Holy crap! I thought I was in good shape until I took a Muay Thai class this weekend. What a fantastic workout! I haven’t been this sore in a long, long time. Anyone here do Muay Thai?
Kewl stuff !
Muay Tia is great stuff. Takes 4 weapons and turns them into 6.
I haven’t trained under an instructor for over 15 years but I still have a heavy bag and spar with my 15 yr old son on occasion who is in Tae Kwon Do.
Probably not the best thing for a triathlete to be highly active in…the sparring part anyway. Are you training to fight?
No. I was just in a rut with my tri routine and I heard Muay Thai was a great workout so I gave it a go. I can’t believe how sore I am after a 1 hour group workout. Still got in my regular swim, bike, and run workouts and they seem to go well together. I can’t wait for my next class tomorrow night!
yes, i trained for several years, and really enjoyed the boxing/kickboxing aspect. IMO it is an excellent workout and will train muscles you didn’t know you had, and also make your mind very sharp, responsive and tough.
i agree with the other poster…if you train to fight that is another level of committment entirely. most of the practioners are bad asses; fighting them requires real preparation.
but to get out of a rut, it will serve that purpose very well (and will be terrific for additional physical conditioning).
keep us posted!
I take it you guys are refering to the cardio training like Thia Bo.
Muay Thai is fighting. The ultimate in HTFU.
“Muay Thai is fighting. The ultimate in HTFU.”
OK Rex Kwan Do . . . .
If I get good enough at it, I’ll give sparring a go. But I’m still a N00B, so all I could do right now in a real Muay Thai fight is get my face caved in. The guys at the gym are serious MMA types (2 of them are pro), so it is not Tai-Bo. The workouts hitting gloves and pads were a lot of fun.
I take it you guys are refering to the cardio training like Thia Bo.
Muay Thai is fighting. The ultimate in HTFU.
NO, i did NOT practice like Thia Bo (that is an insult, frankly). Rather, i was kickboxing in a ring. It was the real deal, make no bones about that, i trained under eldon clem at the IMB academy, JKD philosophy.
Recently i was going to start again, but discovered the screw in my forearm cannot sustain the impact of rigorous boxing (i would train but not fight, given i do not want to compete because i don’t want my face to get punched).
I love Martial Arts and really regret not seeing it thru to a black belt.
In the service I trained under a Master in Muay Thai and also did some competing in American Kick Boxing.
My son is in his 3rd year with Tae Kwon Do and I would be there with him but Triathlon has my heart right now. I’ve sparred his instructor several times and can still hold my own.
Regardless of the discipline, Muay Tai, Tae Kwon do, MMA, or straight up boxing…all of these offer intense cardio workouts. I don’t know if people realize what kind of cardio engine these true MMA fighters have.
Sorry, no insult intended. Those Thai Bo classes can kick your ass too though.
I just got the impression that you guys were talking about a none contact martial arts style work out.
Kicking a target pad is one thing, Dodgeing an elbow from a clinch is totally different.
Had, to cut my post short, got interrupted.
My hats off to anyone with the (forgive my selection of wording) balls to step into the ring and face an opponent with the very real danger of getting badly hurt. Here’s a forearms crossed bow to you.
FWIW, i think muay thai is difficult, but if we were to do a comparison to tri, i’d have to say that tri or ironman is hardly a cake walk.
personally, i feel that ironman was much more difficult (probably because kickboxing is very natural thing for me, but put me on the bike for 112 miles and i nearly die). so while i was fast/powerful at kickbox, my ironman attempt was grave at best, unfortunately.
Been training for about a month now for a possible fight. IT’S FRIGGIN SWEET!!! It’ll be my jumping off point for tri training again but I may just have to fall in love with the sport.
Very hard to be good at both fighting and tri I think. The brutality of fight sports is too much on the body to include hard tri training. My shit has been in constant pain from day one and its still not getting better. I figure I;ll harden up over time but after each heavy bag kick session I can hardly walk the next day.
Muy Thai is a great part of the trinity (Muy Thai, Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, and boxing). Great kicks, elbows, and strikes. Train it as part of a mixed regimen.
yes, it hurts. my body used to just throb, but i was younger then and recovered very quickly. if i got hit or kicked, it was fine in no time. now, with the screw in my forearm, just boxing the heavy bag hurts horribly…like “injury” pain around the screw, not just “pain, pain”. you know there is a difference.
but yeah, you have to take epsom salt baths and eat the right minerals to repair quickly. if you’re getting hit alot, consider that to be deep tissue trauma (if you are hit hard enough). so, try to eat as best you can, and get glutamine, branch chain aminos, and plenty of EFA’s so your tissues can repair. also, you have to rest, you cannot keep pounding and pounding your body–light days, and/or stretching days are mandatory.
at the age of 32/33, i was willing to train again, because it is so invigorating (and was looking for something new to do, outside of tri). but at this stage in the game, it would be for focus, to train, work out energies, stay strong, etc. not to fight.
i just didn’t favor getting my face kicked all over the place (and it happens, most of the womens in sport are freaking viscious!).
and on a side note, if you happen to get into eskrima (stick fighting), watch out. those (blankety blank blank) sticks hurt like nothing else…my god!!!
I’m getting ready for my second class tonight and I’m still sore from Saturday. I thought I had a huge cardio and strength base from 6 years of triathlon, but I feel like I’m completely out of shape compared to these guys. Really, that’s just what I needed to get out of my rut. There is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class afterwards that I’m tempted to participate in as well. Not that I thought that I was in good enough shape to be at a similar level as these guys, but I had no idea how much better shape they’d be. This just makes me want to work harder though. It’s very exciting!
epsom salt baths, repeat. lol. have a blast, that’s what it’s all about.
and as a side note, some of those dudes are straight crazy, you realize…just comes with the territory…
I can deal with crazy violent types. After all, I nearly married with a Irish stripper a few years back.
So I took my first Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu class last night and it freakin’ rocked. I bought the MMA package which includes BJJ, Kickboxing, traditional boxing, and Kenpo Karate. 10 classes a week. I might have to put triathlon on the back burner awhile until my body adjusts to the new workouts. This is so much fun. I can’t believe I never tried something like this until now.
Way to go Bucky.
You will have to put Tri’s on the back burner. Get used to pain, stiffness and soreness…you’ll learn to love it.
It may not be cool to wear grappeling head gear but unless you want califlower ears I would really suggest it.
I was just thinking back to the days when I was hot and heavy into Martial Arts. I always had a toe busted open, a knot on my shin, a slice here or there, an elbow the size of a grapefruit. Great stuff though.
Yeah. It’s hard to explain to anyone why getting the crap kicked out of me by high school wrestlers was so much fun last night and waking up today barely able to put weight on my left knee for an hour or so, but I haven’t done anything truly physical like this since I got out of the Army 10 years ago.