The Return

I have been involved in Muay Thai for 10+ years now. Whilst my training has been consistent, my fighting has been less so, with a break between 2017-2019, and a return at the end of 2019 cut short after just one bout due to the Covid lockdown. In that time, some of my priorities and motivations changed, leaving me with the feeling that maybe my days of competing were done and it was time to focus other interests, in particular coaching and strength training. At least that way, I wouldn’t have to cut weight again!!

And yet, on Saturday 18^th November 2023, at the age of 36 years old, I climbed over those ropes once more at the Sandee Ultimate Fight Night. After five tough rounds against a game opponent, my hand was raised in victory. The “Bearded Ninja” was back.

Why?

Why did I decide to do this? Why did I decide to get back in the ring in my mid-thirties, four years after my last bout?

And what did I learn along the way?

Perhaps most importantly, what comes next?

The Why

The vast majority of my time in Muay Thai was spent at the infamous Shor Chana gym, in Preston, under the tutelage of the legendary Master Chana.

This gym sadly closed, and Master Chana is enjoying a well-earned retirement. I have known Tommy and Alice Johnson for a long time, having trained with Tommy at Shor Chana for several years, and leapt at the opportunity to come onboard with the new gym they were opening, Johnson’s Muay Thai.

In all honesty, I had this idea of coming back to fighting but it never really became concrete, just an abstract notion and, as time went on, I felt myself drifting further and further away from the idea.

Eventually, I had all but concluded that I was done with fighting.

What changed?

I did.

I got stronger and healthier, mentally as much as physically. I improved my Muay Thai for the first time in a while – now that I was back training regularly and surrounded by a growing team of aspiring fighters.

The people around me gave me a push too, with lots of consistent, gentle (and some not so gentle) encouragement. And, when the right moment came, someone I respect called me out on an excuse I was making. I had convinced myself that I wouldn’t have the time to get enough training in with all my coaching, that my job wouldn’t allow me to take on the stress and fatigue I had experienced in previous fight camps and still perform at work. This person simply asked if that was really true. And then I had to actually think about it. I realised that maybe it wasn’t true because a fight camp now would not look like one did 4-5 years ago.

I had also enjoyed the privilege of being part of the corner team at numerous fight events, with an active and ever-growing fight team. After a good 12+ months of this, I suddenly realised I had the bug back. I loved going to the shows and being a part of it all, but I wanted more. I wanted to experience being in the middle of it all too, not just in the background.

The more I thought about it, the more and better reasons I found to make the comeback.

They say that the biggest deathbed regrets are always the “what if” questions, the regret of an action not taken. I didn’t want to look back and think “what if”. I knew that I hadn’t achieved what I wanted to through fighting and that this would be my last chance to fulfil those aims. I had to take this final opportunity to have a go.

Finally, I was also teaching classes full of fighters, almost none of whom had ever seen me fight. Sure, I sparred with them all regularly, but nothing would cement my position as a fight coach in the eyes of the team than actually seeing me perform in the ring. I always say that I’ll never ask you to do something in training that I wouldn’t do myself, and why shouldn’t this apply to fighting too?

So now I had my “why” – or several of them.

The next question was “how?”

The How

So here I was, 36 years old, with a busy full-time job in which my earnings were directly tied to my performance, alongside several hours a week of PTs and classes. I already felt busy, so how on earth was I meant to get enough training in to be in fight shape? And how could I do that without becoming so fatigued that my work suffered?

I thought back to previous fight camps, during which I would be training as hard as possible six, sometimes seven, days a week, operating on the mentality of making sure I was always “doing more” than my opponent. Early morning runs, 3-hour Muay Thai sessions every night, lots of strength and conditioning on top of it all, the training load on top of full-time employment was insane. This was one of the major obstacles to me making the decision to return.

What changed?

I got some good advice.

Someone pointed out to me that maybe I didn’t need to be training like that anymore. That maybe the 10+ years of training time I had already accumulated would allow me to reach peak condition without the same crazy volume. And the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. One lesson I’ve really learned over the past couple years in the simple principle that “the optimum volume of training to achieve the best results is often less than the maximum volume of training that you can survive.” More is not always better.

Even still, I knew I would have to be creative to get enough training in. I already had three strength and conditioning sessions per week locked in, so that front was already sorted. We simply reduced some of the volume and changed the focus from Olympic lifting (in which I had been dabbling) to fight specific work. This was a benefit of having handed over my S&C programming to our dedicated S&C coach – if left to my own devices, I probably would have increased the volume in those sessions, not decreased. That objective and expert 3^rd person view can be incredibly valuable in determining the appropriate training load.

I then leaned on some of my fellow fighters at the gym to have them hold pads for me before class on days where I was teaching. The benefit of a large fight team became so clear here, without them I would have struggled.

Rather than three-hour sessions every night, sometimes my training sessions lasted maybe 20-30 minutes. So, I had to focus on the high-impact, high-return, “big rocks” – the Pareto Principle teaching us that 80% of our results come from 20% of our efforts. So, I focused on getting as much as possible out of that 20%.

Looking back on previous fights, my first weight cut was the easiest, the weight just flying off. After that they got tougher, largely due to my own idiocy in not controlling my eating habits after fights (there’s a big lesson there for upcoming fighters!). But now I’d spent the last three years or so focusing on strength training, building muscle, and eating in a calorie surplus. So now when I dropped my calories a little bit, the weight started to fly off again just like the first time. This made things much easier for me, allowing me to fuel my training properly and eating over 2,000 calories a day throughout almost the entire fight camp.

