Muay Thai is a fantastic martial art and there are many girls at my Muay Thai gym. But how good is Muay Thai for females? I decided to find out.
Muay Thai is fantastic for both sexes and not only teaches you self defense and burns up to 1000 calories a class it also pushes your human potential and is a great stress reliever.
There are many benefits for a woman to do Muay Thai and most gyms including mine are very welcoming to females. I will list the nine reasons why Muay Thai is good for a woman to learn and I wish you start training!
Develop Excellent Self Defence Skills
Having a grasp of self-defense is important no matter what gender you are, and learning Muay Thai will equip you with all the necessary self-defense skills you need for the street.
Muay Thai is known as the art of 8 limbs, as you use your elbows, fist, knees, and legs to defend yourself. This gives you so many options to protect yourself on the street that other martial arts such as Karate cannot compete with.
A robber on the street would not expect a woman to spinning elbow him in the face as he tries to take her purse, but Muay Thai can teach you how to do exactly that!
Muay Thai is effective at all ranges to close, or far as you have kicks and boxing as well as Muay Thai’s very effective standing wrestling known as the clinch! If you want to know the 12 reasons why Muay Thai is good for self-defense please click my post here.
If you want to see how you can use basic Muay Thai techniques in a self-defense situation, please watch the video below.
Burn Up To 1000 Calories Per Class
Muay Thai is a martial art designed for fighting even if you don’t want to fight you have to do the intense running, jumping rope, and shadowboxing for a fantastic aerobic workout; which stimulates the heart rate and improves your hearts function.
Anaerobic(without oxygen) exercise is very common in Muay Thai as it involves pushing your body to its limits, with exercises like kicking the heavy bag/ pads and also clinching pushes yourself to max effort.
In a self-defense situation, the body could be tested aerobically or anaerobically or both ways. Do you want to stand and fight? Then it’s aerobic, do you want to run away or use all your resource for disabling your opponent? Then it’s anaerobic you need.
No matter what your body needs to do, if you train Muay Thai you will be ready as it’s as effective for exercise, as for self-defense.
The problem with training pure self-defense arts like Krav Maga is they are not an intense workout like Muay Thai is. I remember someone training in our gym who was super tired in our session as he didn’t get the same workout in his self-defense classes.
It also burns around 600 calories per hour, so it’s great for losing fat as well as improving your fitness in a self-defense situation! With continued training, you will improve your strength, explosiveness, and your heart’s performance when you need it most!
Learn To Fight Like A Female Fighter
Unfortunately “fight like a girl” used to be an insult directed at people who couldn’t fight, but this isn’t the case anymore.
Women fights in the UFC(ultimate fighting championship) draw as much attention as men and the women UFC strawweight title fight between Joanna Jędrzejczyk(Muay Thai fighter) and Zhang Weili is still the best fight I have ever seen between men or women.
In Muay Thai you have tons of female stars like current One Champions MMA world champion & Muay ThaiWorld Champion Stamp Fairtex from Thailand.
I love that if I have a daughter she will have tons of positive female role models to look up to. this wasn’t the case even 10 years ago as women fighting has caught up to men in recent years.
So why not learn to fight like a girl? You will be a positive role model for yourself but all the women in the world, to push the stereotype the being strong and having self-defense skills only reserved for the men. Be a strong woman and learn to fight like a girl!
Expand Your Social Circle
No matter how good your current social circle is, I can guarantee meeting like-minded women & men at a Muay Thai gym who all possess the unique goal of improving themselves both mentally and physically with Muay Thai is a great opportunity.
You will bond a lot with the women at your Muay Thai class and usually pair up with them, but nothing will motivate you more to train that being surrounded by equally strong women and men who are trying to improve themselves doing a difficult thing.
The gym, in general, is a great place to meet people compared to meeting randoms from a bar or night club, as you genuinely get to know each other as you see each other so often. Some gym friendships could become relationships or friendships that will last a lifetime.
What are you waiting for! Join a Muay Thai gym :).
Relieve Stress
This goes with any exercise in general, but there is no better way to wind down from an office 9-5 that you don’t like than punching a heavy bag with all your power with a large “RARWR”!
If you want to know why exercise is so good for stress relief to check out this article by Havard health.
Whilst other sports will help with stress relief, I think the physical nature of Muay Thai with it’s kicking the heavy bag/Thai pads just makes it extra stress releasing. Lashing out all your inner emotions onto the heavy bag just feels so good.
It isn’t possible to be stressed from work after 9 rounds of Friday sparring, you will be dead and drained but this feeling is beautiful; as all the bad feelings or anxiety you had before the training session will all melt away and you can relax at home in comfort, stress-free.
Life is too short to feel stressed, by do yourself a favor and learn Muay Thai!
Challenge Your Limits
Muay Thai is one of the toughest martial arts you can do, and this is exactly why you should do it. Training martial arts is the best positive change I’ve implemented in my life and I’m so glad I started.
If you want to know how hard it is Muay Thai to learn, then check out my post here.
