cfr

Let me first start off with my usual disclaimer that I dont train at a full blown MT gym. I dont want to step on any toes here.

I went and watched an MT class the other night. I havent made any decisions yet, but Ive got to say it will be really hard to return to my regular school after watching those guys. Ive been on the fence between MT and my school for along time. Watching an MT class was truely eye opening. Anyways, something that I noticed was that they didnt hit and heavy bags/ focus mitts/ thai pads until they had probably been working out for about 20 minutes. First jump rope, then footwork, then shadow box, some pushups and sit ups in between. THEN they went to work on the heavy bags and focus mitts. It got me thinking. Im always feeling like Im straining my shoulder and elbow(on the inside) joints. They hurt fairly consistantly. They arent permanently injured by any means. But it definately hinders my training. Watching these guys though made me think that perhaps lots of my pain is because we dont warm up that much @ my school before hitting resistance. 3 min jump rope, then some stretching, then focus mitts/ thai pads. The only sort of warm up my upper body gets before hitting these is 20 pushups. To top it all off Im a computer geek for a living so I dont exactly move around alot during the day. Could all tihs be the cause of my pains?

Thai Bri

Yes. Failure to warm up thoroughly dramatically increases your chances of injury in a workout.