I made weight pretty comfortably, although a spanner was thrown into the works when my opponent missed weight by almost 3kg! That fight couldn’t proceed but I managed to get a last-minute match up on another show the following week. Two weight cuts in two weeks were certainly not ideal, but I’d done the hard work and I knew I just had to stick to the plan for one extra week.

In the ring, I felt better than I ever have done before. I felt strong and confident. I knew that I was going to win. Not in an arrogant way, not dismissing my opponent, just filled with a quiet confidence that I believe was, at least in part, down to daily affirmations and journalling throughout fight camp. My emotional and psychological growth over the past few years really started to pay off!

What did I learn?

• Focus on the “big rocks” – this is hardly a revolutionary idea and is the go-to of almost any productivity guru or self-help writer but my journey in this fight camp really proved this principle. The Pareto Principle suggests that 80% of our results come from 20% of our efforts, so focusing on that 20% in order to maximise the 80% of results is key. That doesn’t mean that the other 80% of your efforts don’t matter – they do if you want to hit 100% of your potential, and 20% is still a lot – but it does mean that when crunched for time, focusing on a few key fundamentals can get you where you need to be.

• You DON’T have to kill yourself every day in the gym! Fighters work hard. We have to. We are driven to do so, both from natural inclination and the desire to win. A common refrain in combat sports is to assume that whatever you are doing, your opponent is doing more. This is intended to drive you to work harder and longer. In itself, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you’re going to fight, you damn well better work hard. But this doesn’t mean that every session in fight camp needs to be 110%, especially when you are cutting weight and on a calorie deficit. This will lead only to overtraining, burnout, injury, illness and, paradoxically, less results. Everyone is an individual with different tolerance levels for work capacity, but as general rule, no more than 2-3 sessions a week should be full on, 100%, leave your soul on the gym floor kind of sessions. Most sessions should be around 90% of your capacity – leaving 10% in the tank for tomorrow.

• I mentioned this earlier, but another principle (similar to the above) is that “the optimum volume of training to elicit the desired results < the maximum volume of training you could survive”. Sure, you can survive those 3-hour sessions six days a week, but you might actually be limiting your progress whilst increasing your risk of injury. Training is to stimulate a physical adaptation in your body. Once you have achieved the minimum effective dose for eliciting that adaption, there is little benefit to going beyond it. Doing so will only lead to diminishing returns or even regression, whilst leaving less room for future adaptations

• The importance of the “mental game” – fighting is 90% mental, or so they say. This may seem odd at first, as it appears a distinctly physical activity. And yet, the mind is the greatest limiter on the physical body. The body will only do what the mind believes it can do. Many of us will have seen those fighters who look incredible in the gym but fall apart in the ring and bring a fraction of their ability into the fight. I know this type of fighter well because for a long time I WAS that fighter. Not anymore. Outside of fighting, over the Covid lockdown period, I spent a lot of time focusing on personal growth, psychological development and really working to understand myself. Over the past 12 months, my S&C programming has fed into this growth by merging the mental and the physical to a degree I had not previously considered possible. Altogether, I was able to climb into that ring in a much better mental place than any of my previous fights, feeling calm and confident, and able to display much more of my ability than I had previously.  

So that’s the why, and the how, and what I learned along the way. Only one question remains…what next?

What next?

So, there I was. I’d done it. I’d made my return, got in great shape, and won my fight. I’d proven myself, both to myself, and to my teammates and students. Now I had a choice to make.

I could say, “that’s it then”, rest on my laurels and return to what I was doing previously. Nobody would have judged me for it, I don’t think. And if they did, I wouldn’t care. If you’re going to fight, it better be for your own internal motivations not the approval or validation of others!

I wouldn’t need to worry too much about staying lean – indeed, I’d be back on a calorie surplus, building strength and muscle. Eating and lifting weights – two of the greatest joys in life!

I’d be able to focus on my PTs and coaching.

I’d have free time again for social events, something that always takes a hit when in fight camp.

I wouldn’t have to deal with the stress and anxiety that is an inevitable companion of preparing for a fight.

Seems like a pretty sweet deal, right?

Yet, I knew the moment I stepped out of that ring, flush with the emotions of victory, that I wasn’t done yet. I’d proven that I could fight. But that wasn’t the only aim I’d ever set myself in the ring.

My mind returned to that moment, years ago, when I stood in Shor Chana gym, still a relative beginner, looking up at the section of the wall holding photos of just a handful of Master Chana’s many champions over the years. I swore to myself that, one day, my picture would be on that wall too. This motivation carried me through many years of consistent training.

Alas, with Shor Chana gym no more, that dream can never be fulfilled. Yet, my fighting journey is not over, and neither is this dream. I truly believe that in 2024, I will be able to add another belt to the wall of Johnson’s Muay Thai.

To this end, the number one aim is to stay as active as possible. I’m 36 years old (did I mention that already?) and whilst I feel like I am in great shape, the simple fact is that I am no longer in my 20s and there is only so long I will be able to keep doing this. One or two fights a year would simply not be a worthwhile return on investment, nor would it get me much closer to fulfilling my aims.

That’s why, within mere days of my last fight, I was matched up for another show in February 2024. Whilst, of course, anything can happen and things change quickly, my aim is to fight every 2-3 months throughout 2024. If I can put in some solid performances and get a few consistent wins, there is no reason why I couldn’t be fighting for a legit title by the end of the year.

