do u know martial arts or have training in boxing

For real!

in the 90s I did boxing training in a class w/ Terry Southerland, it was a ton of fun and I think he thought maybe he saw something in me and invited me to come on a Saturday afternoon and spar w/ some young fighters he was training.

I played ice hockey as a kid and I always thought that had to be the most exhausting sport—skating, getting knocked around, having to wear all that gear while pushing a puck around. But after just two rounds in the ring that day I realized it doesn't hold a candle to boxing—especially if you are afraid of getting hit, which affects your breathing (obv.) and muscle oxygenation. I couldn't understand at the time why I was so wiped out, except that this guy hit me one time very hard in the head and I very much didn't want that to happen again.

It's still my preferred or least-boring workout though, I have a heavy bag at home and I skip rope and do some agility stuff. I have this thing, it's a red ball on elastic abt two feet long, you strap it onto your head and hit combinations as it keeps bouncing back. I look like a complete fucking idiot doing it but it's a lot of fun

Oh jesus yes, the muay thai gym warm-up involved 5 mins of skipping rope and I cramped after like 2.

If well and safely coached, almost all martial arts and combat sports are fantastic fitness activities because they engage the whole body and develop the brain and nervous system in ways that transfer well to managing stress in daily life.

I have beef with The Karate Kid (1984) because it helped entrench the idea in the USA that martial arts are for children. Prior to that, most martial arts students I knew were adults; since then taekwondo, karate, etc. have joined soccer and piano lessons as approved forms of after-school childcare, with economics and pedagogy adapted to that market.

Kids can be taught well, but imo martial arts training is really more beneficial for adults. In appropriate settings, people of any age and fitness level can start safely and make progress as long as they want. YouTube is full of fantastic videos of Okinawans and Chinese in their 70s and 80s teaching and training people of all ages. This is normal in cultures with deep martial arts traditions.

To anyone thinking about beginning, I'd recommend setting aside preconceptions about different styles and concentrating on finding a decent teacher. There are a lot of creeps, con men, and abusers out there, but there are also a lot of gentle, trustworthy people, many of whom teach for free or for just enough to cover their rent. Ignore marketing claims about rank, lineage, lethality, and speed of learning. Sit through a class and watch how the teacher interacts with students. Repeat until you find a teacher and group you like.

I took Kung Fu classes for a few months when I was 14 or something. It's amazing how much of it has stayed with me both in terms of body memory for the moves and general fitness practice.