The Benefits Of Boxing For Body And Mind

Boxing as a sport is very beneficial as it boosts your confidence and makes you stronger mentally and physically. According to Ed Latimore “boxing is a workout that boosts your confidence. He says that because he experienced it himself (Latimore). Boxing is an Olympic game that was first introduced in Ancient Greece. A huge part of boxing is self-defense and boxing reminds you of your mortality because when you box you have to remember that you can get hurt and defense is the only way to protect yourself in the ring. Boxing teaches people discipline and patience. It is impossible to get better at something if you have no patience at all.

According to Ed “It’s impossible to get good at anything without practice. ” “You can fool yourself about how often you run or go to the gym, but fight night tells no lies. ” “Unless you want to suffer the pain of embarrassment, you train hard every day” (Latimore). Boxing can teach you the true meaning of fear and how to deal with it. Every human has two fears: death and public humiliation. Boxing puts these two fears together and you have to deal with both of them at the same time. In boxing, if you lose you would most likely feel humiliated as every boxer when they lose. Also, in boxing, if you get hurt that can make you believe that you are facing death in that exact moment. Boxing is a sport that can help you relieve stress and can help you manage your anger. Boxing helps you relieve stress by making you focus on your punches and your punches only. Boxing helps you manage your anger by using all your aggression and anger to throwing a strong punch.

So, when you are done you have no anger or aggression left. Boxing is a workout that is both anaerobic (any short-duration exercise that is powered primarily by metabolic pathways that do not use oxygen) and aerobic (any physical activity that makes you sweat, causes you to breathe harder, and gets your heart beating faster than at rest) mixed together. When you have a workout that has both aerobic and anaerobic mixed together it will burn fat faster than a workout that has only one of the two and builds muscles faster. So by what has been said, boxing can help your mental and physical health because it relieves stress, helps you gain muscles, and much more. There are countless studies that have linked exercise to lower anxiety, depression, and stress levels. Many therapists use the tactic of “walk and talk therapy”.

The walk and talk therapy is a combination of communicative therapy sessions and gentle exercise. Jennifer Carter a counseling and sports psychologist told the American Psychological Association that this tactic is very beneficial and it encourages the patients to open up. “I think clinical and counseling psychologists could do a better job of incorporating exercise into treatment” (Carter). A woman called Felicity Gibbons started to attend boxing classes and that helped her with her deal with her depression and anxiety a lot. Boxing makes your body produce hormones called endorphins. Endorphins are known as the happy hormone. I’ll get more into detail about endorphins in the next few paragraphs but by playing boxing you’ll become more happy with time. Boxing can also help you manage your anger and can help you relieve stress. A physical expression of stress and anger is hitting something. Hitting something provides a reaction in your body that relieves tension.

So boxing can provide that something with that it can be a safe way to release tension and aggression but also keep you and others safe. Exercise is known to be a stress reducer and boxing happens to be a form of exercise. When you are stressed the muscles tend to collect tension that why when you are stressed you feel tenser. Boxing can relieve that stress because when you hit a punching bag your muscles relieves the tension you had that was collected when you were stress. The more you continue to punch the better your focus gets and when you focus on something else that makes you forget what stressed you in the first place. Exercising is usually known for making people happy and helps you build your confidence and boost your self-esteem. Exercising in any way helps with depression, memory loss, and other diseases. Any kind of exercise helps you a tremendous amount because when you exercise your body produces hormones called endorphins or (feel-good chemicals). Endorphins are chemicals that are naturally released in the brain to reduce pain and if released in large groups they can make you feel relaxed, happy and energized. Boxing worldwide is known as a very tough sport. So one training session can make you feel so happy.

According to Ed Latimore and Bridget March boxing, is a workout that can boost your confidence. In Bridget’s article, she talked about how boxing helps you build your confidence. By feeling the sense of achievement boxing provides you can build confidence and self-esteem. Bridget also briefly mention the story of Prince Harry. Prince Harry looked for refuge in boxing to help him overcome his mother’s death. Prince Harry is one of many people that have seen the benefits boxing provides. Boxing can also help you fight through trauma and a great example of that would be the story of Elena Cresci. When Elena was a teenager she lost her grandfather in a house fire. Right after her loss she had to take her exams. Because of that, she did not have time to properly deal with her grandfather’s death. Shortly after that Elena got sexually assaulted by a guy that was in his mid-twenties. Elena was only a teenager when that happened, so she was traumatized by what happened to her. After that happened her friend introduced her to a karate club that focused on self-defense and that helped her a lot. Elena always had a love for journalism, so when she graduated she wanted to become a journalist.

After Elena graduated high school and college she wanted to have a career in the journalism industry and London was the best and nearest place that will help her pursue her dream and become successful. Elena moved to London and got a job there. Her job included stuff about the news, so when she had to talk about horrifying events that happened she would get traumatized from it. When Elena saw what happened to the 71 people that died in the Grenfell Tower fire she remembered her grandfather’s death, then shortly realized that she did not deal with her grandfather’s death properly. Because of her job and the trauma of losing someone to a fire she decided to quit her job. After quitting her job she found a new job that had a wonderful team and was less traumatizing from her old one. But Elena felt like she failed and that she was not successful . While she was dealing with that she found a local charity boxing event, an eight-week training camp with a huge fight at the end of the eight weeks. Elena joined and when she first started she did not like it because she on her first day she went home and she had a huge bruise on her thigh. She got the bruise because the camp has to do with a lot of falling down. She did not want to go back the next day but the same stubbornness she had after the passing of her grandfather showed up again. The next day she strapped her leg up and went straight back.

