If you’ve hit a lull and can’t seem to find the motivation to hit the Tucson gym, it’s time to take a different path to achieve your ideal physique and overall health. Experience professional training regimens that will turn your view of exercise into a prizefighting perspective. The most satisfying way to build lean muscle mass and burn fat is by attempting boxing techniques such as MMA, Muay Thai, and sparring. Step inside a boxing ring and master a new training approach that’s time-efficient and entertaining, and you will leave with a new sense of achievement.
Recent studies have shown that the intensity level of a single workout is more effective than a drawn-out training program, where you spend more recovery time than actually revving up your heart rate. Boxing is like high-intensity interval training on steroids. Once you step into the ring, you do not stop to recover until a match is over.
Throw in the towel on your monotonous training program, and give boxing’s bursts of energetic exercises a try. Here’s proof of how they will improve your size, strength, and health:
1. You train all of your major muscles at once for a full-body workout.
For example in Muay Thai, moves including kicks, punches and the use of knees and elbows develop a workout where you use abs, back, chest, and even hamstrings. By doing exercises that engage the most muscle groups possible in one movement you are doing compound movements. This demands a lot of energy and burns more calories, but they also beat up your muscles…meaning you burn more fat, without losing muscle.
2. You get your heart into better shape.
High-intensity workouts, like kickboxing, push you into the anaerobic zone where you are working out with the absence of oxygen. This is that wonderful time where you can’t breathe and you feel like your heart is trying to jump out of your chest. During anaerobic exercise, your body’s demand for oxygen is greater than the available oxygen supply. While aerobic exercise is fueled by oxygen, anaerobic exercise is fueled by energy stored in your muscles. This zone burns far more calories per minute than aerobic. It gets your heart rate up and sends the body’s most important muscle through a boot camp of its own.
3. You reap the benefits of physical fitness, but also find mental clarity and focus.
Workouts like boxing classes and personal training sessions target body conditioning, but also teach you mental toughness required for ring competition. Each session is designed to lift your self-esteem and bring you to new levels of gratitude.
4. You build your strength and improve your endurance.
Once you get in the groove and give boxing a try for four straight weeks, you’ll notice an increase in your work capacity, enabling you to do more for longer periods of time. Eventually, you should be able to perform with better quality and recover faster between exercises, leading to bigger strength and gains.
5. It may extend your life.
The Harvard Alumni Health Study, a 4-year study of more than 17,000 men, found that only intense, not conservative, exercise reduced risk of death. By examining the relationship between physical activity and incidence of heart attack, it found that fit people usually lived longer. By incorporating boxing workouts into your week, you could very well be exercising into your 80’s.
Remember this basic principle: Boxing alternates bursts of high-intensity exercises with short periods of rest, while incorporating mindfulness. Within weeks you’ll notice you have more energy, feel healthier, and look forward to working out. Clear your mind in a boxing session, and you’ll be able to focus and stay on track, even in this fast-paced world.
