It doesn't matter what you do, everything will have an effect on your body.

BJJ is the worst for problems as you typically start on your knees a lot, and hyper-extend elbow and fall in awkward positions all the time.Great fun though.

I'd advise going with either boxing or Muay Thai. You may not believe me but chances are you'll get hurt less doing the later.

I've done Muay Thai for over 7 years now, and sometimes we'll do just boxing sparring, and I get hurt more then than kicking and throwing light knees. Why you do boxing people aim for your head and there's only so much your brain can take over a decade or 4 of training (if you take it seriously). Getting kicked in the leg or body with pads may sound painful, but it's nice.

But really as a newbie I would not worry about getting injured, you will not be doing anything dangerous at all if you visit a good gym.

I'm really happy about your suggestions because that's exactly what I was considering. I'm a non-violent person and I don't intend to get super serious about fighting, but at the same time, I think that it's a great athletic endeavour that's good for the whole body. I'm also not interested in the philosophy that's often attached to some martial arts, plus in the post-MMA world I couldn't take karate, kung-fu or aikido seriously. Lastly, I've been listening to Joe Rogan's podcast way too much lately

I live in a small town so I don't have that many options, but I know about one solid Muay Thai gym, and I'm sure I could find a place that offers boxing. I'll probably lose another 10 kg or so (to relieve as much stress from my leg as possible), try Muay Thai and if it turns out that my right leg is not cooperating I'll go for boxing as a plan B.

Can you tell me how the beginner Muay Thai classes actually look like? I assume it's some stretching, learning technique and circuit training? How far is this from the truth? Also, at what point are you competent enough to even start sparring? Do you spar at all etc. etc.?

I've done Krav Maga here in the states for 3-4 years now and it's great. Krav is actually a combination of a lot of different martial arts combined. It's not really a "martial art", it's better described as practical/reality-based ass-kicking/street fighting. We train to defend against chokes, knives, hand guns, sticks, rifles/long guns, multiple attackers...you name it. We get crazy, but it's fun.

Krav does have muay thai elements too. For striking we use thai pads and focus mitts. For sparring, (which is not 100% contact speed, it's more like partner-training at 30% speed), we wear boxing gloves, shin pads, and mouth guards. We'll do either low, mid-level, or high kicks and our partners will defend against them. They don't just throw us on the mat and tell us to start sparring. The majority of the time we are working technique and practicing. I can't speak for a muay thai school, but we do incorporate those elements into our training.

Aside from the actual training classes, the conditioning classes are awesome workouts. They're exhausting and I sleep like a baby every night. We'll do full body workouts, sparring, punching, ground work, kicks, bag work, etc. in addition to self-defense techniques. Aside from feeling confident enough to handle myself in a dangerous situation, I'm in the best shape of my life and I'll be 31 in a couple of weeks. Although my body is starting to slow down because of age, I can still train just fine. The instructors always emphasize that you should adjust the training to your comfort level - I'm sure that's the same with most places. You can tailor it to what you want to do and go at your own pace, particularly because you said you have knee issues. You know yourself the best.

So you might want to check out Krav, perhaps there's one in your area. You can get great workouts and learn a ton of practical/potentially life saving techniques at the same time. If there aren't any in your area, you might want to check out Bas Rutten's workouts. Those are solid too.

@MattVIP

It really depends from gym to gym. If your gym is good, there will be very light sparring. They should focus on teaching you the basic technique and footwork.

Some gymsmake sparring optional, but it's really worth doing it as you learn and enjoy it much more. Getting hit in the face doesn't hurt as much as you think with big gloves at a sparring pace.


Typical class would be :

10 min stench
3-4 techniques
light clinching or sparring.

That would take around an hour.

They should not make you spar on your first few lessons as you won't know how to punch or defend yourself. Sparing is not as bad as people make out, most people at these gyms are really friendly people and go very, very slow. You may get 1 bad apple out of a 100, but then you just tell him/her to go light and it's fine.

Done it for 7 years and I've only ever had 1 black eye, but the guy was like 130kg. Very safe if you're at a good gym who makes sure people don't go hard.

