Boxing Benefits

Boxing Benefits: Why Boxing?

What are the Health benefits of boxing?


At a glance, boxing may look like no more than two opponents swinging punches until one person drops or the bell rings. However, the health benefits of boxing go way beyond fights in the ring. As a fitness activity and lifestyle, boxing is a brilliant way for many people to lose weight, achieve exercise goals and much more.

You don’t have to be the next heavyweight champ of the world or a hand speed phenom; just someone who is prepared to work hard and learn as much as possible. So, let’s take a closer look at the healthy benefits of boxing and how it can be used to suit a wide range of needs and goals.

See our list of boxing health benefits to see why you should start boxing.

Is Boxing Good for you?

Simply put, yes it is. You don’t see many out of shape boxers, do you? Even at an amateur level. Boxing is not only fun and helps to boost confidence, but it’s a challenge for both the body and mind. As far as full body works out go, there are few sports that compare to boxing. It quite literally requires you to use every part of your body and therefore offers a highly-effective full-body workout. No, it’s not just for gaining a mean set of biceps and abs that would make AJ blush.

But don’t just let a brief paragraph convince you, let’s look at the key health benefits of boxing in a bit more depth.

To mention a few, boxing benefits include:

  • Losing Weight (Fat Burning)
  • Improving Muscle (Building and Endurance)
  • Strengthening Ligaments
  • Cardiovascular Fitness
  • Core Stability and Balance
  • Total Body Strength and Power
  • Hand Eye Coordination
  • Stress Relief
  • Mental Health
  • Helps Posture

Boxing as exercise is a full body workout and can have positive fitness effect on your entire body, from your head, to your toes.

Boxing For Weight-Loss

Boxing is your best friend when it comes to losing weight and fat loss.

As with any exercise, one of the best healthy benefits of boxing is weight loss and reducing body fat. During a boxing session, you can burn around 800 calories or more, depending on your weight and current fitness level. Not to mention that you continue to burn calories after training due to its high intensity. Just because you have stopped, it doesn’t mean your body has stopped working for you. This is an aspect and advantage boxing has over typical cardio exercises.

As we mentioned, boxing is a full-body workout, especially as there is such a vast range of exercises you can do during a session — not just whacking the heavy bag as hard as possible. This is why so many people love boxing as a form of exercise. It continually tests your mind and body in new, challenging ways while offering a more exciting activity when compared to running on a treadmill staring at a wall. As you continually learn new exercises, you also work on the many different areas of your body.

However, it’s important not to focus too much on weight and what the scale is telling you. Boxing encourages the shedding of fat and getting leaner, leading to an overall healthier lifestyle and encouraging the building and strengthening of muscle. And being toned and adding muscle also adds weight. So don’t be alarmed if you have put on a few pounds.

Learn more about a healthy diet for boxers in our Healthy Diet Guide!

Does Boxing Build Muscle?

Yes, strength training is a core aspect of boxing.

While we already touched on gaining muscle in our weight loss section, it’s worth discussing it as an individual goal as weight loss and muscle gain don’t always go hand in hand. Many people are happy with their current weight, but simply want to gain muscle to improve their strength, confidence and appearance. Fortunately, you’ve got the right idea if you’re thinking boxing can help with this endeavour.

Boxing requires the combined strength and power of muscles in your upper and lower body to achieve agility, power and effective striking. As you punch a bag, spar with a partner or work on other techniques — a wide range of muscular groups use explosive force and work together to improve your overall muscle strength. As your muscle endurance increases, you can train harder and for longer, which allows you to burn more calories and massively increase muscle gain.

Boxing Cardio

As everyone knows, cardiovascular fitness or ‘cardio’ is vital for improving your overall health and getting fit by helping to deliver more oxygen to your heart and lungs. Boxing is a sport that thoroughly tests your cardiovascular system by putting it into overdrive during training sessions. If you’re not getting much of a cardio workout from a boxing session, it’s time to work harder and for longer.

This is one of the most healthy benefits of boxing as it means your heart and lungs have to adapt to accommodate the amount of oxygen needed for the full-body movements and explosions of power. Essentially, your heart and lungs get better at pumping blood around your body with each breath.

As your heart and lung capacity increase and strengthen during training, so does your overall health. This is a benefit you will recognise in everyday life, from recovery to dealing with everyday issues such as stress.

Here are some boxing training exercises for you to try.

 

Boxing for Relieving Stress

Getting to throw punches at maximum power into a heavy bag makes you feel good.

Period.

Everyone experiences an increase in endorphins during physical activity and boxing is no different. Punching helps to relieve muscle tension that builds up when you are stressed and can be seen as a symbolic expression of working through your worries.

Also, in your boxing workouts the more you continue to punch, the more you will be focused you will become. This increases your concentration on the technique at hand and distracts you from the stress.

The benefits of boxing for total body fitness and everyday health is undeniable. If you are looking to lose weight, bust some stress, get lean and tone your body or simply challenge yourself with something different.

Mental Health Benefits of Boxing

Exercise is a brilliant to overcome mental health problems or simply introduce a sense of routine and purpose when people find themselves struggling. However, boxing achieves and much more due to the nature of the sport and its unique ability to help people blow off steam.

It’s simple, throwing punches as hard as you can at a heavy bag or working on combinations makes you feel great. Not just the endorphins, but it helps to relieve muscle tension that builds up when you are stressed and can be seen as a symbolic expression of working through your worries. Also, boxing workouts require hard work and focus. Both of which increase concentration on the technique at hand and distracts you from the stress in your life.

The health benefits of boxing for total body fitness and everyday wellbeing are undeniable. If you want to lose weight, reduce stress, get lean and tone your body, or simply challenge yourself with something different. You should give boxing a try; we can confidently say you won’t regret it. It’s a fantastic way to get in shape, meet new people and challenge yourself with a completely new sport.

If it’s your first time heading to the boxing gym, make sure you wrap up your hands well with Cleto Reyes Hand Wraps and prepare yourself for the heavy bay with performance-enhancing Cleto Reyes Bag Gloves.

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