By Eliza Margarita Bates

updated 3:09 p.m. ET Oct. 14, 2008

BANGPLEE, Thailand - As my 30th birthday approached, my fear of becoming a middle-aged woman plagued with mystery ailments, huffing and puffing up flights of stairs, finally started to outweigh my exercise phobia.

So I decided to get in shape while learning Thailand's notorious national sport, Muay Thai, known in English as kickboxing. This was no small commitment: I attended a Muay Thai camp near Bangkok for 10 days, training for five hours a day.

Muay Thai is performed with boxing gloves in Western-style boxing rings, but uses knees, elbows and legs, in addition to fists, as weapons. It is considered the most violent of all martial arts because of the damage an elbow can inflict on an opponent.

I chose my training camp by scouring the Internet and reading online reviews. The two gyms that got the highest ratings from kickboxers around the world were Fairtex, located in the Bangkok suburb of Bangplee, and another gym on the dazzling Thai island Phuket. Both offer one-on-one Muay Thai training.

The Phuket gym looked fun and hip, and, according to some online reviewers, caters to women, but the Web site's advice for students interested in picking up "Thai bargirls" turned me off. So I chose Fairtex.

Fairtex opened its doors to Westerners five years ago and now boasts two gyms in California, one in San Francisco and one in Silicon Valley, in addition to other locations in Thailand and Japan. Foreign students who come to Fairtex temporarily adopt the lifestyle of professional Thai fighters, who live, eat, sleep and train at camp.

A cacophony of grunts, whacks and thumps greeted me when I arrived. Students glistening with sweat duked it out with trainers in four outdoor boxing rings. Turned out I was in for a lot of sweating myself.

My training began at 6:30 a.m. the next morning when I dragged myself out of bed for a half-hour of cardiovascular exercise in the air-conditioned gym.

Before leaving my room, I donned my shiny red kickboxing shorts and flexed my muscles in front of the mirror. But my fantasies of becoming a female Rocky faded fast when I got to the gym and couldn't figure out how to use the treadmill. I frantically poked at the mystery buttons and knobs, trying to will the machine into action. Finally another student came over and turned it on for me.

If you go ... FAIRTEX MUAY THAI CAMP: fairtex.com. Two kickboxing camps in Thailand, three in Japan, two sites in California (San Francisco and Mountain View). Rates at Bangplee:$32 for shared accommodation, $76 for private air-conditioned room. Prices include training and two meals a day. Rates at San Francisco gym: $120 an hour; $1,500 a week for intensive training; drop-in rate of $45 a day or $25 group class. (Lodging separate; hotels nearby.) Source: The Associated Press

As I jogged, I imagined everyone staring at my jiggling thighs and listening to my haggard breathing, thinking, "What is she doing here?"

When I finished, I couldn't figure out how to slow the treadmill down. I finally had to throw myself off with a clumsy jump.

I headed out to the boxing rings and sat awkwardly waiting for someone to explain what I was supposed to do next. Finally, a barely pubescent-looking Thai kid came over and started wrapping my hands in the flashy pink hand-wraps I had picked out at the onsite shop the previous day.

That kid was my trainer for the next 10 days, Sarun Inta.

Each morning after cardio, I met Inta in the ring where he showed me Muay Thai moves, mostly by pantomiming, as his English was limited. Then he held up pads and told me to kick, punch, and jab with knees and elbows until my arms felt like rubber and my kicks came out sloppy and in slow motion.

After training in the ring for five rounds of four minutes each, Inta sent me staggering over to the punching bags to practice my technique. I finished each session with 100 sit-ups.

And then I repeated the whole process in the afternoon.

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