eisen777

I trained in an MMA gym all through my 20s. Originally I joined up for the BJJ program, and that was where I spent the most amount of my time, but the nature of the gym was that everyone did a little bit of cross-training. Over the years we all ended up spending various amounts of time trying to improve our stand-up by taking Muay Thai, doing little clinics in boxing etc. I was never particularly brilliant at any of it, but it was a lot of fun and filled up the evenings when I didn't have a girlfriend.
Although sparring with contact is intimidating and presents the risk of injury, the reality is that a responsible coach should work you up slowly before you're sparring with any degree of contact. We spent a lot of time on the pads before we sparred, and when we did it was introduced incrementally (things like doing left hand only rounds, then all hands, then all adding kicks etc. only finally graduating to adding in clinches and some takedowns).
We wore wraps, 16oz gloves, gum shield, groin protection and shin guards (more to protect the other guy's quads than your own shins, when throwing round kicks in sparring) and I agree with whoever said that you need to mind your joints from accumulated striking… 100%.
I'm not so sure I agree on the headgear recommendation. I don't claim to be an expert, but what I've always understood is that headgear results in less soft tissue damage to the face and head, but doesn't reduce the amount of force being sent through to the brain. In fact, I've heard it argued that if your soft tissue is getting bruised up then that evidence it's actually absorbing some of the shock, which is a good thing if it means that it's being partly dissipating there rather than entirely in your brain.
Paradoxically I found sparring under MMA rules with lighter gloves - 10oz, 8oz and even 6oz gloves to be sometimes safer, because people are cagier about hurting their hands punching extremely hard with less protection. Also, you can also clinch and tie people up it seemed like there were also less clean standing blows landed, full stop. If you were getting mauled by a good striker you had the option of trying to close the distance and tie him up, or take it to the ground. You might not necessarily fare enough better, but at least you could try to move through different ranges to find a place where you were safer.
The worst injuries I ever got training actually came from brazilian jiu jitsu and practicing our takedowns in MMA classes. Grappling, by it's nature, can result in pretty chronic injuries when it goes wrong. Quite a number of the guys in the gym used to blow out their ACL practicing takedowns or takedown defense. I tore my MCL grappling and I also dislocated my kneecap (same leg). Also got one of my front teeth broken in half by a knee (I have a deep crown now, looks quite fake). I also cracked my ribs (big takedown with a guy landing on me just-so) and eventually managed to jack up my neck to such an extent that I decided that enough was enough and hung up my kimono. I still want to be running around and training with I'm 70, not forced into something like Tai Chi because I'm so totally crippled.
I ended up taking up escrima (filipino martial art, sometimes called kale or arenas) on the basis that because it uses tools like sticks and knives it would be less full body contact. That's been true, by and large, but occasionally we spar using rattan sticks, fencing masks and hockey gloves, and judging my the lumps I have on my head from training last weekend it's possible that I'm deluding myself about it being safer.

This is a healed shot of my somewhat Ed Hardy inspired gorilla rose situation, tattooed by Chad Koeplinger. An hour and a half to outline and do most of the black. Three hours to finish. Two fun sessions!

It's possible to set a timer and hit a bag for intervals, and you'll get a metabolic hit and release some tension...
...but...
...You can't learn to box, or learn any martial art, from a book or a video, in my view. I'd really recommend a coach, the longer the better, really.
Without someone to check your form and watch you, you're risking ingraining bad habits or courting injury.
I've known guys to maintain their punching power just with bag work, and use it for fitness, but the other side of it is that without a moving, reacting pad man or sparring partner to test you it's hard to learn to land any of your striking effectively. You also never learn the hardest part of boxing: Defence.
If there's no boxing coach nearby try an MMA gym or Muay Thai gym. You're unlikely to find yourself being elbowed in the face or beaten up... Possibly unless you ended up fighting in a professional bout. In training in most clubs safety is key, and most people have jobs to go in to the day after a sparring session. With 16oz gloves, gum shields and groin guards it's safe enough.
If someone does want boxing DVDs then Donn Familton's "Superior boxing" is good. There are specific DVDs just on bag work also.

When I got my back extended over my butt I didn't take off for the outline. Chad puts it in hard and I am also a beginner so I think I was squating 135 or something small. Then 5 weeks later he shades one butt check and i absolutely needed time off. It took soo much out of me and my lifts were higher and is just worked my ass off past a plateau over 2 weeks before. Best thing I evet did. I've got 2 back appointments a week apart in June so going to take some time and do other lifts and change it up but only take 3 full days off and see how it goes. I bleach white shirts and put on fresh work out cloths when I'm healing.

Daniel Albrigo, three kings in NYC. Still kind of freaking out

Totally...I really want to do barcomplex workouts. Esp when I add in more of the fat burning workouts/conditioning which is very important. Ive been impressed with my wife who decided to stop doing workout video and yoga tapes 2 months ago and lift is is squating 115 3x5 and deadlifting 145 1x5 and making good gains. Her bench and press arent high but its getting better. Some reason tho her stomach got bigger/fatter but it seems to be going away. Still lifting together is fun esp since id dint have a patner before.

