admin
May 12, 2024

Eminent air gym was founded in 1997 by Somboon Niruttimetee, a famous promoter known as Tanai Toey “lawyer Toey” from Lumpini boxing stadium. The name comes from a well known brand of air conditioners in Thailand who sponsors the gym. It has a history of producing champions and is located in the Bang Chak district of Bangkok, not too far from the Punnawithi BTS station. In my last week of being in Thailand, I decided to try out the gym for a couple days due to its proximity to a BTS stop and its reputation for being an authentic muay thai gym. I stayed at a hotel (VST Punnawithi) which was around a 10 minute walk from the gym. I enjoyed the area, there were a lot of street food options and accommodations nearby. I did a week of morning sessions which started at 7:30 am, each session costed 500 baht, which aligns with what gyms in Bangkok usually charge per session. There were only 1-2 other people (foreigners) training there, so the sessions were small and quiet. Typically I would get a short run in beforehand to get my mind and body moving. The route was a simple loop in the gyms neighborhood. There was a temple and school nearby which was cool to see, but running in that area long term may not be the best for health – Lots of motorbikes and cars whizzing by in combination with the stuffy Bangkok climate doesn’t lend itself to the best air quality 😅. But that comes with training in Bangkok city in general, not specific to this gym. Typically after the run it was some jump rope and shadowboxing to warm up. Afterwards it was 4-5 rounds of bag work (freestyle) and then 4-5 rounds of padwork. I got to work with trainer/fighter Satanfaa aka ‘Jack Sparrow’ who was fun to work with. The first 3-4 rounds we would work with thai pads focusing on all strikes and the last 1-2 rounds were with the focus mitts concentrating on punches and elbows. The padwork was pretty intense, nothing fancy in terms of combinations but lots of repetition of single strikes. After that sometimes we would do some technical sparring. To end the session I would do some conditioning - pushups/situps/weights etc. Pros -Cool, friendly trainers -Nice environment -Solid location, lots of food options and accommodations nearby and close to BTS stop Cons -Did not get much sparring/clinching in the morning sessions (afternoons may be different) -Not many thai fighters to train with