More than anything, though, I just want to enjoy this journey. Now that I’ve found myself back in the fighter’s life, knowing that my remaining time in that life is limited, I just want to appreciate every moment, all the highs and lows, all the lessons that I will learn. I want to be present and engaged in everything I do. Most of all, I want to ensure that, when I do finally come to the end of my life, of any regrets I may have, this is not one of them.

The calm after the storm

Competing in combat sports is a unique experience. “Fight camp”, those gruelling weeks leading up to the fight day, is a journey like nothing else. Day after day, week after week, your entire life is dedicated to one simple aim…to get into the best shape possible whilst making weight. Then comes the long-awaited fight day. The nerves, adrenaline and emotional turmoil as you prepare your things and make your way over to the venue. That growing sensation of preparedness as your hands are wrapped, the pre-fight massage completed, gloves tightened around your hands and the mong-kon placed atop your head. You walk out to the cheers of the crowd and the blaring of your walk-out music; the rush of adrenaline beyond what words can describe. You climb into the ring, and then it is ”go time”.

Then, almost in the blink of an eye, the battle is over. Whether it ends in victory or defeat, that journey is now complete. You climb back out of the ring, perhaps exhilarated, perhaps dejected, maybe your tired and hurt, maybe you feel like you could go again straight away. Regardless, the mountain has been climbed, the summit reached. The journey has reached its peak.

What now?

For the next day or two, maybe you’ll be coasting on the indescribable feeling that victory brings. For a short while, you’ll be filled with elation, contentment and pride. Slowly, all that ebbs away. What is left? Emptiness. Hollowness. You suddenly find yourself feeling inexplicably low and unmotivated. Training holds little appeal; indeed, everything starts to seem a little pointless.

You ask yourself, why? Why do I feel this way so soon after accomplishing something I have dedicated weeks, perhaps months, of my life to achieving? Should I not now just be happy?

You ask yourself why you feel this way, and perhaps you even feel a little guilty or ashamed of it. You hesitate to talk to anyone else about it, just in case it turns out that there’s something wrong with you. Maybe you’re not made for this life. Maybe this is proof that you’re not really a fighter after all.

Trust me, though, this is entirely normal. Post-fight depression is something that is rarely spoken about but is very, very real.

Ask any fighter. If they’re honest with themselves, as any good fighter must be, they will tell you. Indeed, they will likely be happy to talk about it, as even experienced fighters who know it is all just part of the journey may hesitate to bring up what may be perceived by others as weakness, and yet they are desperate to talk to someone about it.

When you think about it, it is no real surprise that these feelings often emerge in the aftermath of a fight/competition etc. Not just in combat sports, either.

For weeks and months on end, your life was dedicated to a single aim. This aim gives you purpose, direction, meaning. It gives you a single metric by which to measure all things, all decisions, all actions and omissions. It gave shape to your life, and something beyond the day-to-day monotony upon which you could set your gaze.

Now, all of that is gone. After all that preparation, all that focus, all that commitment, after the highest of highs as the journey culminates in the ring, now you are just back to being simply you. You are suddenly bereft of your purpose and must now recentre and recalibrate your mind to the normal world, to normal life.

How do you deal with this? Should you admonish yourself for being lazy and unmotivated, force yourself to get back in the gym and start training hard again?

Maybe a little bit. Maybe you do need to give yourself a little kick up the backside, but don’t tear yourself down over it.

What you absolutely do need to do is re-calibrate the purpose of your training. You’re not in fight camp anymore, so whilst you definitely don’t want to slack off entirely, you don’t need to be 110% still.

Relax. Smile. Have fun.

Enjoy your training again and rediscover exactly what made you fall in love with this sport in the first place. It certainly wasn’t for the fame, money, or anything like that. It is likely because something about the sport spoke to you in ways that transcend mere words. Rediscover that, and your motivation and love of training will return tenfold.

Not only that, but you’ll often find that it is in these periods in which you make the most progress with your technique, mindset and overall ability. You don’t get better in fight camp, you get better in-between fights.

If you find yourself suffering from that post-fight depression, keep this simple checklist in mind:

• Be kind to yourself, there is nothing wrong with you for feeling this way
• Remember to enjoy your training again, train in ways you find fun
• Talk to people, especially your coaches or experienced fighters who have been there before

For those who are not fighters, please keep all this in mind when it comes to fighters in the days and weeks after they compete. Be kind, be open, listen and encourage. Even the strongest amongst us need that from time to time.

And remember, whether you’re a fighter or not, whatever level you are at and whatever your aims, if there’s something your struggling with in your training, not just technique but mindset or anything else, reach out to me (or Tommy, Alice or any other coaches) and I will help you wherever I can. We’re all in this together at the Johnson’s Muay Thai family.

Keep it simple, stupid

“One-two, teep, kick, spinning elbow into…erm…maybe a jumping elbow or something…”

Have you ever been hitting pads and had someone call a combo like that?

Have you ever called for a combo like that whilst you were holding pads?

It’s an extreme example, but only by a little. Almost always, these come from relatively inexperienced training partners essentially making up long chains of techniques on the fly and then calling it a “combo”.

And you know what? I get it. You’re new (or maybe not so new anymore), you’re keen and eager to do some cool shit. You want to give your training partner a good session and you’re keen to avoid the dull monotony of “one-two-kick, one-two-kick”.