@Harvie I actually never heard anyone describing sparring as bad and I like the idea of it. You pretty much convinced me and Muay Thai will be my first choice. The fact that it's among the most popular striking disciplines among MMA fighters only helps the case. Again I'm non-violent and I'm not interested in ever using the skills outside of the training environment (just like I wouldn't shoot people if I frequented a shooting range), but I might as well pick up something that actually works well. Again, like Joe once said: "the shit that works on trained killers is the best shit"

@Cookie Monster Solid suggestion. Again, I'm way more interested in the physical or athletic aspect of fighting than self-defence, but with my bad knee Krav Maga will probably be my plan C if Muay Thai and boxing won't pan out for me.

I boxed for a while a few years back. I loved the gym, the coaches and the training. But they didn't hold back too much on the sparring, it was tough. You had to get used to getting punched in the face a lot, hard. Most amateur boxing clubs charge very little and can only run if the members actually compete. So I guess they just wanted to weed out the time wasters there for a fitness class. That said, the fitness side of it is brutal. So if you can find a club that doesn't mind you not competing then it will do wonders for weight loss and fitness goals.

I did Tae Kwon Do for many years when I was younger and competed in several tournaments (Junior British Open Champion a-thankyou! Ok it was yellow belt and for patterns but it still counts!). I love the "art" side of it but in this day and age I think martial arts like this are losing their place. MMA and I think to a large extent film-making has changed the game. We no longer see the likes of the old Van Damme movies with high spinning back kicks. It's all much more gritty and violent, because that is more realistic when it comes to practical application.

Whether you think of yourself as a "violent" person or not, if you going to learn something like this why not have it benefit you when you find yourself in a confrontation you can't talk your way out of. Can't do any harm right? Well, maybe to the other guy I'd like to try Krav Maga myself. Also after watching The Raid I would love for a Pencak Silat club to open near me. Seems pretty new to the UK so hopefully it will grow here.

Good luck and let's see some pics of your first bloody nose!

Thanks for the input @jongordon84. I'm not planning on using martial arts as a weight loss tool (more like an excuse to never do slow cardio on a treadmill again) at least not primarily. I'm actually planning on losing like 10 more kg before I start training to minimize the stress I'm putting on my right leg and strengthen my muscles even more. My primary reason for training will be to boost my endurance, speed, balance and overall athleticism through something functional to aid my efforts in the gym. I love resistance training and I'll prioritize it but at the same time, building muscle for the sake of building muscle doesn't make much sense to me. I also considered other athletic endeavors, but running and resistance training don't really go hand in hand and I can't be serious about powerlifting if I can't squat heavy + I'm a 90's kid that grew up on Van Damme and Bruce Lee movies hence the interest in martial arts.

As for being a non-violent person. I think we'll eventually evolve into a non-violent society (if human beings are lucky enough to stick around for a couple more generations), but I'm not a fortune teller and I try not to get into a habit of viewing reality through the prism of my expectations. I think that adjusting to the reality is much more productive and it helps to be in touch with it even if you're really serious about changing it in some way. Long story short, even though I will go out of my way to defuse the situation and even though the probability of being involved in a physical altercation is so low nowadays - violence happens. I also think that getting hit in the face (and hopefully dishing out some of those hits) in a controlled environment can be surprisingly good for the soul

For me i enjoyed boxing the most as it was a brilliant way to relieve stress and just smash things about. Completely exhausting also!

Great thread, I'm thinking this as well. My ankle is buggered from Football and now approaching 33 I am slowing down. Running has really helped me recapture some fitness and I am still going to crush 1000km this year but I want something to give me a reason to train harder like football used to do. I don't care about how I look so much, but being able to compete on the pitch was the reason to lift that extra weight or run the extra km.

Problem is I'm not in a city so its basically Karate or just going to the gym. Or Zumba. There is always fucking Zumba these days.

Heard the creator of Zumba just had to pay some girl $6million for groping her in class or something.

Well you can "burn a ton of calories without even realising" but people do tend to notice sexual assault.

Well you can "burn a ton of calories without even realising" but people do tend to notice sexual assault.

lol @thetallpaul true that!

Apparently there are other cases of this. Create an exercise class to get closer to more women so you can sexually assault them and not worry about the consequences as you can just pay them off.....think he went about this in the wrong way!

