Weight Training for Thai Boxing
Shoulder Press
Start by holding a weight in each hand, arms out to the sides, elbows bent and the weights level with your ears. Lift the weights straight upwards as far as your arms will allow. This exercise strengthens a lot of muscles in your arms, shoulders, upper back and chest.
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By strengthening your deltoids and supraspinatus, you will be better able to keep your hands up when you are feeling tired towards the end of a round. Stronger triceps, serratus anterior and pectoralis major muscles will allow you to punch harder.
Weighted Squats
It's best to do squats using a rack that will allow you to drop the weights if necessary. Position the barbell across your shoulders in a standing position with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart. Hold on to the barbell with both hands to keep it steady. Keep your eye on a target at eye level directly infront of you; you'll need to keep looking at this target whilst you go down and back up to maintain good form. Bend your knees and go down as low as you can, then back up.
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Squats will help to build your leg muscles, including your quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and gluteus maximus. These muscles are all used in Thai boxing, so it pays to strengthen them.
Chest Press
Using the Chest Press machine, you simply sit down with your hands on the hand grips. Push the hand grips forwards by extending your arms forwards in front of you. You should feel the muscles in your arms and chest working, especially after a few reps.
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This exercise strengthens both pectoralis major muscles in your chest, as well as the triceps muscles in your arms and the serratus anterior muscle which connects your ribs to your shoulder blade. These are the main muscles used for punching.