But this isn’t the way to go.

In a real, live fight situation, that 10-piece combo including every cool spinning, jumping, cartwheeling technique you can think has literally ZERO chance of even being completed, never mind landing the spectacular, crowd-wowing KO you imagined. Fights are fluid, fighters both acting and reacting simultaneously, the precise outlay of the battlefield shifting with every blow. Shots land and create new openings, a fighter’s defensive choices funnel his opponents’ strategy down certain pathways, and no matter what you are trying to accomplish, you can be certain your opponent is working equally hard to prevent you from accomplishing it.

It’s something a cliché, but only because it is absolutely, 100% true…

Basics win fights.

Muay Thai has eight fundamental techniques – jab, cross, hook, uppercut, round kick, teep, knee, elbow. The key to succeeding in Muay Thai is not to possess knowledge of some super-secret “death touch” technique that allows you to defeat all challengers. The key is simply to become exceptionally proficient at these eight techniques and their implementation.

How do you get better at these techniques? Simple. You practice them. Again and again and again. Practice them until your body is capable of performing them proficiently without conscious thought. Practice them until you dream about them in your sleep. Become obsessed. Start with the fundamentals of the technique (such as turning your hips, rotating on the ball of your foot and swinging the arm down when you kick), then as you progress, fine tune the details (placement and timing of kicks, kicking from different ranges and against different styles, etc).

There is so much to learn, and then perfect, you could spend a lifetime working on it and still have more to do.

Another cliché is quoting Bruce Lee, but I’m going to do it anyway.

“I fear not the man who has practised a thousand kicks once, but the man who has practised one kick a thousand times.”

Repetition. Repetition. Repetition.

Repeating the same basic, fundamental techniques over and over and over again is the key. Trust me, especially if you are at a beginner or intermediate level, both you and your training partner will benefit from taking this approach.

Of course, holding pads well is more than simply being able to hold for those basic techniques. You also need to understand how to put them together in a seamless manner that resembles the fluidity of a real fight. That mostly comes down to experience. The more you hold pads – provided you are actively engaged in what you are doing (don’t be the asshole who puts no effort into holding for someone but wants good pad work in return) – the more this will make sense.

Do your own learning too. Watch videos of top-level fighters hitting pads (which you should be doing anyway) but focus instead on what their trainers are doing. You will see the most elite fighters in the world practising the exact same techniques as you do every session. It doesn’t matter how good you become, the basics always matter.

I’ll put together an article in the near future on the fundamentals of good pad holding, but for now just remember…

Keep it simple, stupid

check out the below video for some of the best padwork you will EVER see…

Beginner Muay Thai tips

So, you want to start training Muay Thai? Maybe you’re wondering how to go about starting, or maybe you’ve even tried a couple of classes and want to know how to get the most out of them. Starting anything new, such as a new hobby or job, can often be confusing and nerve-wracking. You might be nervous about what will be expected of you, nervous about looking silly if you do something wrong, or even (understandably) nervous about the prospect of getting punched in the face!

Just remember, the only way to stop feeling like this, is to suck it up and give it a go. Chances are, you’ll find that you had nothing to worry about.

One thing I hear, again and again, is people saying something like, “oh, I’d love to do what you do, but you have to be proper fit for it, don’t you?” Or perhaps, “I’ll be back in the gym as soon as I get fit again.”

Both of these statements are putting the cart before the horse. You do NOT have to be super fit to start Muay Thai. Yes, you do have to be very fit to compete, but do you know how you get fit? By starting training!
Of course, there are things you can do outside the gym that will help prepare you for training Muay Thai and help you improve quicker. I’ll discuss a few of these briefly later.

Why train muay thai?

Everybody has their own reason for training Muay Thai. Not everyone wants to compete and most of the people who train Muay Thai will never step in the ring. And that’s perfectly fine. Muay Thai can have an incredibly positive effect on your life, whether you want to lose weight, get fit, or just have some fun whilst learning a new skill and making new friends.

Muay Thai training provides an excellent all-round workout:

• Aerobic and anaerobic cardiovascular fitness
• Strength and athletic power
• Muscular endurance
• Mobility and flexibility
• Produces a robust and injury-resistant body
• Great for fat loss due to the intense calorie burn

In addition, the never-ending skill development that comes with Muay Thai provides a fantastic stimulus and motivation to train that is completely lacking in the average gym-goers workout, spending hours slogging on a treadmill and mindlessly lifting on weight machines.

Finally, Muay Thai is a fantastic community. I have built some great friendships in my own gym and met countless people from other gyms. Traveling to Thailand led to me meeting fantastic people from around the world and really expanding my perception of life.

Finding the right gym for you

This is an important question. Muay Thai has seen an explosion in global popularity in the last decade or so, and there are now gyms popping up everywhere. Of course, with this comes a variety of gyms in both the style and quality of training on offer. Finding a gym that suits you is paramount. Being stuck in the wrong gym, with the wrong instructor or the wrong types of students, can be a shitty situation that stalls your progress and can even put you off training altogether.

So how do you find the right gym?

That’s a difficult question. It largely depends on what gyms are available near you, and also what type of gym you are looking for. Do you want to fight? Do you have dreams of one day becoming a champion? In that case, you really want a fight-focused gym, with an experienced trainer and a number of other fighters to learn from.

On the other hand, maybe you just want to lose a bit of weight or get fit. In this case, a grimy sweatbox filled with ripped up animals training to fight might not be the atmosphere you are looking for.