Time to revive this one! I kept delaying my decision to sign up for a martial art class because I was concerned about the health of my good-for-nothing knees, but I finally signed up for a boxing class a few weeks back and I couldn't be happier with the choice. My knee seems to be holding up well and once I get a bit more fit I might transition into kickboxing, muay Thai or MMA but for now boxing is more than enough to scratch the itch. So far I'm learning basic techniques and combos, but I'm really eager to learn and try some sparring. Boxing is also a super fun form of cardio, I really don't like the steady state treadmill type ordeal.

Don't think I've done more grueling workouts than boxing. I'll share a story of the most fucked I've ever been when training (don't worry this isn't some weird sex story!).

I had been going to the club for a few months and only sparred 1 round I think at that point. My fitness wasn't great still but this day I decided to increase my warm up run. Basically most members would do a couple of laps of the block, roughly 0.75 miles each, before training. I had been doing 1 lap so upped it to 2. Since I hadn't run more than about 2 miles ever before this was pretty tiring for me, but I felt good. Inside I got on with 4 or 5 rounds of skipping. I was getting pretty good at it so liked to do plenty. Then I hit the bags, 4 rounds I think. I really went for it and was a sweaty mess by the end. But what the hell I was almost done. Just groundwork and maybe some shadow boxing.

Groundwork was basically a set list of calisthenics done back to back, the aim to complete each list within a 3 minute round, each round involving more reps of each exercise. I hadn't ever managed to complete all 3 rounds before but I felt I was getting fitter and went for it. After, I thought one quick round of shadow boxing and I'll head home for a lager or 5 since it was a Friday. I was completely soaked in sweat. During my round of shadow boxing one of the coaches comes up to me and says "You're not done already are ya, I was gonna get you on the pads". I'd been waiting weeks to start getting some attention from the coaches so I couldn't say no.

My arms were like dead weights but I did my best trying to show how hard I could hit (watch out for my jab guys it sure does sting!). Anyways a couple of rounds in the head coach comes up, "I want him sparring today. You up for it?". Oh fuck! I'd had 1 round of sparring in my first week or so, was desperate for more, and now when I'm close to collapsing he wants me in the ring. I hesitated a second before nodding yes. Too tired to speak, I get in the ring dreading who I'll be up against. It was a young traveler also called Jon. Around 17 I think, 10 years younger than me at the time. But he was pretty much the same height and build, and man was he fit.

I barely threw a punch, I could hardly stand let alone box and move. After 1 round the coach tells me "You're not here to be a punching bag!". He beat me up good. Coach called a halt half way through the next round. I was wearing a white top which was now almost entirely pink. My nose was a mess.

I climb out the ring and just as I'm ready to walk through the gym and out the door to head home, I notice the entire club are doing their groundwork as a group. And this time one of the coaches had the sadistic idea of using playing cards to determine the number of reps. Ten of clubs, ten burpies etc. I couldn't exactly walk past everyone and out the door, so I had to join in. Getting a few looks from the younger members on account of my face and shirt being covered in blood, I embarrassingly struggled to keep up. It seemed to go on forever. I'm not sure how much I missed at the start but the bastard finished the entire pack of cards. Thinking back I'm not sure how I managed to drive home. I seriously thought I was going to collapse.

Needless to say I went back for more the next week. My fitness improved and I got a lot more sparring in. Eventually, I think about 6 months later, I sparred Jon again. I can confidently say this time we were fairly evenly matched (and I bloodied his nose this time, with that stingin' jab!). Yeh I know he was still just a kid but I gotta boost my self esteem somehow!

Anyways enjoy your boxing!

That's one hell of a story @jongordon84! I really like the immediate feedback that boxing gives you: you're out of breath after the first round of sparring? Too bad mate, guess you need to up your cardio and/or lose some pounds. You're not fast/skilled/aware enough to block that right hook to the body your training partner is aiming at you? Boom, there's some pain coupled with a few second of respiration issues for you sir! Besides, I kinda missed that feeling of being beaten up that football gave me in the past and boxing kinda doubles down on that. I only did some light technical sparring/trading blows with training partners during drills, but I already have some minor war wounds like bruises on my arms and stomach, some skin scraped off my forehead etc. and I'm loving it. At this point, I'm just hoping my knee holds up so I can learn as fast as possible and get myself into fighting shape (I still have a lot of weight to lose).