Hi Im 21 and got a little bit of muscle and a little bit of fat and do MUAY THAI on rare occasion (to learn how to fight and 2 to get built); I ask my instructors if there are any exercises I can do outside of class to get better and they shrug it off or say hit the heavy bag for 30 minutes.
Anyway I was wondering what martial art would get me built the quickest or just built in general? And is the instructor advice sound
A lot of martial artists have desirable physiques because they recognise the importance of the strength and conditioning work that goes hand in hand with martial arts so they train that simultaneously.
I have seen guys who have trained various martial arts for years and look like a potato because they only do the martial arts training and not the S+C. Which is fine as their goal is just to learn to fight but your suggesting you want both so you have to train as such.
Some will do yes. By that I mean the high level guys who's making a career from it. There's loads of information out there on youtube around the subject though which lower level guys likely rely on since they are less likely to be able to afford or to need a separate coach.
Maybe something like performance wushu? You have to build strength like a dancer or gymnast but I don't know if that's the aesthetics you're going for.
search up "strength training for mma", "gym routines and workouts for martial arts", etc. these should include both the main exercises for stimulating hypertrophy and accessories for martial art-specific training
Here is a whole playlist where one of the most accomplished strength coaches in the game (earned a pro strongman card, set one of the highest powerlifting totals ever, has coached high-level lifters and athletes of all sorts) talks about organizing lifting and BJJ. The ideas will apply for any martial art.
Think about what muscle groups you use when fighting. Train those muscles and the muscles that support them. Also remember that depending on the event some fighters will have cut a lot of weight to fight so they're not necessarily weighing in at their walking around weight.
If you are like most people, you don't want to look like a body builder, but rather to look lean and athletic.
That means having a reasonable - but normal - amount of muscle, together with being really lean - low body fat.
You achieve a pretty good amount of muscle by any calisthenic or explosive exercise (as hitting the bag, of course). The key is intensity and training to failure (it matters nothing if you need 30 reps with your body weight to get that). You get low body fat by looking at your diet and eating less or near your metabolic maintenance rate (the amount of calories you need daily to exist).
No martial art or exercise will make you lean. Only diet. Abs are made in the kitchen, goes the saying, and it's spot on. Hit the bag until your muscles are spent and you can't lift your arms, your muscles will grow.
So work out with intensity. Eat less for a while and then stable at your MMR. That's it. As a note: you will be hungry especially the first couple weeks.
Honestly Muay Thai isn’t gonna build that much visible muscle at all, if you want to get bigger just lift weights as much or more than you train Muay thai
We have this backwards where we expect to get fit doing martial arts, while in reality martial arts at least back then expected you to be fit beforehand, and you just go there to learn techniques and tactics.
Bodybuilding is a sport where the goal is to build muscle, and powerlifting is a sport where the goal is to lift as much weight as possible in specific movements. Muay Thai is a sport in which the goal is to defeat your opponent within the Muay Thai ruleset.
Physical fitness and strength are helpful in fighting and martial arts and many martial arts will get you in better physical condition by necessity. Many martial arts coaches will encourage you to crosstrain with strength and cardio work, especially if you're planning to compete. That, however, is the extent of the overlap. The goal of muay thai, or any martial art, is not specifically to put on muscle, just like the goal of weightlifting isn't to learn how to win a muay thai fight.
If you want to become a better muay thai fighter, train muay thai. If you want to get more muscular, hit the weights and the protein
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u/Ldiablohhhh 2d ago
You get built by doing strength work not martial arts. Training to learn to fight and training to 'get built' are achieved in different ways.