Boxing may not the first sport that comes to mind when you think about starting a new fitness regime, but there are six very good reasons to give this dynamic sport a try. Whether you’re just starting out and trying to get in shape or you’re stuck in a workout rut and need results fast, boxing can offer an incredible workout unlike any other.
- Boxing is an amazing cardiovascular workout
Far from just standing in a ring and throwing punches, boxing is a total body cardiovascular workout which will get your heart rate up and your sweat running fast. Because the art of boxing relies on constant movement to stay light on your feet and dodge your opponent, you are kept literally ‘on your toes’ throughout your whole workout.
A coordinated sequence of hooks, uppercuts and kicks can get the blood pumping, and increase the intensity of your workout. Moving back into the defensive pose, while staying light on your feet keeps the heart rate up while giving you a bit of a break. It’s all up to you, and at your pace. Not to mention it’s far more interesting than slogging out an hour on the cross trainer.
- Build muscle strength without weights
If the idea of weights intimidates you or you want to avoid building too much bulk, boxing is the perfect way to build muscle and keep you lean and mean. Punching bags and mitts require a lot of force to budge, and all that resistance works on your muscles to increase strength and muscle tone.
While it’s obvious that punches take care of the biceps, triceps, and shoulders, boxing also develops core strength through supporting these movements and through the twisting and turning that’s involved. The legs get a fierce workout from all the dodging and kicking, and all together that rounds up an entire body strength workout that can build some serious muscle tone.
- Improve agility and balance
While agility and balance are not the first factors that come to mind when discussing fitness, the fact is that they are essential elements to our wellbeing. Although they become more important as we get older, agility and balance are vital fitness factors that we use in our everyday life.
The constantly moving nature of boxing means that balance and agility are always being trained. Evading a blow from an opponent or quickly changing directions help train your reflexes and perceptions, while you get fitter, faster and better.
- Develop better coordination
Another oft forgotten but nevertheless vital fitness factor is coordination. Coordination is a critical fitness skill for our daily lives, allowing us to complete our tasks swiftly and accurately. Coordination can be learned and developed through training, and boxing is the perfect sport to do it.
Boxing helps develop exact precision when it comes to hand eye coordination, and the footwork manoeuvres involved in boxing train your feet to move with fast and deadly accuracy. As the neurons fire from the brain to activate these manoeuvres, the brain, nerves and muscles work together to develop ‘muscle memory’, a skill that allows you to perform practised moves faster and more accurately the more you train.
- Full throttle fat burning
The nature of a boxing workout puts it into the category of one of the most effective fat burning workouts we know of – interval training. Scientific studies have shown again and again that interval training is more effective at burning calories and losing fat than continuous aerobic activity like swimming or walking.
Depending on individual factors like your size, age and gender, you can burn between 500-700 calories an hour in a boxing workout. Not only do you get the calorie burning benefits during your session, but interval training helps the body burn more calories later, even hours after you’ve finished exercising. Boxing packs as big of a punch to the fat cells as it does in the ring.
- Manage stress levels
Ever felt so stressed you’d like to throw a few punches to relieve the tension? Well now you can! In the safe and controlled environment that a boxing session provides you can harness your stress and tension towards an awesome fat-fighting workout.
Not only is there the satisfaction of punching and kicking to relieve your stress, but of course the endorphins that are released after a good workout. Doing exercise such as boxing also improves mood, benefits your sleep and relaxes your body, all aspects of a good exercise program that help to reduce stress and fully improve your quality of life.
Heavy Bag Gloves
Looking for a heavy bag boxing glove can be very tricky. You may go the easy route and buy for a branded one like Adidas boxing gloves yet you might be overlooking other factors like the fit of the glove and how comfortable it is to use.
This is why buying a boxing glove online isn’t really the best way to go, as you would not have the luxury of trying out the glove. Sure, reading reviews online written by other boxing enthusiasts would help. But at the end of the day you still have to try the glove yourself to be able to ascertain whether or not the glove fits well in your hands. Trying out a heavy bag boxing glove will also give you the opportunity to determine whether or not the glove is easy to put on and off.
One way to go about this is to look for a boxing glove at a brick and mortar store, try it out and then take note of the brand and model. Then look for that same glove online and see whether you can get it at a cheaper price from online merchants.
A heavy bag boxing glove won’t really cost you a hundred bucks or so, but it is still recommended that you shop around and compare prices first so that you can get your money’s worth.
Getting a heavy boxing bag glove is your first step towards keeping yourself in tip top shape through boxing, so make sure that you buy the right pair of gloves
MMA Gloves
You must realize that buying a pair of MMA gloves isn’t the first order of business for a MMA neophyte. When you walk into an MMA gym, you are not expected to put on a pair of gloves and start grappling or punching with your opponent. You will still have to learn the basics of MMA training before you throw your first punch. Hence MMA gloves aren’t really the first thing you’ll buy when you train in a MMA gym or class.
But the moment that your instructor asks you to bring MMA gloves to your next class, you can start shopping for a pair that you can use. Allocate at least a hundred bucks for a pair of MMA gloves, as you can have a greater range of choices when you have that much money.
It is more recommended that you shop for MMA gloves at a traditional retail store so that you can put on the gloves and see whether it fits your hands well. You can then search online and look for the pair that you tried at a brick and mortar store. You should read users’ reviews online first to be able to determine which models could be a good fit to your hands, especially if you haven’t been able to drop by any sporting goods store.
MMA is a sport that has been very popular, and proof of this is the number of guys and gals taking up the sport. If you are to become serious in this sport, then you will eventually need a good pair of gloves to help you train well.
Our Favorite Gloves
Boxing gloves are no longer for the professional athlete, as they’re now widely used by fitness enthusiasts for training and different types of combat sports. If you look up boxing gloves online you’re going to find a lot of options yes, but which one should you buy? There’s a lot more to boxing gloves than just the price, as you have to be familiar with the size, materials and types available.
Boxing gloves may look the same, and that’s true to an extent. However there are different types of gloves, some for sparring, others for training and still others for competition. The amount of padding in these gloves varies too so you need to know about those as well. To put it simply, you won’t learn how to box properly if you’re not wearing the right pair of gloves, and you could even suffer an injury.
Speaking of injuries, donning the right pair of gloves is essential to ensuring your thumb and fist receives full protection. In other words, the more you now about boxing gloves the greater the chance you will not get hurt. And just as important, wearing the right gloves makes you feel comfortable and ready for action.
If this is your first time to use boxing gloves, getting to know the different types, how they are weighed and what materials are used to make them will make a difference in terms of your proficiency. One of the reasons why some people never become good at boxing is they don’t wear the right gloves, but you can avoid this.
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