Boxing Fitness: How Many Calories Does It Burn
Boxing classes seem to have all the hype these days -- and for good reason! Boxing is fun, strengthens the entire body, including the cardiovascular system, and is a great confidence boost. If you’re looking to better your overall health, boxercise can definitely help. But how many calories does it burn? Great question.
Getting into the ring packs a serious punch - burning more calories per hour than any other sport. In just one hour of boxing, you can burn up to 800 calories. That’s more than three pieces of chocolate cake, in case you were wondering. According to new research, this exciting way to exercise is also the best way to shed belly fat, burning more calories than running and gym workouts.
In addition to being an excellent way to burn calories, boxing for fitness comes with a ton of incredible benefits. Interested? Keep reading to learn more.
Boxing For Fitness
Boxing is one of those fitness trends that seems to always be in the periphery - never fading out of sight completely, but never really taking the world by storm. And while the amazing Billy Blanks helped to introduce a more aerobic-friendly version of kickboxing to the world when he developed Tae Bo in the ‘90s, kickboxing’s cousin - boxing - remained mostly out of sight -- until now.
New franchises such as Legends Boxing are stepping away from the gritty, hard-nosed atmosphere of old-school boxing facilities and are creating warm environments that are welcoming for just about anyone.
Boxing as a sport requires a great deal of punching finesse and a high level of athletic prowess: strength, agility, speed, hand-eye coordination, endurance, and power, just to name a few of the required attributes. Boxing as a fitness activity, on the other hand, enables the average person to hone those same athletic attributes, all without having to take a punch. If you’re searching for a way to get in great shape, burn calories, and improve your overall health, you just might want to sign up for a membership at your local boxing club. There are a number of reasons why.
Increased Cardiovascular Health
You hear it all the time: You need to exercise and do cardio in order to protect yourself from heart disease and type 2 diabetes, burn calories, and lose or maintain your weight. But just “doing” cardio doesn’t have to mean hopping on a treadmill staring off into the abyss for countless hours on end -- how boring is that?
The whole point of cardiovascular activity is to place a moderate amount of stress on your heart and lungs so that they are challenged to make beneficial physiologic adaptations to support the higher level of physical activity. But how you decide to place stress on them is solely up to you. As long as you keep your heart rate up during your workout routine, there’s no reason why you can’t kick, punch, and jump your way to a healthy and happy heart at your local boxing club.
Improved Total-Body Strength
All that kicking, punching, and jumping requires a surprising amount of strength. Think about it - most heavy bags weigh at least one hundred pounds.
During a boxing workout, you may kick or punch a heavy bag hundreds of times, requiring your lower body, upper body, and core to engage as you make contact. In addition, most gyms like Legends Boxing incorporate other effective strength training moves into the boxing workout, too. For example, you might do squats, pushups, planks, crunches, and weighted medicine ball exercises all within the context of a fast-paced 60-minute workout.
Decreased Stress
Almost any form of physical activity can decrease stress. According to scientists, exercise increases endorphins, boosts mood, works as a form of meditation, and improves sleep - all of which can help to reduce stress.
But sometimes you need a little more than a walk around the block to help you forget what’s stressing you out. Boxing is a great outlet for two reasons: First, during a workout, you typically transition between bouts of high-intensity exercise and moderate-intensity recovery periods. When you’re giving it your all and pushing yourself through a few minutes of high-intensity kicking or punching, you don’t have much mental power left to worry about how dirty your house is or how demanding your job is. And even during rest periods, you’ll be focused on catching your breath and mentally preparing for the next rounds - not stressing over your crazy schedule.
Secondly, there’s a cathartic release when you get to take out some of your stress on a punching bag. It’s an empowering feeling to punch your stress to smithereens.
Teaches Self-Defense
Always say NO to violence. But be prepared to defend yourself if needed. The simple fact of the matter is that we live in a world where people like to be violent. For that reason, people need to be able to defend themselves. Sure, people train to box in order to get fit and to be competitive in the ring. However, the lessons you’ll learn in boxing are extremely valuable in real-life situations where your life may be threatened.
Better Hand-Eye Coordination
You may not really think too much about the importance of hand-eye coordination and its effect on total health, but believe it or not, hand-eye coordination plays an important role in a person’s fine motor skills. Boxers with good hand-eye coordination tend to have faster reflexes and reaction times and tend to have much better physical coordination as a whole. This is particularly important as you age because coordination and balance tend to become compromised, which can increase the risk of falls.
Boxing is great for hand-eye coordination. When you’re paired up to spar with a partner or tasked with punching a speed bag, you must be able to see the target, react to the target, and punch the target, all while the target is moving about and changing position. It’s challenging, but with practice, your hand-eye coordination will improve substantially.
Improved Body Composition
Boxing is ideal for improving your body composition. Why? Because it combines muscle-building strength training moves and calorie-burning bouts of cardiovascular activity perfectly. By regularly participating in boxing classes and following a nutritious eating plan full of fresh fruits and veggies, there’s no reason you won’t see changes in your shape and improvements to your fat mass percentage.
Improved Self-Confidence
Want to improve your self-esteem and confidence? Boxing can help. After going through months of regular boxing workout routines, you’ll look tones, healthier, and fitter. That alone will leave you feeling unstoppable and strong. How you perceive yourself and how you look physically has a huge impact on your self-esteem. Boxing can also boost your confidence as master new skills.
Develop Discipline
Boxing teaches discipline and persistence; if you want to progress in this sport, you’ll need to push yourself out of your comfort zone and give it everything you’ve got, regardless of how tiring and difficult the exercises are. Between the technical training, mental concentration, toughness, and physical conditioning, there is no time for slacking off and laziness. The discipline that is taught in relation to boxing can be applied to all aspects of your life, and it’s not just necessary to become stronger and faster, it is part of the culture that surrounds the sport.
Meet Like-Minded Friends
Even with the immersive benefits, it doesn’t mean that boxing has to be something that isolates you all the time. When you go to a boxing class, you’ll experience a surge of positive energy from like-minded individuals with similar goals that face similar challenges as you. After many classes, you’ll begin to develop friendships that will support you on your fitness journey, as you support them as well. From sparring to swapping healthy recipes, you will quickly find that the boxing community is one of the most uplifting communities in the world of fitness. Find an awesome club like Legends Boxing that caters to all fitness levels and is backed by an evergrowing community to help keep you on track.
RECAP
So, how many calories does a boxing fitness class burn? Depending on how much effort you put into the workout, you can burn up to 800 calories boxing. This is much more than running, biking, or working out on your own at the local gym.
Boxing is one of the most effective and concise ways to get in shape and improve your overall health. Plus, it’s a lot of fun! If you are interested in burning a ton of calories while improving your cardiovascular health, total body strength, body composition, hand-eye coordination, and self-confidence while learning self-defense and discipline, as well as decreasing stress levels and making friends, look no further and sign up for a boxing class. Trust us - you’ll be glad you did!
Sources:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4670290/Boxing-burns-calories-sex-survey-reveals.html
https://terrasportika.ro/tae-bo-history/
