Comprehensive RAMP Warm Up for Muay Thai Training
The traditional Muay Thai warm-up that many fighters comfortably default to leaves a lot of stones unturned when it comes to getting the most out of your Muay Thai training. Here is a 3-phase comprehensive Muay Thai warm-up to ensure you’re performing at your best each session.
You walk into the gym. Perform 2-3 of your favorite stretches. Skip rope for couple of minutes with the heavy thai ropes. You shadow box a few rounds then jump straight into class.
Does this sound like you?
The traditional Muay Thai warm-up that many fighters comfortably default to leaves a lot of stones unturned when it comes to getting the most out of your Muay Thai training.
Primo Fightwear, Fight by Science and I have teamed up again to bring you the training solution - a comprehensive 3-phase Muay Thai warm-up based on the RAMP protocol commonly used in strength & conditioning circles.
Our objective was to create a time-efficient, streamlined warm-up that prepares fighters for the training demands of Muay Thai training, drilling and sparring.
This is video shows snippets of each exercises, in each warm-up phase. For details on warm-up duration, read further.
The RAMP Protocol
The RAMP protocol is a principle-based warm-up method to prepare athletes for any training sessions. The acronyms are as follows:
(R)AISE BODY TEMPERATURE
(A)CTIVATE MUSCLES
(M)OBILIZE JOINTS
(P)OTENTIATE TO REACH INTENSITIES SEEN IN THE TRAINING PROGRAM
While there is a lack of data showing that warm-ups reduce the risk of injury, many coaches and athletes understand that by gradually increasing exercise/training intensity, we give our body and mind time to acclimate to the training environment. Anecdotally, fighters perform better mentally and physically following a comprehensive warm-up.
For this Muay Thai warm-up, we’ve separated it into 3 different phases.
Phase 1 - raise temperature & mobilise
The main objective of Phase 1 is to raise the core body temperature and simultaneously mobilise the joints. Exercises and movements in phase 1 are considered lower intensity. We’ve selected exercises in the order of head-to-toe - first warming up the neck as well as eyes, moving on to the shoulders, hips and lower legs.
Phase 2 - Activation
Phase 2 involves exercises that stimluate the muscles involved in striking, clinching and stabilisation. Single leg stabilisation is paramount to kick and kneeing performance in Muay Thai, this is addressed by one of our favorite exercises, the single leg kick outs into hip airplane. The cork screw push ups and mountain climbers develops many of the same shoulder and core muscles used in clinch training.
Phase 3 - Potentiation
Potentiation refers to the excitatory response of the neuromuscular systems following a high-intensity training stimulus. By “waking up” the nervous system prior to training, athletes are expected to show a higher degree of power and reactivity in their padwork, drilling and sparring. In our warm-up, this is addressed by the use of plyometric exercises - progressing from plyo pogo jumps in various stances to a plyo pogo flying knee exercise.
warm-up duration and exercise selection
This RAMP protocol slowly introduces exercise intensity and is a streamlined way to ensure you’re performing at your best within any given training session. Depending on your familiarity with the exercises, each phase should take anywhere from 4-6 minutes to perform. For Phase 1, perform exercises for 20-30 seconds per variation. For Phase 2, perform anywhere from 8-15 repetitions, and lastly for Phase 3, perform 1 set of plyometric pogo jumps in each direction. Aim to finish this RAMP protocol warm-up routine in 15 minutes.
This RAMP Muay Thai warm-up is a blueprint, its open to adjustments and different exercise selection, feel free to add in some of your mobility, core or plyometric exercises - just follow the principles of the RAMP protocol.
Perform this warm-up consisently throughout the training week and you’ll see improvements in your physical and mental readiness during your Muay Thai Kickboxing pad work, drills and sparring.
FREE EBOOK CHAPTER DOWNLOAD
Want to learn more about exercise selection for combat sports?
Chapter 7 of my Strength & Conditioning for combat sports eBook, “The Sport-Specific Trap - Revisiting Dynamic Correspondence for Combat Sports” talks about key concepts to consider when selecting exercises to enhance combat sports performance and some common mistakes coaches make.
Plyometric Development for Muay Thai & Kickboxing
Plyometric movements involve a pre-stretch of the muscle-tendon unit in order to create a higher rate of force development. It is crucial to develop this ability in the sport of Muay Thai and Kickboxing as many blocking, kicking and kneeing techniques are plyometric in nature.