Have a look online, read some reviews of the gyms in your area, speak to people who train there and get a sense of what that gym is like. In the end, though, the only real way to know if it’s the right fit is to try a few lessons.

Shor Chana gym, Preston, UK

Myself, I was very lucky to stumble on the right gym straight away almost by accident. When I decided to give Muay Thai a try, I looked online and found there was a gym right around the corner from where I was living. So I decided to give that place a try first. After just one lesson at the Shor Chana School of Martial Arts, I was hooked. About five years later and I’m still at the same gym, the place is like a second home to me and I’ve never even considered any other gyms.

Your first few classes

So, you’ve taken the plunge. You’ve found a gym, tried a few classes and, so far, so good. Now, you want to make sure you are getting the most out of your time there and learning as much as possible.

#1- Listen- keep your eyes and mind open. Listen to your instructor and the senior students. If someone offers you help and advice, appreciate it and try to put it into practice. Every fighter and experienced student knows what it was like to be a beginner, and many will be happy to help if you show the willingness to listen.

#2- Relax- any time I find myself teaching someone new, this is something I’m almost guaranteed to say to them. “Relax!” One of the main reasons Muay Thai is such a beautiful sport to watch is that the top fighters know how to be relaxed and fluid, up until the moment they strike. When you are hitting the pads/bags, it’s easy to tense up and try to put everything into every shot you throw. All you do with this is waste energy and limit how much power you can actually produce. In sparring, being too tense will slow your reactions and create a ‘tell’ that is easy to read. Breathe, relax, then explode!

#3- Have fun- remember, you’re here because you want to be, because you enjoy this. Yes, Muay Thai is hard. Anyone who has undergone fight training will be able to tell you that committing to that grind is no small task. Training hard six days a week, often twice a day, whilst cutting weight, can make you start to hate training. But all that becomes worth it when you step in the ring. As a beginner, you don’t have to worry about all that. Remember to smile and laugh, have fun with what you are doing. As the Thai’s say, “sabai, sabai” (“relax, take it easy”). Whenever I watch people sparring, one thing I always look at is the expression on their face. Do they look serious, even angry? Or are they smiling, laughing, enjoying themselves and maybe giving it a shout of “oeei” when they land a nice clean body-kick? This feeds into #2 above, if you are having fun you will naturally relax more.

 

Outside of the gym

Hopefully, by now, you’ll agree that the number one thing to do if you want to learn Muay Thai is to get yourself down to a gym and get training. Without that, how can you possibly learn Muay Thai?

However, there are a number of things you can do outside of the gym to help you progress. If you do get to the point of competing, what you do outside the gym is almost as important as what you do inside of it, maybe even more so (after all, if you spend two hours a day in the gym, that still leaves 22 hours a day that can affect your preparation). Getting in the miles on your roadwork, doing strength and conditioning, eating properly, and also the things you don’t do in this time, such as drinking alcohol, smoking and eating bad foods.

As a beginner, though, you don’t need to worry too much about all this. There’s no point making huge, dramatic changes to your lifestyle all in one go. You don’t have to “live like a fighter” from day one. Whilst I always had competing in my mind as an end goal, I knew when I started that I was a long way off that goal. Early on, I just trained 2-3 times a week and lifted a few weights. I didn’t change my diet or start getting up at the crack of dawn to go running. I would still have a few beers and a takeaway at the weekend. Gradually, these things changed. Making these changes as a gradual process rather than a sudden overhaul helped to make them a permanent lifestyle change for me.

So, what can you do to help yourself progress quicker? I’ll look at two main areas. Training (outside of what you do in the Muay Thai gym) and diet.

Training

There are a number of things you can do to help build your fitness. However, bear in mind that these are all supplementary. The main thing is spending time doing Muay Thai and developing your skills.

Traditionally, Muay Thai fighters run, a lot. When I’m in fight preparation, I aim for a minimum of 20-25 miles a week. Obviously, you don’t want to start out with that kind of volume but running is excellent for improving your stamina. You will see a big difference when you are hitting pads if you are running regularly. It doesn’t have to be great big runs, you’re not training for a marathon, 2-3 miles at a time is a perfect start. Most of my runs last around 3-5 miles.

Strength and conditioning is also important. Muay Thai is a fantastic all-round workout, yet there are elements of your physical fitness that can be improved greatly by training in other areas. The long-standing myth is that lifting weights is no good for a martial artist/fighter, based upon the fear that big muscles make you slow and clumsy. But lifting weights doesn’t have to be just about building big muscles.

If you train like a bodybuilder, with high volumes of isolation work looking to develop hypertrophy (muscle growth), that won’t be particularly helpful. But lifting weights in ways that are targeted to your goals can be massively beneficial.

Of course, you could write a whole article about lifting weights for combat sports, or even a whole series of articles…oh look, I’ve already done that, check out Part 1 here

Diet

Diet is key to any athletic pursuit. Whatever your sport, whatever your goal, whatever your level, you are trying to get the best out of your body. And you can only get out of your body, what you put in it.

Imagine your body is a car. It might be a highly-tuned sports car, with a powerful engine and state of the art technology, but, if you fill the tank with crude oil, it won’t run very well.

