This article looks at the benefits of boxing for fitness.
Boxing for fitness has taken off in recent years, and it is now the workout of choice for many men and women.
One of the primary reasons for the popularity of boxing fitness training is that it offers muscle toning, strengthening, and cardio benefits in one workout.
It is also fun to do, and at between ten and thirty minutes each, workouts are relatively short.
If the thought of boxing scares you, relax! Boxing as exercise and boxing as a profession are very different.
When boxing to get fit, you won’t have to climb into a ring and compete, so you don’t have to worry about being hit or hitting another person.
Many commercial gyms offer classes that will enable you to reap the benefits of boxing safely.
Alternatively, you can purchase boxing fitness equipment and work out at home.
Table of Contents
What equipment will I need?
Boxing fitness equipment you will need includes a punching bag and a stand from which to hang it. Alternatively, you can suspend the bag from a sturdy ceiling beam.
Just make sure that the beam will support the bag’s weight and that where you hang it has sufficient ceiling height and plenty of free space.
You will also need boxing gloves, wrist wraps to help support your wrists, and comfortable, supportive shoes.
A jump rope and a medicine ball are other useful accessories. This combination of boxing fitness equipment will enable you to get a well-rounded workout.
If you want to spar with a friend, you will also need a boxing pad.
For lighter sessions and upper body toning, you can get away with just buying a pair of weighted gloves.
Next, we will look at some of the primary benefits of boxing for fitness to help you decide if you should add it to your workout regimen.
Click here to find out how to get the most from heavy bag work boxing training.
30-minute boxing fitness workout
Boxing for Fitness Benefits
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Improved physical and mental health
Health experts recommend that along with a nutritious eating plan, maintaining a healthy weight and doing regular cardio workouts is our best protection against several dangerous health conditions.
Cardiovascular endurance is essential for maintaining the circulatory system’s overall health and function. It can also extend our longevity.
Cardio activity places moderate stress on the heart and the lungs. This enables these organs to make physiologic adaptations to support physical activity.
The repeated punching and jumping or kicking involved in boxing fitness workouts elevates the heart rate and keeps it up for the training session duration.
Over time, the body recovers and adapts to this stress, allowing individuals to gradually increase the time and intensity with which they can comfortably exercise.
Put simply, with regular sessions practitioners can work harder for longer and recover faster. But why is this important?
According to the American Heart Association (AHA), cardiovascular endurance can help lower the threat of heart disease, hypertension, and stroke.
Moreover, endurance exercises such as boxing can regulate blood sugar and insulin levels, lowering the risk of Type II diabetes.
As with most types of exercise, boxing can profoundly affect mental health.
Aerobic exercises like boxing can lower anxiety, stave off depressive symptoms, and improve mood regulation.
In addition, strenuous physical activities such as boxing improve cognitive functions, including working memory, focus, brain fog, and information processing.
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Improved total-body strength
A small punching bag weighs around 90 pounds, with some larger ones weighing over 200 pounds. 
Weighted boxing gloves come in various weights, with the lightest starting at one-half of a pound.
You might punch one hundred times or more during a single session, engaging your core, upper, and lower body muscles with every punch.
Some boxing fitness workouts incorporate bodyweight moves such as Squats, Push-ups, and Planks.
You can also incorporate a jump rope and a medicine ball if desired. These additional components will enable you to improve your cardiovascular fitness and tone and strengthen your entire body faster.
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Burns fat and calories
Boxing fitness training offers an efficient way to burn calories.
On average, boxing fitness workouts burn between 450 and 650 calories every 60 minutes, depending on the person’s age, gender, weight, and effort.
The calories burned while boxing with a heavy bag will exceed those burned when using a light punching bag.
This compares favorably to most other cardio routines. When walking, the average person burns approximately 200 calories per hour. Jogging, the same individual will burn around 300 to 400 calories, and they will burn in the vicinity of 500 to 600 calories running.
Along with a high-calorie burn, fitness experts say that boxing for fitness helps burn stomach fat. Known as visceral fat, this is dangerous to a person’s health, so we should focus on reducing, if not eliminating it.
These benefits put boxing fitness workouts among the most efficient form of exercise that will not just improve your appearance but potentially your health.
Resistance training can be included in your boxing fitness sessions to optimize and speed up your result.
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Strengthens and tones muscles
Heavy bag punching provides the perfect opportunity to enhance a person’s punching power and build muscle.
You will work your arms, shoulders, back, and chest muscles with every punch.
Your leg muscles will also come into play due to the resistance generated as you stabilize yourself.
This makes boxing fitness training ideal if, along with becoming more fit and powerful, you want to build muscle.
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Reduces stress
You may think that pounding away on a punching bag will send your aggression into overdrive. The 
reality, however, is that it is quite therapeutic.
In fact, fitness boxing is a helpful way to take the edge off after a tough day or week.
Almost any physical activity undertaken at a moderate to brisk pace, including boxing, will lower stress.
With every punch, you will relieve physical tension and mental stress.
Endorphins, the body’s feel-good chemicals, will be released, stimulating your mood and further reducing stress.
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Improves stamina and endurance
Boxing fitness training increases the heart rate and boosts oxygen supply.
Over time, this makes the heart and the lungs stronger and healthier since they must work hard to supply oxygen throughout the body.
Ultimately, this process will increase your stamina and endurance.
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Improves hand-eye coordination
Boxing fitness workouts require hand-eye coordination.
When using a punching bag, you will have to focus on it and react quickly, hitting it and changing your position as it moves. This is more challenging than it sounds.
When done consistently, your hand-eye coordination will improve over time, as will your gross and fine motor skills, reflexes, and reaction times.
Boxing for Fitness Conclusion
When undertaken regularly, along with improving your shape, physical, and mental health, 
boxing fitness workouts can boost your strength, speed, hand-eye coordination, power, and endurance.
Workouts are convenient, too, as you can do them just about anywhere there’s a bit of free space.
If you don’t want to go to a gym, buy a punching bag or weighted gloves and take advantage of the benefits of boxing in the comfort and privacy of your own home.
