Training
Do I have to train twice a day?
Updated 2026-09-01
The short answer
No. The two-session day is what the camp offers, not what you owe them, and nobody checks. Most people who arrive untrained do better on one full session a day for the first week, then add the second when their shins and hips have caught up.
From the records
Of the 44 camps we list, 28 publish how many sessions they run in a day, and at 25 of those 28 the answer is two a day. The two-session day is the Thai default rather than a demand, and 16 camps publish no timetable at all.
What camps publishThe people who train both sessions from day one are usually either already conditioned or about to be injured. Fitness from running or lifting does not transfer to absorbing kicks and holding a guard for two hours.
The specific things that break first are shins, the tops of feet, hip flexors and the skin on your knuckles and insteps. None of them are helped by another session that afternoon.
A reasonable first week is one session daily, a full rest day around day four, then the second session added when the first one stops leaving you wrecked.
Worth knowing
Trainers will not tell you to stop. It is not their culture to, and they assume an adult knows their own body. Taking a session off is entirely normal.
Still deciding where to go?
Six questions, and we will tell you which camps fit and which facts about them we have not confirmed.
Vocabulary
The words on this page
Roadwork
The run before the morning session, usually a few kilometres and usually early enough to beat the heat. Thai fighters treat it as non-negotiable; camps rarely force visitors to do it.
Gym language
Training
Asked alongside this one
What does a day at a Thai camp actually look like?
Two sessions, morning and late afternoon, with the middle of the day left alone because of the heat. Each session runs roughly two hours: warm-up and skipping, shadow boxing, pad rounds with a trainer, bag work, then clinching or sparring, and conditioning at the end.
Do Thai trainers speak English?
At foreigner-facing camps, enough for training: technique is taught by demonstration and correction, and the vocabulary you need is small. Conversational English varies enormously between camps, and at local Thai camps you should expect very little.
Will I have to spar?
Sparring is optional at effectively every camp that takes visitors, and stepping out is normal. Thai sparring is traditionally light and technical rather than a fight, though how well that holds depends on the camp and on who else is training that week.