I will say you guys aren't crazy to be skeptical about how long he will stay but the last 3 times he tattooed me he was really excited about staying in Austin for a while and doing less travel. But we shall see. I won't get to Austin for a while so I hope I get a bunch of my back done in June.
- - - Updated - - -
If I wasn't getting current projects work on only I'd be all over this...very cool

Looks like Eddie Deutsche will be visiting Boston in May:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fat-Rams-Pumpkin-Tattoo/136706736001

I must admit I'm sceptical that he'll stay in one place for too long!

@irezumi This case has been on my mind for the last few days. Especially that asshole's shit-eating face and how badly I'd love mangle it. But I'm not a violent person by nature. I just hate it when it's so glaringly obvious.

Totally...I really want to do barcomplex workouts. Esp when I add in more of the fat burning workouts/conditioning which is very important. Ive been impressed with my wife who decided to stop doing workout video and yoga tapes 2 months ago and lift is is squating 115 3x5 and deadlifting 145 1x5 and making good gains. Her bench and press arent high but its getting better. Some reason tho her stomach got bigger/fatter but it seems to be going away. Still lifting together is fun esp since id dint have a patner before.

@eisen777
Sounds like good progress. You'll probably see a lot more if you stick with it.
The upside of making strength gains is that when you start doing conditioning workouts for the fat loss (barbell complexes for example) you'll be able to use challenging weights.
Agreed, good time of year for sports, walking and no-frills park workouts.
Yeah, 3 sets of 10 would probably be 'good' going at the moment. Be interesting to see whether after this GTG my max has moved up... I think it probably already has.
I think I'm going to aim for 50-60 a day for now. Switched from regular push-ups to diamond push-ups, looking for 60-80 a day.
I'll stop this when my elbows complain!
DeFranco is, for me, one of the best "one stop shop" guys for programming and sensible advice on training. I think I saw an older incarnation of that mobility set from him but not this version.

I just got to
205 3x3 squats (small goal, want to hit 3x5 soon)
140 bench (3x5)
90 press (3x5) needs lots of work...
215 deadlift (1x5 bummed on my lack of progress, but the wood harvesting/stacking work has been smoking my back)
100 power clean (3x5).
Im at a point that im going add a day with squats,bench or press, then back extentions or GHR or hip thrusts and chin ups or pull ups which is good because id like some change. My wife too really wants to start with hip thrusts because I guess they are like miracle gro for your butt and im all in favor of this.
I gotta hand it to your guys all of you kinda helped put me on the right path and even tho i havent burned off a bunch of my fat I can see big muscle improvements and im getting stronger. Im going to take some time off in may to run/hike and burn of some fat without eating all my gains but we will see how that goes.

I have it Kyle, a great resource. I'm more likely to crack open the book than watch a whole video by him.
Another related book I found good lately was Neupert & Anderson's "Original Strength". Tough to sum up, but it's on floor work type movements that are intended to be practiced several times daily.
It Involves segmental rolling, rocking movements, neck mobility, crawling movements and diaphragmatic breathing.
I've tried a lot of that type of health / mobility stuff before and it hasn't clicked with me but for some reason I really think this OS is good. Doing the segmental rolling on a hard floor is like whole body self myofascial release, it's replaced the foam roller for me.
I'm doing Pavel Taatsouline's "grease the groove" protocol at the moment because I can't get to the gym. I've picked the pull-up and push-up as movements and basically I'm just doing sets randomly through the day, accumulating volume. No sets to failure. Yesterday I did 55 pull-ups and 92 push-ups. Mostly sets of 5-7 and 10-14 respectively. The only issue is in not sure when 'enough is enough' per day? I've been at it a week so far, still adding reps daily.

Sounds bonkers but I guess if it works...
Homer Simpson's "miracle spine o cylinder" always struck me as just being a giant PVC roller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JCZT_51GA0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWHplp10kQM

Early/mid 90s. I have plenty more than that from him but no internet photos, sorry.

I didn't know they had a new one, I'll have to get that. The first one was great too...it really continued on what Tom G Warrior was doing on Monotheist, which also ruled. That was a WAY better reunion album than I think anybody could have reasonably expected.
I saw Triptykon when they were touring on that first album. They fucking killed it.

I LOVE the new triptykon.....i loved the last LP too. Its just crazy to me that Tom G warrior is still putting out great music that stands up to lots of the other stuff comming out. Esp after putting out such lesser bullshit for ages.

My wife and I regularly go and get tattooed. Its a really nice feature of our marriage.

Dude, you've thought about this way too much. Just go get some cool tattoos.

There are always a good number of people guesting before and after, so I am sure you will be able to take advantage!

Hoyer and odonnell 2 of my favorites work wise and personality wise as well. I need something bigger by hoyer. The other two well you have damn good taste.

Come on man, leave some tattoos for the rest of us!

Chad again soon, then i hope 1 more laser trip then I can start back up with chris o donnell by years end but we shall see. Also id like to get a few smaller tattoos.