Thomas Ho is an ex-Muay Thai boxer and gym owner in Hong Kong, China. In this interview he talks about his boxing days, discovering functional training and his new business.
What made you decide to leave a stable fitness career in Hong Kong and move to Thailand to train as a professional fighter?
I had tried numerous types of sports during my studies in the UK but Muay Thai was the one that caught my attention the most. I love the challenges and intensity that Muay Thai gives me, as well as the psychological training. Of course, let’s not forget the excitement of hand-to-hand combat. I believed that traveling to Thailand and devoting myself to the art of was the only way I could learn real Muay Thai.
Tell us about functional training and how it helped you with your boxing.
First of all, boxing itself is a functional training. By focusing on functional training, in particularly Thai boxing movements, I found that I became stronger very efficiently. It is totally different compared to doing your traditional bench presses or bicep curls.
Do you have any advice for aspiring fighters?
Working with functional training greatly increases your mobility and agility – two powerful skills to have as a fighter. It helps you balance both sides of your body and keep you from harm’s way.
Give us three tips for a healthy lifestyle.
The most basic 3 ways in maintaining a healthy life are:
1. Sleep well
2. Train regularly
3. Follow the right diet
Would you ever go back to Thailand and train again as a Muay Thai boxer?
It’s been 10 years since I went to Thailand. Now that I have a family, my first responsibility is to be a loving husband and father. I remember the last time I trained in Thailand was with the legend Jomhod Kiatadisak. He inspires me a lot; being 44 years old at the time and still fighting at the Lumpinee Stadium.
Who are you teaching clients in your current business, Sane Fitness?
Here in Sane Fitness, we mainly work with functional training, suspension training, and deep-tissue therapy. We help train the body for the activities performed in our daily life. It helps increase joint mobility, stability and motor patterns.
We also do suspension training. Suspension training is a type of rope system called “AirFit Pro”. It allows the user to train against their own weight; through attachment to a cable system or dragging objects. A great benefit of using AirFit Pro suspension training is that it makes your workout more joint-friendly. Our other machine, the Cyclone 52 pulley, allows you to train one limb at a time. This helps develop core body strength, joint and muscular stability in a safe manner.
For deep-tissue therapy, we use something called ‘Rumble Roller’ and ‘Beastie Ball’ to help target one specific part of your body that has knots or muscle strains. It’s like acupuncture but without the needles and you can do it at home.
What’s the difference between functional and traditional training?
Research done in 2009 compared the differences between functional and traditional training. The results were that functional training increased the strength of the users by 58% and decreased joint pains by 30%. Muay Thai is a form of classic functional training.
Functional training uses the body’s natural six degrees of freedom while machines restrict the user to a single plane of motion – which is unnatural, leading to the possibility of faulty movement that could potentially cause injuries.
Read more about Thomas Ho and Sane Fitness at Spa Monkeys.
