When we think of Boxing as a sport we often associate it with two men or women in a ring punching for points. However, stop to think for a minute about how those two opponents get an maintain their fitness level. Boxing doesn’t have to be a contact sport (unless you want it to!) but can instead be a great way to get and stay fit. Using the fitness side of boxing you can increase your hand eye co-ordination, trim up and even increase your muscular definition. It also provides a great cardio work-out and there’s probably no better way to release some stress than punching a bag.

Rightly or wrongly boxing for women is often frowned upon – it depends on your own personal point of view. This Q&A session with a professional boxing personal trainer in Abu Dhabi, UAE discusses the pro’s of using Boxing as a ladies fitness technique.

Boxing for fitness & Boxing as a sport

Question: Boxing for fitness and boxing for competition are different but how do they differ in their approach to exercise and fitness?

Boxing as a sport requires a huge amount of strength, speed, athleticism, hand eye coordination, endurance and nerve to name a few attributes. Boxing for fitness allows the average person to develop all these athletic traits with out having to take a punch.

Put simply it’s a fantastic workout and extremely fun way to improve your health and fitness.

Benefits of Boxing for women in the UAE

Question: Many people just see boxing as a contact (often aggressive) sport and there are widely different views about boxing for women. From a fitness and exercise point of view what are the main benefits of boxing for women and girls?

It’s a sure fire way to improve cardio vascular output. I have people tell me all the time they need to do more cardio to shed the pounds and protect their selves from heart disease but cardio doesn’t have to be standard treadmill its can be more dynamic.

All that punching, kicking, and jumping requires a serious amount of strength and effort. All my boxing sessions incorporate a lot of strength movements and HIIT movements to make sure my client is getting a full work out.

You may not think hand eye coordination is important or its effect on your health but it plays a big part in your fine motor skills. Good hand eye coordination tends to bring faster reflexes and reactions and people with these generally are more athletic.

Boxing is a great outlet for stress for a number of reasons: during a boxing work out you typically transition between high intensity bouts and moderate recovery periods.

When you’re working your way through the high intensity stuff you’re not worrying about other things like work and such. There is an incredible cathartic release when your hitting the bag or the pads that really relieves you of stress.

Does boxing make you ‘bulky’

Question: I think I would enjoy boxing for fitness but I don’t want to become too muscular. Can boxing be used to improve body tone (arms, legs, tum etc.) without putting on too much muscle weight?

Your not going to put on large amounts of muscle from boxing training solely, you just won’t. What it will help to do is sculpt and define the muscles in a more atheistic appeal. It’s the reason you don’t get the body builders opting for it. But the more athletic types will take it on for its benefits.

Personal Trainers in Abu Dhabi like myself can incorporate other elements into your boxing training to work on specific areas of the body, increasing muscle definition for example.

What is Boxercise?

Question: I’ve heard of ‘BoxFit’ in the UAE but don’t really understand what this is; can you tell me more about BoxFit exercise classes? Also, can Boxfit be used on a one-two-one training level if I don’t want to attend exercise classes?

Box fit classes are a all level boxing circuit class that generally include a cardio and strength work out, technique and pad work and are sometimes ran with music. With my one to one sessions you will get all the same benefits but more detail orientated approach for the specific person.

Do I need to go to a boxing gym in the UAE?

Question: If I wanted to learn use boxing as a fitness method and not as a contact sport would I still need to attend a boxing gym?

A boxing gym would be a great place to start but it certainly not the only place to go, experienced boxing personal trainers and coaches know the benefits of boxing training and speaking for myself I use it with almost all my clients of different levels and they all get the same effective work out and the fun that it brings.