Muay Thai is an incredibly intense combat sport. Muay Thai has its origins in Thailand and is also known as Thai kickboxing.
It is considered to be one of the most dangerous martial arts to participate in.
Since Muay Thai is an intense sport that has a higher risk of injury, it is important that you know how to be in the correct form.
Many people often focus on ensuring they have the correct footwork or that their hands are in the right position, that they often forget to ensure they are breathing properly.
Breathing is vital when it comes to Muay Thai as it can have a great impact on how you perform a combination of strikes.
If you are unsure of how to breathe properly in Muay Thai, then you’ve come to the right place.
In this guide, we are going to walk you through how to breathe properly during Muay Thai.
Why Is Breathing Properly Important?
Before we look at how to breathe properly when participating in Muay Thai, we need to make sure we understand why it is important to breathe properly.
Here are some of the reasons why it is important to breathe properly during Muay Thai and other combat sports.
Helps Maintain Energy
Something that beginners often struggle with when participating in combat sports like Muay Thai is running out of energy.
Since Muay Thai requires you to take powerful strikes at your opponent, it can lead to you using too much energy.
Unfortunately, in combat sports, once a player runs out of energy it can be incredibly difficult for them to regain it.
However, with the right breathing techniques, you can maintain the amount of energy released with every strike.
By breathing properly, someone who is participating in Muay Thai can control the energy they release with every powerful hit.
Breathing Properly Gives You More Energy
A key component of winning a fight is that a lot of the time it comes down to if you can outlast your opponent.
Due to this, training is important to ensure your endurance is developed.
Part of building up your endurance is learning to breathe. Part of breathing properly doesn’t just allow you to maintain energy, but it can also give you more.
By understanding the proper breathing techniques you are less likely to run out of breath.
However, if you do feel low on energy you can work the breathing exercises to regain it.
Thus, breathing properly can give you more energy in the long run. It will help you to outlast your opponent by not wasting any energy.
It Will Help You To Be More Fluid
Muay Thai doesn’t teach you how to be fluid, but fluidity when participating in Muay Thai or any combat sport is key.
One thing that is known to ruin your fluidity is having a lack of oxygen in your body.
The key to maintaining a healthy amount of oxygen in your body during a fight is by breathing properly.
Without knowing how to breathe properly, your muscles do not get the oxygen they need and your movements will be affected.
This is due to the fact that without enough oxygen, you will start to feel lethargic.
This means your body will not flow when moving and your strikes will not be as powerful.
So breathing properly is important for making your strikes fluid and keeping you calm.
Less Likely To Get Winded
In Muay Thai you might receive a few strikes to your stomach. If these are powerful strikes it can result in you being winded.
Being winded can be hard to recover from and might result in you losing your fight.
However, if you know how to breathe properly, then when you are taking a hit to your stomach you will be able to prepare.
Power
We’ve talked about breathing giving you energy, but breathing properly also results in more power.
It might seem strange to think that breathing makes you deliver more powerful strikes but it does.
When striking it is often advised that you breathe out.
This means when the powerful strike is over, you breathe in again and your muscles are fed with oxygen.
This allows you to continue to make powerful strikes.
Breathing Before Muay Thai Training
Before you start your Muay Thai training, it is important to be able to breathe deeply.
Deep breathing has a lot of health benefits, such as soothing your organs.
Not only does deep breathing help to soothe your organs, but it also helps to put you in the correct mindset for training.
For example, deep breathing can help you to get rid of the stresses you might have felt during the day, allowing you to be focused on training.
So how do you practice deep breathing? Well, you need to make sure you are standing tall and straight.
Leave your arms by your side and make sure they are relaxed. Then you need to take a deep breath in through your nose.
Feel the air go to your stomach and then breathe out.
Breathing During Muay Thai Training
When it comes to breathing correctly during training there is one main tip.
This tip is to breathe out with force every time you go to strike. This means your breathing matches the rhythm of your strikes.
How To Breathe Properly With A Mouth Guard
Mouth guards can throw off how a person breathes. This is due to the fact that athletes are not sure how to breathe properly with a mouth guard on.
It is important that you still breathe deeply with your mouth guard on.
To prepare for wearing a mouth guard and breathing, you should practice before any fight.
One tip is to go for a run wearing the mouth guard as this will allow you to control your breathing.
Conclusion
Breathing is incredibly important in any sport. To breathe properly in Muay Thai it is all about breathing deeply and making sure you exhale with each strike.
We hope this guide has helped you learn how to breathe properly in Muay Thai.
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