Last year, The Guardian published an article comparing Capoeira and Kick Boxing as part of their The Sport Trial series.  The article looked at the two martial arts with regards to strength and cardiovascular fitness, stress-busting, avoiding injury, brain-boosting, and flexibility.  Ranking each art in each category out of 5 points, Capoeira almost tied kick boxing 22 - 23.

While it was interesting to see the two martial arts compared, having trained Capoeira since 2003 and Muay Thai since 2008, I personally feel some of their ratings and logic behind their comparisons are off.  Looking at these same categories, this is how I would break it down:

Strength and Cardiovascular Fitness - At a beginner level, the average Muay Thai class is far more physically intense than the average Capoeira class.  Because the basic move set is fairly straight forward (4 different types of punches, 2 types of kicks, 1 elbow, and 1 knee), it is much easier for a Muay Thai or kick boxing beginner to get going at a high physical level than it is a beginning Capoeirista.  While the physical intensity of classes rapidly increases as one become more adept at Capoeira, it follows a similar trend in Muay Thai.  Finally, Muay Thai is a very strength-based fighting style whereas Capoeira leans more towards finesse and agility.  While both martial arts are physically demanding, Muay Thai takes the category.

Stress-Busting - Not to sound wishy-washy, but whether Capoeira busts more stress than Muay Thai is very dependent on how an individual chooses to relieve his or her stress.  If the person likes to physically punch and kick it out, Muay Thai is the obvious favorite.  If the person likes to sing and move and dance and flip, Capoeira is the obvious favorite.  If the person likes to perform sequential strength and flexibility exercises while controlling their breathe and meditating, yoga trounces everything.  Therefore, this one is a tie.

Avoiding Injury - To quote Fight Club, "On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero."  Considering that I've been training Capoeira much longer than I have Muay Thai, it makes sense that the following list of injuries is skewed.  In Capoeira, I've received a bone bruise on my hip, fractured my wrist, sprained my ankle, had my head bounced off of the floor like a stray basketball, been kicked in the jaw, face, eye, ear, and ribs repeatedly and have constantly had a rotating achey body part (currently my elbow).  In Muay Thai, I've been punched in the face and have dinged my shin.  Looking at the two arts outside of my personal experience, due to the incredible myriad of ways we force our bodies to contort in Capoeira (coupled with the occasional out-of-control limb of a training partner) compared to the squared-off standing style of Muay Thai (which can be coupled with forgetting to block you training partner's punches), Muay Thai is the "safer" of the sports.

Brain-Boosting - Both Capoeira and Muay Thai develop excellent proprioception and kinesthetic awareness or, in simpler terms, coordination.  Where Capoeira goes completely above and beyond is that a Capoeirista sings, plays a multitude of different musical instruments while singing, and, if they don't speak it already, learns Portuguese.   While Muay Thai is good for your mind, Capoeira is phenomenal.

Flexibility - The alternate side of the avoiding injury coin comes into play with flexibility.  One of the first combinations new Capoeiristas learn is Armada -> Esquiva Baixa -> Negativa -> Role.  This can alternatively viewed as a twisting high kick -> a deep lunge -> stretching one leg forward in a low crouch while balancing on your toes -> a spinning wide squat with your head at your ankles.   I can't even begin to translate what a sdobrado would by in layman's terms.  Without even the slightest bit of pause, Capoeira takes the flexibility category.

Tallying up the results of these comparisons, similar to the Guardian's article, it's a tie.  Is Capoeira superior to Muay Thai or vice-versa?  With regards to these categories, that is dependent completely on the individual practitioner.

Kick Boxing vs Capoeira


Vassoura originally started out writing a short news post about the Guardian article.  It rapidly snowballed into the feature you've just read.  He is a huge fan of both martial arts and, much to his frustration, has been on the injured list for eons due to a bum elbow.  Vassoura expects to return to training both Capoeira and Muay Thai shortly, at which point he will probably injure something else.