7 Surprising Benefits Of Boxing

Boxing is one of the most globalized combat sports, and the top boxers remain some of the highest-paid athletes in the world. Anyone can master the sweet science and enjoy the many rewards that come with it, like being capable of defending yourself and your loved ones, not just the professionals or most athletic. Learning how to box doesn’t require you having to deal with being punched hard in the face when sparring. That aspect is typically reserved for those who plan to box competitively.

Technique breakdowns, mitt work, heavy bag work, speed bag drills, shadow boxing, and light sparring are more than enough to help master boxing. Signing up for boxing classes will improve your life in various ways.  Today, Evolve Daily shares 7 benefits that you can reap from learning how to box:

1) Improves Cardiovascular Health

Kickboxing World Champion Hiroki Akimoto from Evolve Fight Team refining his techinques on the heavy bag.

Boxing is an effective way to improve your cardiovascular health. Boxing requires you to move around a lot as you train, throwing punches, moving across the ring, all forcing your heart to work harder to supply these areas with oxygen and blood. Try throwing punches non-stop for 60 seconds and see how much it raises your heart rate. Boxing training also includes lots of drills like jump rope, which helps to improve your footwork and cardio. 

Doctors recommend getting at least 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise at least five days per week. Learning how to box gives you a lot more than 20 minutes of cardio each training session. Training will noticeably improve your cardiovascular endurance, protecting you against health issues like heart attacks, high blood pressure, and strokes. 

Improving your cardiovascular endurance will carry over into other aspects of your everyday life. You’ll notice that you’re no longer breathing hard after running up a flight of stairs. 

2) Builds Muscles And Definition

Boxing helps to build and engage different muscle groups.

Boxing training gives you a full-body workout that helps to build big, strong muscles. The intense cardiovascular exercise you perform while training helps keep these muscles well-defined. On top of that, adding weightlifting programs helps to further strengthen and condition your body for even more gains.

Boxing doesn’t just build muscles that look good; it targets many of the smaller muscles conventional workouts often miss, especially the surrounding joints and muscles that help with stability. As a result, you end up with a noticeably more impressive physique than those who only lift weights. 

3) Builds Strong Bones And Joints

Boxing can gradually enhance your joint and bone health over time.

Boxing training makes your bones stronger and denser. Considering how our bones become weaker as we age, building stronger bones protects you from degenerative diseases like osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. Most weight-bearing exercises are beneficial for building stronger bones and joints.

Boxing requires you to be light on your feet as you move around the squared circle. Constantly bouncing around and shifting your weight while training puts weight on your legs, knees, and feet, strengthening them in the process. 

Punching anything solid – like a punching bag or mitts – counts as a weight-bearing exercise since your arm runs into resistance. The more weight or resistance your bones deal with, the more your osteoblast builds more bone tissues.

4) Improves Hand-Eye Coordination

Boxing elevates hand-eye-coordination as it teaches you how to react to different moves.

Boxing requires strong visual-motor coordination on your part since you are often performing multiple motions at one. For example, when punching a target, you’re required to move your hips, twist your torso while throwing a jab all in one swift motion.

Through constant drills and training sessions, your body starts getting sharper and more coordinated, with an increase in your reflexes and reaction time. The consistent drills from boxing gradually improve your hand-eye coordination. The more you train, the better your hand-eye coordination becomes.

5) Confidence Booster

Boxing fosters self-discovery, leading to a long-term boost in self-confidence.

Learning how to box creates wonders for your confidence and self-esteem. There are many reasons why this occurs. For starters, training helps you feel stronger and healthier than ever before since exercising makes you feel good about yourself. Through gradual training, your body starts getting lean and fitter, increasing your self-esteem knowing that you feel as good as you look with that lean physique, appreciating and accepting how you look.

Boxing also teaches you how to defend yourself and your loved ones, you’ll feel more confident and secure as you interact with the world at large, knowing that should any danger arise, you can protect yourself and those you care about from potential threats. 

6) Gets You In Shape

Boxing provides a full-body workout which helps to keep the body fit.

Boxing gives you an intense cardio workout that can burn up to 1,000 calories for every hour spent at the gym. Burning that many calories while exercising makes it easier to manage your weight. It makes dieting easier since you get to eat more thanks to all your hard work in the gym. 

Boxing training raises your exercise post-oxygen consumption, so your body burns more calories even when you’re not training. The bigger muscles you build thanks to training also help to increase your metabolism. Take a look at the people in any boxing gym, and you’ll notice most of the dedicated students have lean, muscular physiques. 

7) Excellent Stress Reliever

Boxing helps to release endorphins that help you feel better after each session!

Boxing training serves as destructive therapy since it provides a safe environment for you to take out your anger and frustration on inanimate things like punching bags. Bottling up negative emotions can adversely affect your health, often leading to outbursts that are not accurate reflections of who you are. 

Finding an activity like boxing that allows you to release all your negative emotions productively benefits you. In the long run, this lowers your overall stress levels. You also get a release of feel-good hormones like serotonin – after training, elevating your mood as you leave the gym.

Boxing training gives you all the physical activity you need in a day, making sure your body is tired by the time you go to bed. This helps to improve overall sleep quality, which also helps to reduce stress. 

Give Boxing A Try

Thinking about giving boxing classes a shot? Attend one of our complimentary introductory classes to see what training with world-class instructors looks like. 

Book your complimentary trial class with our World Champions below!

If you have any other questions regarding Evolve MMA and the programs we offer, you can get in touch with our membership executives at the following locations:

Evolve MMA (Far East Square)
26 China Street
Far East Square #01-01
Singapore 049568
Phone: Evolve MMA (Orchard Central)
181 Orchard Road
#06-01 Orchard Central
Singapore 238896
Phone: Evolve MMA (KINEX)
11 Tanjong Katong Road
#02-52 KINEX
Singapore 437157
Phone: Evolve MMA (Clarke Quay Central)
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#04-18 Clarke Quay Central
Singapore 059817
Phone: Evolve MMA (Star Vista)
1 Vista Exchange Green
#02-26A The Star Vista
Singapore 138617
Phone: (65) 6539 9590