get into strength training with weights, make sure you consult with not only a doctor but a personal trainer for proper form. It’s important to perform exercises correctly or else they can be dangerous. If you don’t have weights or don’t feel comfortable using them, you can also use equipment like TRX or bands that use resistance of bodyweight to get you great results. Here are a few basic exercises that you can perform at home if you have a TRX or invest in one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLM_-SvJ2mo Even if you aren’t completely invested in Muay Thai, it’s still important to incorporate strength training in your workout. Not only does basic strength training involve bodyweight exercises that I’ve already mentioned like pushups and pullups, you can also incorporate weights. |
Clinch Training: |
Also another portion of Muay Thai training that is a bit complicated to incorporate when you’re training alone at home is clinching. This on the ground skill are very important in Muay Thai and shouldn’t be looked over, regardless if you are on your own. At least, when you’re watching fights on your own you can take note of how clinching is done. Clinching is done effectively by positioning your body and being able to get the upper hand, even when you’re on the ground. In Muay Thai, it’s important that you eventually develop your clinching skills and hone them because if you are looking to fight, you’ll need them—desperately. Most of these fights end up on the ground, therefore having skills where you dominate on the ground is especially important. |
Last Thoughts of Muay Thai Training At Home
The last few tips I have for you when training Muay Thai at home is that you should make it as realistic as possible. To do so, you should train all of these sections in rounds. Since Muay Thai fighting is carried out in rounds, you should be able to last as long as possible.
If you are fighting, the times of rounds vary from league to league and the level of fighters’ fitness capabilities. Generally, these rounds are counted out anywhere from three to five minutes. After you complete one round during training, take a 30-60 second break until you develop a higher stamina.
The longer you train for, the longer you can make the rounds while you’re training. The great thing about training at home is that you make the rules and you know your limits. Therefore, you can adjust accordingly. If you feel like the times of the rounds are too short or too long, you can adjust them to challenge yourself. You can also take your static breaks away by incorporating a bodyweight exercise to keep yourself moving and challenge your body, even though you’re on break.
While you’re training, you should also always imagine an opponent. Even if you aren’t actually planning to physically fight in Muay Thai, whether you’re shadowboxing, training with the heavy bag or doing other aspects of the training, you should always visualize your opponent to get the most out of your training. Not only should you imagine the attacking aspects and perspective of the fight, you should also mentally and physically prepare yourself for the defensive movements. Doing this will help you develop the muscle and mental memory to connect the visual moments with the physical movements.
I hope that this guide has helped you introduce you to a few things that you should know before you start training Muay Thai, especially if you are doing it on your own at home. There are a few things that you should definitely know before you embark on the journey on your own to be able to carry out the training effectively. As always, consult your doctor before you engage in physical activity, especially if you are preparing to train Muay Thai Kick Boxing. I also want to remind you before you embark on your martial arts journey, to just have fun with it. Although you might have other motives to explain why you are training Muay Thai but ultimately you should be doing it for the fun.