I want to start taking muay thai classes however, i am weary to go full throttle because i do not want to lose my muscle and strength gains. I have limited time to train throughout the week so every day i dedicate to striking is a day i cannot commit to weights.
Treat each MT day as if it were a lifting day, and eat accordingly. You will be expending calories similar to if you were lifting (possibly more depending on the pace of the class), so you have to replenish them. You take a protein shake with you to chug as youāre leaving the gym? Do the same for MT class. As long as you keep your calories and macros close to your āpre-muay thaiā maintenance level, you shouldnāt have too much issue maintaining (this may take some adjustments to make it work). As far as maintaining strength levels, this is more about recovery (in my opinion). Make sure you are still sleeping, stretching, etc. You may see a slight dip, but if calories stay in the right area you should be fine.
You may lose a bit of strength due to technique degradation but you shouldnāt lose much if you eat accordingly.
I personally lost no size off my legs when MT training even after coming off squatting 3x a week. The explosive leg kicks on the heavy bag I feel were enough to maintain them.
My chest also lost no size or strength due to the high number of Push-ups we were doing everynight.
My back lost a bit of rowing strength but no huge amount of mass either. The Muay Thai Clinch and Pullups make the lats work a lot.
Losing a small amount of size or strength should never be a real fear if you are martial arts training. You are learning an important skill and anything lost can easily be brought up by muscle memory.
I didnāt heavy barbell squat for over 8 months and I bought my strength right back up with a month of 20rep squats.
What is your planned resistance training / Muay Thai split?
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I think the more important question is how you can learn Muay Thai while weight lifting. In my experience, if you are learning a new skill, you should do so while your muscles are fresh. If I could go back to my teenage white belt self, I would tell that kid to have a split like this:
Day One: Muay Thai
Day Two: weight lifting
Day Three: off
Day Four: MT
Day Five: WL
Day Six: off
Say seven: off
I realize thatās not as demanding as some, but I also had the debate team to worry about.
What worked good for me when I used to train was strength and conditioning in the mornings, skill training at night - granted I had a schedule that allowed that.