Learn electric guitar or join a muay thai gym?

If I only have time for 1, what do I pick?

I started working out already, following a body recomposition plan. I'll increase muscle and lose fat (shred) at the same time. It's already increasing my confidence as I do 5 days a week.

Now that I want to add something different. Im at crossroads between two unlikely rivals. I heard MMA learning also increases confidence and endurance. At the same time, it's been my dream to learn electric guitar. I'm a music goon, basically. I've listened to something like 10,000 albums.

What do you think? What would you pick?

 
Most Helpful

I've played guitar for over 20y off and on at varying levels of intensity. it depends upon your goals. you can get proficient in kickboxing in less than a year (I did), but if you want to spar or actually have fights (either amateur or pro), you should go all in. if your goal with guitar is to be able to play something like smoke on the water by J4, you can easily do that, but if you want to play eruption by year end, you should go all in on that.

if your goals are moderate on both fronts, I'd try both. muay thai 3x a week and guitar 3x a week.

happy to answer other guitar questions as well

 

Thanks so much man! That's super helpful.

I'm trying to play electric guitar as a start. I talked to a guitar tutor and he said playing electric from the start as opposed to acoustic is fine. What do you think about this? I'm thinking about getting a telecaster & jazzmaster, with a reverb tank & synthesiser. I'm heavily into alt rock/dream pop music. So I wanna work with that. Nothing really all that professional, just as a hobby.

Wrt to Muay Thai, I'm doing 5 days gym a week. Do you think I should make it 4 & make 3 days for Muay Thai?

 

I love the sound of a tele, never played a jag/jazzmaster but I've heard it's very heavy. only ever played what I own really (strat & SG). no comment on reverb or synth, never used. all I have is a boost, a digitech multi fx, and a wah.

if I were you, I'd keep it simple. if I were starting all over again, I'd get a mexican made tele (cheaper than american but almost the same sound and you won't notice it for what you're doing), and a mini amp by marshall or orange (your roommates/neighbors will thank you). I would not get any effects or other guitars until you have proficiency in your first axe.

on frequency of muay thai, anytime I have multiple endeavors I'm trying to get better at, I map out my time within the week. you'll easily be able to see if your guitar time is being cannibalized by muay thai. it's possible you can still do 5x a week, but it's also possible that after a few weeks of doing muay thai 5x a week plus guitar you get burnt out and need to pull back a bit on kickboxing

 

Do Muay Thai. Or both.

I have an electric guitar too. I bought it at Ludlow Guitars. This British rock star named Wendy James used to own it. It sounds really good, but I never picked up how to play it really. I have a high IQ and thought I would just pick it up easily, but it was more time consuming to learn than I expected.

Wendy James in Transvision Vamp:

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"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

You already have the workout regime down it seems, so I'd vote guitar. Take lessons for a year, and learn everything else you need from Youtube. That's what I did, but sadly haven't picked mine up in several months.

As for electric vs acoustic, I'm sure there are plenty of songs that you love that emphasize one or the other. Learning acoustic will be tougher on your fingertips at first, but making the transition to electric after you know your way around a fretboard is super easy. Starting on acoustic forces you to be a bit tidier with your technique. I have a Takamine P3DC, as well as cheaper Ibanez and Epiphone (les paul style) electrics. Also have a pretty dope pedal board I built up when I was younger. Probably around $1k worth of pedals (mostly from the Strymon Big Sky lol).

If you are considering acoustics, Martins have a deeper tone, Taylors are much lighter, and Takamine falls somewhere in between. Those are the three I'm the most familiar with. Get a $200-400 cheap new guitar or used guitar to start. Anything less than that willl be a pain. Also, learning to do maintenance (string changes, oiling the fret board once in a while, etc) is definitely a worthwhile endeavor. Strengthens the bond between Man and Tool. Plenty of vids online of guitar maintenance. 

Also, just wanted to share one of my favorite guitar videos. The tone is butter smooth and gorgeous. Song is House of Cards by Radiohead. 

;
Go all the way
 

For music, i would say 5-7 times a week would be ideal.  Even if it is for 15 min at night it helps.  I recently just bought an electric piano and found that had been the most helpful. Already can play 2-3 songs(force theme and jurassic park) with chords on left hand and melody on the right.

For Muay Thai, 3x a week in the beginning is enough.  At my peak point I was doing 8 times a week(yes doubles), and gym and bike.  But in the beginning you are using new muscles, you are punching, blocking etc...your muscle and bones need to adapt slowly.  You don't want to get tendonosis or hurt your knuckles and be out for 2-4 weeks.  Because that is how long it takes to recover. Honestly, it is the knuckles that take the most getting used to.  

After 3-6 months you can add in a day or two if you want.  You also don't want to get fatigued where you are building bad habits.

Good tip for knuckle pain. I you bruise one knuckle, tape two sponges folded over together, cut out a portion that corresponds with you bruised knuckle, and then use hand wraps.  From there you can continue to train without pain.

 

Have you (or Isaiah or others reading) had tendonitis in your elbow? its almost tennis elbow i think and only on my right side. I lift, but dont do anything insane. Dont really treat it other than not pushing too hard if it's irritated or icing it if it's bad. Not sure if this is something that can be permanently fixed. 

Go all the way
 

The short answer is yes, I've had tendonitis in my forearm where it attaches to the elbow. 

