Here's a closer look at Pakorn's strength and conditioning preparation for his Yokkao World Title victory in Bolton at the weekend.

I've briefly explained more on what was presented in Yokkao's pre-event promotional video to give you a little more insight.

heatrick.com/2014/10/12/pakorn-muay-thai-strength-conditioning/

Don't agree with separate strength and conditioning classes. Not sure exactly if pakorn actually went regular to these classes.

youtu.be/wOvArWkkvAw

Freddie roach opinion -each to their own,

Yes of course Kieran, each to their own. There's always going to be 'old school' coaches working with fighters that are 'outliers', naturally genetically gifted individuals with great physical attributes for their chosen sport.

In my opinion, that doesn't mean they couldn't be even better if they planned their training better and exploited all facets of performance available to them.

Using strength and conditioning as a 'cover' for performance enhancing drugs is also quite another issue! :D

I just think too many people do a S&C class instead of a fight class or afterwards are to stiff to do any other class after. I'm old school - I understand why people do S&C, a lot do,it as training becomes monotemus so they fancy a break in training. Modern ways.

agree Kieran.

the video kind of shoots itself in the foot with its title, "Crossfit training for muay thai"...well really the goal which cross-fit trains for is cross-fit!

Strength training can only be done as a percentage of fight training unless the actual goal is to get in the ring and have a weightlifting contest..i looked into Ricky Hatton's weights program with Kerry Kayes and it only took up 15 minutes in his pre-fight 8 week training days and was only done after his boxing training was completed.

I looked at an s and c program/article for a UFC fighter recently,
interesting comment -

"Strength and conditioning sessions are supporting sessions to all other training. If because of your training the athlete is so sore for a couple of days that they have to miss their fighting practice, you did fail as a trainer. It may happen that you want to increase the intensity of your strength and conditioning sessions, but always make sure it does not conflict with the fighting practices"


but then when i looked at the volume and frequency i thought this was fairly excessive to be done in conjunction with actual fight training...of course there is a corssover point but feel that many people take it past that, and UFC and crossfit which ae both infested with PED's are to blame...

i am constantly having an argument with a bloke on another site that it doesn't matter how many front squats you do , you cant improve your kicks unless you improve your kicks, ie doing is doing.

remember here they are taking a guy who is a seasoned pro fighter with dozens of years of training under his belt. And tbh that was much more conditioning than strength.
no amount of wall balls is gonna replace what he has already caoable of,in spite of the Thais' generally considered very un-scientific training methods!

one thing i did like about the video was the shoulder blade static retraction mention , the Norwegian guy made a good point about scapular protraction and associated muscle lengthening/weaknesses being common in fighters because of their stance, something i am investigating a lot lately - Don, maybe you can do an article on glenohumoral mobility/RC/scapular retraction and thoracic mobility training?
Esp as so many of us work on computers and have done pushups incorrectly over the years.

All good points fellas.
The main problem is that many misundertand what strength and conditioning (S&C) is, and as such the "baby can get thrown out with the bath water!"

With S&C now seeming more fashionable for fighters, there are those jumping on the band wagon and calling all kinds of training strength and conditioning - CrossFit being the most obvious example.

There are a handful articles I've written that I urge you to have a quick read of, that will hopefully clarify few things.


What is Strength & Conditioning Exactly???
heatrick.com/2013/04/21/what-is-strength-conditioning-exactly/

Muay Thai Skill vs Strength & Conditioning
heatrick.com/2014/02/02/muay-thai-skill-vs-strength-conditioning/

Weight Training Making You Too Sore For Muay Thai?
heatrick.com/2014/01/12/weight-training-making-you-too-sore-for-muay-thai/



Here's some stuff I've written regarding postural weakness resulting from extensive Muay Thai practice...

Is Muay Thai Bad for Posture?
heatrick.com/2012/11/19/is-muay-thai-bad-for-posture/

Correcting Muay Thai Posture Compensations
heatrick.com/2012/11/26/correcting-muay-thai-posture-compensations/

Best regards, Don

thanks Don , i must have missed those articles first time round, just reading the 1st one, 3 paragraphs in BOOM, upper crossed syndrome, thats me , doing as much as poss (and some of the exercises on the 2nd link) to undo it all.

No worries Hawkman, glad you're finding it useful :)