10 Benefits Of Practicing Boxing
When you think cardio, usually treadmills and elliptical trainers are the first things to pop up in your mind. Thinking about strength and muscle-tone directs your thoughts to weights like dumbbells and barbells. But, what if both cardio, and strength and conditioning could be done as one? The answer is yes and this can be done by practicing boxing.
Boxing is great for both cardio and developing strength. There are huge benefits your body can gain from boxing. Regardless of age gender or level of fitness, anyone can enjoy boxing if they choose to put in the effort. As such, boxing is not exclusive to athletes, pro-fighters, and exercise enthusiasts. What’s more is that boxing allows you to strengthen your muscles, improve your endurance and develop a strong mindset.
Boxing is really worth the effort and time because it gets you results that will not fail to surprise you. Listed here are 10 main benefits of boxing.
Improves core stability
Core stability is one of the many benefits of boxing. Boxing causes your body to become unstable which then activates your core muscles. Your core muscles are forced to work harder to keep you balanced while performing all the fast rotational movements involved in boxing. But, thanks to these movements your core muscles develop faster and become stronger therefore, allowing you to punch harder while maintaining good balance.
Improves body awareness and coordination
Having to move your almost every part of your body at the same time requires you to have a good connection between your mind and your body. Boxing helps cultivate focus, patience, and discipline through practice which helps you develop better awareness of your body and improves mind and muscle coordination.
It promotes fat burning and weight management
Boxing can burn approximately 500 calories per session. Unlike typical cardio exercises in which there is no post training calorie burn boxing can help you burn calories like any other high-intensity cardio training. Since boxing is considered to be a high-intensity cardio training, your body continues to burn fat for hours even after the training session ends. This way you stand to lose excess weight and keep your weight in check. This is one the best benefits of boxing.
It is good for relieving stress
While boxing is one brilliant way to get into shape, there are some psychological benefits of boxing as well. It turns out that hitting stuff can actually make you feel really good and it would be safer to take out the stresses of your everyday life in a controlled environment. You will notice that you feel calmer and more relaxed after your boxing session.
Strengthens your ligaments and bones
Boxing also involves resistance training. The focus pads and punching bag that you punch provide this resistance training that helps in strengthening your bones. Moreover, this is extremely beneficial as it can reduce the progression of osteoporosis.
Bodyweight workouts are a major part of boxing training and they happen to be great resistance workouts as well. By performing pushups, pull ups, burpees, lunges, and more, you will strengthen your soft tissues like your joints, ligaments, and tendons. Bodyweight workouts also increase your lean muscle mass which boosts your metabolism. This helps in reducing your overall body-fat percentage.
It increases your muscle tone
Boxers typically have a lean and toned physique rather than a bulky body which is why it is the perfect exercising regimen to help you tone yourself up. The reason is because practicing punches in boxing helps in producing tone taut muscles. This is very different from slow controlled cardio which involves very heavy movements like in weight lifting or body-building for size and gains.
Improves your cardiovascular fitness
One of the main benefits of boxing is that it can significantly improve your cardiovascular health. Since boxing requires you to engage all your muscles at the same time, your heart and lungs are pushed to work overtime to pump blood and oxygen all over your body.
It’s no doubt that boxing is probably one of the ultimate tests for your cardiovascular system. It forces your body to adapt by increasing your heart and lung’s potential of delivering oxygen. With this you will be able to train at a higher intensity which will even help your body burn fat at a faster rate.
Your strength and power increases
Boxing is indeed a full body workout since you need to engage your legs, hips, glutes, obliques, core, back, shoulder, chest, and arms when your throw a proper punch. These muscles tend to contract with more force and speed when you punch against punching bags which offer strong resistance. This helps in developing strength and power.
Increases muscle endurance
Your muscles contract repeatedly while boxing which causes them to accumulate fatigue. However, if you stick to your training your muscles’ ability to keep contracting will soon increase and you will be able to withstand longer durations of training without tiring quickly. This will definitely allow you to burn even more calories.
Boosts your confidence and self-esteem
When you finally master the techniques that you have been practicing for days you gain a sense of achievement which makes you feel good about yourself. This really boosts your confidence and makes you want to put in more effort every time you start training. It is satisfying to hear the noise of the pad or bag when you land a strong accurate punch. This only goes to further improve your self-esteem.
Boxing can take your fitness to a whole new level
As you now are well aware of the many benefits of boxing, why not get started as soon as possible? Boxing is the best way to combine both cardio and strength training in one complete fitness program. There are so many ways in which boxing can improve your body and overall health besides giving you a tight sexy body that you always desired. You will also gain the confidence to tackle any possible situation that comes your way as you will be equipped with the mentality of a fighter to never back down.
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