With so much unhealthy food to eat — packed with artificial ingredients and loaded with sugar — it is very easy to get fat and bloated. Many of us have put on a lot of weight because of this, weight we all wish we could get rid of now. That’s why, now more than ever, people are becoming health conscious and really trying to take back control of their lives.
A well-balanced, nutrient-rich, and calorie-efficient diet is key. Pair that with a dynamic and sustainable fitness program, and you have yourself the ingredients for weight loss.
This is where Muay Thai comes into play. Muay Thai is one of the most intense, most engaging workouts you can try if you’re looking to lose a lot of weight. Combining strength and conditioning, cardiovascular endurance training, with the art of self-defense, Muay Thai is the ultimate fitness program to help you shed that excess fat and gain lean muscle mass.
People who train and practice the ‘art of eight limbs’ can attest to Muay Thai’s incredible effect on the human mind and body. For those who want to move the scale in the right direction, Muay Thai is certainly the way to go.
Let’s take a look at Muay Thai’s profound impact on your fitness. Today, Evolve Daily shares five ways Muay Thai helps you lose weight.
1) Total Body Workout
The Muay Thai push kick can be used both offensively and defensively.
There’s a reason they call Muay Thai the ‘art of eight limbs’ and that’s because it’s a discipline that utilizes practically the entire body. This makes Muay Thai the ultimate total body workout for those who want to lose weight and build lean muscle.
Fists and Elbows
One half of those eight limbs involve the use of your fists and elbows. Much like boxing, Muay Thai incorporates various punching combinations and elbow strike sequences. A good deal of focus is placed on upper body strength and cardio.
Pad workouts and heavy bag sessions make up most of the drills that revolve around fists and elbows. Practitioners hone their combinations on the pads with the help of a trainer, focusing on technique and speed. On the heavy bag, practitioners focus on power. These drills, of course, burn lots of calories and are very intensive.
Knees and Kicks
The other half of the eight limbs involve the use of your legs and knees. Kicking is a major component of Muay Thai, and there are a variety of different techniques. Additionally, a host of knee strike techniques also requires a strong base. Similar to the upper body, knees and kicks are trained primarily on the pads with a trainer and on the heavy bag.
Practicing knees and kicks also engages the core quite heavily, working out the abdominal muscles, which in turn burns copious amounts of calories.
Upper and lower body workouts combined together make up an incredible total body workout that will surely help you lose weight.
2) Extreme Cardio
You can burn up to 1,000 calories in a one-hour Muay Thai class!
Anybody who has ever trained in any martial art, particularly striking martial arts, knows just how intense each one-hour session can get. As mentioned so many times on this site, one-hour sessions of Muay Thai can burn up to 1,000 calories, depending on how much effort you actually put into training. But let’s go deeper into why.
Martial arts training incorporates various strength and conditioning elements because the requirements of combat is a good, efficient heart as well as strong, lean, and flexible limbs. A lot of the workouts featured in martial arts training, particularly in Muay Thai, are both aerobic and anaerobic in nature.
The term ‘aerobic’ means with oxygen. It features controlled breathing to fuel muscles with enough oxygen to function. This is usually less intense and steady-state, with workouts lasting at least two minutes or more. On the other hand, ‘anaerobic’ training refers to working out ‘without air’ or with little oxygen. This is more intense and will really push your lungs and raise your heart rate.
Muay Thai training has the best of both worlds, and will boost your metabolism enough to burn calories hours after your workout — not to mention, you become pretty much a sweat factory during training.
3) Elements Of Calisthenics And Plyometrics
Muay Thai is a full-body workout.
The best kinds of exercises are the ones you can do anywhere. Muay Thai training drills feature various elements of calisthenics and plyometrics, two of the most popular fitness concepts in the modern day.
Calisthenic workouts are exercises that use nothing but an individual’s own body weight. There is no equipment used, and workouts are simple enough to grasp, performed at different levels of intensity. Calisthenics helps with improving strength, endurance, flexibility, and coordination.
Plyometrics is a similar concept, but uses basic equipment such as skipping rope, mats, exercise balls, and the like. Workouts feature a series of compound movements to improve range of motion, flexibility, agility, and balance.
Muay Thai makes use of calisthenics and plyometrics to develop explosiveness in fighters. Assimilated into High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), and training routines such as the Agility Ladder, Muay Thai’s unique fitness concepts turn your body into an efficient, well-oiled machine for fat burning and weight loss.
4) Dynamic Environment
Training Muay Thai helps you build mental toughness.
Delving into more of the mental aspect of Muay Thai training, which helps just as much as the physical side when it comes to weight loss, and we discover a dynamic routine that keeps practitioners fully engaged and never bored. No two training sessions are exactly the same, and students are always learning something new.
One invaluable characteristic of an effective fitness program is sustainability. Can practitioners continue training without feeling like they want to give up? There’s more than one good reason why people continue to train in Muay Thai.
Absorbing the knowledge of self-defense is one thing that keeps people coming back for more. Self-defense is such an important right for human beings to have, and everyone should have access to it. Many people enjoy learning how to fight and defend themselves, making the fitness aspect of Muay Thai only secondary.
Furthermore, the dynamic class environment, where students are encouraged to work together in training, to achieve common goals, provides a tremendous support system.
All Things Considered, Muay Thai Training Is More Of A Lifestyle Change Than A Mere Workout. Because practitioners are able to sustain training and living in this lifestyle, the effects on weight loss — and health — are much more significant.
5) Expert Guidance
Muay Thai will push you to your physical and mental limits.
Last, but certainly not least, is the invaluable expert guidance from Muay Thai World Champions who know exactly what it takes to achieve any fitness goal.
These World Champions have years of experience in training and competing in the highest levels of Muay Thai. They know what it’s like to suffer through training, fortifying their bodies to make themselves battle-ready. They know when to push harder, and when to stop and rest. Expert Guidance From World Champions Is Priceless.
Instructors know everything there is to know about fitness and health, brought about by their personal experiences. They’ve worked with many different body types and personalities, and know exactly how to gradually condition you into a supreme athlete.
Many World Champion instructors have also dealt with obesity in the past, and understand how to lose weight safely and efficiently. This is knowledge that you cannot get just anywhere.
Muay Thai is one of the best martial arts in the world, especially when it comes to losing weight. Book a trial class and take back control of your life. Start your weight loss journey today!
Book your complimentary trial class with our World Champions below!
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