There’s an intricate relationship between managing life stress and training stress. In this episode, gain invaluable insights into how stress impacts your performance, both inside and outside the gym, from the unique perspective of a seasoned Muay Thai, and strength and conditioning coach. Join me as I decode the correlation between General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) [...]
Tawanchai has been putting in the work for his first defence of the ONE Championship Featherweight Muay Thai World title. And he's shared a glimpse of his strength and conditioning prep on Instagram. In the clip, we see him working through a series of exercises... Battling Ropes Band Resisted High Knees Band Resisted Agility [...]
Solo fight skill technical practice can fast-track your fight ability if it's done well. In this episode, avoid these fight skill pitfalls or risk sabotaging your technical practice and undoing all your hard work! Fight Skills – Solo Session Considerations Further Resources Fight Skills [...]
Fighters instinctively feel that hill sprints boost their fight performance. And mixing these High Resistance Intervals amongst your “roadwork” develops your endurance in a way steady state running can’t. But, not everyone has access to a decent hill. What’s the minimum hill gradient required? And what alternatives to hill sprints are there if you [...]
One thing’s for sure, delayed onset muscle soreness is part of a fighter’s training – especially when you head out to Thailand to train! But… Is delayed onset muscle soreness the sign of a good training session? How can you avoid being too sore? Should you train if you’re really sore? How can you [...]
Bryan Popejoy has found himself at the forefront of American Muay Thai since the 1980's, literally involved from Illinois in the East, through Arizona, to California in the West. His experience both as a Muay Thai fighter himself (in the early "Wild West" period of American Muay Thai), and as [...]
A lot of fighters are using heart rate monitors these days, to allow them to train at the right intensity fin their cardio sessions. And I love using monitors in my programs too... Join the most informed Muay Thai performance community out there! Subscribe Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/donheatrick [...]
Driven from a question left on one of my previous Q&A videos, here I expand on my reply and explain what I mean when I say a "Low Intensity Muay Thai Session"... Join the most informed Muay Thai performance community out there! Subscribe Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/donheatrick Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/heatrick-heavy-hitters-muay-thai-performance/id1381118000 [...]
From Buakaw to Petchmorakot... is it real? Combat sports athletes are constantly bombarded with video clips of fighters using training methods or supplements that are seemingly a shortcut to fantastic results. Most of the time, these clips are little more than social media stunts, either to market a product or [...]
Another nice balance of questions between movement skill, resistance (strength, power, speed) training, and energy systems cardio (endurance) conditioning in this Q&A episode. In this second episode of the Q&A I'm asked... Hi, Don. What do u think of the Ido Portal method of [...]
With the increasing volume of questions to fit into the 30 minute segment, apologies if I didn't manage to squeeze in your question in this episode! In this episode of the Q&A I'm asked... How often should you schedule training sessions that really push [...]
I said, "Ask me anything." Well I asked for it! While getting to grips with the Instagram Live format, in this first episode of the Q&A I'm asked... 1. Why don't you buy a toupee? 2. Does masturbation or sex before a fight negatively affect performance? 3. [...]
Despite what you may think, there’s a lot of technique involved in running economically. Just because you can run, doesn’t mean that you’re running efficiently… I know for a fact that a lot of you guys are making this same mistake I have… because your running cadence, or steps per minute [...]
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... [...]
There are many myths and misunderstandings when it comes to fighters using heart rate monitors in their training... And despite many Instagram posts showing fighters wearing heart rate straps during training, many aren’t using this tool effectively at all. So I’m going to debunk these myths, and explain how to use heart rate [...]
by Don Heatrick @donheatrick Fighter training intensity is something to respect and use appropriately. It's easy to be misled by the majority of training montages and highlight videos shared around of pro fighters. It's important to realise that these snapshots are not what all of their training looks like. If it was, they'd be [...]
This week, three Muay Thai strength and conditioning questions answered! Standing or sitting between rounds? Weightlifting belts (for fighters), yay or nay? MAS cardio sessions? Plus a bonus game changer to help focus your efforts! Is sitting between rounds best for recovery, or is it better to remain standing instead? How about fighters using [...]
How do you test for maximum heart rate? This question came up in response to my review of the sports science methodologies being used at Petchyindee Muay Thai in Bangkok... Keeping it short and sweet, here's my favourite approach to testing for maximum heart rate (so you know what percentage of maximum you're really [...]
Prevent gassing out? Why exactly do fighters gas out? Before you can understand this, and how to train to prevent it, you must be familiar with the key tipping point in your central energy supply... your anaerobic threshold. Once you know what you don't want, you can make sure your training gives you want [...]
Don’s Winning Fighter's Principle Quick Coach’s Chat EP. 03 Featuring Manachai and Yodchai filmed at the Yokkao Training Centre in Bangkok. Head over to my YouTube channel and subscribe to get all the latest videos as soon as it goes live every Saturday. Don's Winning Fighter's Principle Video Transcript: I'd like to share with [...]
