For anyone who has decided to lose weight through Muay Thai training and exercise, common knowledge is that you need to burn more calories than you consume to lose weight.
While some have a rigorous diet plan that allows them to measure the amount of calories they consume with each meal or drink, don’t assume that this is necessary to achieve the results you’re looking for. Cardio workouts and building endurance through Muay Thai will indeed help you achieve a calorie deficit. But it’s also essential to recognize the significant value that strength training provides when combined with cardio training to help you lose weight.
Strength training isn’t going to give you the intensive and heart-thumping feeling that cardiovascular training does, but building lean muscle helps develop your body into a naturally effective calorie-burning machine.
Having more lean muscle means your body can burn more calories at rest. Building muscle alongside consistent Muay Thai training helps you reach your target weight faster.
Why You Want the Lean Muscle Mass Gained from Strength Training
“If someone is doing Muay Thai every day, they still will be burning so many calories, and metabolism will be through the roof. The lack of weight training will not slow the metabolism in this situation. Sure, weight training will contribute to weight loss and strength/power gain, but lack of it won’t slow the metabolism with someone training this much,” says Brett Taylor, the head Strength and Conditioning Coach at the Thailand Institute of Sport (Sports Authority of Thailand).
While losing weight through Muay Thai or cardio training, it’s normal to lose both fat and muscle. Muay Thai is resistance-based in the sense that you’re using your body weight for many of the routines that you do during training.
Typically, if you don’t include resistance training in your routine, you may be slowing your metabolism by losing lean muscle mass, especially for specific sports. As Brett said, you won’t have to worry about a slowed metabolism if you don’t add strength conditioning into your routine.
Strength training helps you build muscle, more so than a cardio-based routine. Brett continues to say the following: “To gain muscle, the body must have a calorie surplus (a reason why fighters, women, and other people scared of putting on too much muscle should not worry… because they are doing so much cardio already, their calorie deficits ensure they won’t put on bulk. They will get stronger. And if someone has a strong base of strength, they can generate more power. This holds across all sports, so all sports should incorporate resistance training.
Having More Muscle Increases Your BMR
Athletes with a higher BMR quickly achieve a chiseled appearance.
Base metabolic rate (how many calories your body would burn while doing nothing, even lying on the couch all day) is increased through having more muscle mass. A pound of muscle demands more from your metabolic rate than a pound of fat. Basically, the more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn throughout the day.
It requires energy (calories) for muscles to operate efficiently.
They’re constantly being broken down, recreated, and synthesized. If you burn more calories at rest, you increase your daily calorie deficit, which is the key factor in weight loss. One important thing to remember is that you shouldn’t rely entirely on the scale when determining healthy weight loss. Muscle is more compact than fat; pay attention to how your clothes are starting to fit differently.
Training Muay Thai for Weight Loss is Perfect
What makes Muay Thai perfect is that it combines rigorous cardiovascular endurance training and strength-based training through the use of your body weight to deliver kicks and punches.
Strength training doesn’t require you to move fast when lifting weights, which is why many personal trainers tell people to move faster, not rest too long between sets, increase repetitions, and choose heavier weights. This is a modern-day “commercial fitness” mistake. “One form of training interferes with the other; strength training should be separated from cardio, preferably on different days or times.
When combined, cardio should be performed before strength training, not immediately after, as it negatively affects protein synthesis (muscle building), which occurs during muscle repair. With Muay Thai, you’re constantly using your body weight to improve cardiovascular endurance, an optimal way to lose weight.
Adding More Strength Training into Your Routine
Remember, you still need to burn more calories than you consume to lose weight. You also need a caloric surplus to build muscle.
What’s the best way to do this while training Muay Thai? Brett has the answer: “Incorporate strength training into your Muay Thai routine after you do Muay Thai, never before. Consider periodizing the times that you are building muscle and the time that you want to cut weight.”
Building muscle while training Muay Thai offers numerous benefits when done correctly.
