All athletes can benefit from Muay Thai training, given the massive improvements in overall athletic ability, reaction time, and coordination it provides. Muay Thai has become increasingly popular in the past few decades thanks to its increasing use in mixed martial arts.
MMA provided a platform for martial artists from various backgrounds to compete against each other, and Muay Thai emerged as the most effective striking-based martial art.
Unlike other popular striking-based combat sports, which can be restrictive regarding techniques allowed, Muay Thai allows punches, kicks, elbows, knees, throws, trips, and clinch strikes.
This article will explore how athletes can benefit from the physical and mental improvements that Muay Thai training brings.
Understanding The Athletic Improvements That Come With Training Muay Thai
It doesn’t matter if you’re already athletic or a clumsy person who can’t take a few steps without tripping yourself up. Muay Thai training will make you noticeably more athletic while providing various mental benefits.
Studies show that Muay Thai training improves your overall athleticism even more than most other martial arts.
Some of the ways learning the art of eight limbs make you more athletic include:
1) Improved Posture
Muay Thai training engages often-overlooked back muscles, which can gradually improve your posture.
Learning Muay Thai helps to improve your posture since it engages muscles in your back, helping to strengthen them. Many people develop poor posture due to their back muscles being overstretched due to activities like spending long hours sitting at a desk.
Muay Thai training gives you a full body workout, so these often-neglected back muscles get a thorough workout, leading to improved posture over time. Add exercises that target posterior muscles, like pull-ups and deadlifts, to your training routine, and your posture will improve even more.
2) Improved Balance
Training in Muay Thai enhances your balance through kicking techniques, benefiting you in all athletic pursuits.
Executing many Muay Thai techniques like low kicks or any kicks requires you to stay balanced on one leg while swinging your leg at lightning speed. Your training will improve your sense of balance to the point you could make a tightrope walker jealous.
Watch high-level Muay Thai fights, and you’ll be amazed at how balanced many of these athletes are, even when their opponents catch one of their legs. Having better balance carries over into all other athletic endeavors you partake in.
3) Improved Coordination
Muay Thai gradually enhances your overall coordination and motor skills, helping you execute techniques with greater precision.
Your sense of balance isn’t the only skill that improves the longer you train Muay Thai; your ability to move your limbs independently with high precision will also improve. Improving your motor skills will make you better at any other athletic activity, and your movements will become more graceful and less clumsy.
4) Improved Mental Sharpness
Muay Thai sharpens your mental acuity by requiring you to anticipate your training partner’s next moves, thereby enhancing your cognitive abilities and mental awareness.
Muay Thai training works out your mind as much as it engages your body. During your training, you must anticipate your sparring partner’s actions and react quickly to everything they do. The mental engagement you get from learning Muay Thai improves your cognition and sharpens your mind.
Muay Thai training keeps you on your toes, making you more alert as you go about your day after training.
5) Builds Your Cardiovascular And Muscular Endurance
Muay Thai training can burn up to 1,000 calories, while steadily improving your cardiovascular health and endurance.
Stroll into any Muay Thai gym, and you’ll notice how lean most students are. An hour spent training Muay Thai can use up as much as 1,000 calories, and classes can last as long as two hours.
Burning so many calories while engaged in a fun activity will make it considerably easier to eliminate excess fat in your body.
Muay Thai training engages every muscle in your body, increasing their endurance and strengthening them. Your muscles will become more defined because of your training, and your cardiovascular endurance will increase significantly.
Increased muscle strength, endurance, and cardiovascular endurance make you better at any physical activity.
Most Muay Thai drills enhance your agility by teaching you to evade punches and master various footwork techniques.
Being fast isn’t just about how quickly you can throw a punch or kick but also how fast you can move your body. Many of the drills used in Muay Thai are designed to improve your agility so you can move quicker on your feet and evade strikes with your movement.
Being fast and agile isn’t only a benefit in Muay Thai; it’s an equally important skill in many other martial arts and team sports like basketball, football, or rugby. Muay Thai training doesn’t just increase your agility; it also makes your movements more fluid.
7) Improved Flexibility
Muay Thai training includes stretches and warm-ups before drills, helping to improve your flexibility for performing various techniques.
Muay Thai training involves throwing high kicks, like the roundhouse. These techniques require you to raise your leg higher than you’re probably used to, increasing your flexibility with each rep you perform.
Many techniques you’ll learn at the gym stretch areas like your hip flexors, quads, and hamstrings. You’ll be kicking a lot higher than you ever thought was possible within a few weeks of signing up for Muay Thai classes.
Drilling Muay Thai techniques doesn’t just stretch out your legs, it also does the same for your upper body as you punch and elbow away. Each punch and elbow strike you throw will help increase flexibility in your upper body.
Muay Thai training also incorporates a lot of dynamic stretches that help to loosen up your joints. These exercises are often performed as warm-ups in Muay Thai gyms worldwide.
Increasing your flexibility enhances athletic performance in many sports and reduces the risk of injuries.
8) Faster Reflexes And Reaction Times
Training in Muay Thai, whether alone or with a partner, sharpens your reaction time and reflexes, helping you anticipate your partner’s moves and prepare effective counterattacks.
Quick reflexes like a cat pouncing on a laser pointer will improve your performance in athletic engagements. Muay Thai training helps to develop lightning-fast reflexes since training requires you to be ready to dodge, block, and counterattack in the blink of an eye.
Every jab, kick, elbow, knee, or feint that your training partners or instructors throw at you trains your brain to process information quickly and your body to respond just as fast. Signing up for Muay Thai classes is like upgrading your internal hardware to a high-speed version with no lag. Your improved reaction time will carry over into any activities you do!
All Athletes Should Consider Cross-training In Muay Thai
Learning Muay Thai does wonders for your athletic abilities, and it also helps to sharpen your mind. If becoming more balanced, coordinated, and agile is on your to-do list, consider signing up for classes.
Feel free to stop by one of Evolve’s complimentary introductory Muay Thai classes for a first-hand experience of what learning the art of eight limbs is really like!
Book your complimentary trial class with our World Champions below!
If you have any other questions regarding Evolve MMA and the programs we offer, you can get in touch with our membership executives at the following locations:
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Phone: (65) 6536 4525
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Phone: (65) 6536 4556
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Singapore 138617
Phone: (65) 6539 9590
