Boxers on beyond.ca

[Hallowed_point]

Any of you guys or girls into it? I just joined Impact recently and am really enjoying it. Getting them hands moving again. Any recommendations on rotator cuff pain? After an hour at it, I can feel the burn so to speak. The tiger balm neck and shoulder rub is great but my gf can't stand the smell. I think I did some long term damage to my rotator cuffs from heavy weight training several years ago. I've since moved to pull ups, push ups, grip squeezers, chin ups and very light free weight work.

[civic_stylez]

I box for fitness in my basement with a heavy bag, speed bag and floating speed ball. Like you, I have bad shoulders from hockey and mountain biking and i get the pinch/burn as well. What has helped alot is standing cable raises with LIGHT weight (front and lateral). With the punching, i used to punch hard with as much power as i could but now i just use more speed with really light connections to lessen the force on my joints. I still need an advil after and ice to keep the inflammation down though.

[jabjab]

I've been boxing for a few years and actually fighting in a fundraiser at the Palace Theater in March. My suggestion is to stretch before starting, you're muscles are probably just not used to the repeated punching, it will get better with time and conditioning.

[Hallowed_point]

^I think that I was slacking on the stretching. I feel much better today. I've decided that I'm only going to go once a week for the first month until my body is back up to speed. Still going to do exercises at home with free weights including lateral raises (light weight.) I used to do laterals with 40-50 lbs and I think at my body weight it was overboard. Probably have some long term damage to my rotator cuffs.

Also mixing up more speed and power shots. Working on accuracy.

[jabjab]

try taking a very light weight (1 to 2lbs) and practice repeated motion of throw a jab, this will get your muscles more accustomed to throwing punches.

[Hallowed_point]

^ Thanks man..I have some baby weights at home. Time to put them to use!

[J-hop]

I've done a bit of Muay Thai (about 4 years now).

The biggest things I've found is rest period when you start out. I've just started up again after a bit of a break and once a week is what I did for the first month (I'm weight training as well).

Don't punch hard at all. I'm in a class with newbs and they throw way too much power with bad technique. It's a recipe for getting hurt and building bad form. It's fun to hit hard and hit a bag hard but if your throwing hard as a newb you are probably connecting with way less force than you think as your form isn't allowing you to transfer the energy properly (it's going to the wrong places!) so there is zero point anyways until you've got some serious time under your belt.

Avoid heavy rotator "strengthening" excercises. I watch a lot of old school bros loading up the cables with weight and doing rotator isolating exercises. Minimum weight possible on the cable is as much as you should ever do IMO




Originally posted by jabjab
try taking a very light weight (1 to 2lbs) and practice repeated motion of throw a jab, this will get your muscles more accustomed to throwing punches.

Be very careful with this. 2 would be the absolute max I'd ever do. The most you'll ever have on your hands would probably be 16oz gloves + sweat soaked wraps which would top out around 2pounds total. Any heavier than that you'll never want to throw full speed.

[Hallowed_point]

^Great advice. Thank you.

I also set up a speed bag at home. Focusing on accuracy and speed vs power. It's like golf, when you hit it right it has that "pop" sound vs when you skim it. Unfortunately, my GF refuses to help with pad work haha.

[taemo]

I used to go to Impact in the afternoon years ago, I miss boxing/sparring there.
Now a days though I just work in the basement where I have a punching bag installed.

[Hallowed_point]

My only complaint with Impact is the tiny change room. It's way too small. Not enough toilets or showers.

[J-hop]

What does impact charge per month. There is another boxing specific gym that just opened and I think they are charging something crazy like 200/month for group lessons.

[dimi]

I've got a torn rotator on my jab arm, which i tend to use more often than my cross, so it gets quite a bit of work. Same advice as those above basically.

Stop lifting heavy weights targeting your shoulders, or flat benching, which I'm sure you already know. It'll destroy your shoulders and you'll need surgery eventually. If you're getting a lot of pain, just stop and give it a few weeks/month(s).

On the other hand, I do find doing very lightweight (5-10lbs) work on my shoulders actually helps with the infrequent pain. Hanging/decompressing is also a big one, and has a lot of health benefits for your shoulders/back/spine.

Get to class early and warm up before the warm up. Doing a bunch of pushups on non-stretched/warmed up shoulders is brutal. Then stretch after the work out as well. Only takes 5-10 mins.

Drink a ton of water the 2-3 hours before going and try get 8 hours of sleep the day of. Pretty obvious, but it makes a huge difference for me.

Have fun!

[J-hop]

I see a few people hating on the bench these days. Not sure why? A bench with proper form should not put any significant strain on the shoulders and is a key exercise for upper body strength. Not impressive at all I know but for a while my bench was up to 265x5 with no problems or pain what so ever. But that took me years to work up to.

What about OHP? Great shoulder strengthening exercise.

I don't know, for every sport weight training is a huge component of preventing injury (if done right).

[Hallowed_point]

^ Great advice guys. My dad's shoulder's are nuked from logging and I don't want to be in the same boat. I only do pull ups, chin ups and 10 lb weights these days. I've also stopped sitting at my desk at work and that has helped a lot. I'm gonna hit the class early as well to get hydrated and warmed up better. I don't use any supplements beyond whey isolate and creatine as my heart goes mental on most pre workouts. Don't need more energy! 7 years ago I could bench 405 lbs @ 205 lb body weight. I've since lost a lot of weight due to high cholesterol diet changes. But I've kept quite a lot of strength while trying to regain flexibility and cardio output.

[jabjab]

I find that running long distances doesn't help your cardio as much as doing sprints. In boxing you need to be able to throw combos and recover very quickly so sprints better trains you for that.

[Hallowed_point]

Good point. As gay as it sounds, I'm starting to understand the importance of skipping rope.

[J-hop]

Originally posted by Hallowed_point
Good point. As gay as it sounds, I'm starting to understand the importance of skipping rope.

It's funny how difficult it is too. Most guys at my gym can easily switch legs and sprint while skipping rope. I don't seem to have the coordination.

[Hallowed_point]

Originally posted by J-hop
It's funny how difficult it is too. Most guys at my gym can easily switch legs and sprint while skipping rope. I don't seem to have the coordination. I look like a friggin kid trying to skip. Need to work on co-ordination. Bought a rope for home use too.