Of course, as I have mentioned previously, you don’t need (or want) to make massive, dramatic lifestyle changes overnight. When I hear people say, “I’m going on a diet”, what I hear is that they are going to suddenly make a dramatic drop in calorie intake, severely restrict what kinds of foods they allow themselves to eat, and perhaps even follow whatever the new fad diet is (low carb, paleo, juice-plus, whatever). They will have a set goal in mind, for example being at a certain weight in 8 weeks time. They are miserable for the entire time because suddenly they can’t eat any of the foods they love, they’re always hungry and craving “bad” foods. Then, they hit their goal (or often just give up on it). Suddenly, it’s time to treat themselves and they gorge on all the foods they’ve been missing out on. Before they know it, the weight has come back on (with interest), and the whole vicious circle starts again.

Eating healthy is great. I’d much rather have a nice steak or some fresh chicken, some sweet potatoes and fresh veg, then a greasy pizza or Chinese takeaway. That doesn’t mean I don’t treat myself, of course, anyone who knows me will be aware of how much I love donuts!

It’s all about sustainability. Can you see yourself eating that way for a month? Six months? A year? How about the rest of your life? If the answer is no, you need to re-assess your eating plan.

Nutrition for fighters is a big topic and there are plenty of articles online going into greater depth, and I’m sure I’ll write one at some point.

As I mentioned, though, when I started I didn’t make massive changes to my diet. They came slowly, over time. A diet of processed foods and microwave meals slowly changed to one of fresh meat and vegetables. Making small, consistent changes will produce far better results than a sudden, dramatic overhaul.

One simple rule you can go by, when deciding if something is ‘good’ to eat, looking at this food can you tell which animal or plant it came from? If yes, go ahead and eat it. If no, maybe look for something else.

We are all individuals, with our own tastes and preferences, and our own bodies that maybe react differently to different foods. See what works for you, what feels best.

As a basic guide, here’s a rundown of what a normal day’s food intake might look for me:

• Breakfast- porridge with honey and sliced banana OR scrambled eggs with spinach
• Mid-morning snack- a handful of nuts
• Dinner- chicken breast/salmon fillet, with sweet potato/brown rice/couscous/wholewheat pasta and vegetables
• Afternoon snack- a piece of fruit
• Pre-training snack- another piece of fruit
• Post-training snack- chicken and salad in a wholemeal wrap/pitta

You may notice that there are only two main meals and several snacks. This works for me, fitting around my work/training schedule and meaning I always have something to eat to look forward to within the next few hours. ‘Cos I really love food.

Summary

There’s quite a bit to take in above, so here’s a quick summary of the key points:

• The only way to get better at Muay Thai, is to train Muay Thai
• Identify your motivation and goals for training Muay Thai, and then find a gym that fits these motivations and goals
• When training, make sure to listen, relax, and have fun!
• Whilst the key thing is to get yourself into the gym and train, you can do things outside of the gym that will help you progress
• Small, gradual lifestyle changes are much more effective than a drastic overhaul and much more likely to be sustainable long-term

STRENGTH & CONDITIONING FOR MUAY THAI PART 3- Strength Training for Muay Thai

In my previous two articles (PART 1, PART 2) I have discussed the benefits of a good strength and conditioning program for a muay thai fighter, and a general overview of what that program might look like. I proposed a 3 phase program using conjugated periodization to ensure that each phase targeted a specific quality, building on the previous phase.

The first step is to build raw strength– the ability to exert force through muscular contraction. I’m sure I don’t need to spell out how important being strong is to being a fighter. However, there are a couple of issues to taken into consideration. Firstly, we compete in a sport that utilises strict weight classes. If you don’t make weight, usually you don’t get to fight and you can leave yourself, and your gym, looking unprofessional. The common fears regarding weightlifting that I mentioned in the first article often revolve around gaining too much mass and getting both heavier and slower. Secondly, we need to think about what specific type of strength we need.

The answers to both of these issues revolve around the correct selection of movements, weights and rep ranges.

Muay Thai is a full body sport. You don’t just kick with your leg, or punch with your arm. The whole body is used to some degree in the majority of techniques. Therefore, we need to develop full body strength utilising several muscle groups working in sync. Isolating muscle groups with weight machines is going to be of limited value, instead we want to concentrate on full body, compound lifts using free weights including barbells, dumbbells, and my favourite, kettlebells. Other equipment such as sandbags, medicine balls or weighted vests can also be used. Free weights also have the added advantage of challenging your body to keep itself stable, working the smaller stabiliser muscles and improving grip and core strength, among other things.

 Reference http://www.acefitness.org/fitness-fact-article/2655/free-weights-vs-strength-training/

You are going to want to use heavy weights for this, around 70-80% of your 1-rep max. Each set should stay between 1-6 reps, preferably avoiding total muscular failure in order to prevent (a) excessive hypertrophy, (b) excessive DOMS and (c) increased risk of injury.

Traditional wisdom dictates that lighter weights and high reps are the way to go, however I believe much better strength gains can be obtained using high weight/low rep protocols with lower levels of attendant DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). High weight/low rep protocols affect neural factors far more than metabolic or cellular, emphasising strength gains with little hypertrophy.

High weight/low rep protocols result in:

• an increased ability to recruit more muscle fibres
• stimulation of the higher threshold fibres that are not activated with high rep/low weight sets
• decreased neuromuscular inhibition
• increased coordination between the muscle groups

Reference  http://www.freedomfly.net/Articles/Training/training29.htm

High rep/low weight protocols will induce higher levels of local muscular endurance, through micro-damage to the muscle fibres, along with small amounts of hypertrophy. These can be useful to improve muscul.ar endurance, for example by shadow boxing with small dumbbells. However, they create very little gains in raw strength, the quality we are aiming for here.