This article to brought to you by
Geoffrey Chiu
GC Performance Training Owner & Coach
Ricardo Alvarez
Lumpinee/Rajadamnern Stadium Muay Thai Fighter
Primo FightWear
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Plyometric movements involve a pre-stretch of the muscle-tendon unit in order to create a higher rate of force development. It is crucial to develop this ability in the sport of Muay Thai and Kickboxing as many blocking, kicking and kneeing techniques are plyometric in nature.
In this article, we will use continuous plyometric kicks, that we see often in Muay Thai training, as the prime example of plyometrics in action, as well as offer several plyometric progressions you can incoporate into your strength & conditioning program to develop your speed and reactive strength on the mats and in the ring.
This article and the exercise progressions provided solely focus on developing the physical attributes required for high-level continuous kicking, blocking and more advanced, reactive-combinations.
However, it is important to keep in mind that the number one and most important step to fast and powerful kicking is technique.
Stepping in with the pivoting foot,
Whipping your leg and turning your hips
Swinging the same side arm to project the kicking leg for counter-balance.
If you've ever worked with a high-level Muay Thai or striking coach, you will have heard that "power and speed comes from balance". Balance is key.
From a physical performance lens, continuous kicking is a highly plyometric ability, and there are further improvements we can drive through S&C training outside of technical practice. The key is developing tendon stiffness in the lower leg as well as the contraction-relaxation speed of the hip flexors.
Increased tendon stiffness is an adaptation that comes from progressive plyometric training, benefiting many striking athletes as they will be able to possess faster ground contact times (faster kicks, faster blocks), increase their rate of force development, and maintain their “spring in their step” for a longer duration within a given fight.
exercise progressions
Plyometric Progression Series #1 - Plyometric Pogo Jumps performed in Bilateral Stance, Fight Stance and Switching Stances. While considered an extensive variation in the world of S&C, these are higher amplitude relative to the jumping intensity most Muay Thai athletes get from skipping rope and an ability I find that many fighters lack in Muay Thai.
Plyometric Progression Series #2 - Continuous blocks to pair a plyometric action of the lower leg with the flexion of the hips. A rudimentary stage to building the rhythm and coordination needed for continuous kicks.
Plyometric Progression Series # 3 - Alternating kicks and blocks, the last step of the progression before chaining your kicks together. The use of the block acts as a buffer to allow you to regain the rhythm and ground contact time to execute your kicks. If you're an experienced Muay Thai fighter/kickboxer with little experience in plyometric training. We recommend investing time into the extensive variations seen in Series #1 and #2 for several weeks before moving onto the last progression.
Programming Recommendations
Plyometrics, like most high neuromuscular-demand modalities of training, are best performed at beginning of the training session, after an comprehensive warm-up. To reap the biggest benefits of plyometric training, fighters should be performing these fresh and non-fatigued. For more explanations, read this article on exercise order to learn how to optimise your training sequencing.
If you’re an experienced fighter by have limited experience in plyometric training or dedicated S&C training in general, it is recommended you start by limiting your jump height and perform a higher number of repetitions.
Plyometric Pogo Jumps (Bilateral Stance, Fight Stance, Switching Stances)
Weekly Frequency: 2-3x a week
Sets x Reps: 3-4 Total Sets x 16-20 repetitions per training session
A rule of thumb on jump height for these plyometric pogo jump variations - higher than your skip rope jump height, but lower than your max effort jump. Focus on quick ground contact times and let your feet and ankles do most of the work.
Plyometric Continuous Blocks
Weekly Frequency: 2-3x a week and/or can be incorporated into Muay Thai Training
Sets x Reps: 2-3 sets each leg x 16-20 repetitions per training session
Alternating Kicks & Blocks
Weekly Frequency: Incoporated into Muay Thai training
Sets x Reps: 2-3 sets each stance x 10 repetitions or done in clusters of 3-5 repetitions
FREE EBOOK CHAPTER DOWNLOAD
Want to learn more about exercise selection for combat sports?
Chapter 7 of my Strength & Conditioning for combat sports eBook, “The Sport-Specific Trap - Revisiting Dynamic Correspondence for Combat Sports” talks about key concepts to consider when selecting exercises to enhance combat sports performance and some common mistakes coaches make.