Boxing, both as a sport and fitness activity, has come a long way. It has slowly gained popularity with its unique style of hitting the opponent with boxing gloves, while at the same time, trying to shield oneself from the onslaught of punches. Over the history this industry has produced larger-than-life sportsmen who are known for their unique style and unparalleled dominance, while creating astounding appeal to the game itself.
The boxing trend has always been in vogue. However, the recent years have seen variations in the devout boxing approach, making it varied in terms of style and approach. This has given rise to newer sports such as MMA, Muay Thai and Tae Bo. With all these different variations to choose from, traditional boxing still sets a higher bar in terms of strength and technique. The sport is highly acknowledged for creating exhilarating power shows and spectacular moves, boxing now is also regarded as a beneficial way to combat health issues.
Boxing is a composite of many athletic skills such as agility, mental astuteness, stamina, eye-hand coordination and strength. While adopting boxing as a fitness regime, one could tone all these skills without having to experience any pain. It is an excellent way to improve your overall health by boosting your body strength. The reason why some people avoid this sport is because they consider it simply as “punching or getting punched” game that involves injury. However, with suitable training and understanding the basic moves of boxing, one can turn this into a highly useful activity steered towards optimal health. Following are few health benefits of boxing.
Healthy Heart
While we are constantly numbed by the repetition of the importance of cardiovascular activities, it doesn’t merely mean that we limit our scope of activity to just sprinting over the treadmill. In reality, cardio activity requires you to exert pressure on your heart and lungs so that you can tune them into handling more pressure and subsequently making adaptations in your body. Boxing is an ideal way to keep your heart racing with persistent moves. Not only does it strengthen and tone your muscles, it gives you all the needed benefits from any cardio workout.
Increased Body Strength
Body strength is an essential component of boxing, as the trainer is required to punch, jump and kick. All these movements require exceptional strength, which improves with practice. Boxing moves activate the upper body, the core and the lower body, while attacking the opponent. This triggers the less engaged parts of the body, turning on strength reserves and flowing them as energy. Continuous training helps the body achieve optimal strength.
Improved Cognitive Skills
Cognitive skills, also known as eye-hand coordination, are very important for fine and gross motor movements. People with good eye-hand coordination exhibit quick reactions and improved body balance. Development of cognitive skills lead to overall fitness and helps reduce risks of optic ataxia, cerebral palsy and decreased muscle tone. During a boxing match, the fighter visualizes the target, hits it and then gets ready for its movement or reaction. All these three phases require the player to be extremely coordinated in his eye-hand movements, as little coarseness in cognitive skills may get him hit badly. Though one of the most challenging skill of boxing, eye-hand coordination increases with continued practice and contribute to overall well being.
Decreased Anxiety
We all have our moments when we want to lose it all and simply yell away all our worries. Well, boxing allows you to do that. Simply by punching your worries into a punch bag, you can free your mind off all the anxiety that has been silently hitting you. Like all physical activities boxing enhances your mood, multiplies endorphins, and helps getting quality sleep; all indicators of reduced anxiety.