Regular Muay Thai training is tough and it will make you stronger physically but also mentally. This mental toughness of pushing past your limits will be felt in everyday life, and help you overcome many of life’s challenges.
Think, when you regularly spar someone who is trying to hurt you every week, how unimportant will things you normally stressed over and paid needless attention to seem?
Performing a presentation in front of your co-workers or asking for a raise from your boss, will all seem ever so trivial compared to VOLUNTEERING to be punched in the face every week. Trust me, it puts things into perspective.
Become More Confident
Muay Thai will improve your self-image as you lose fat, get stronger, and look more toned. A positive self-image is important and Muay Thai will make you look better, with a feeling of confidence and power that little. other forms of fitness can do.
Knowing how to defend yourself blessing you the power to take on anything life can throw at you. It won’t just be inside, as others will notice you’re newfound power and see the difference in how you carry yourself with your posture and mannerisms becoming more confident as your belief in yourself increase
If you want to see how training Muay Thai transformed a young women’s life, then this short documentary(linked below) about Yasmin Nazary Muay Thai journey will be right up your street. This isn’t a cliche Muay Thai could genuinely change your life forever for the better!
Muay Thai Is A Fun Workout
I can tell you from experience how hard sticking to an exercise routine you don’t like is. Treadmill running just isn’t for me no matter how good a workout it is.
With Muay Thai no only is it a fantastic workout, kicking pads and learning combinations is just plain fun! You will always be learning and evolving and no session from a good coach will ever be the same or get repetitive.
Running on the treadmill or lifting weights for an hour is just so much more boring and it’s way harder to stick to if you don’t enjoy it. Muay Thai isn’t just enjoyable it’s easier to commit to because it’s fun as you have a social commitment to attend your classes.
Since a martial arts gym is a social club you will feel obligated to keep attending your classes because you enjoy the social aspect of the gym and want to see your friends every week! A good gym friend should call you out if you stop attending, and you should do the same!
Simple And Effective To Learn
Muay Thai is the perfect example of easy to learn but impossible to master, it’s known for its raw simplicity as the strikes are not that flashy but are still incredibly effective. Compared to other martial arts like Karate and Taekwondo that have been watered down and are nowhere near as effective as Muay Thai.
You won’t see any 720-degree triple spinning back kick in Muay Thai as the humble roundhouse is much more effective. Muay Thai is a martial art for everyone.
It will take someone roughly 6 months to learn all the basic foundational Muay Thai techniques so they can easily implement it in a street fight.
In Thailand and now moreso in Europe kids start from 5-6 years old, as there are children Muay Thai classes in my gym here in London. So you could get your current or future children a head start in life with Muay Thai!
So no matter what level of fitness you have, or age you can still find a Muay Thai class that will quickly improve both your fitness and your self-defense, as it is as simple as it is effective.
How Do I start Muay Thai?
So I’ve convinced you, you want to start training Muay Thai as a lady, so how do you get started? Trust me as a woman you will be welcome with open arms. In terms of gyms sexual demographics really it depends.
Some gyms could have 50% women and others like mine have around 15%. There are female-only classes in certain gyms if you would prefer only training with women but that requires your research.
Also, gyms usually come with weights, so you can work on that squat booty as well as that high kick! This does vary so do your own research if having weights is important for you.
To find your perfect Muay Thai gym just google Muay Thai gyms in your area, and see if you have any gyms near to you.
An MMA(mixed martial arts) gym is fine too if they include Muay Thai but depending on the gym the quality of Muay Thai might not be as good as a pure Muay Thai gym. Just check google reviews and see what gym speaks to you.
All gyms should offer a trial lesson so you can see if you like the instructors and the overall vibe of the gym. Treat this period like a job interview as you see which specific Muay Thai gym you like, as this will be your second home after you start training!
There is no rush, so take your time and pick the best one for your own unique needs.
If you’re still not sure about which gym to pick after the trial lesson, consider paying for a one month or two-week pass so you can see what the gym is like. This will be more expensive, but it’s a lot better than committing to a 3-month rolling contract that’s difficult to get out of when you don’t like the gym.
If you don’t like the gym, just take another monthly pass with another gym until you find the one that speaks to you
How Often should I train Muay Thai?
I’ve answered this question in detail in my post here but I will quickly summarise it. It depends on your martial art experience and fitness level.
If you’re a complete beginner to exercise and martial arts I recommend starting with around 1-2 classes a week, so you’re body gets used to the stress Muay Thai puts on you.
Now if you’re someone who regularly works out at home or in the gym or has some previous martial arts experience, you should start training Muay Thai around 2-4 times a week.
I still recommend the lower end of twice a week, as the stress Muay Thai puts on your body will be very different from feeling sore after doing weights for example.
Now if you want to eventually be the next Stamp Fairtex and turn professional you should train Muay Thai around twice a day 5 times a week.
I commend you trying to achieve this you need many many months of training before you should even think about training this often a week; so your body gets acclimated to the training.
Interested in Muay Thai? Check Out My Recommendations
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