To keep things simple, I would suggest this easy to remember, classic layout for a basic strength session- lower body / upper body push / upper body pull.

Lower body lifts should focus on squats and deadlifts. This includes the numerous variations of these techniques, such as sumo squats/deadlifts, stiff legged deadlifts, Bulgarian squats etc. Always start with the lower body movement as these are the most taxing, so you want to hit them whilst you are fresh.

Upper body push movements include bench press, overhead/military press, weighted dip, weighted push up etc.

Upper body pull movements include chin ups/pull ups, rows (bent over/inverted/upright), shrugs, shoulder raises (front/lateral/rear delts).

Ideally, a lifting session should last no more than 45-60 minutes tops. After 45 minutes, your testosterone levels will drop, leading to a point of diminishing returns.  As fighters, we rarely have the luxury of training time to waste, so make sure you get the most out of it. Besides, if you follow the simple plan below, 45 minutes will be plenty to get in a good strength session.

So, how do we put this all together? Let’s say we are able to fit in 2 strength training sessions a week. We will split the movements up into 2 separate sessions, referred to as A and B.

Each session will involve 2-4 sets of each movement, for 1-6 reps using 70-90% of your 1-rep max and with rest periods of around 1-2 minutes. Alternatively, you could superset the lifts to really maximise your time, doing one set of each lift one after the other, resting for 1-2 minutes and repeating.

 

Strength Session A:

Lower Body- deadlift

Upper body push- bench press, overhead/military press

Upper body pull- chin ups/pull ups

 

Strength Session B:

Lower Body- squat

Upper body push- weighted dip, weighted push up

Upper body pull- rows (bent over/inverted/upright), shrugs

 

To summarise, remember these key points:

• Depending on your schedule, strength train 1-3 times a week
• Compound, full body lifts with free weights, 70-90% of 1-rep max
• 1-6 reps per set, avoiding muscular failure
• Max 45-60 minutes per session

GET IN. LIFT HEAVY. GET OUT

In the next article, I will look at how to turn these strength gains into real explosive power that will help you KO your opponents in spectacular fashion!

 

STRENGTH & CONDITIONING FOR MUAY THAI PART 2: A 3 Phase Plan

In my last post I was looking at the idea of strength and conditioning in muay thai, current attitudes towards it and the possible benefits to be reaped from it. One of the key points I made in the article was this:

I’m a big believer in planned training sessions with a specific outcome in mind, rather than simply stringing together a random bunch of exercises with the simple aim of “getting tired.”

This principle is something I truly stand by. I won’t just do a workout; I want to know what qualities I am trying to improve in a given session and exactly how this is to be achieved. As mentioned in the previous article, S&C is a supplementary part of our training, therefore we need to get the maximum benefit with the minimal impact on our core, skill based sessions in the muay thai gym. Remember, you’re a fighter not a weightlifter.

Fighting, and training to fight, is stressful. You’re training hard, eating less, focusing on making weight, thinking of the fast approaching time when someone is going to try and separate you from your consciousness. Planning is key. If you have a plan, written down and easy to hand, you know what you need to do now, what you need to do later tonight, tomorrow, next week, etc, you will save yourself a bunch of unnecessary stress and ensure you are making the best use of your time and making the best choices. As the saying goes, “proper planning prevents piss poor performance.”

Given you have a set date for your fight, you also need to make sure you are hitting your peak physical potential come fight day. This peak is not something you can sustain indefinitely. Peak too soon, and you risk overtraining and the associated injuries, fatigue and other problems that come with it. Peak too late, and you won’t be at your full potential when it matters. A proper plan made ahead of time, detailing what sessions you will do and what you do in them day by day, week by week can help ensure you peak properly.

That being said, you want to be flexible. There will be days you feel battered, sore and just run down. This is an inevitable consequence of hard training. On those days, attempting an intense, max weight session may just be a recipe for frustration, further exhaustion and injury. Be prepared to adapt as you go, and learn to listen to your body.

So what do we have so far?

1. Make a plan
2. Write it down
3. Follow it
4. But be prepared to be flexible and adapt

One of the most important aspects of any fitness regimen is progression. If you are doing the same workout again and again, how do you expect to get any better? Most often we think of progression as lifting more weight, or more reps, or a longer run, or more pad rounds. This is all good, but we should also think of progression as one quality building upon another, like a jigsaw coming together. Whilst there are various ways you could list the physical qualities required in muay thai, I like to keep it simple when it comes to S&C with three main quaities:

1. Strength- the ability to exert raw force
2. Power- the ability to exert that force quickly
3. Power endurance- the ability to exert force quickly, repeatedly, without any significant drop

As you can see, these qualities build upon one another. You can’t get powerful without first getting strong. But raw strength alone is not enough as fighters. We need explosive power, and the ability to keep power levels up round after round. So a planned, progressive program that builds from one quality to the next is what we need.

This idea is similar to those expounded by Don Heatrick, a strength and conditioning coach specialising in muay thai. He has a great analogy about plate spinning– whilst we need to focus on specific areas to elicit the greatest response, it’s important to keep working each quality to some level in each training block, otherwise the plate drops and we start to lose that quality. This is known more formally as conjugated periodization- breaking “training phases into shorter, linked blocks that sequentially emphasise individual qualities (with the majority of the training volume) while maintaining the others with limited training volume.”

