6 Ways Boxing Can Boost Your Health & Fitness

Boxing for better fitness has always been popular; both in the competitive and related training methods. It is a demanding sport and workout that requires a mix of muscular strength and cardiovascular endurance, but the results are highly rewarding, both physically and mentally.

If your health and fitness goals are to lose weight, increase muscle mass and improve overall endurance, then boxing is an effective and fun way to do it.

Here’s why…

Want to move fast? Jump to the right section below.

• Improving Your Body Strength
• Losing Weight
• De-Stressing
• Building Muscle
• Improving Cardiovascular Health
• Boosting Coordination

Improving Your Body Strength

Boxing requires a lot of high impact motions throughout almost every form of the training. As a byproduct of that, you’re going to build up some strength. It’s only natural, after all.

A punching bag can weigh anything between 70-100Ibs, so each punch takes a pretty hefty amount of strength. Not just from your arms either; a proper punch requires your body’s full inertia – your upper and lower body should engage when you hit the boxing bag. Repeating this movement, combined with the resistance of the bag, will increase your overall body strength.

In addition to punching exercises, using general exercises to further your strength and endurance helps too. This can include anything from burpees to squats, to push-up and sit-ups. It’s all a part of boxing training to improve your fitness.

Losing Weight

Another significant benefit of boxing is how it can affect your weight loss too. It’s a hugely popular goal, and as a calorie-burning exercise, boxing is one of the best to help you get there because of the sheer intensity.

That’s helpful in the sport too. A large part of training for professional boxers is aimed at keeping them within a certain weight range (lightweight, middleweight, heavyweight etc.). You only have to look at boxers such as Anthony Joshua and Anthony Crolla to see how lean they are – these guys burn around 25-30 calories per minute throughout their fights. By those maths, in 30 minutes of boxing-related exercises, you could be burning anything from 750-900 calories, which is far more than jogging.

De-Stressing

There is a lot of research to suggest boxing has mental benefits too and helps keep stress levels low.  This isn’t uncommon for people who use exercising, whether it’s an hour down at their local gym or blasting out a 5k run, to destress. Studies have shown that boxing can be therapeutic, as you’ll be using the punching bag to take away stress.

Like we said, any exercise can be, but high impact combat exercises like this or any form of MMA share the same difference. It’s almost in the same ballpark as meditative exercise, so it’s worth consideration in the long term.

Building Muscle

Boxing is a sport that works a huge range of different muscle groups. Every punch you make, your muscles are being forced to use their speed and power for whatever you are training for This increases muscle mass, improving your strength and muscular endurance.

The most involved muscles in this situation are your delts, pecs, shoulders triceps and back since they’re doing most of the work. Your core and legs still do a huge amount of work to generate all of that power. As a result? Muscle building. (Mostly in toning your arms, abs and shoulders though, we have to reiterate).

Improving Cardiovascular Health

Because of how intense boxing workouts can be and how variable they are, you can make them a seriously effective cardio workout if you use them right. That’s great for your endurance and your overall health, so no matter why you’re training, it’s important and it has a tonne of benefits.

Your cardiovascular health is vital for maintaining good lung and heart function in the long term, and boxing is one of the best ways to do it. Even when put against running, boxing is a huge player.

Boosting Coordination

One of the key benefits of boxing that people often forget about is how it improves your hand-eye coordination. Unlike other sports, boxing relies on your reactions and ability to think fast. You have to focus on the target, which could be a punching bag or an opponent.

You need to understand their constant movements and behaviour in order to hit the target. This is why your hand-eye coordination is crucial and plays an influential role in your training and the ring. Don’t worry if you’re a little off-balance or have slow reactions; training will improve this and positively affect other things in your day-to-day lives such as driving.

Overall, boxing is an awesome way to boost fitness. It’s a highly effective way to burn calories and fat, whilst improving muscle mass and body strength; not forgetting your overall health. It’s also a great sport to train at home, as there is a variety of boxercise and punch bag exercises that you can do.

For more boxing benefits and exercises, check out more of our boxing range here.

Before beginning any exercise or nutrition program, consult your physician, doctor or other professional. This is especially important for individuals over the age of 35 or persons with pre-existing health problems. Exercise.co.uk assumes no responsibility for personal injury or property damage sustained using our advice.

If you experience dizziness, nausea, chest pain, or any other abnormal symptoms, stop the workout at once and consult a physician or doctor immediately.