Getting the most out of your training with time limitations.

[Thomas V]

Hello fellow forum dwellers,
I am trying to figure out how to make the most progress with a limited amount of time.
Any feedback is welcome.

My situation:

I currently spend about 6 hours per week on Muay thai.
Some weeks this drops to 3-4 hours, but I've been training 6 hours per week quite consistently for about 6 months now.
Most weeks my schedule looks like this:

• Monday or Tuesday: 1 hour on the heavy bag
• Thursday: 2 hours on the heavy bag
• Saturday morning: 1 hour of technical instruction (1v1 trying out different techniques with a trainer correcting us, controlled class environment)
• Sunday: 2 hours on the heavy bag

Warm up before heavy bag session: 5 minutes of skipping & 5 minutes of shadow (no particular focus during shadow)

Equipment available at home: Heavy bag, skipping rope, running shoes

Some limiting factors are:

• I live in Belgium, not Thailand. So I can't just go to a Muay thai gym any time of the day. (Only scheduled classes)
• With winter arriving, outdoor temperatures get to about freezing point every night, so indoor training is preferred.

Goal & alterations to schedule

My overall goal is to become more skilled in muay thai (fitness is a bonus).
I want to improve my ability to fight, although I don't currently plan to participate in any actual fights.

In order to improve, I am trying to free up 30 minutes every morning before work to train as well (on top of the schedule above). Some other changes / improvements I could make at the moment are:

• Replace heavy bag session on thursdays with a sparring class. I haven't attended yet, but trainer says students go at about 50-70% power (shin guards, 16oz gloves, no headgear).
• replace monday/tuesday heavy bag session with private sessions with a trainer

My questions to you

• What does your schedule look like?
• What alterations would you make to my schedule?
• If you could free up half an hour every morning for training, what would you do? (run / skip / shadow box / ...)
• Is it useful to incorporate sparring for casuals/beginners? If so, how often should you do it?

I appreciate all input from both hobbyists and actual fighters.

[Xestaro]

Can only really comment on one thing here: Yes, sparring is useful at at least a certain point I think. It helps to show you where weak points in your technique are that you might not even notice otherwise. Shows you what are things to focus on in your non-sparring training.