A Week Training at a Real Muay Thai Gym in Chiang Mai

I'd trained muay thai on and off at home for a couple of years before landing in Chiang Mai, and none of it prepared me for a full week at a proper gym. Two sessions a day, six days a week — morning running and bag work, evening pads and sparring — with a group of fighters who train like it's their job, because for most of them it is.

The gym I stayed at runs out of a covered outdoor ring with a corrugated roof and a fan that does almost nothing against the afternoon heat. It's not glamorous. It's also the best training environment I've ever been in.

What the week actually looked like

Mornings started at 7am with a 5km run before the heat set in, followed by an hour of bag work and technique drills. Afternoons were free — usually spent eating, stretching, or doing absolutely nothing in the shade. Evening sessions were the real test: forty-five minutes of pad work with a trainer who corrected footwork mid-combination without breaking pace.

By day four my shins had the kind of ache that makes stairs feel philosophical. By day six, something clicked — not fitness exactly, more a change in how I moved. That's the part that's hard to get from a gym at home.