Muay Thai is a combat sport originating from Thailand, as you’d imagine from the name, that has been gaining popularity for some time now. If you been curious about it, perhaps because it is often referred to as the ‘art of the 8 limbs’ but have not been sure if it’s for you or not, it is worth considering the various benefits of practising this exhilarating and highly technical sport. What benefits, you ask? That’s what we want to discuss in the following post.
Greatly Enhanced Core Strength
Normally when people say the core, they seem to focus on their abs. When, as any conditioning and strength training expert will tell you, is not accurate. The core encompasses all the muscles around your trunk, not just that six pack you are looking to develop. The core is well-worked during Muay Thai thanks to how much rotational movements are involved in the sport. Taking punches to your body will help a little, obviously remembering during sparring to wear a groin guard. While defensive moves, clinching and those devastating strikes will all work at your core.
Better Cardiovascular Condition
Many Muay Thai experts and those passionate about the sport make the bold claim that it offers the best form of cardiovascular conditioning of any sporting activity. As it is both anaerobic and aerobic, it places a lot of effort and stress on the cardiopulmonary systems in your body. As a result, with continuous practice and training, your body will start to adapt to the sport’s demands and the major payoff of this will be incredible cardiovascular condition.
Improved Hip Mobility
This is not going to happen after one lesson, class or bout against a friend. However, due to the amount of kneeing and kicking involved in the sport, your hip mobility will improve over time. Why is this important? Having healthy and flexible hips can help avoid various medical conditions and serious pain that could leave you incapacitated or less able to move as freely in later life. Remember to make stretching and foam rolling a major part of your workouts, have a professional massage occasionally and you will have awesome hips.
Greater Strength in Your Legs
This is a no brainer and obvious, but as footwork and kicking are crucial components to Muay Thai, your legs are worked out furiously each time you practice and compete. Take the roundhouse kick for instance, one of the classic and distinctive moves. Practicing and mastering this particularly effective kick can help to increase the strength of the musculature of the lower half of your body. There is not one single muscle in your lower body, in fact, that won’t benefit from you practicing the various footwork drills and kicks involved in this physically demanding sport. Whether you are looking to enhance your agility, force production or muscle endurance in your legs or just want sexy calves, Muay Thai can help on all fronts.
Great Stress Relief
We’ve left what many would agree is the most important benefit you can gain from Muay Thai – stress relief. If you even meet anyone who hasn’t experienced mounting pressure and stress of some kind in their lives, we need to bottle their secret and sell it. There is a direct correlation to feeling aggravated, angry or just frustrated and taking that out by hitting something. There’s also the fact that when you’re concentrating on drills and your opponent, you don’t have time to worry about your troubles.