Aerobic/Anaerobic Conditioning For Muay-Thai Boxing Success!

Thai Boxing Endurance Style Conditioning, Part 2

In the last blog I wrote we focused on conditioning for Muay Thai and some simple things you can do on your own. Today I wanted to build on this subject and talk more about aerobic vs anaerobic cardio and the differences they present,

In the end the last thing you want to worry about is your cardiovascular endurance and how it’s going to hold up in a real fight, in the ring or on the streets.

For stand up martial arts styles like Muay Thai kickboxing, cardiovascular training is key. It’s just as important as working on your techniques like punching or kicking.

There’s different kinds of endurance training and in this post I’m going to cover the basics of aerobic and anaerobic conditioning. As well as some other things you should know in order to keep in tip top shape for everyday life.

Aerobic Endurance

Aerobic pretty much means “living in air”. During aerobic exercise in something like Muay Thai training, your body uses oxygen to support the energy demand needed for the workout.

Cardio training like running, airdyne biking, and jump roping, at more of a low to medium pace fall into the category of aerobic conditioning.

Aerobic conditioning forms the basis for ALL your Muay Thai boxing training and provides you with a good solid foundation to get you moving towards more intense workouts in the future.

Anaerobic Endurance

Now let’s talk about anaerobic cardio. Anaerobic means “Without air”. This type of cardio comes into play when you’re pushing at maximum performance for a short amount of time.

The body ends up working so hard that the demand for oxygen exceeds the rate of supply. This is when your muscles reach their limit, to the point it causes a burning sensation in your muscles which causes lactic acid.

Sprinting for a short distance would be a good form of anaerobic cardio that most people can understand.

Have you ever tried throwing 50 round kicks in a row, as fast and as hard as you can? Not easy I assure you!

Or maybe one minute of all out straight jab crosses (1-2’s) blasting on a punching bag? If you have then you know what I’m talking about. That type of training would be an example of anaerobic training.

You’ll Need Both Aerobic & Anaerobic Energy Systems If You Plan On Winning!

If you plan to be pretty good at Muay Thai then you’ll need to have both aerobic and anaerobic conditioning. During a Muay Thai match or intense practice if you lack these areas of fitness it’s going to make things very un-fun fast.

Remember that aerobic endurance is lower to moderate exercise for a longer period of time, and it should keep your heart beating at a slower pace.

With anaerobic endurance, you’ll be using more explosive, fast twitch muscles for a shorter period of time. For a mix martial artist, this type of endurance is also a 100% must have. Most Muay Thai fights require 6 to 90 seconds of all-out, short burst of energy repeatedly during a fight.

Recovery from anaerobic exercise happens through aerobic system. Which is why all Muay Thai martial artist need both energy producing systems…

Unless you want to gas out in the first round of your debut Muay Thai fight (that’s bad!).

 Start Your Muay Thai Endurance Training

I’m not going to give you a full endurance training program, but this builds on the last blog post and gives you some basic endurance exercises that any beginner can try out, at home, in the gym or outside. Let’s focus on exercises that use the same body movements as in your Thai boxing training.

Aerobic training using 60-65% of your max hr (heart rate) for more than 30 min, 3-4 times a week:

• Road work (start with 10 min, add 1 min a day until you make it to 30 min straight)
• Swimming
• Bike riding (use the airdyne bike at IL)
  
• Jump roping
• Light sparring w/ a good partner under direct supervision of your coach
  
• Pad & Heavy bag work

Anaerobic training all-out effort for 15-30 secs.

• Sprinting for a short distance
  
• Hill Sprinting
• Stationary bike (warm up 5 mins, 30 sec sprints, 20 sec rest, 6 sets)
• Heavy bag (30 sec of all-out jab cross, 20 sec rest, 3 set of 3 mins on 1 min rest)
• Rapid kicks of the Thai pads (20 fast round kicks, 30 sec rest, 2 sets each leg)
• Box Jumps (30 secs on, 20 sec rest, for 2 sets of 3 mins)

So there you have it. These endurance exercises are a great way to get your training rocking and rolling. If you stick to a good routine it’s only a matter of time before you make that jump in levels.

Below I’ve included like I always do some great video for you to study. Get to work!