Muay Thai is a combat sport whose origin is in Thailand. Over the world, more people are taking up Muay Thai as it has numerous benefits. This guide offers four reasons to pick Muay Thai as your first martial art sport.
Easy To Learn
Learning Muay Thai has no age or gender limit. Kids as young as five and elderly adults can enroll in classes by searching “San Diego Muay Thai classes near me“. Since it combines the use of knees, hands, and legs, Muay Thai’s technique can hardly be considered technical. For beginners, trainers introduce the sport gradually. Skills taught include:
- Medium and low kicks
- Punches
- Blows
One can elect to take up Muay Thai for exercise or as a pro-athlete. However, consistency is vital to mastering the art of the sport. You have to turn up to each training session to improve your skills.
Great for Weight Loss
Muay Thai has an intense training regime as you constantly move around on your feet to dodge hits from an opponent while trying to launch an attack. The rigorous workout boosts the body’s metabolism, consisting of both anaerobic and aerobic conditioning. The latter includes exercises such as skipping rope and shadowboxing. These activities are great for getting rid of stubborn belly fat and strengthening the core muscles. Additionally, aerobic workouts manage chronic diseases such as gallstones and sleep apnea associated with being overweight.
On the other hand, training with heavy bags is part of anaerobic conditioning. This is good for maintaining weight. However, observing a healthy diet is essential to support a healthy weight-loss journey.
Functional in All Stand-Up Fighting Ranges
Arguably, Muay Thai is the best martial art for stand-up fights. Also known as the science of the eight limbs, this sport is known for its notoriously hard kicks. Muay Thai is also well-known for its fluency in knees and elbows. It also makes use of punches and is excellent for self-defense. In a stand-up fight, one trained in Muay Thai can use their elbows to counter the opponent’s hand combinations. The use of lower kicks drains the opponent’s leg energy, limiting their ability to maintain a proper fighting stance. High-level kicking includes the ability to dodge punches simultaneously.
Basis of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)
At the highest MMA level, a fighter usually chooses his style and adapts it to each opponent. Often, fighters consider using their hand as the easiest way to secure a knockout. Kicks, especially to the head, are great knockouts too. Muay Thai fighters possess roundhouse fluency. Thus, they can see the kicks coming and counter.
Due to often having vastly superior kicks, Muay Thai champions will usually choose to kick their opponents even if they have a good boxing game. The lifts are challenging to punch through on a hard kick. Like all elite strikers transitioning to MMA, the big question is their grappling. Muay Thai fighters have an advantage in transitioning over as they have spent hours practicing the upper body clinch.
Muay Thai is easy to learn. It includes physical exertions such as shadowboxing, which promotes weight loss. Also, it builds the foundation of mixed martial arts and gives fighters a competitive advantage in competitions. All these reasons make it the best first martial arts sport.
