The Real Benefits of Boxing | No Bullshit Guide
Everyone knows that boxing training is going to have massive benefits for your overall physical health. Increased cardio from running, jumping rope, and moving your feet back and forth, side to side, training to outwit your own shadow before trying your gloves on a partner — the cumulative benefits of constant movement cannot be overstated.
But, there are plenty of benefits of boxing training beyond the physical including boosts to your mental health and general wellbeing.
People begin boxing for a variety of reasons including to improve their overall fitness, to make a career out of fighting, or to learn to defend themselves. And, whatever the motivation for beginning to box, there are some benefits of boxing training that everyone who picks up a pair of gloves can enjoy.
So if you’re on the fence about starting boxing, or you’re already a boxer and want to know more about what it does to your mind and body then read on to find out more about the benefits of boxing.
1. Improved Cardiovascular Health
How good is boxing for your body? Can boxing get you in shape? Without a doubt.
Boxing provides a high-intensity cardio regimen that can burnup to 1,000 calories per hour. This calorie-burning activity facilitates a more wholesome lifestyle. During boxing, you'll move frequently while training, throwing jabs and moving around the ring. These actions cause your heart to work harder, supplying your muscles with blood and oxygen.
Boxing ranks among the top methods for achieving cardiovascular fitness. The intensity of training raises your heart rate and makes your lungs work harder, meaning you will get an increased calorie burn and fat metabolism. As a safe and controlled physical activity, boxing places additional stress on your body in a safe and managed way, which results in beneficial changes to the systems in your body to support this increased level of exercise.
To maintain good health, medical experts repeatedly emphasize the importance of protecting our hearts from diseases and common illnesses. Cardiovascular exercise, recommended by doctors at a minimum of 20 minutes per day, five days per week, is essential for this.
However, boxing as a cardiovascular workout surpasses the recommended minimum. With just one session of training, boxing provides more than 20 minutes of cardio, resulting in noticeable improvements in cardiovascular endurance. Meaning regular boxing training can protect us against health problems such as heart attacks, high blood pressure, and strokes.
If you ant an effective boxing training plan, check out our recent article here.
2. Builds Lean Muscle Mass
Boxing is not only great for maintaining cardiovascular fitness, but it's also a fantastic way to get a full-body workout and develop strong, defined muscles. By incorporating boxing into your workout routine, you can enhance your body’s lean muscle mass and boost overall strength.
One of the most significant advantages of boxing is how it targets even the smallest muscles that more traditional workouts neglect, such as those in your joints and muscles that assist with stability. This helps you achieve a more impressive physical appearance than just lifting weights.
The nature of boxing training includes a wide range of calisthenic exercises such as body weight push ups, body weight squats and the dreaded burpees. In a research done at the University of Palermo, it showed that calisthenic exercises can help to build muscles more effectively while at the same time improving your body composition.
Boxing engages almost all of your muscle groups, decreasing body fat and increasing muscle mass when paired with a healthy diet. And plus, it's a more enjoyable way of building muscle since it involves continuous motion and can be done in the presence of an encouraging team or community.
3. Stress Release
Stress release may be one of boxing’s greatest gifts to boxers of all ages.
In daily life, we all experience stress in various ways, whether at home, work, or elsewhere. As a natural aspect of life, regular exercise can counter stress. Exercise stimulates the release of endorphins, or happy hormones, which improve our moods.
While all physical activity releases endorphins, boxing excels at stress reduction. If you're feeling pent up or frustrated, an hour in a boxing gym can be profoundly stress-relieving, helping you release your emotions and alleviate any tension you may be experiencing. There’s just something about harnessing whatever weighs heavy on your mind and letting it out on the heavy bag.
Boxing can help channel whatever needs releasing, whether it be the stresses of adulthood, interpersonal conflicts or frustration. It often proves a meditative exercise, allowing you to clear your mind and concentrate solely on punching away the stress. In the ring, the outside world fades away, leaving you with nothing except for you, your fists, and the release boxing provides.
4. Boosts Your Confidence Like Nothing Else
One of the greatest benefits of boxing training is that you can begin to feel more confident in yourself.
We’ve seen boxing turn shy people who once experienced bullying at school, walk taller with heightened confidence and walk around with bigger smiles. Which is proof of boxing's positive impact.
The positive impact boxing not only has lasting impact on individuals, but it echoes into troubled communities aswell. Boxing serves as an avenue to guide at-risk youth in the proper direction by teaching them the importance of discipline, fitness, camaraderie, and authoritative mentors to look up to in the form of head trainers or elder training partners. Read this story for an inspiring example.
As you progress through your training and commit to regularly working out, you’ll see your body adapt and your mindset shift. Getting stronger, seeing more definition in your muscles, being able to defend yourself and generally being healthier all has an incredibly positive effect on your self-confidence.
But it’s not just about looking good, boxing can also help you to experience confidence in yourself in other ways. Boxing can help you to experience pride in your commitment when you show up for yourself and head to the gym week after week, even when you’d rather sit at home with a takeaway.
Boxing also teaches you how to get hit and get back up, which is an essential life skill you need to have as you go through the challenges that life brings. There’s also nothing like knowing you’re capable of defending your loved ones, there is a profound level of confidence that comes with knowing that should any danger arise, you can protect the ones you love.
5. A Sense of Belonging
One of the biggest benefits of boxing away from the physical is the sense of belonging you get.
Whether through sparring partners at your local gym who you train with, talking with international boxing fans online or engaging with global boxing organizations, there exist thousands of individuals who share the same interests and passions as you do.
Joining that community and actively participating is an incredible thing. The boxing community offers a source of support, celebrating your accomplishments and picking you up when you're feeling low.
Here at BoxRope we have an incredible community of boxers around the world who support and encourage each other to keep going, follow us on social media to be part of our beloved community.
Summary.
So, now you know all the benefits of boxing training, what are you waiting for?
Get yourself a pair of gloves, head to your local gym and experience the benefits for yourself.
Want more boxing tips? Check out our full list of articles here.
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