What Is My Ideal Fight Weight Class?
My final fight, aged 40 years... Choosing the right competitive fight weight class, and then making that weight is the fight before the fight! I’m often asked questions like, “Is fighting at 127lbs ideal for someone who's 5 '8”?” Now, there’s obviously a lot that goes into deciding which fight weight class suits you best, including your fighting style. But the [...]
What Gym Equipment Do I Need?
It’s common to believe you need lots of fancy gym equipment to train strength and conditioning effectively… You don’t! To carry out World-Class training, you'll only need a minimal amount of training equipment. It's how you use them that makes all the difference. All you need is at least the following items... Barbell and plates Dumbbells Squat rack Weight bench Somewhere to do [...]
How To Unlock The Hips For Powerful Kicks
As a guest on the Muay Thai Guys Podcast, one question Paul Banasiak asked me was… “A lot of people have a lot of hip flexor issues – those were a lot of questions that we were getting before the podcast – how do you solve hip flexor problems… Talking about hip mobility itself, what programming do you add in to help with [...]
Fat Loss For Fighters
Fat loss is a huge issue for Muay Thai enthusiasts of all levels. Not just cutting weight temporarily for one fight, but a long-term change in body composition – losing all unnecessary fat, so the body has only what’s useful for the highest performance. And of course, looking great is a most welcome side effect! It’s an issue I’ve addressed for countless clients [...]
TJ The Thinking Man and Daisy Mrs The Thinking Man – The Science Of Building Champions Podcast
In this, the very first episode of the Science of Building Champions podcast, I’m joined by both TJ "The Thinking Man", AND "Mrs The Thinking Man", TJ’s wife Daisy, from Phuket – just a week out from both of their next fights on the same weekend… Originally from Houston, Texas in the US, TJ and Daisy sold everything back home and upped roots [...]
Making The Most of NOT Being Dead!
For a number of years now, my Dad has been suffering from dementia… and we all know how that one goes. I’m not sharing this to garner sympathy. This most certainly is not a post about me. I’m sharing this because I hope to inspire. This is all just context to illustrate my final point. I spend Saturday mornings looking after my Dad [...]
Ambitious Beginners – Don’t Apologise!
We all come to Muay Thai for our own (equally valid) reasons. A few know they want to fight straight away… but most just want to train – and never intend to fight at all. Both of these motivations are correct! In the West, Muay Thai is NOT a career, even for a pro fighter. It won’t pay all the bills, you need [...]
Breaking Limits In Muay Thai
I see many fighters consistently working on the wrong things. And this not only slows their progress to a crawl, but ultimately limits how far they can go. So in this episode, I’m going to explain how you can break limits in Muay Thai... For a fighter to make the best progress [...]
How A Novice Can Become An Expert – And Why Some Never Will
Phase 1: Newbie Gains When you first start Muay Thai training, you’re swimming in a sea of technical corrections! As time goes on, with consistent practice of the core (game-changing) movements and techniques, fewer corrections are needed to achieve reliable performance. You’re moving along the continuum from novice to expert. Repeating movements reinforces habits, forming motor pattern “engrams” that you no longer have [...]
Pre-fight Massage: Scam or Legit?
Dan McGowan receiving his pre fight massage ahead of his historic win over Rungarai at Yokkao 28 A vigorous rub down with Namman Muay massage oil (boxing liniment), was a key part of my personal pre-fight preparation. And I think every Thai boxer has an amusing story about how this strong smelling, fiery-hot massage oil has ended up places it shouldn’t! [...]
