One of the things Caellum and I were most looking forward to in Thailand was taking some Muay Thai classes.

Muay Thai (Thai: มวยไทย, rtgs: Muai Thai, [mūaj.tʰāj] ( listen)) is a combat sport of Thailand that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques.

My friend Jim and his partner Wendy were in Chiang Mai about 2 years ago, and he couldn’t stop talking about how wonderful the experience was at the Sit Thaharnaek Muay Thai Gym and how great the head instructor Kru Hua was. Mr Hua was a professional fighter in Thailand, with over 500 fights under his belt. His 10 year old son is now quickly becoming an elite fighter, with 50 fights already under his belt.

I’m not much for the grappling martial arts, I honestly just like punching and kicking things.

Jim reminded me a few days ago when we arrived in Chiang Mai to get to the gym, and we did just that. The class started at 9AM and we were there ready to go. The first half hour of the class was warm-up, which was mostly skipping, stretching, push-ups and sit-ups. Caellum may not have liked this part as much as I did.

One of the most important parts of the body in Muay Thai is the hips, as striking with the knees and shins is quite important. I quickly realized my arthritic hips were in for a mobility challenge. The knees I didn’t mind using, but swinging my legs above my waste was comical, painful and humbling.

“Hips don’t lie” – Shakira

Caellum did not have this problem.

We spent a lot of time working on striking technique with the hands, elbows, feet and knees. I love how much of a workout it is, and how much fun it is to hit things.

It was amazing to see Caellum come out of his shell a bit once he became comfortable with what he was doing. I’d love to see him get into some type of martial art in the future, and hopefully I can still participate.

Below is a video of some striking Caellum did with Kra Hua. We did three 4 minute rounds of this.

We’re going to try and come back to the gym a couple of more times before we leave Chiang Mai on Monday.

Maybe we’ll even get Theresa to join the class. 🙂