Which is better for general fitness and health? I've heard doing Thai affects the posture in a negative way but boxing isn't bad for the posture?
There are no negative side effects to posture in either art. You'd be fine either way. Personally I've found thai to be more interesting. There's more two person drills, generally more class structure. I've always found boxing to be more monotonous to train and you're less likely to be taught as much because you're not a fighter.
Both require a rounding of the shoulders to a certain degree which does negatively affect posture, but an office job, sitting in front of the TV etc for hours has much more of a bad impact on your posture. And the positive effect in terms of cardiovascular improvement more than offsets the negative effects
As long as you're mindful of your posture and keep your shoulders back and the back of your neck open when you're not training, you shouldn't see any negative effects.
I'd also say Muay Thai. I think either are an excellent choice, for what you're trying to do, but think the MT is better at holding one's interest which means they're more likely to do it more often and stick with it longer. But, for health and fitness, it is hard to find a better choice than those two so...... just pick one, ya can't go wrong.
I'll go out on a limb and say neither. Boxing and Muay Thai, if we're talking real training, is often hazardous to your health. That's common sense. Fitness, sure that comes with most nominal exercise but don't kid yourself. Healthy and combat don't really mix. That all said, if you just do the training but don't spar or compete, and do it enough, I'm sure you'll end up fit and healthy. But you won't be able to go 3 rounds most likely. As far as posture, I agree with the others...worry more about how much of the day you stare into your phone and sit on your butt, than how you burn calories and build muscle mass. Jump rope. Fitness, health, evasion technique all in a piece of cord. I've probably burned more fat cals this way than anything. It transcends styles.
I agree that the point of NEITHER is "fitness". In fact, I said something very similar, elsewhere. Someone mentioned martial arts for fitness and I said that (sometimes) fitness is a accidental by product but it wasn't actually the goal, weaponizing your body was. When you take the "body conditioning" of some more traditional arts into consideration, yep, you see "fitness" ain't what we're going for. So, yea I agree Crossfit or Zumba (or whatever) would be better than either for fitness. BUT my logic was - he gave us two choices and it seemed clear he was gonna stick with SOME martial art (considering where we are). I think either of them would get him closer than say old school Okinawan karate (they sure like gloves, in the two he picked lol). You do identify a very realistic chance of getting off track tho. Dude could start MT to lose weight and get good cardio only to find out he is REALLY into it...... start fighting and, before long, be in much worse shape (detached retina, brain injury, etc) than before he started. OP - keep that in mind, he has a valid point, "fitness" and getting the snot beat out of you don't go hand in hand.
Health and fitness are not the same thing. Competing in anything will make you very fit, but may not necessarily be great for your health in the long term due to putting the body under consistent and specific stresses. I would say that unless you are unlucky enough to receive enough injury to your brain that you show symptoms, striking arts will generally leave you in better shape than grappling. Having the extra force of people chucking you about and regularly having weight added to stress positions isn't a great idea if you want to be pain-free and mobile in your old age. If you want a long and healthy life, free from ailments and injuries, then eat well, eat modestly, walk everywhere (preferably not on man-made surfaces), play golf, tend a garden and maintain a happy and positive outlook on life... but most importantly have the genetic makeup for longevity.
Useful post, thanks. I tried Judo and decided grappling wasn't for me nor healthy. I've been doing boxing for over two years. Have sparred hard a few times as well. every now and then think about doing thai for a prolonged period.
I think both will be very good for posture. Building trunk and neck muscles inherently will lead to good posture. The hunching involved in the guard is an intentional movement held for just a couple minutes at a time. It shouldn't have a lasting effect on neck posture, just like keeping your hands up while sparring doesn't make you keep your hands up at the grocery store.
I tried, unsuccessfully, to bold a portion of your post. I find it interesting you think grappling would be harder on a body than striking. I can kinda see the logic and remember a couple incidents that lend credibility to the idea. Still tho, that ain't where my bet gets placed. It's weird - I've never gone from a BJJ mat to the ER, I have gone from the Dojo to the ER. Thing is, I know guys who HAVE (gone from bjj to the ER) So.... maybe yer on to something, I don't know.
Judo can be hard on the body, if your breakfalling isn't up to the level of the ra dori, BJJ sparring tends to be less hard on the body then judo spareing, but then again BJJ sparring hard is less hard on the body then hard striking sparring is. But newbies come in, and try to out muscle people whilst in mechanically disdvantageous postions and then get hurt. Once you're through that, grappling is very light on the body per hour training.
I'm not aware of a specific BJJ study, but Judo and gi grips lead to osteoarthrosis in the hands. Anecdotally, high level grapplers have a lot of problems with hands, knees and their spine. It makes sense to me that added force wears down cartilage. I'm talking about doing something for a lifetime, and the effects of that, not the risk of individual injuries, but the accumulation of years of wear and tear.
Judo I think also involves a lot more impact whilst gripping. In BJJ the grips also very very varied whereas judo has like 5 gripping positions standing. I think the amount of repetitiveness might have the more detrimental effect than just gripping up does. EDIT: I have no way to back this statement it's like a guess at best.
I know quite a few recreational judo guys who are old, and have iron grips still, it really does depend on how you train. It's a mistake to judge the majority purely on the the experience of the high level practitioners.
I can’t imagine spending lots of time kneeling is good for your knees. People who spend a lot of time kneeling are at higher risk of arthritic knees. Being punched in the head a lot, of course, isn’t great when it comes to dementia ... Perhaps we should all take up golf