If you haven’t checked out Don Heatrick’s website yet, make it a priority as he really knows his stuff and, importantly, knows how to apply it to the specific demands of muay thai fighters. If you can’t be bothered reading it all, Don gives a nice summary of many of his ideas in this great podcast interview with Sean Fagan (the well-known Muay Thai Guy). Check out the other podcasts and articles on the site too, there’s some great info on there that I guarantee will get you pumped for training!

Ok, enough of the link love. Back to the 3 phase plan.

The length of each phase will depend on how long you have until your fight, but I would usually say make each phase roughly the same length. So, say you have about 3 months (12 weeks) until your fight, you might spend about 4 weeks on each phase. Note- I think it’s best to avoid any lifting for at least a week before the fight in order to ensure your body fully recovers and is able to peak. Plan accordingly.

Taking into account we want to keep all of plates’ spinning (to use Don’s analogy), you might try something like this:

• PHASE 1- STRENGTH- 3 sessions a week focusing on building raw strength
• PHASE 2- POWER- 2-3 sessions a week building explosive power, with 1 session focusing on maintaining strength levels developed in phase 1
• PHASE 3- POWER ENDURANCE- 2-3 sessions a week building power endurance, with 1 session a week on either strength, power, or a combination of the two

Obviously the amount of sessions comes down to what your schedule allows you to do. Unfortunately, most of us don’t have the luxury of training 2-3 times a day, 6 days a week. Muay Thai just doesn’t really pay, so we gotta earn some pennies in a day job and train around that.

The next question is what to actually do in these phases/sessions. I will start covering that in the following parts of this series.

Before I leave it, though, I’d like to make two quick points that you may be thinking right now.

1. What about cardio? Aerobic / anaerobic fitness?

I haven’t forgotten this! However, you should be getting plenty of work on your cardio outside the weight room. Running, pad work, bag work, these are key for your cardio n a fight. In the following articles I will consider how you can tie your roadwork in to your lifting in a complementary fashion.

2. What about CrossFit?

I could write a whole article about this, and I probably will in the near future. But let me just say this: CrossFit is NOT strength and conditioning. CrossFit uses many of the exercises and movements you might come across in S&C, but it is its own sport with its own aims. Your muay thai S&C needs to be aimed at what you need as a nak muay.

 

That’s enough for now, keep an eye peeled for the next article which will look at the first phase of our plan: Strength.

Read the first article in this series here.

 

Strength & Conditioning for Muay Thai- Part 1

Strength & Conditioning for Muay Thai

Strength and conditioning, and in particular lifting weights, is a divisive subject in the world of muay thai. Many claim that lifting is unnecessary and even detrimental. The oft repeated fears about becoming “slow and bulky” still abound. This line of thinking, however, is rooted in a lack of understanding of the various applications of a true strength and conditioning program. Sure, following a traditional bodybuilder style routine- long hours doing a huge volume of isolation lifts- won’t produce the best results for a nak muay. A properly targeted and planned program specific to the demands of the sport, on the other hand, could make all the difference in a fight. If it was possible to hit harder and faster, and maintain this power through a full fight, why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of this?

I’m a big believer in planned training sessions with a specific outcome in mind, rather than simply stringing together a random bunch of exercises with the simple aim of “getting tired.” More is not necessarily better. Strength and conditioning, as an accessory to the copious amounts of skill work that a nak muay must go through (pad work, bag work, sparring, clinch), should elicit the greatest effect for the smallest effort. Spend hours killing yourself in the weight room, and your skill training will suffer. If you’ve ever tried to kick pads after a brutal session of heavy squats or deadlifts, you know what I mean.

Your skill work should always come first. The vast majority of gyms and camps in Thailand do little to no real strength and conditioning work, sticking to the traditional grind of running, hitting the pads and bags, sparring and clinching. Most lack the knowledge and facilities to put a program in place, especially poorer rural camps. Yet they consistently produce the best fighters in the world. Much of this can be put down to the fact that Thai fighters generally begin fighting professionally at a much younger age than western fighters, and fight much more often. Some gyms are opening up to the thoughbenefits of modern sports science, and it seems inevitable that the trend will catch on in the coming years. Just think of the change in former 3x Lumpinee stadium champion Yodsanklai Fairtex in recent years. Once known for struggling with his weight and often coming into fights looking a little puffy, the hard-hitting southpaw has looked ripped every time he’s come to the ring since his victory over Kem Sitsongpeenong. No doubt, the influx of foreigners at Fairtex Pattaya has helped to move Yod towards a proper S&C program.

Current Lumpinee champion Pakorn recently appeared in a promotional video for Yokkao at the Bangkok CrossFit complex. At the start of the video, Pakorn even says he doesn’t think the whole thing will be much use to him. Why would he? He’s already one of the best fighters in the world based off the staple Thai-style training. Afterwards, however, he admits that his eyes have been opened to the value of modern S&C training.

In the next post, I will look at what exactly an S&C program for a muay thai fighter should look like.

Read the next post in the series here!

Medicine ball circuit for Muay Thai / MMA / Boxing conditioning

This is my first attempt at one of these and it’s recorded on my phone, so bear with me!!

This is a nice little conditioning circuit using a medicine ball. I’m a big fan of using circuits, setting a specified number of moves and reps in sequence is a great way to make sure you get in a good volume in short time.