Things Boxing can teach us

I obviously have a love for boxing, as I wouldn’t have started a women's only boxing and strength gym if I didn’t. But it’s not just because I enjoy watching the sport. 

I actually don’t watch all that many boxing fights, I more enjoy boxing for many many benefits and things that it can teach us about movement and ourselves.

Things I love that boxing teaches us, in no particular order.

Focus - when we are boxing, that’s all we’re doing, we are completely focussed on the task at hand, as soon as I lose focus, I either get the combination wrong or the movement wrong.

Presence - tied into the first point, it allows us to be completely present in the moment. No to do lists running in the background - one of the things I find most beneficial for women as they carry a significant mental load.

Breathing - you need to breath, if you breath out when you punch, it will help lock your core on, give you more power, but also force you to take a breath back in. holding your breath in boxing will gas you out faster than your phone battery on 3% when you’re trying to order Uber Eats

Balance - If you’re not balanced, you’re done for. Of course we’re not fighting real people, but it does help improve our balance which helps carry over into many other practical things in life

Rotation - so many of the exercises in the gym are done in the sagittal plane. This means, pretty much moving up and down or back and forth, which is great, but our bodies move in other ways, side to side and rotation, and in boxing you need to rotate your hips to move your body, to get more power through your punches, and I love boxing for this.

Footwork - If we can stay light on our feet, and move around, we’re harder to hit, we can also produce more power.

Timing - boxing has a great way to improve your timing, between your limbs, with your breath, rhythm, all of it, it can be fairly similar to dancing in this way.

Explosive power - Ever try to hit an uppercut as hard as you can? You need to produce raw explosive power from a static position, this is great for training the nervous system to be explosive and also reactive, it’s not often we get to do things of this nature

Endurance - Boxing for rounds at a time, is tiring, and really tiring, not only cardiovascularly wise, but also for our shoulders, and our legs, it’s great endurance training.

Confidence - boxing will increase your confidence 1000%, and you probably won’t even realise it

Mental toughness - when you get tired, and you want to stop, but you have to keep going, this builds mental toughness and resilience, again the carry over into other areas of life are awesome.

Not all of these points are exclusive to boxing by any means, but it is certainly a form of exercise that has many benefits outside of the norm.

Lawrence x