Sylvie's 10 Minute Block Burnout #1 (Patreon)

Helping Those Short On Time Improve and Thrive

Welcome to my second burnout, a new part of my Patreon that aims to offer a Fitness and Workout element to complement the technique focus of the Muay Thai Library documentary material. It’s still technique, but instead of focusing on the details of perfect execution the idea is to use the Burnout to practice these techniques with high repetition and under fatigue and mild duress. When I first decided to fight in Muay Thai - a decision I didn’t start with when I first began learning the art - it was because I realized that if I couldn’t do a technique under pressure, I didn’t really know or have that technique. So these Burnouts are a way to create pressure due to the physical fatigue, while training your body to find ways to breathe, relax, and concentrate on micro-corrections of the technique without over-thinking it. What I love about the Burnouts is that they can be used as a short-form, time-saving workout in and of themselves (I sweat like mad and absolutely feel the burn in these 10 minutes and I’m in solid shape), or they can be added to an existing workout routine as a conditioning element. But in either case it’s using technique as the shredder, so to speak, instead of supplementing or separating technique from the conditioning elements of training. It’s when you’re fatigued that your technique is more important and most useful, but also least accessible due to mental stress. So this trains all of that at once.

The 10 Minute Block Burnout #2

• 1:00 Sagat Sit-Ups
• 2:00 Marching Speed Blocks (Kru Daeng/Singdam)
• 1:00 Sagat Sit-Ups
• 2:00 Marching Speed Blocks
• 1:00 Hindu Squats
• 1:00 L Block, R Knee
• 1:00 Hindu Squats
• 1:00 R Block, L Knee

Relaxing the Hips, Strengthening the Legs, Everything is Abs

In this Burnout things to look for are relaxing your hips for the marching knees. You’ll feel the burn in your hips pretty quickly and that’s inevitable, but it’s exacerbated by tension and relieved by relaxing, which also increases the speed of the blocks. The more you try to speed up the blocks, the harder they are; you have to really relax and through that the knees come higher and easier. You also need to focus on keeping your guard high and steady, don’t move your elbows down to meet your knees but rather raise your knees to meet the elbows. Try to remain more or less upright with your torso, but with a slight “C” curve with the hips and shoulders a little bit forward - like scooped out, but not crouching, crunching or hunching. On your front side it’s harder to make sure your hip opens up on the block just due to foot position (the angle of the front foot makes raising the back foot easier), but for both the left and right side you need the hip to open slightly so that the knee is angled out a little bit. This is so that when the kick lands on the block it doesn’t collapse your position - this is what hurts your opponent and maintains your balance.

The Sagat Sit-Ups aren’t complicated, but keeping your legs straight and having a “double exhale” as you double crunch allows you to maximize the impact on your abs. They’re hard. Breathe out all the way on the first sit-up, like a regular sit-up, but then exhale every last little bit of air and pull your bellybutton into your spine on that second one. Pain! 

In the second part of this burnout your hips are spared a bit by alternating the block and the knee. The lean back on the knee allows you to kind of stretch out the hips off of the block in a way that the marching blocks don’t permit, which is why they burn so much. But because you’re doing Hindu Squats in between you’re still going to be feeling it in your thighs. For the block and knee you want to keep focusing on the hip opening on the black and “Grasshopper” openness on the knee/leg - so your shin is either vertical or slightly angled forward, not tucked behind - and stepping down off of the block to allow covering distance for the long knee. Keep your guard up and don’t let your hands drop on the knee. You can reach out to grab the neck if that’s your gig, or you can “Dracula Cape” the elbows as you twist for the knee, but just don’t drop your hands or elbows. Try to control your shoulders on both the block and the knee (especially, because of the lean back) for balance and power.

WATCH: The 10 Minute Block Burnout Video with music 

WATCH: Video of Tips that can help with the basics of techniques involved 

Be sure to warm up and stretch out before this Burnout!

Let me know how the burnout works for you! I'm looking to build a library of these 10 Minute Burnouts for my patrons to make your workouts both fun and progressive.

If you like this Burnout, check out my first Burnout for Elbows - I'd love feedback from anyone using my Burnouts.