How Fit Should I Be to Start Boxing?

Boxing is more than just a combat sport, it’s a great way to stay in shape through vigorous cardiovascular exercise while training your body to achieve various skills. Some boxing training routines work out different parts of the body, but how fit should you be to start boxing? Read on to find out.

How Fit Should I Be to Start Boxing?

You should be relatively fit to start boxing as you can seriously damage your wrists, hands and shoulders when punching with an incorrect technique. However, before you start using equipment in boxing training, you should actually start with shadowboxing so you can practise each shot until your technique is right and muscle memory takes over, without having any impact on your fists.

Basic boxing punches:

• Jab
• Cross
• Hook
• Uppercut

As a beginner boxer, your first move should be learning the proper techniques, whilst also training your body physically so you can burn any excess fat that would make it difficult for you to move quickly and increase your endurance so you can be a better boxer, and get into great shape.

How to Get a Boxer’s Physique

You won’t be surprised to learn that professional boxers don’t get ripped from the fights alone; they have incredibly intense training regimes to build and maintain muscle mass, increase their muscular endurance and practise their technical skills and tactics ready for real fights.

To get yourself to a professional boxing standard and physique, you’ll have to put a lot of time and work in, but if you’re just interested in starting to box and seeing how it goes, you can incorporate hour-long training sessions into your schedule a few times each week, as per NHS guidance on exercise recommendations. If you’re in calorie deficit i.e. burning more calories than you’re consuming, you’ll start to see your body fat disappearing and your muscles getting more toned in just a few weeks.

All you need to do is some endurance training, strength training, and eat well to be in great shape to start moving from air shots to hitting the mitts.

Endurance Training

Also known as cardiovascular exercise, adults should engage in regular endurance training each week to stay fit, whether they have particular fitness goals or not. However, endurance training is also key for boxers to be able to use their skills for longer periods of time without getting tired.

Running and cycling are classic and simple ways of performing cardiovascular exercise and have numerous health benefits. However, boxing is an attractive sport for many people who don’t like to run or want to exercise at home, and fortunately, there’s an even more fun way to exercise for boxing enthusiasts.

Punching bags come in all shapes and sizes for different purposes, but the classic straight hanging punching bag is an excellent tool for people wanting to burn fat or just do some cardio. If you’ve been shadowboxing long enough to have a decent boxing technique, grab some boxing gloves and start practising your shots on the heavy bag. The more you move your feet and try combinations of different shots, the better exercise it will be for you.

Similarly, if you want to start boxing with a friend, focus mitts are a great tool to get into shape and have fun boxing at the same time. As long as your training partner knows how to be a good focus mitt holder, you can take turns hitting and holding for a great workout.

Just be careful not to put too much effort and force behind your punches if you haven’t been boxing long or protecting your body with strength training.

Strength Training

Since hitting a person or object with great force involves great impact in our fists which sends shockwaves into our hands, wrists, arms and even up to our necks, it’s really important to strengthen your body before starting to box. You should also maintain a regular strength training routine while you continue to box and hone your boxing skills.

Basic strength training exercises include:

• Lifting dumbbells
• Press-ups
• Sit-ups
• Pull-ups
• Squats
• Crunches
• Tricep dips

Most of these exercises can be performed without any equipment – you can even use bags of sugar if you don’t have weights to lift – so they’re great to try at home to get fit before you start boxing. As the exercises get easier, you can increase the number of repetitions or add weight to the exercises by wearing weighted vests or using heavier dumbbells.

These exercises will increase your muscle mass, known as muscular hypertrophy, by breaking down the muscle fibres in your body and rebuilding them thicker and thus stronger. But strength training also strengthens your tendons and ligaments.

Muscles and bones are attached with tendons and ligaments, so many sports injuries occur when these tendons and ligaments overstretch or snap, known as strains, sprains and tears. By engaging in strength training, you’re gaining strength all over your body and reducing the risk of these types of injuries.

Beginner Boxer’s Diet

While you need to be relatively fit to start boxing in order to keep yourself healthy and safe, a small amount of belly fat isn’t a problem preventing you from beginning training. If your BMI is greatly outside of the healthy ranges, you should probably consider changing your diet and starting with gentle exercises before trying anything too intense and injuring yourself.

For a healthy diet, you should ensure you’re eating balanced meals with plenty of fruit and veg, some high-fibre carbohydrates, some protein, and a small amount of fat, although people with medical conditions should stick to their doctor’s dietary advice.

With the right diet and sufficient exercise, you can get fighting fit in no time at all. Plus, with your own boxing equipment, you don’t even need to leave the house to do it.

While doing some strength training activities each week to protect your joints, you can also do some boxing workouts at home to get fit.

Hanging heavy punching bags are great for cardiovascular exercise, but they’re impractical for some people who don’t have the space to hang a big sandbag in their living room, or can’t damage the walls as they’re renting. Focus mitts are a fantastic alternative since they’re small, long-lasting, and don’t have to be permanently installed, but you do need a partner to train with.

Free-standing punching bags are the perfect solution. With no installation necessary, you can get fit boxing on your own by striking a standing punching bag. The bag moves after your strike and swings back to force you on the defence or to unleash a combo while staying firmly planted on the floor thanks to a weighted plate at the bottom. They’re also adjustable so people of different heights can use them.

Is it Ever Too Late to Start Boxing?

Many people wonder if 40 is too old to start boxing, or if you can ever make it as a boxer if you don’t start boxing until you’re 15, and the truth is that it’s never too late to start boxing.

While you might not become the next Mike Tyson training 10 hours a day in your 50s, you can get in remarkable shape while boxing, and if you start in your youth and put the work in, there’s nothing to stop you from becoming a professional boxer. After all, Idris Elba made a quick switch from acting to kickboxing at the age of 43, showing nothing’s impossible with the right amount of work.

What’s more, not everyone starts boxing with the aim of becoming a professional, some enjoy the fun and relief of the exercise without wanting to get struck in the head themselves. Boxing workouts are fun activities for people of all ages, they help children with their confidence and make women feel safer, as well as keeping people in great physical condition as they get older, without the impact on hips and knees that exercises like running have.

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