A strength and conditioning coach working with fighters isn’t there to add more work. The role is to engineer clarity when training variables start colliding. Muay Thai athletes don’t struggle because they lack effort. They struggle because performance testing [...]
You know what to do. You've studied the Muay Thai training system—the training cycles, the energy systems, the session structure. You understand the principles of effective Muay Thai strength and conditioning. So why aren't you making the progress you [...]
If your strength training for Muay Thai leaves you showing up to sparring with dead legs, you're not alone. Heavy squats. Deadlifts. All the lifts you've been told will make you a better fighter. Then you show up moving [...]
Designing an effective Muay Thai training schedule is the biggest challenge for fighters balancing work, life, and the gym. You understand the training phases, but when you look at your actual calendar—with work deadlines, family commitments, and fixed class times—you likely [...]
Looking for a 52-week training plan for fighters that actually builds on itself? Most fighters train hard for 8-12 weeks, take 4 weeks off, then rebuild from scratch. They repeat this cycle their entire career—never realising there's a system [...]
Muay thai fitness is failing you—and it's not because you're lazy. You're doing more cardio than anyone at your gym. Yet you're still gassing out in round two. The problem isn't your work ethic. It's that you're training the exact [...]
Most fighters follow a muay thai training program that's built backwards—then wonder why they plateau. After 25 years coaching world champions, I've seen the same pattern repeat: fighters jump straight to explosive work, skip the foundation, and watch their [...]
Every January, the gyms are packed. New Year's resolutions in full swing. Everyone's return to training is going all-out to "make this year different." By February, half of them will have already quit. By the end of the year, [...]
There are four training traps that guarantee your muay thai performance never improves—and most fighters are caught in at least one of them right now without knowing it. Fighters working hard. Training consistently. But staying stuck for years. Why? [...]
Concurrent training—combining strength and cardio in the same program—is supposed to make you a better all-round athlete. But if you're doing it wrong, you're not building progress. You're erasing it. You spent three months getting stronger. Then you added [...]
Traditional Thai training produces world champions. But here's what the research says it's doing to your body — and why most Muay Thai practitioners over 30 are losing strength and power while still thinking they're training hard. I've trained [...]
Most fighters over 30 make the same backwards mistake with powertraining when time gets tight—they default to more cardio, thinking it's "safer" or more functional. The research says they're completely wrong. Here's what I discovered when I got stronger [...]
Why Your Cardio Focus Is Destroying Your Power After 30 Here's something that'll completely change how you think about Muay Thai training over 30: 67-year-old endurance athletes have identical cardiovascular capacity to moderately active 26-year-olds. Same heart performance. 41-year age gap. [...]
Most fighters believe their peak fighting age in Muay Thai ends by 30. It's one of the most limiting beliefs in combat sports—and it's completely wrong. Research reveals that a 70-year-old master athlete just leg pressed 185 kilograms while a 22-year-old [...]
You're putting in the work. Hours in the gym, following programs, sweating through sessions. But when you step into the ring, something's missing. Your conditioning isn't where it should be. Your power feels... limited. Here's the brutal truth: 90% of [...]
After 30+ years in Muay Thai, I've made every training mistake in the book. And I mean every. single. one. But here's what I've discovered: most fighters get trapped in predictable patterns without even realizing it. In this episode, I [...]
What if everything you've been told about starting Muay Thai "too late" is completely wrong? I get messages like this almost daily: "Don, I'm 38 and want to start Muay Thai, but everyone says I'm too old..." "I'm 42 [...]
I've always been prone to overzealous "Muppetry". My wife Deborah has an instinctive eye-roll response every time I display this habit. Although I've tempered this behaviour over time, it's still part of me. Case in point: When I first [...]
It’s funny how little things in life can point to bigger lessons. Like, take my body temperature for instance... My DNA has a quirk. I’ve always run about one degree Celsius below normal. It’s always been that way, just [...]
The comments on our last video about Golden Era Muay Thai training were incredible. Thanks for joining in. You raised some fascinating points that deserve a deeper discussion. This isn't a redo of that video - instead, I want [...]
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