Injuries in Muay Thai are extremely common. You must do everything in your control to avoid them as much as possible. There are numerous ways you can do that. To name a few, you can sleep sufficiently, eat healthily, and avoid training every single day. However, warming up is another common way to avoid injuries.
Essentially, your body starts the Muay Thai session cold. Now imagine sparring as hard as you can in the first minute of training. Do you think that would do good for your body and muscles? That’s the opposite of doing good to your body, as going all out on an activity when your body is still cold—is incredibly dangerous.
Therefore, all Muay Thai gyms that respect themselves have 5-10 minutes of warm-up at the beginning of each fighting session. In fact, all martial arts have such a routine because they understood its importance for injury prevention and boosting performance.
So if you want to minimize the chance of injuring yourself all in while maximizing your performance, you must never skip a warm-up ever again.
Why Is Warming Up Important in Muay Thai?
Warming up is a critical activity to do in Muay Thai because it prevents injuries and maximizes your performance in the same training session. It does so by increasing your heart rate, blood flow, and increasing your body temperature. All of these results go hand in hand with proper injury prevention.
A well-designed warm up functions to prepare you, mentally and physically, for the demands of the sports activity you are performing. It does this by increasing blood flow to your muscles, increasing body temperature, and increasing your heart rate.
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To understand why it’s so important, imagine having to fight someone when you’re freezing. Assuming you’re even able to throw a full punch, your muscles are going to hurt so bad when you do end up using them because your blood flow rate to your muscles is incredibly slow and your heart rate is likely to be somewhere down the below average range.
And now that you understand that warming up in Muay Thai goes hand in hand with injury prevention and maximizing performance, let’s dive into the best warm-up routine for Muay Thai, which I personally use all the time!
The Warm-Up Routine (6 Minutes)
This is going to be a 6-minute warm-up, specifically curated to fit the needs of Muay Thai. You’ll gain specific benefits that are related to Muay Thai if you follow this routine. First, you’ll be able to kick higher, which is highly desirable amongst Muay Thai trainees.
And second, your entire body is going to be warmer, allowing you to perform at your peak performance when you’re in the training itself. So I encourage you to adopt this warm-up and make sure to perform it before every single fighting session you do or think of doing.
I’m going to divide each action into blocks of 30 seconds, as you’ll see in the routine. Without further introduction, let’s get straight into it!
00:00 – 00:30 – Light Jog
The first 30 seconds will be a light jog. You want to make sure you don’t run too slow, but also not too fast. This needs to be light since the last thing you want is to get injured in the warm-up itself (which happened to me.)
Because I’ve injured myself previously in the warm-up, I know how bad of a feeling it can be. So make sure to listen to your body and jog lightly. You want your heart rate and body temperature to rise. Find this balance and you’ll get the most out of this light jog.
If you don’t have any spare room, you can jog in place, lifting your knees to your chest (Again, start slowly.)
00:30 – 01:00 – Jump Rope
Once the 30 seconds of the light jog are up, you want to grab a jump rope and get as many jumps in as you can. Your body is now less prone to injuries, even after just 30 seconds of light jogging.
Therefore, you can begin amping up the pace a little bit (don’t go 100%!)
The jump rope will warm up your body even further, which is precisely what we want to get for the next 30 seconds.
I encourage you to jump single jumps, and not all the fancy things people do with a jump rope these days. Just regular jumps will suffice.
01:00 – 01:30 – Check (Right Side)
The 3rd 30 seconds will be right-side checks. Check, if you don’t know, is when you lift your knee to your chest to block the opponent’s kick. If you manage to check your opponent’s kicks, the hard part of your shin is going to meet his foot, which is going to hurt and make him think about whether he wants to throw another kick.
Anyways, you’re going to perform a right check for 30 seconds. Focus on lifting your knee to your chest.
01:30 – 02:00 – Check (Left Side)
The next 30 seconds will be to perform the left check. By this point, your body should be much warmer and feel more flexible. That’s great, but we’re still not done!
So now, 30 seconds of left checks is the next obstacle!
