Structuring

Your Muay Thai Training Week

Structuring Your Muay Thai Training Week

• Do you struggle to find time to fit in all the training in that you want?
• Are you confused which training sessions you need, how many, and where in the week
they should go?

You’re not alone! And doing a better job of organising your training week can make a drastic
difference to the results you get from the training time you invest. Let’s see what tweaks you
can make to get a much better return on that investment!

Thai boxers must structure a mixture of three different

training sessions every week to get the most out of
themselves…

Strength Training –
targeting neuromuscular performance
(anaerobic power)

Cardio Conditioning Training –
targeting energy systems fitness (aerobic capacity, aerobic
power, anaerobic capacity)

Muay Thai Training –
targeting technical and tactical Muay Thai skill and sport
specific fitness

If you’re unsure how many of each of these sessions you should do each week,
here are some quick tips to ensure good progress regardless of your competitive level
or time available to train. We’ll begin with three circumstances/models…

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Structuring Your Muay Thai Training Week

Novice Fighter –
Minimal Weekly Schedule

Strength Sessions x2

Cardio Conditioning Sessions x1

Muay Thai Sessions x2

Competitive Fighter –
Recommended Pro Weekly Schedule
(Best Progress)

Strength Sessions x2

Cardio Conditioning Sessions x3

Muay Thai Sessions x5

Thailand Fighter –
Extreme Weekly Schedule

Strength Sessions x2

Cardio Conditioning Sessions x6

Muay Thai Sessions x6-12

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Structuring Your Muay Thai Training Week

Scheduling Training Best Practice

Leave at least 48 hours between consecutive strength sessions

If possible, train cardio or Muay Thai at least

3-hours away from strength training

If both sessions must be trained back-to-back,

train the most important session first

Generally don’t do more than two sessions back-to-back

Cardio sessions should prioritise aerobic capacity and power.
Lactic system training shouldn’t feature until close to the fight… so save
those Tabata intervals until at least 4-weeks out! ;)

WARNING
Lactic system training will kill your aerobic fitness! Build aerobic fitness first
and then learn to tolerate lactic exertions closer to the fight.

Each session should target a specific purpose and only do
just enough to make your body better at it, and that’s it.
Be progressive.

Rest is as important as the training!
You only get better if you recover from the training you’ve applied.
Take 1-2 rest days per week. Yes, 2-days rest can actually make you better!

Long-term progress far exceeds the capability of unsustainable short-term

thrashing – let opponents burn themselves out and go around in circles!

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Structuring Your Muay Thai Training Week

Typical Training Session Durations

STRENGTH CARDIO CONDITIONING MUAY THAI
SESSIONS SESSIONS SESSIONS
60-mins 30-mins 60-mins


Sessions can of course be longer or shorter than these, but these are typical session durations
for best training effect. And despite your extremist urges, generally going longer means you’re
doing more than you need to (minimal dose), practicing fatigued form, and spoiling your
recovery so your next training session becomes less effective.

And if you’re obsessed about adopting the Thailand training model with 2-3 hour training
sessions, please see them for what they are; multiple sessions joined together (with recovery
periods in between):

Cardio Conditioning + Muay Thai + Strength/Conditioning


For simplicity, block out 30-minute or 60-minute time slots typically for each session type in
your weekly schedule when structuring your week.

Structuring Your Week

Now you know how many sessions you’re looking to fit into each week
and how long they are likely to be, let’s look at where they can practically
go.

Generally, fighters have more flexibility over placement of weekly
strength and cardio conditioning sessions, whereas Muay Thai sessions
are largely timetabled group sessions.

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Structuring Your Muay Thai Training Week

Using the Week Training Schedule Template on the final page…

1. Begin by listing any sessions HAVE to be on certain days

and times

2. Now where can you practically place your strength
sessions to best effect?

3. Where can you place any remaining Muay Thai sessions?

4. Where can you place any remaining cardio conditioning
sessions?

5. Which days are you taking as rest days?

6. Check that you’ve considered the scheduling training best
practices


7. Not enough time? Can you get up earlier and fit some in
before work or studies?



This is now your ideal schedule, but life happens – don’t be too rigid!
If it’s not possible to place things exactly where you want them one week, just try to complete
as many of the target number of sessions as you can.

Doing something is FAR better than nothing.

If you can’t fit all the sessions in on a particular week, prioritise the most
important sessions for your training block and get those done, dropping the
others. Then try to return to the full schedule as soon as it’s practical.

The following sheet provides a template for you to take all this information and
plan your training week.

If you’d like further help, don’t hesitate to reach out! You can get hold of me
using the contact form at https://heatrick.com/about/

Discover, practice, and become,
Don Heatrick
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Structuring Your Muay Thai Training Week

MUAY THAI WEEKLY TRAINING SCHEDULE TEMPLATE

NAME
PHASE
BLOCK
WEEKS


AM PM
MONDAY 1. 1.

(HIGH, LOW, REST day?) 2. 2.

TUESDAY 1. 1.

(HIGH, LOW, REST day?) 2. 2.

WEDNESDAY 1. 1.

(HIGH, LOW, REST day?) 2. 2.

THURSDAY 1. 1.

(HIGH, LOW, REST day?) 2. 2.

FRIDAY 1. 1.

(HIGH, LOW, REST day?) 2. 2.

SATURDAY 1. 1.

(HIGH, LOW, REST day?) 2. 2.

SUNDAY 1. 1.

(HIGH, LOW, REST day?) 2. 2.



NOTES

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