High training volume in any sport will lead to overuse injuries and muscular imbalances, and Muay Thai is no exception. It’s true, you can really have too much of a good thing! Fighting posture is designed to defend vulnerable parts of your body against imminent attack, not promote long term health. And Thai boxers spend a significant amount of time hunched forward in a fighting stance, throwing a disproportionate amount of horizontal extension movements while punching or even holding pads for training partners. However, intelligent supplemental training can counteract these muscular imbalances, so don’t go jacking it all in just yet...

heatrick.com/2012/11/19/is-muay-thai-bad-for-posture/

Another thing you could touch on would be all the muscle imbalances that occur on one side of the body from only being orthodox or southpaw. A way to partially remedy this is to always incorporate one or two rounds in your 'unnatural' stance when doing pads or working the bag.

The biggest risk is lower back. The rotational forces applied through the lumbar region can cause back issues.

It can develope muscle in different ways causing very slight differences in posture

Tom , we re not actually deisgned to be ambidestrous, very difficult to find someone who does not have a naturally dominant side - even applies to the eyes .I will say that MT can wreak havoc on your posture however in terms of hip alignment and inward outward rotation frok the hip flexors, piriformis etc. also a lot of the ways people are taught to do pushups in their training sessions can wreak havoc on their rotator cuffs. this kind of stuff can lead to rolled shoulders and the hunched position.

mind you so can being a desk monkey.

Some years back when I consulted an osteopath they asked if I was left handed as that shoulder seemed stronger.

I don't know if it was the case but my only explanation was that I had spent a certain amount of time on the bags trying to improve my jab, which may have made the left shoulder stronger.

Oi Hawkman - I resemble that desk monkey comment. ;-)

Thank you all for contributing.

To clarify, the purpose of the blog post was to highlight the need to counterbalance an overused posture (which doesn't just single out Muay Thai, it's true for any activity that you spend considerable time repeating), and secondly, to offer some corrective strategies for the given example. If any of you haven't read the blog post yet, please do, it'll help put things in context. :)

There are many different issues that arise from practising our sport (thank you all for your input), which of course can't be addressed by simply practising the sport itself - this makes things worse. I'm hoping to help Thai boxers see the benefits of supplementing their technical and tactical Muay Thai training with efficient, effective 'extra curricula' training that helps keep you injury free (and able to keep training Muay Thai) and boosts your athletic foundation/potential.

I have a private client that I teach Muay Thai to who is a Yoga instructor. She is a fantastic case study and a valuable learning tool for me. She's so aware of how her body feels as a result of years of Yoga practice, and along with daily practice, she can feedback to me where she's developed restrictions etc. as a result of her previous training session with me. It's fascinating to learn what the impact of our training does to a 'clean slate'. We don't notice how our body has compensated over the years of training.

Dave, good call. The core/lumbar is certainly a major player when it comes to both injury reduction and performance – especially in explosive, rotational athletes like fighters. There's currently a lot of research going on in this area, and I'm keen to keep an eye on the findings and their application to Muay Thai.

Steve, hopefully I've adequately explained what my intentions were with this piece.
As far as my background, at this time I've been practically coaching strength and conditioning for fighters for over 6-years (also competitively fighting as an international amateur and pro Thai boxer myself too.), and instructed Muay Thai for over 14-years.
I've owned a full time strength and conditioning/Muay Thai gym for over 4-years. I'm a Professional member of the NSCA and an affiliate member of the UKSCA (working toward accreditation), also a CYQ level 3 Personal Trainer (but please don't hold that against me!). I've got a Bsc. (Hons) degree in mechanical engineering, and I'm looking to complete a MSc. in sports science as soon as I get the time...

I'm forever and student and love sharing some of what I'm learning along the way too.

don's site is one of the best on the net if you ask me.

but the mechanics of each individual's physiological development during a lifetime up to first time particiaption has to be taken into account before laying the blame squarely and solely at the door of muay thai (eg I have hip rotation due to one leg longer than the other and this causes my shoulders to counter rotate , making me look like im walking sideways lol)

Lol, Steve :)

Thanks for the praise Hawkman, I appreciate it.

There certainly are a lot of individual physiological issues that can affect how you move, how your body compensates and the potential chain reaction that can cascade from even a seemingly small limitation (let alone having one leg longer than the other!).

I agree, I think we need to understand what movements exasperate our individual issues and take responsibility for addressing them ourselves rather than blame the activities that we choose to participate in.