02:00 – 02:30 – Leg Swings
The 5th 30 seconds will be leg swings. This is one of the most important actions here because it’s one of the best stretches to get higher, stronger kicks. When you do leg swings, I want you to focus on getting to the point in height where your muscles reach what you think is their limit.
Now, I want you to stay in that spot for all 30 seconds. If you manage to do that, you just got higher kicks in 30 seconds.
What most fighters do is avoid getting to that spot since it’s when your muscles feel the most flexed, which can be rather uncomfortable. What you want to do is be uncommon amongst common people and get to that point. Although it’s just a warm-up, you’ll thank yourself later.
02:30 – 03:00 – Alternate Knee Raises
Next up (#6!) is alternate knee raises. Knee raises are a fantastic dynamic stretch for Muay Thai. You’ll be using your legs a lot throughout the training session, so you want to make sure your legs are in top shape to perform.
I want you to switch sides after every knee raise. This should be a quick movement that warms up your body and not a slow one you don’t really feel. Invest effort into the exercises in this warm-up and you’ll benefit from the full amount!
03:00 – 03:30 – Jab
Now, your legs should be in top shape (we’re not done with them yet, don’t worry.) It’s now time to work on your upper body a bit, which is also critical.
From minute 3, you’re going to throw quick jabs while ensuring proper technique. While it’s just shadowboxing, you want to invest effort into throwing perfect jabs. They also need to be quick, as they need to warm up your body.
To learn more about how to throw the perfect jab, follow this link!
03:30 – 04:00 – Cross
Next up, you’re going to throw a quick cross repeatedly. You want them to be quick as well. Your left side should now be much warmer, so you want to begin getting your right side as warmed up as possible. And the cross is the perfect punch to get your right side warm!
To learn more about how to throw the perfect cross, follow this link!
04:00 – 04:30 – Uppercut (Alternate)
Next up, we have the uppercut. You want to switch sides after every single uppercut you throw. So you’re going to throw a right uppercut followed by a left one.
This is a must-have exercise to include in your warm-up, as it’s one of the best exercises for that purpose, especially if you throw quick and meaningful uppercuts, which will warm you up even further.
And if you don’t know how to throw a proper uppercut, you can follow the link to learn how you can do so (the link leads to an article of mine on the topic.)
04:30 – 05:00 – Slip + 1-2 Combo
We’re getting close to the end of the warm-up, I hope you’re excited! By now, you might even be sweating a bit since these are tough exercises we’re doing. I’m already sweating in the 2nd minute, which shows just how effective this warm-up is.
What you want to do now is to slip to one side and then throw a 1-2 combo. You want to alternate the sides you slip to and perform it over and over again (until the time is up.)
05:00 – 05:30 – Teep (Right Side)
For the last minute, you’re going to work on your teeps. The teep is one of the most used kicks in Muay Thai, which is why I’ve decided to include an entire minute of it in this warm-up. You first want to start with your right side. So begin by throwing right teeps for the first 30 seconds.
05:30 – 06:00 – Teep (Left Side)
And lastly, switch your teeps to the left side, to warm it up as well. This will warm up your legs and ensure you’re ready for any spar, fight, or whatever you plan to do.
And this is how you warm up your body properly before every single Muay Thai session you do to prevent injuries and maximize performance.
Final Words
Warming up your body is critical before any intense physical exercise. You can’t simply just start to train as hard as possible for the first minute of your training. You must first invest some time and effort into stretching your body and increasing your heart rate and body temperature.
Hopefully, you’ve been able to understand how this warm-up goes. I encourage you to try it up and see just how effective it can be for yourself. You won’t lose anything if you try it. The only thing you can lose is underestimating the importance of properly warming up and injuring yourself in the process.
Here are other articles you’ll benefit from:
Muay Thai Breathing – How to Breathe Correctly (Tips)
The 5 Best Focus Mitts for Muay Thai – Train Effectively
The 7 Best Muay Thai Shorts for Your Money
Required Equipment for Your First Muay Thai Class
Elbow Techniques in Muay Thai – The 5 Best Ones You Must Know