I fell in love with the art of Muay Thai 20 years ago. The way I was able to find the art was as
violently effective as the sport itself.
As a young, lost soul with very little direction and aspirations in my
life, I found myself in a street scrap that left me with a broken nose,
fractured eye socket and a crushed ego.
Till this day I am grateful to have the ability to talk about the
experience since I could have easily lost my life. With a new appreciation for breathing I set
out on a path to make sure I never came close to that kind of situation ever
again!
I found Muay Thai in a Navy Seal hand-to-hand combat course on a
full page ad in black belt magazine. I
scraped together some money, ordered the VHS box set and had it sent to my
mom’s house, which is how my Muay Thai journey began over 20 years ago!
Through this entire journey what has kept me able to train and
coach well after retiring from competition in 2011 has been my
mobility/flexibility training. This type
of work is sometimes overlooked for various reasons. For one, it may not be as exciting as landing
a tricky round kick in sparring or making the heavy bag scream for mercy,
however it is indeed necessary. Throughout
my career I diligently kept my recovery/stretching an important part of my
fight camps. Though I have dealt with
some injuries and ailments my rehabilitation process was just as meticulous as
my fight training. The adage “Train
hard, fight easy” sounds glorious and triumphant. In my opinion “Train Smart” is a more
desirable way to think. I want to be
able to train Muay Thai for a very long time and while ring fighting brought me
lots of memories and accolades, I will always consider myself a “Muay Thai
Lifer”. I want to be known as a leader
in the sport in one way or another and to accomplish that, it must be done by
setting an example for our community.
One thing I learned that has always resonated with me is
the concept “don’t train for a fight, train to fight”…on a daily basis that is.
I train my body in a variety of ways: skill training, strength
& conditioning, and recovery. This
helps keep training exciting and prevents overuse injuries (IE: Baseball
pitchers and shoulder issues) by keeping your body sharp in all ways.
One way I do this, and it will be beneficial for any Muay Thai
practitioner is practical lower body mobility/strengthening exercises. I developed what I call the “CROMwalk”. It’s a combination of a lunge and a cossack
squat performed while moving forward or in a stationary position. Both these movements will enhance flexibility
and strength in your hip flexors, hamstrings, quads, glutes and calves. This is especially important for Muay Thai
since these are most of your “kicking muscles”.
Perform the “CROMwalk” in a “pressure for time” manner to gain a
cardiovascular benefit as well. Balance
all of your training between skill work, strength & conditioning, and
recovery to make sure your Muay Thai journey lasts a lifetime.
#trainbecauseyourlifedependsonit
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2injVj4idI
Chris Romulo is a retired Muay Thai champion, Muay Thai & Strength & Conditioning Coach, owner of CROM Physical Culture and Creator of SHREDbyCROM™. After a total of 32 years of trial and error through fitness, conditioning, martial arts, sports, and “play” Chris has taken what works, sculpted away what doesn’t and painted a different way to engage in Physical Culture.
Visit www.crompc.com for more info
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