Best Workouts To Improve Cardio For Muay Thai (Top 6)
Muay Thai is, perhaps, the most cardio-intense martial art of them all. Apart from technique, cardio, and endurance are the most important aspect of the game and you will never see a Thai boxer gassing out in a fight. Why? Well, because they live and breathe all those grueling cardio-intense workouts most people hate.
Luckily, you can make your life less miserable by focusing on the following tips and workouts on how to improve cardio for Muay Thai. Focusing on these exercises and doing them at home and outside of the gym will boost your cardio in a short time span, and help progress faster.
Long distance running
Hitting the road and running long distances is one of the best ways to boost aerobic conditioning. Pro Muay Thai fighters in Thailand, for example, run up to 10 miles BEFORE the main training sessions. And they also do this on their day offs as well.
When you are running long distances, you have to be well-prepared and informed. Although it seems “light”, this workout puts decent stress on your body.
First, be sure to get a pair of proper running shoes that fit your pronation. Next, give your best to avoid running on concrete, asphalt, or other surfaces. Instead, find a park or go outside of town if needed to run on flat grass (preferably), gravel, or woodland trails.
Last but not least, focus on keeping your heart rate within the aerobic zone, which is between which is 70-50% of your maximum heart rate. If you don’t have a smartwatch to measure the heart rate, run at what athletes call a “conversational pace”. Or in other words, you are in the right zone as long as you can talk without breathing interrupting your sentences.
Running in this zone strengthens your heart, increases the size of blood vessels, lowers blood pressure, and boosts stamina.
Shadowboxing
Shadowboxing is a well-known exercise, not just in Muay Thai, but in all other striking martial arts. Thai boxers love it as it is a low-impact workout that doesn’t put much stress on the body. But at the same time, it boosts endurance and stamina. It also enables you to perfect your technique, and improve speed and power.
As its name suggests, the key is to find an open area in the gym, at home, or park, visualize the opponent in front, and start throwing combinations. Since there’s no real opponent, you can put your entire focus on the motion of each strike, and rotation, and perform each move the right way. By increasing the intensity and output, you will also enter an aerobic zone and sweat a lot.
Start by warming up and doing 4–5 rounds of shadowboxing at a higher pace.
Sprints (up the hill too)
Not every Thai boxer is a fan of intense sprints, especially up the hill. However, no one can deny the effectiveness of this exercise when it comes to boosting endurance. In contrast with distance running, sprints also increase metabolism and muscle mass in your gluteal and hamstring muscles. Improving these muscles also enables you to generate more power and kick much harder.
Overall, sprinting is not rocket science. However, be sure to always run close to your full speed at about 90–95% to maximize the benefits. You can start by doing 50–70m sprints and as you increase the aerobic capacity, slowly start increasing the distance. Long-speed endurance sprints could be anywhere between 100–400 meters.
To increase the difficulty, start running sprints up the hill. Although exhausting, this exercise will boost your cardio for Muay Thai like nothing else out there.
Swimming
Everybody loves swimming. According to studies, it is the fourth most popular activity in the US. Muay Thai practitioners love it because it is totally different from the exercises they do in the gym, which breaks the monotony and makes training more dynamic and fun. And above all, it is a low-impact workout known to be among the best when it comes to building endurance and stamina.
Swimming is also a good alternative for people who don’t like running or can’t due to injury. Jumping into the pool and swimming at a constant and steady pace puts far less stress on the joints. And it actually promotes recovery as it reduces soreness and inflammation. It also activates and strengthens every single muscle group in your body, even the ones you don’t use in your regular Muay Thai training.
When it comes to cardio, swimming provides similar benefits as long-distance running. You can also do sprint workouts in the pool too to further increase the difficulty.
Skipping rope
Most Thai boxers use jumping rope workouts to warm up their muscles before engaging in the main segments of training. For many practitioners, skipping rope is an easy exercise. They don’t consider it as something that will boost their endurance.
However, jumping ropes is a full-body workout, and if you increase the intensity, it will speed up your heart rate and over time improve cardio.
Apart from endurance, this specific exercise also improves the strength of your shoulder muscles, coordination of movements, and footwork. And the best thing about it is — you can do it anywhere. It is a simple exercise that doesn’t require much time.
Intense pad work
Hitting the pads is among the most important workouts in Muay Thai. It allows you to perfect technique and simulate the intensity levels of real fighting. Most of the time, it is used for developing offensive and defensive skills, reflexes, and timing. But pad work is also cardio-intense and improves aerobic conditioning.
In most gyms, practitioners would simulate a real Muay Thai match and do 5 full rounds of pad work. Unlike sparring, pad work enables you to throw each strike with full power, which will elevate your heart rate close to VO2 max.
Over the course of 5 rounds, you will throw up to 100 hundred kicks, punches, and elbow and knee strikes. Although hard and exhausting, this single workout will boost your cardiovascular fitness and muscular endurance needed for real matches.
Pad work is intense and this workout shouldn’t be taken lightly. If you are a beginner, focus on keeping a solid tempo, and of course, perform with proper technique.
Clinch work
Fighting inside the clinch at close range is one of the most important aspects of Muay Thai training. Although battling for a position may look easy in the eyes of laymen, continuously fighting for head and arm control requires a lot of energy. Doing clinching drills for 5×3-minute rounds with the partner, twice a week, will do wonders for your cardio in a very short time span.
Intense heavy bag workout
A heavy bag is a versatile tool primarily used for technique development. However, you can also use it to do intense anaerobic workouts to boost cardio.
For example, dedicate 5 rounds of explosive heavy bag workout two times a week. Focus on throwing each strike, primarily kicks, with full force and proper form. Throw hundreds of kicks with each leg and rest no more than 1-minute between the rounds. Throwing explosive repetitive kicks burns a lot of energy quickly because the leg muscles require a lot of oxygen.
Bear in mind that you should do this workout only if you know how to perform with the proper technique. Beginners should focus on other exercises from this list as hitting the heavy bag with full force without proper technique can easily lead to injuries. Just a single kick that lands at the wrong angle or with the wrong part of the leg can put you on the sidelines for months.
Final thoughts — Put In the Work
Endurance and having a deep gas tank play a key role in Muay Thai and you can’t expect to become a skilled fighter or successful without it. Apart from enhancing performance, regularly doing cardio workouts has a big impact on your overall health, notably when it comes to cardiovascular health as it lowers the blood pressure and heart rate, and makes the heart stronger.
Yes, running 10k every day, doing sprints and all other intense workouts presented above is hard and certainly not as fun as other aspects of training. But over time, this love-hate relationship will become strong, especially when you feel the benefits during sparring or matches.
