Top Benefits of a Boxing Workout and Why You Should Try It
Boxing workouts are increasingly popular and not just for boxers in training. The average person who will never step into a competitive ring can benefit from this type of workout. It involves cardio, agility, and strength. Boxing fitness can be a rewarding and fun new challenge.
What’s Involved in Fitness Boxing?
Boxing classes can be adapted for fitness and experience levels but generally include three segments or types of exercise:
Cardiovascular. Most classes begin with a warm-up and a cardio session that varies in intensity, depending on the participants or class level. This could include agility moves, jumping rope, and other moves that amp up heart rate quickly.
Strength. Boxing requires strength. If you look at any pro boxer, you can tell that they spend time building muscle. Boxing classes usually have a strength training portion that includes core work.
Boxing Intervals. Of course, the class also includes actual boxing, typically with a pads or a bag. This portion of the workout is usually in a HIIT (high intensity interval training) format with rest periods.
Clearly, one of the benefits is that you get cardio, strength, agility, and HIIT all in one session.
Boxing Training vs. Fitness Boxing
Boxing training is not the same as a fitness boxing class so don’t be scared! This is a fun class aimed at everyone, you need not have stepped in the ring before or have any desire to ever do so.
Fitness boxing is inspired by real boxing training, but the goal is to improve fitness and health. It takes many of the elements of training that are fun, challenging, and good for cardio health and strength. You may or may not spar with another person during fitness boxing, but most classes use punching pads only. This makes it a safe and fun way to train.
7 Benefits of a Boxing Workout
With intense cardio, strength training, core work, agility, and footwork all in one workout, how couldn’t there be benefits?
1. Boosts Cardiovascular Health
One of the biggest benefits of boxing is that it improves your cardiovascular fitness, which in turn reduces your risks for cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. The bouts of high-intensity training followed by a rest period is particularly good for your heart.
2. Build Muscle and Strength All Over
Strength training is another major component of boxing fitness classes. Many classes do intervals of strength work alternating with punching a bag and other technical moves. Even when boxing workouts do not include specific resistance moves, they boost full-body strength.
This is because you need your entire body to box. Throwing a punch correctly involves the whole body and most muscle groups. You need your core to stabilise yourself, your lower body and hips to pivot and give power to the punch, and of course, the upper body to deliver the blow.
3. Develop Endurance
A boxing workout is not easy. It is an intense experience. No matter what your skill or fitness level is, a good boxing session should put you through the ringer and be challenging. Many people inherently enjoy this, but it’s also good for your fitness because it builds stamina and improves endurance.
If you attend boxing classes regularly, you’ll find it easier to work out longer and more intensely. Boxing workouts are great additions to training plans if you participate in endurance events like distance running and triathlons.
4. Support a Healthy Weight
Any kind of fitness routine can be an excellent way to aid weight loss or the maintenance of a healthy weight. However, boxing is proven to beat out other types of exercise for burning calories efficiently. First, it’s a HIIT workout, which triggers the metabolism to keep firing on all cylinders well after the session ends. Then, there is the strength component. As you build muscle, you burn more calories at all times.
Boxing workouts are fast-paced and challenging. One hour-long session can burn 600 or more calories, depending on your weight and effort level.
5. Improve Balance and Coordination
The agility component of boxing is great for balance, while punching improves hand-eye coordination. Even without core-specific movements during the strength-training portion of the workout, boxing builds these muscles. The moves needed to box build core strength, which in turn helps you balance better.
Older clients and those with particular health needs especially benefit from core strength and improvements in balance.
6. Stay Interested in Fitness
Adherence to fitness is a major challenge in gyms and for all trainers. It can be hard to keep people coming back for more workouts for a lot of reasons. The more interesting and varied you can make fitness, the more likely people are to stick with it.
Boxing is FUN, even for people who have no interest in boxing as a sport. When the only thing hit is a bag and there are minimal safety risks, anyone can do it and most enjoy it.
7. The Benefits of a Boxing Workout are Mental Too
All of these physical benefits are enough to encourage most people to give boxing a try, but there’s more. The intense nature of the workout, the physical and mental challenge, and the release of hitting something hard all contribute to the mental health benefits of boxing workouts:
Reduce stress and other negative emotions
Find emotional release in a safe environment
Lift a bad mood after a rough day
Sleep better at night after an intense workout
Get self-confidence from meeting a challenge and getting stronger
Cardio Boxing Tuesdays 7.30pm-8pm, Fridays 6.30am-7.05am