Hahah. Yep. Seen that Misha vid. Such a sick beast.

Thanks for the advice, though. Like I said, it *may* have been from squatting, I've done a fair bit of experimenting with grips and elbow and bar position to try and find one which doesn't cause pain. On the other hand, I think the more likely culprits were bb curls (with too much wrist flexion) and\or weighted pullups.

Aaaaaaaand it's all kind of moot at the moment, because that seems to be one of the things that is actually getting better.... Which could be because I stopped squatting, doing bb curls, and pullups... or could be because I do lots of reverse curls... or could be because I do lots of chinups... or could just be because tendinitis type issues are mysterious bitches.

Yeah he's a monster...that's not the heaviest video either. I think he does 330 in another one... wtf...

press: 3x1x65
reverse ez bar curl, face pull

Did some glute bridges and rolling and ice on my hamstring the last couple of days. Felt a bit better today. Did a bunch of super light lying hamstring curls and body weight rfess today. Improving a bit.

Also yesterday did: 3 rounds skipping, 3 rounds heavy bag, 1 round speed bag, 1 round double end bag, 1 round slip rope, 1 round sled

Then today: boxing class

fress: 3x5x30
bench: 3x4x90
chinup, dip

Back to doing some light rfess. Felt aight.

deadlift: 3x5x110
press: 5x5x50
facepull, reverse ez bar curl

Warmed up the hamstring with some single leg kb deads, sldl with the bar, single leg glute raises. Felt ok during deads. I think I'm not going to die.

Also, for some strange reason I decided to experiment with a top-down deadlift setup. Felt aight. First rep was flying off the floor. But too light to really tell.

Then later...

10 rounds of boxing stuff and a bunch of sleds.

Also, scale and tape are touching recent lows of 87.5kg and 88cm waist.

Recent lifts:

Bench: 3x4x90
Dead: 3x3x130
Press: 3x1x65

loco. Bodyfat calculation based on those numbers pls.

I know this is probably a stupid question...is the boxing/class "good" cardio? I need to start doing something. Running is not really an option. I do best with a set schedule and was thinking a boxing class sounds like it might work.

Boxing is brutal. I have solid VO2 max numbers, still got my arse handed to me.

It's aerobic and anaerobic. Throwing heavy punches nonstop and moving your weight around is serious work.

And the drills brutal too. Even skipping rope for 8 minutes was hard. REZPECT.

Yeah. Obviously it depends what you mean when you are putting quotes around "good".

Here is a brain dump on why I think it is "good".

I guess first, to be honest, if you're a non-cardio guy, any cardio is probably going to be "good". Probably the "best" cardio you can do is just sleds or maybe hills.

Now the brain dump...

Mostly I consider it fairly interesting and engaging as far as cardio goes. I would say that almost all aspects of boxing training have some cardio component and also some kind of skill aspect to. So for me, it's always nice to learn and practice skills.

That said, I wouldn't say the skill aspect tends to greatly limit the cardio aspect. If I draw a parallel to lifting, what I mean by that is if your goal was to get really strong, you probably have to do a lot more skill work to get your squat to 600+ than you would have to do if your goal is to get good cardio to learn how to jump rope really fast. That's a terrible sentence, I hope it makes sense.

Same goes for something like hitting the heavy bag. You can make your heavy bag workout focused on sculpting your jab into a beautiful artwork (skill work), or you can just make it about hitting a sack of sand as hard and\or as fast as you can for three minutes. Probably some mix of the two is the best.

I kind of think boxing training is fairly low impact. I would say that even jumping rope is less impact on ankles, shins and knees than jogging. Even hitting a heavy bag is ok fine if you don't try ripping it in half in your first session. Build up over time and you can have a pretty good workout in half an hour jumping rope and hitting a bag.

While this is probably common to all styles of training, and also probably depends largely on the gym, coaches, trainees, etc., but if you're attending regular sessions, you'll find you're training with the same people day in day out, so you get the camaraderie, competition, etc.

Related to that, boxers tend to be pretty obsessive about cardio, and it probably tends to attract even casuals who also like cardio. So if you're training with any even semi-serious coaches or trainees, their obsession will at least slightly rub off on your attitude to training. Basically it's like how if you train at a globo gym, you probably think your 315 squat is pretty good, but if you then go and train at a powerlifting gym your 315 squat is a warm up.

Skipping is cool.

Punching things and people is cool.

I don't really know why, but I've always had some kind of interest in the sport itself. No one in my family, and no one in my circle of friends has ever been interested it in it, but something has always intrigued me. Maybe as a child of the 80s and the Tyson circus got me. Maybe I just watched Rocky(s) too many times.

I've never been able to identify whether I'm an introvert or an extrovert. I think most people I know would say extrovert, but I really think I'm probably an introvert. I quite enjoy the "therapy" when I train alone of just going and jumping rope and hitting things. Maybe there is some kind of catharsis in the routine and rhythm for an aspy introvert neck beard?

Summary: If you're even considering it, go buy some wraps for ten bucks, find your nearest boxing gym that offers beginners classes and just go. And do it as regularly as you can for a month or two. You will absolutely suck and it will be shameful and humbling and all of that. But whatever. You do it 3-5 times per week for two months and all of a sudden you don't feel like you suck so much. Meanwhile, you got a fair bit fitter. And probably lost five pounds.

That's an awesome and generous answer. I appreciate it. You definitely got what I was asking. Thank you!

1hr boxing class
2 rounds sparring

deadlift: 3x3x120
press: 5x5x52.5
chinups, facepulls, reverse ez bar curl



Then later...

1hr boxing class

What is the boxing class? Is it a cardio bunny group session or private instruction?

why-not-both.jpg

It's a group session which can range from about 8-15 people and 2-3 coaches.

Generally we'll do a few rounds of skipping, then the coach will give us some drills to do which will range from just throwing jabs at the air, to combo + counter drills with a partner. Then a few rounds on the bags of more or less free work. Then a bunch of crunches because if you're not doing at least 500+ crunches a day, are you even a boxer?

Yesterday: boxing class

Today: 3 rounds skipping, 4 round heavy bag, 1 round slip rope, 1 round sled, 1 round speed bag

I see lots of boxing training, slow down bro.

Boxing is going ok, but not enough sparring. Bit of a different vibe in the gym these days. I had a big crew of regular sparring guys last year and could get as many rounds as I wanted whenever I wanted. Much fewer guys sparring these days.

But it's all ok, bro. I'm never going to make 83kg, so you will always have an out.

I haven't actually decided if I'm going to go back to rugby in February '18, but if I do, I probably want to gain 5kg.

One guy who HAS been doing a lot of sparring in the gym over the last week or two is this guy.

http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/587891

Fighting the local boy (who beat Pacquiao) for the title next week, using my gym as his base.

deadlift: 3x3x120
bench: 3x5x85
chinups, dips


Then later...

boxing class

3 rounds skipping, 6 rounds heavy bag, 1 round sled.

rfess: 3x5x40
press: 5x5x55
face pull, reverse ez bar curl


The later...

3 rounds skipping, 3 rounds partner drills, 3 rounds heavy bag, 2 rounds body tag*, then a billion sleds (was essentially five sets of three of 15-20 seconds on, 15-20 seconds off, 90 second break).

New PR low on the tape and scale too.

87cm waist and 86.6kg.

And two people in the last two days have told me I'm looking lean.

It's hsppening!!!

Snitch -200
Loco +170