Boxing and health consequences.

[SamTheHobit]

I recently took up boxing with a bud, and weve been sparring. Can sparring cause any adverse health effect i.e brain damage? If so what are some measures I can take to prevent that. And how often a week is it safe to spar.

 

[Duracell_Bunny]

You will be fine. I used to box in my younger days before I came of age and discovered night life.

Are you attending a gym specificity set up for boxing? If not I would strongly recommend attending one and getting taught some basics.

As long as the gym staff are taking the correct safety measure that involves, head guard, gum shield, and heavy weight mits you'll be fine - do not even attempt to spar without these at a beginner level.

We hear in the news of boxers getting brain damage, these are usually pros receiving punches with incredible force over their whole carrier.

 

[Bible_Belt]

I recently took up boxing with a bud, and weve been sparring. Can sparring cause any adverse health effect i.e brain damage? If so what are some measures I can take to prevent that. And how often a week is it safe to spar.

At this point you two probably don't hit hard enough to hurt each other. You're most likely to get hurt by falling and hitting your head. You need to be on a real mat. If you don't have a mat, at least try find some soft grass away from anything you can fall into. You can still crack your head on the dirt if the ground is hard, and it's easy to twist an ankle on uneven ground.

Use a mouthpiece and 16-ounce gloves. A cheap, boil & bite mouthpiece is better than nothing. If you continue with fighting sports, eventually you should get a custom mouthpiece made by a dentist.

Footwork, movement, and balance are a lot more important than throwing punches. Those things keep you safe. The punch that hurts is the one that you walk right into, because you don't see it coming.

 

[iwanttofight]

You will be fine, I have been a pugilist since age 7, now I'm almost 30. I have been hit in the head repeatedly 4 days a week for almost 12 years straight. I am fine. Where did I leave my car keys at again, Geeezzzz

 

[EvilAgenda]

I recently took up boxing with a bud, and weve been sparring. Can sparring cause any adverse health effect i.e brain damage? If so what are some measures I can take to prevent that. And how often a week is it safe to spar.

If you spar at a boxing gym, your coach should put a protective helmet and a low blow guard on you. Mouthpiece is obviously required to spar.

You will not get brain damage, not when you and your bud are starting out. DO NOT spar with someone who is more experienced than you though as that's just stupid.

In any case, your boxing coach is the one who will minimize all potential risks of injuries. (Just be ready for bruises, black-eyes, cuts as these things happen even during sparring).

 

[lolwut]

don't take any single anecdotal evidence too seriously

probably brain damage mostly just happens to pros getting hit really hard for a really long time.

but everyone is different, some people just get injured easier than others. and even if you have enough protective head gear on, you could get spine injures from the force your head is taking. I don't know too much in depth about boxing sparring but it seems like you can always get unlucky and get hit hard from a bad angle and injury something, or maybe i watch too much mma?^^

you two may be beginners now but if you like it enough to spar you are gonna improve quickly and start hitting much harder, are you gonna stop there?

i personally am not willing to take that risk at 26 years old, i have too much ahead of me to risk anything about my health, even if its a very small risk.

 

[BMX]

I just tried out 3 different pairs of boxing gloves over the past three days. Some were better than others, easily. Listen to what Bible_Belt said, he helped me when I was getting started in MMA a few years back. Check out rossboxing.com, that and rosstraining.com helped me learn a lot.