The Benefits of Boxing

Samuel Reid explains how boxing helps you develop many skills.

To start boxing, you only need a punching bag and a pair of boxing gloves from Everlast or other companies, and you are good to go. Boxing helps you develop many skills and features such as speed, strength, agility, endurance, hand-eye coordination, and more. Here are some specific benefits of one of the world's oldest sports.

Improves Cardiovascular Health

You know very well by now, given how often you heard it, that you have to do cardio to keep heart disease at a distance, if you want to burn some calories or if you want to keep your weight. But cardio does not mean just running or jogging. It can also mean boxing.

Cardio means putting a moderate amount of stress on your lungs and your heart, challenging them to have beneficial physiological adaptations that will support an increased level of physical activity. You can do that in a simple boxing workout while you punch and bob and weave, making sure you keep the heart rate up.

Improves Overall Strength

As you can imagine, punching and moving will ask you the right level of strength since a classic pro heavy bag has a weight of around 100 pounds but might go way over that. In this type of workout, you will punch a bag many times, hundreds of times. All this activity will stimulate your core, upper body, and even your lower body.

Not to mention, if you go to a gym for boxing, you will surely start using other types of workouts as well to improve your strength, such as pushups, squats, and planks which all have a very beneficial effect on your body.

Hand-Eye Coordination

Hand-eye coordination may not be the first thought to come to your mind when you think of essential things, and you may not know that it affects your overall health, but it does. This coordination is crucial when it comes to one’s gross and fine motor skills.

If your hand-eye coordination is good, you will have better and faster reflexes and reaction time. As a result, your physical coordination is improved as well, as a whole. This is highly important, especially as we age since balance and coordination lose their development and the risk of falling increases.

This sport helps a lot with hand-eye coordination. When you have to punch a speed bag (which is a type of lightweight boxing bag that is suspended from a disc) or when you have to spar with someone, or train by punching the partner’s padded mitts, you need to have the capacity of seeing the target, react to it and hit - all while it is moving.

It is not very easy, but if you practice sufficiently, hand-eye coordination can be much improved.

Decrease your stress level

We are all stressed out for various reasons, and physical activity has the role of decreasing stress levels. Working out will increase your level of serotonin and endorphins, it will boost your mood level, can be seen as a form of meditation, and it helps you sleep better - all of these things contribute to reducing your stress levels.

Naturally, you may need more than just a simple walk in the park to forget all about your problems and decrease your stress level. Sweating it out is the answer in this case.

When you are working out in boxing, your body goes from high-intensity bouts of exercise to moderate periods of recovery. During the high-intensity moments, you will not even have the time to think about your problems, and during the moderate periods, your body is busy recovering.

We also have to mention the fact that boxing is a stress relief sport because it allows you to take out your anger and frustrations on a literal punching bag without hurting anyone. Start the practice, and you will notice the changes in your life, which are all for the better, and you will not feel sorry you decided to take up this magnificent activity.

Page Reference

If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:

REID, S. (2020) The Benefits of Boxing [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/article564.htm [Accessed

About the Author

Samuel Reid is a freelance writer and fitness fanatic who loves to write fitness articles.


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To start boxing, you only need a punching bag and a pair of boxing gloves from Everlast or other companies, and you are good to go. Boxing helps you develop many skills and features such as speed, strength, agility, endurance, hand-eye coordination, and more. Here are some specific benefits of one of the world's oldest sports. Improves Cardiovascular Health You know very well by now, given how often you heard it, that you have to do cardio to keep heart disease at a distance, if you want to burn some calories or if you want to keep your weight. But cardio does not mean just running or jogging. It can also mean boxing. Cardio means putting a moderate amount of stress on your lungs and your heart, challenging them to have beneficial physiological adaptations that will support an increased level of physical activity. You can do that in a simple boxing workout while you punch and bob and weave, making sure you keep the heart rate up. Improves Overall Strength As you can imagine, punching and moving will ask you the right level of strength since a classic pro heavy bag has a weight of around 100 pounds but might go way over that. In this type of workout, you will punch a bag many times, hundreds of times. All this activity will stimulate your core, upper body, and even your lower body. Not to mention, if you go to a gym for boxing, you will surely start using other types of workouts as well to improve your strength, such as pushups, squats, and planks which all have a very beneficial effect on your body. Hand-Eye Coordination Hand-eye coordination may not be the first thought to come to your mind when you think of essential things, and you may not know that it affects your overall health, but it does. This coordination is crucial when it comes to one’s gross and fine motor skills. If your hand-eye coordination is good, you will have better and faster reflexes and reaction time. As a result, your physical coordination is improved as well, as a whole. This is highly important, especially as we age since balance and coordination lose their development and the risk of falling increases. This sport helps a lot with hand-eye coordination. When you have to punch a speed bag (which is a type of lightweight boxing bag that is suspended from a disc) or when you have to spar with someone, or train by punching the partner’s padded mitts, you need to have the capacity of seeing the target, react to it and hit - all while it is moving. It is not very easy, but if you practice sufficiently, hand-eye coordination can be much improved. Decrease your stress level We are all stressed out for various reasons, and physical activity has the role of decreasing stress levels. Working out will increase your level of serotonin and endorphins, it will boost your mood level, can be seen as a form of meditation, and it helps you sleep better - all of these things contribute to reducing your stress levels. Naturally, you may need more than just a simple walk in the park to forget all about your problems and decrease your stress level. Sweating it out is the answer in this case. When you are working out in boxing, your body goes from high-intensity bouts of exercise to moderate periods of recovery. During the high-intensity moments, you will not even have the time to think about your problems, and during the moderate periods, your body is busy recovering. We also have to mention the fact that boxing is a stress relief sport because it allows you to take out your anger and frustrations on a literal punching bag without hurting anyone. Start the practice, and you will notice the changes in your life, which are all for the better, and you will not feel sorry you decided to take up this magnificent activity. Page Reference If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is: REID, S. (2020) The Benefits of Boxing [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/article564.htm [Accessed About the Author Samuel Reid is a freelance writer and fitness fanatic who loves to write fitness articles.