While lots of people are learning Muay Thai kickboxing with a purpose of self-defense, big number of tourists and foreigners get attracted to this sport for fitness reasons. Training Muay Thai brings lots of health benefits, such as losing weight, bigger endurance, good flexibility and increased quickness. As this sport is getting more popular every day, lots of people travel on a holiday to Thailand to join a camp where they can learn this beautiful discipline. Thailand is a homeland of Muay Thai, and it is an excellent sport for both men and women.
Some people come to the country and study it for a couple of weeks, while other more serious fighters are spending years in mastering their skills. Every camp in Thailand welcomes both fighting enthusiasts and serious fighters. Gyms often offer personal trainers to work with their students. The fighting instructors are preparing the training session according to the goals of the fighter, whether they want to practice for sport, fun, fitness or professional.
Muay Thai offers powerful health and self-defense benefits, but also many people want to visit Thailand because of the cultural reasons and for the nice women too. Lots of people also find it fascinating to watch and talk with the real Muay Thai fighters in Thailand. This fighting discipline is much more than just a simple kickboxing, it is a genuine part of Thailand`s culture, and you can learn about the culture by practicing it. By attending a training camp, you would also be able to meet new friends which you will hardly meet as just a tourist.
Sometimes deep friendships are often being developed between different fighters in a camp. There are often social events that gather all the fighters together. Students are attending professional fighting matches together and are cheering for their fellow fighter from their gym. These types of events provide great opportunities for forming long-lasting friendships.
Typical training sessions last about three hours and are separated into six parts of thirty minutes. The six parts of the Muay Thai training are: warming up, shadowboxing, bag work, pad work, clenching and conditioning. However, sometimes the gyms let the beginners rest more often and do the practice more slowly.
Warming up begins with rope jumping and series of stretching exercises. Shadowboxing is done in front of a mirror. The student fighters are learning the correct techniques during this step, like throwing punches, knee kicks, front kicks, jab, stance and roundhouse kicks. Trainers are there to correct your techniques or demonstrate how you should do it properly. During the third step of bag work the student learns how to make a contact. Pad work is the fourth step where the student follows the instructions of the trainer while moving back and forward, left and right. That way you learn how to fight against opponent that moves. Clenching is the fifth step of the Muay Thai workout. The training ends with the conditioning work. This part is consisted of simple exercises for strengthening such as doing pushups and crunches, followed by relaxation afterwards.