Cardio or aerobic exercise is an activity that involves the cardiovascular system. It helps generate enough oxygen within the body. It strengthens the heart muscles, manages blood pressure, burns calories and even uplifts your mood. In active sports like boxing, cardiovascular endurance is an essential element to provide the body with enough oxygen for the duration of a workout/training session. In fact, coaches and instructors highly recommend cardiovascular exercises prior to engaging in boxing.
Boxing is a cardiovascular exercise in itself, which promotes the upper and lower body engagement, but if you want to enhance your cardio workout, there are some activities you can do like running, and swimming. Here are some reasons you need to get cardio in to attain the best boxing workout experience you are after.
Running for Cardio
Among all cardio activities, running is the easiest and most straightforward cardiovascular exercise that can stimulate your body to get ready for your workout, especially boxing. The bodily engagement of running is supplementary to boxing since it involves the core and different body parts -both upper and lower body.
Running involves the shoulders and arms that you’ll use for punching, you’re calves and feet pushing off the ground for better stance. Running doesn’t have to last for an hour or so for you to warm-up your body for boxing. Maximum of 30 minutes would be enough to keep that cardio pumping and get your body used to the motions.
Rigorous exercises like boxing break down ATP, which is the source of energy for muscular contraction. It keeps on increasing the level of lactic acid, a chemical byproduct of anaerobic respiration that causes muscle fatigue and tissue damage.
As you continue with your boxing workout, the body breaks down ATP. It is having a hard time replenishing it and it also builds up lactic acid when there is not enough oxygen available. It is best for you to train at your lactate threshold to increase ATP level, while decreasing lactic acid. Basically, you can do up to three (3) runs per week.
Cardio for Stamina and Endurance
Stamina is the ability to sustain great physical or mental strength over a prolonged period of time. Cardiovascular exercises improves the efficiency of oxygen uptake supplied to the muscles. You will slowly accelerate from basic cardiovascular training to a more upscale workout and over time, this will improve the body’s stamina and endurance level.
Great stamina and endurance will keep you from stopping in the middle of the workout, and will sustain your body for the whole session. Your trainer will play a big role in giving the best boxing workout fit for your capacity as a trainee.
In the first few minutes of boxing, you may be using your energy for sprinting, throwing and exchanging punches, but after that, you will have to use your cardiovascular energy in the latter part of the workout. Without cardiovascular training, the balance of the energy inside the body will be limited, and it will be impossible for your body work efficiently.
Cardiovascular energy clears out your system so that your body can work at top speed and that ATP can maintain the balance of energy inside the body. Balance is the key point here.
Cardio workout is a principal point in boxing. It has been stressed a lot of times by boxing coaches that cardiovascular endurance is far more important than strength. Well, strength is also a cardinal element in boxing but how can you last until the final round if you’re already gassing out?
Boxing is not all about strength and power. it also has to do with the sustainability and balance of energy inside the body for it to work efficiently. It would be great to know what will be the best boxing workout for you once you start engaging in the sport. Proper cardiovascular training is the key to effective boxing.