And the day after that and the one after that as well. Now she got used to the gym so went ever something went wrong in her life she would go to the gym and “screamed at the punching bag for an hour” as she said in her story. With time the day of the fight came around and by that day everything was different about Elena. Elena had muscles, and could do 20 pushups in a row but what was most important to her that she felt like she had a backbone again. And there are many other stories out there that talk about how people got over their own trauma. One more thing boxing can help you mentally is mental fortitude. Fortitude means strength in facing difficulty or the strength of mind that allows you to face difficulty. Strength comes from overcoming difficulties throughout your life. While boxing you will face many difficulties like not being able to punch properly, feeling like you can not continue your training session, and of course fighting your opponent in the ring.

According to an ESPN study you need to be mentally strong to box, and boxing in one of the toughest sports to learn. Many athletes can achieve the fitness level of a boxer by another sport and it takes a great amount of strength to push yourself that much. But the real strength comes out when you gain enough skills to fight your opponent in the ring. Boxing has many benefits to your physical health like fat burning, Muscle toning, strong bones, and strong ligaments, improves cardiovascular fitness, and much more. In one training session, you can burn over 1000 calories. Boxing is a HIIT (high-intensity interval training). HIIT involves short periods of very intense movement and alternates with a low-intensity recovery period. In the fitness world, HIIT workouts are known to be the most effective try of workout especially because the duration of HIIT workouts must be 10 to 30 minutes long. That is because when you are done with a HIIT workout your body will still keep burning the calories, while cardio (Cardiovascular exercise) does not have that effect. Boxing helps you tone your muscles and build them. The physique of a boxer is toned and defined. It does not look too bulking nor too small. That is why boxing is the perfect way to build and tone muscles. The building and toning of the muscle happens because punching is a fast monotonous action that tones muscles. Boxing also can improve muscular endurance.

In boxing, your muscles must constantly contract which causes muscle fatigue. With more training, your muscles will be able to contract for a longer time without getting tired, and that helps you train harder for longer periods of time. Boxing builds strong bones and ligaments. Boxing mainly focuses on pads and punching bags for training, which is a form of resistance training. Resistance training is any method of training that uses resistance. Your ligaments, tendons, and joints will also get stronger from working against resistance. Boxing increases cardiovascular fitness. As mentioned in the previous paragraphs cardio is short for Cardiovascular exercise. Cardio has many benefits like strengthening your heart and lungs, improves your insurance, and helps you burn fat faster. Cardio does not only mean running, hiking, or swimming. You can have your weight training program become a cardio workout.

So during boxing, your whole body moves and a huge number of your muscles contract at the same time, and that makes your heart and lungs work more to pump more blood around your body. Boxing tests your cardiovascular system, by making your heart and lungs stronger at delivering oxygen throughout your body. By doing that you can train for longer and train more intensely, which gives you better results in the end. Boxing improves core stability, coordination, and body awareness. Anything that unstabilized you needs your core muscles to work more to keep you balanced. Boxing involves a lot of fast rotational movements and that comes from your core muscles. In boxing, most of the power comes from the rotation of your body and you need to be stable enough to get that power from the rotation and still be balanced. If you can not be balanced you fall and your opponent will beat you. So you need that stability. With all of that being said you can not be stabilized if you have bad coordination. You will have no balance if you have no coordination. But with time, patience, discipline and practice you can easily gain and improve your coordination skills.

Works Cited Ed Latimore.

“10 Reasons You Should Box. ” Ed Latimore, Ed Latimore, 17 Dec. 2015, edlatimore. com/10-reasons-you-should-box/. Cresci, Elena, and Elena Cresci. “Boxing Helped Me Fight Through Trauma. ” Medium, Medium, 25 Aug. 2018, medium. com/s/story/boxing-helped-me-fight-through-trauma-1e9e048e3d31. “ENDORPHIN | Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. ” Cambridge Dictionary, dictionary. cambridge. org/dictionary/english/endorphin. Weil, Richard. “Aerobic and Anaerobic Exercise: Examples and Benefits. ” MedicineNet, www. medicinenet. com/aerobic_exercise/article. htm. March, Bridget. “6 Ways Boxing Can Benefit Your Mental Health. ” Harper's BAZAAR, Harper's BAZAAR, 28 Mar. 2018, www. harpersbazaar. com/uk/beauty/fitness-wellbeing/a19613933/boxing-benefit-mental-health/. Widrich, Leo. “What Happens To Our Brains When We Exercise And How It Makes Us Happier. ” Fast Company, Fast Company, 22 Nov. 2016, www. fastcompany. com/3025957/what-happens-to-our-brains-when-we-exercise-and-how-it-makes-us-happier. Fletcher, Becky. “Could You Box Your Way to Better Mental Health?” Netdoctor, Netdoctor, 7 May 2018, www. netdoctor. co. uk/healthy-living/fitness/a27734/boxing-mindfulness-help-anxiety-and-depression/. “Fortitude - Dictionary Definition. ” Vocabulary. com, www. vocabulary. com/dictionary/fortitude. “7 Benefits of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). ” Healthline, Healthline Media, www. healthline. com/nutrition/benefits-of-hiit#section1. “Cardio. ” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/cardio. “Resistance Training. ” The Free Dictionary, Farlex, medical-dictionary. thefreedictionary. com/resistance+training. “Boxing: Health Benefits and the Mental Gain. ” Eightlimbs, 4 May 2015, eightlimbs. com. au/boxing-health-benefits-and-the-mental-gain/. “What Does Cardio Training Do? | Cardiovascular Training. ” Sharecare, www. sharecare. com/health/cardiovascular-training/what-does-cardio-training-do. “Gyms Miami Beach| Gym Near Me | KickBoxing Gym Miami Beach. ” South Beach Boxing, 27 Nov. 2018, southbeachboxing. com/the-10-benefits-to-boxing/.