Grixti

This question is to anyone who has been doing contact fighting such as Muay Thai, Kickboxing, Boxing, MMA etc for a long time.

I was just wondering if fighting in the ring has many bad implications for later on in life, physical and mental.

If you kickbox etc. for a long time is there a big chance of getting arthritis, bad joints, weak ligaments, brain damage etc?

I really dont know much about this type of stuff so maybe some of the people who have been fighting for many years or people with the scientific knowledge could help me out.

Thanks!

ne122

Of course getting hit in the head over the years will cause some long-term brain damage. Just look at old retired boxers. They're mushmouths and slow. Too many concussions is bad as well, so getting ko'd a lot doesn't help. I remember back in high school we had a kid on our football team that got so many concussions in one season, he wasn't able to play any sports for the rest of year.

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Grixti

What about the physical side of things?

Ghost

In terms of what you are likely to do over a few years dont worry about it.
The advantage with thai boxing is the punishment is distributed over the body more evenly, fewer hits to the head.
Thais can end up punch drunk but they have 200 fights in their career roughly. Which is not something you are likely to be doing.
The training will be fine for your body, you wont be doing 6 hours a day and if you do it wont be for as many years.

Just train its ok.

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Skills: Numchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills.
Favourite animal: Liger, bred for its skills in magic.

“Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.”

John McCain promo vid:
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Khun Kao

Take a look at this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OtO48w5w_U8

This is Kumrom Vaitayanon (Master K), working with Kaensak Sor.Pleonchit this past weekend in Sewell, NJ. Master K was a professional fighter in the 50's/60's, with over 70 professional fights. He will be turning 70 years old later on this year.... Doesn't look like MuayThai has had any adverse effects on him at all!

You have to take some things into consideration. Master K knew when to call it quits (ring fighting), but he maintained a daily training regimen. He takes care of himself. He doesn't smoke, he doesn't drink. He stays active....

It's not just a sport, it's a lifestyle!

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http://khunkao.com/

Ghost

To be fair i have personally met many punch drunk old former thai boxers and they all had a bit of a screw loose. But we arent talking about acheiving that kind of fight record in the west are we.
You have to be careful, i mean i would be careful even more so with western boxing, the amount of sparring and head shots in that leaves people punch drunk too.
Its not just the fights a lot of the damage is done during the training.

My advise is to do it for a few years really hard then tone it down and you should be ok.
With anything there are risks but you dont want to hide away all your life either do you.

__________________
Skills: Numchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills.
Favourite animal: Liger, bred for its skills in magic.

“Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.”

John McCain promo vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS-F...eature=related

Dante4290

That Master K man doesn't look like a 70 year old at all, thats amazing he still moving around like a 30 year old.

Heroic Wolf

Isn't Ramon Dekkers like 30% scar tissue or something? I'd imagine all that trading shots back and forth will do scarring of the body, although non-professional muay thai is probably a lot less damaging to the body

bodhisattva

I'm always telling my guys to train for longevity - meaning - they want to be able to train at 50 years of age as well as they do at 30.

I learned that from some judo guys. They were older guys, still fighting hard, and they were taping up their joints. One looks at me and says "Train for longevity. If you are hurting a finger or toe when you breakfall.. pay attention to it and alter your movement before you hurt it."

Sometimes my guys ask about kicking bamboo trees or using a rolling pin on their shins. I tell them I think its foolish - personally speaking. I've heard it leads to arthritis and don't know if it's tree - but it seems overly traumatic in the long run.

Kicking some stiff thai pads is conditioning enough.

It's mostly not about the sport you train in, but in how you train it.

Train for longevity. Use your brain to make your body (and your brain) last longer. Warm up. Stretch while warm. Ease up on trauma to the head, joints and ligaments. Take it easy.

Train hard, but don't break the body. Just bend it some.

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GQchris

That is definitely wise advice, I mean what good is it to push yourself so hard that you injure yourself, and now when you're competing days are over, you can't even properly tag your wife because you got too many aches and pains.. what a waste..

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glendanfig

very good point man, after all life isnt worth living if u cannot enojy the simple things...

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Eternity my friend; is a long time.