There are several ways to get rid of the pain in a week and keep working out. Use either a lacross ball or resistance band and apply a painfull amount of pressure to the tendon/muscle attachment. start closer to the elbow and work your way out.  From a shortened arm position(curled) apply pressure and slowly straighten your arm.  Keep doing this 5-10 min. Pain should go away enough to workout, and then gone in a week.

*Take this with a grain of salt as I can't see what your injury is, but assuming it is like tennis elbow as you mentioned.

The science behind it is, if it is chronic, the muscle fibers get degraded and end up looking like a bowl of spaghetti. Where they should be together like a box of pasta.  The pressure, "combs" them to all go in the right direction, and only then can they heal.

 
TheFlyingKiwi

Have you (or Isaiah or others reading) had tendonitis in your elbow? its almost tennis elbow i think and only on my right side. I lift, but dont do anything insane. Dont really treat it other than not pushing too hard if it's irritated or icing it if it's bad. Not sure if this is something that can be permanently fixed. 

I’ve never had elbow tendinitis, but have had Achilles tendonitis on both sides which was a terrible experience. 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

While I no longer do MMA, I do play guitar as well as ride horses so there's some similarities to draw with regards to your situation.

I don't see why both music and a sport are not possible but I will say the sport is easier in my opinion. Any physical activity requires you to get off your ass and move to a different location so it's very easy to identify whether or not you're getting lazy or lacking discipline.

Playing guitar requires you to sit your ass down and practice scales, chords, arpeggios, etc. at slow speeds (at least in the beginning) over and over and over until you have them down both mentally and physically, meaning you can play them cleanly and speed up correctly and cleanly. This is hard to do and can be very repetitive and monotonous and boring and as a result, easy to skip out on, but it's necessary. You don't have to really know music theory but you definitely need to hammer away at the fundamentals and technicalities of guitar to get good and develop your ear, otherwise it will always sound like a sloppy mess. This takes grinding through the above. 

Check out Pebber Brown on YouTube and be very weary of getting addicted to gear. I also recommend a teacher from the get to, one that will emphasize technique and fundamentals rather than just teaching you to play songs which you can do on your own just by watching videos.

 

I've played guitar for around 22 years now - it's a hobby for life, at least for me. There are ups and downs, periods of little activity...but it's what I love. 

Recently bought my dream guitar, a 1962 Strat. Vintage prices are getting out of hand, but got a nice deal on this one.  

 

have any of you found that MMA severely interferes with gym work? 

ive been working out heavily for nearly a year and back in great shape but whenever i try and start heavy boxing bag workouts i swear i hurt my knuckles / fingers / wrists quickly. cant tell if its the bag (was outside soaking up rain for 5 years), my gloves or technique.... 

 

Your knuckles shouldn’t hurt. Use hand wraps and 14-16oz gloves. Also, be sure to punch with your inside two knuckles.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Thanak you both for reply. I do wrap. However should have clarified the pain isn't in knuckles but more....like the inside of thumb and index finger...making it harder to do bench press for example...

Its been a while since I've tried boxing again so would need to give it another go. I have those very big gloves...believe they're 16oz

Just to confirm - no one thinks the issye could be my boxing bag soaking outside for 5 years? It's now in my garage gym and doesn't leak but I wonder perhaps it could be "harder" from extra water? Wondering whether I should just buy a new maybe muay Thai bag and switch to other gloves too?

But yes will def get down to a proper gym at some time once restrictions are over. Last time I checked none had sparring! 

 

I think you just need to build up your fist strength. Try doing push-ups on your fists on the mats as well.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

I don’t know much about music but I’ve been training different forms of martial arts since I was 5. I think muay thai would do a great job helping you to increase your calorie expenditure. It will also make you eat cleaner as you think about how your food will fuel your sessions. Muay Thai is awesome and I’ve seen it change a lot of people’s lives both physically and in terms of confidence. It’s also not something you have to do forever. There’s a point of diminishing marginal return. Like the blue belt in bjj. At that point you can easily defend yourself and you’ve lost the weight you wanted to lose. Anything past that point is only teaching you how to defend from a trained opponent which shouldn’t be necessary. You could easily reach that point in 2-3 years(if you enjoy it after your trial week) and then transition to music.

Also consider bjj! It’s easier on the brain than a striking art, not that that’s a huge concern as a beginner, and translates better against bigger opponents. Also you do live sparring long before you’ll go live in Muay Thai. Which is where you burn the most calories and gain the most confidence. Also If you’re in NYC you have the option of 3 of the best schools in the world: Renzo’s, Marcelo’s, and Unity. Renzo also offers Muay Thai. At the least give it a trial week and see what you think. Good luck!

 

Guitar is a great pastime. Easy to pick it up when you have a bit of time in the evening. I’ve been playing for at least an hour a day lately. Found some great websites to reference scales and arpeggios which are really fun to learn. Have since been able to figure out what key / mode some of the music I like is in.

I’m also a huge metal head so it’s been a blast to learn some of the songs I listen to. Currently play a Schecter Demon 6 and it’s exactly what I needed.

 

Some Muay Thai shorts I just ordered - sick right??

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"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Since your issue seems to be time more than money, sounds like you need to buy a guitar anyways.

For a beginner rig I would do something like this:

-guitar of your choice

-line 6 hx effects

-small amp Marshall/Orange/Vox/Fender

You'll be set forever with this but will undoubtedly acquire more gear as you get better.

 

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