This article was written by Angel

It is said that boxers are one of the fittest athletes in the field of competitive sport.  This skill demands focus, upper body strength, mental strength, stamina, endurance, speed, and co-ordination. Boxers have to train for thousands of hours to be able to compete and protect themselves during 12, 3 minute rounds. You may wonder how to use boxing for an effective workout.

Boxing is both aerobic and anaerobic, which means that it works the heart and also triggers growth hormones in the muscle tissue. Women who use boxing in a workout will find that it shapes the body without building bulk, and men will shed fat fast due to the increase in muscle.

Many gyms often have an aerobic room, and there may be a punching bag or two, but you often have to buy your own gloves. It’s better to find a local boxing gym in your area. They supply boxing gloves and punching bags, which are superb to build your upper body strength and sculpt the abdominal muscles, especially if you incorporate jump rope and use the waist to apply the speed and strength. Other useful pieces of equipment in a boxing gym are speedbags, medicine balls, and a sparring ring. You may be required to take part in short intensive workouts including push-ups, sit-ups, star-jumps, burpees, and other anaerobic fitness exercises followed by a short run.

How To Throw a Punch

1. Widen the legs to shoulder width and stand slightly sideways with your hips, shoulders, and front foot in line.
2. Slightly extend the elbow and protect your guard. For left handed individuals, the fist must be in line with the top of the shoulders and right handed individuals should keep the fist close to the chin but ensure the elbow is at a 90 degree angle close to the ribs. Relax the shoulders.
3. Throw a punch with your dominant hand and use the other hand to protect your guard. After throwing your punch, bring the hand back into the chin to protect your face. If you are focusing on speed, throw a double punch with each hand but bring the hands in equally fast to protect your guard.

Another exercise to sculpt the body, build hand-eye co-ordination, flexibility, endurance, speed, and agility is skipping. This will always be encouraged in a boxing gym. In addition, jump rope or skipping is also weight bearing and strengthens the skeletal system. For a beginner, jump rope may be frustrating since there may be far more whips than jumps.

Jumping Rope

1. Keep the feel slightly apart and use a leather rope, as speed ropes are for the slightly more advanced jump ropers. Effective jump rope is all in the wrist actions. It should pass over your head effortlessly.
2. Swing the rope and keep the feet together. Avoid turning the rope too swiftly. The key with jump rope is to effectively time when you should jump. Soon, this will become instinctive and you can add advanced moves including the double-under, the cross over, and jumping jacks. For inspiration, watch Floyd Mayweather in action. His jump roping is amazing.
3. When you have built up a little confidence, jump rope will feel like you are running on the spot. When the rope swings round, hop from the left leg to the right, but raise the feet only a couple of inches so the rope can pass through.

If you are fairly competitive and like a challenging workout, use boxing for an effective workout.

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