What does boxing do for your body?

Are you a professional boxer? What does boxing do for your body? Most people are skeptical about this sport because of the painful blows. However, today we want to shed some light on the positives of this sport: Especially if a professional trains you.

So What Does Boxing Do For Your Body?

Muscle Growth

Boxing specifically develops the serratus anterior muscle (also referred to as “boxer’s muscle” or “big swing muscle”). It is the muscle located on your first 8 ribs. This muscle pulls the scapula forward as you throw a punch. It also moves the scapula around the rib cage as you swing your arms to retract them.
As a result, boxing transforms your upper-body and leg muscles. Punching and swinging your arms develop the shoulder and biceps muscles while boxer crouch moves develop your calf muscles.
Similarly, a boxer has to move his fist and elbow in a position to block the face. You also bend the knees and position your leg to hit your target. Continuous muscle movement is what builds them over time.
In addition, boxing stimulates the production of human growth hormone (HGH). HGH is the body hormone responsible for extreme muscle mass and endurance.

Energy and Stamina Build Up

Boxing gives you aerobic and muscle power. In a boxing session, you are constantly swinging your arms. This moves your arm and shoulder muscles repeatedly and consequently increasing your upper-body strength.
Similarly, in the boxer crouch, you bend your knees slightly with a wide stance. This strengthens your core muscles, legs, and back. With stronger muscles, you can easily carry a bag of groceries or get up out of a chair. You also climb a flight of stairs effortlessly, and you can walk further.

Fat burning

Have you ever heard of Fitness Boxing? Unlike other sports, fitness boxing gives you anaerobic fitness. This means you enjoy the benefits of the traditional boxing workout, but you don’t have to take the risks of suffering head trauma and enduring severe punches.
According to research, a single boxing session burns up to 816 calories per hour (for a 150-pound person). The figure is higher if you punch sandbags.
In fitness boxing, you don’t take up a rival partner. Instead, you throw punches at a punching bag or in the air. In a professional fitness boxing class, you follow a leader who guides you on several choreographed boxing moves.
These include; sweeping punches (hooks, crosses, and uppercuts), squats (ducks), smaller punches (jabs), and quick steps back and forward.
These are the same moves professional boxers make, right?
Moreover, in fitness boxing, you have additional strength training moves such as hitting a punching bag and stretching. You can make these moves while standing or seated.

Improved Concentration

With boxing comes better concentration and balance. As you keep changing your position, you challenge your balance. The more you practice that, the better your balance and reaction time improve.
In a real professional boxing scenario, you have to maintain focus and protect yourself to avoid taking painful punches. Your brain then becomes accustomed to concentration even outside the boxing ring. And sometimes, you anticipate trouble, like a crack in the sidewalk, and deal with it early.

Improved Hand to Eye Coordination

You realize after a few boxing sessions that your arms are more flexible. They move with speed and agility. And this gets better with more practice. In addition, for people who practice shadow boxing, punching bags, or hitting padded targets, research shows that you engage the part of your brain that is responsible for eye-hand coordination.
Therefore, you feel more alert and of course attentive. This translates to an easier time when picking up stuff as tiny as a pill or pen.

Improved Health

Fitness boxing gets your heart pumping and your skin sweating. Therefore, you improve blood circulation and skin perspiration, which lowers high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
The exercises also strengthen your muscles and bones and burns more calories.
Finally, since you are now able to manage your anger and stress, you get rid of stress-related illnesses and depression.

Stress Relief

People handle stress differently. Boxing is one of the few sports that allow you to release stress on an object (the punching bag) or a person (your opponent). This means that boxers have an upper hand at handling stressful environments than any other person.
In addition, just like runners experience ‘runner’s high’ phenomenon, boxers produce more endorphins as they engage the punching bag. These neurotransmitters are responsible for creating feel-good thoughts.
Boxing also makes you concentrate 100%: Especially in a real opponent match. This means your brain doesn’t have room for any more negative thoughts and you momentarily forget the issues stressing you.

You Develop Self Confidence and Increased Self-Esteem

If you win a boxing match, you might as well forget your worries completely. This will eventually help you manage anger and overcome it. And the better you get at the sport, the more confident you become. In other words, competence breeds confidence. And confidence is all you need to increase self-esteem.

Tip

Make sure you grab professional boxing gloves for the best performance. We have a detailed article on the best boxing gloves just for you.

Boxing FAQs

Q. Is Boxing Bad For My Body?

A. Yes and no. Professional boxers suffer seriously damaging blows. However, fitness boxers don’t. Because in fitness boxing, you don’t fight with human opponents. You fight objects as you swing your muscles in a way similar to professional boxers.

Q. Can Boxing Help Me To Lose Weight?

A. Yes. You can easily burn 1000 calories per session. And since boxing is categorized under high-intensity training, you continue to burn more fat for hours after the boxing session has ended (post-training calorie burning effect). This does not happen with other cardio activities. For this reason, boxing is your ultimate sport for weight loss. You will experience faster result especially if you combine fitness boxing with a healthy weight loss diet.

Q. Does Boxing Help To Manage Illnesses?

A. Research shows that boxing has positive effects on people with Parkison’s disease. In fact, there are several boxing institutions exclusively targeting these patients. Research also proves that boxing can lower your chances of suffering from depression. The latter is obviously due to the anger management benefits that you enjoy as a boxer.

Q. Is Wearing a Protective Boxing Gear Important?

A. Absolutely, yes! A protective boxing gear is the surest way to protect you from injury. The boxing gloves (not bag gloves) and hand wraps, protect your fingers, wrist, and hand muscles from a sprain. The head and mouth guards protect your brain and skull from damaging blows especially when sparring. And the body protectors protect your entire body. Body protectors are especially important for beginners.

The Bottom Line

Boxing is the only sport where you can determine where to start and how to scale. From shadow boxing in your bedroom, to bag punching in the garage, to a real fight in a professional boxing arena. As you enjoy the sport, I hope you can now answer the question: What does boxing do for your body? This sport can be adapted to help improve your endurance, strength, and balance.