Jab, Jab, Straight : The 8 benefits of boxing

benefit of boxing image girl with glooves

Boxing may be one of the most intimidating sports, especially when compared to other combat sports like kickboxing and MMA. But it has captured the hearts of health-conscious because of its benefits. And while it’s fairly a challenging routine, boxing promotes strength, flexibility, and agility.

Beyond physical fitness, people choose boxing because it can somehow provide a means of self-defence when needed.

A data written by Livestrong says, working out on a heavy bag can burn between 354 and 558 calories per hour depending on the intensity of your workout and your weight.

Here are 8 benefits of boxing.

  1. Good hand-eye coordination
    Hand and eye coordination is important to a person’s fine motor skills. People with good hand-eye coordination have faster reflexes and have better coordination. This is important especially during aging as coordination and balance are compromised. This prevents old people from the risk of falling down.
  2. Total Body work out
    With a potential burn rate of 13 calories a minute, boxing targets the entire body, thus a total body workout. It also boosts strength, coordination, and reactivity.
  3. Reduces stress
    Boxing as an intense workout helps the body release feel-good hormones called endorphins which makes you feel confident, happy, and less stressed.
  4. Increases bone density
    Our bone mass declined we age our bone. When left untreated this medical condition may seriously affect our health and could result in osteoporosis. Boxing helps prevent bone loss as it loads all of your major bones. When bones are put under strain, this triggers specialized cells to build bone. The more load on the bone, the greater the benefit. Any activity that involves muscle force also stimulates bone building.
  5. Burns calories, FAST.
    As it is a total body workout, boxing perhaps has been an ultimate high-intensity interval training exercise. According to Antonio Valverde, a boxing instructor and own Elite City Fitness in New York “boxing is both an aerobic and an anaerobic workout”.Boxing is an aerobic workout because it makes you sweat and gets your heart beat faster thus strengthening your lungs and trains your cardiovascular system to deliver oxygen more quickly and efficiently throughout your body. It is an anaerobic as it builds strength, speed, power, and boosts metabolism. This means you burn calories faster with boxing compared to running at a steady clip.
  6. Gives you the ability to defend yourself
    If there is one obvious benefit of boxing then it is self-defence.  Boxing is in an effective form of fighting. In a boxing training, you are not limited to kicking or punching a heavy bag or hitting mitts but you actually get to do some sparring. Sparring has techniques, it teaches you controlled movements and when to strike at the right time.
  7. Improves cardiovascular health.
    The point of cardio is that it challenges your heart and lungs enough to benefit and adopt a high level of physical activity. And if you’re thinking about running on a steady treadmill, we recommend boxing instead.
  8. Increase muscles
    In boxing, you punch with power! As you do this, you put in a lot of weight making your legs, hips, back, abs, shoulders, and arms work together, simultaneously. You will not get buff with boxing but it works out all of your body parts thus increasing muscles especially your stabilizer muscles.

Resources:
http://www.moneycrashers.com/health-benefits-boxing-workouts/
http://www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/8-reasons-you-need-punch-your-workout-routine
http://examinedexistence.com/the-7-benefits-of-boxing-training-or-7-reasons-why-you-should-train-boxing/
http://www.muscleandfitness.com/features/edge/banging-bag
http://www.livestrong.com/article/405122-what-are-the-health-benefits-of-boxing/
http://www.berkeleywellness.com/fitness/exercise/article/boxing-bone-density

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