Is Boxing Actually a Good Workout?

A lot of different activities go into achieving the ripped physique we’re used to seeing on professional boxers, from running to skipping and weight training. So how good a workout is boxing itself? Fortunately, the sport of boxing is both incredibly fun and a great full-body workout so you can get fit or stay in shape while boosting your mood thanks to the holistic nature of the sport and the release of endorphins and dopamine.

Keep reading to learn the ins and outs of boxing as a great workout.

Does Boxing Workout Your Whole Body?

You may think that boxing just works out your upper body as you only strike your opponent with your arms, however, you actually use your whole body to generate power in each strike, so when boxing training, you’ll be working out each muscle group in your body.

The main muscles engaged in boxing workouts are:

• Biceps
• Trapezius
• Pectorals
• Latissimus dorsi
• Abdominals
• Glutes
• Quads
• Gastrocnemius
• Soleus

There are different training regimens to focus on different aspects of your boxing skills, as well as different parts of your body, so it’s important to diversify your training routines to ensure you are engaging each muscle group, which will also improve your boxing skills.

Using heavy punching bags will predominantly work out your arms, shoulders, back and abdominal muscles, however, as you manoeuvre around the bag, you’re also engaging your legs and gluteal muscles. What’s more, the proper punching technique requires you to shift your weight from your back foot, through your body, into your hand, which engages your whole body in each punch.

Does Boxing Burn Fat?

To burn fat, you need to be involved in vigorous exercise and burn more calories than you consume, so with a healthy diet and regular boxing workouts, you can easily burn fat through boxing!

Whether you’re doing rounds on a punching bag, hitting focus mitts or sparring with a partner, you’re engaging your whole body in cardiovascular exercise, which gets your heart racing and your blood pumping, helping you burn fat and, over time, lose weight.

You should be focusing on each part of your body in order to lose weight evenly and support each aspect of your body, however, if you’re looking to lose fat in particular areas of your body or tone certain muscles, you can of course increase the intensity of those muscle groups. For example, if your goal is to lose belly fat, you will notice the weight drop off after regular use of punching bags, but you can also do more crunches or try to hold the plank position for longer in your warm-up or strength training, to see your abs tone up.

Before you become disheartened, however, bear in mind that men and women naturally store fat in different parts of the body, so losing belly fat may be more difficult for men than women, while losing thigh and gluteal fat may be more difficult for women than men.

Does Boxing Build Muscle?

It’s normal to think that boxing might build muscle since it burns fat and after intense rounds hitting the punching bag or focus mitts, you can definitely feel the burn in your arm and shoulder muscles. However, boxing itself does not build muscle.

Boxers like Mike Tyson and Anthony Joshua do have huge biceps, but they achieve them through vigorous strength training exercises which increases their punching power to make them stronger and better heavyweight boxers.

Building muscle requires performing calisthenic exercises repeatedly so that the muscles being worked have a full range of motion and are fully activated so muscle fibres are damaged so they can be rebuilt by your body to be stronger, known as muscular hypertrophy.

Some useful muscle-building exercises include:

• Press-ups
• Pull-ups
• Squats
• Lunges
• Sit-ups or crunches
• Tricep dips

When performing such strength training exercises, it’s crucial you vary between muscle groups rather than focus on one aspect that you find easy or perhaps mistakenly think you should focus on arms rather than the rest of your body. Decide on a circuit you can perform at least twice a week, such as 45 seconds of press-ups, followed by 15 seconds rest, then 45 seconds of crunches with 15 seconds rest etc. so you can ensure you’re building muscle across your whole body.

How Often Should You Train to Get into Shape?

NHS guidelines suggest adults should be engaged in 75 to 150 minutes of physical activity per week, as well as strength training twice per week. You should also spread out your exercise over 4 to 5 days rather than do it all in one go, as this will likely cause you a lot of muscle aches and pains and cause you to neglect exercises altogether.

So, ideally, you’d have 5 lots of 30-minute boxing training sessions each week, plus 2 lots of 20 – 30-minute strength training exercises.

It should also be noted that if you consume more calories than you’re using up, you won’t lose weight. So to see results, you should have a healthy, balanced diet and you’ll see the weight drop off and your body tone up in no time.

Can You Box at Home?

While exercising with others has more health benefits due to the group dynamic encouraging people to push themselves more, as well as have a more enjoyable experience, joining a gym can be expensive and inconvenient, and being surrounded by more experienced athletes can give some people anxiety about working out. Thankfully, you don’t have to go to the gym to get fit!

By investing in the right boxing equipment for your home, you can have a brilliant workout from your own living room or garage, and you can still invite friends over so you can train with a friend and reap the benefits of socialising through sport. Even if you have no previous experience, you can train yourself to box at home, simply by increasing your muscular strength and endurance and using guides or YouTube videos to help hone your boxing technique.

You should work on improving your technique first and foremost, as punching with a great deal of strength and without the right technique can increase your chances of injuries, so it may be in your interest to join a boxing class before getting started at home, or simply practise the proper technique at home before utilising your power. You don’t need to be super fit before you start boxing.

What Equipment Do You Need to Box at Home?

For strength training activities, you don’t need any equipment except yourself! When you get started, your body weight is plenty to work out your muscles and provide enough resistance to increase your muscular endurance and strength. What’s more, when you first start boxing, you should be shadow boxing to practise the right punching technique before adding resistance, to reduce the risk of injury.

However, as you advance – and honestly one of the most fun and stress-relieving aspects of boxing – you should invest in some boxing equipment to add resistance to your strikes.

The most important investment is a great pair of boxing gloves and hand wraps. These protect your knuckles, hands and wrists from injury from twisting or heavy impact, so you can keep training safely for longer, but you should also never punch anything other than professional boxing equipment.

Punching bags and focus mitts are the perfect tools for any at-home boxer as they enable you to perform different boxing training regimes that focus on various aspects of your technique, as well as being easy to install or put away when they’re not being used. What’s more, with durable focus mitts, you can train with a friend and help each other out with your techniques as well as have fun while you exercise!

Buy the Best Boxing Equipment

At Maxx Pro Boxing, we know the importance of having great equipment in your home so it’s easily accessible when you want to work out or relieve some stress.

Browse our catalogue of Britain’s best boxing equipment today!