Benefits of Kickboxing: 10 Best Reasons to Try Kickboxing ASAP
In this post, you’ll learn about the benefits of kickboxing.
Kickboxing has been around for ages. The primal act of kicking and punching has helped the human race to survive.
As our modern society gets more sedentary, it’s become clear that our survival will also depend on how often and well we exercise.
Kickboxing is a great exercise that helps us move, kick, and punch at the same time. It’s full circle. Kickboxing may very well help us to survive our modern times.
But the benefits of kickboxing are so much more than survival.
In this article, we’ll look into how you’ll benefit from kickboxing.
1. You’ll improve your cardiovascular health
When you have good cardiovascular health, you’re less vulnerable to heart diseases. For example, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiac failure.
Several studies have found a positive link between exercise and improved cardiovascular health.
There’s a reason why kickboxing is particularly good for cardiovascular health.
Kickboxing engages all your major muscle groups.
This activation enables blood to flow freely through your body, providing energy to different parts of the body.
The source of good blood flow is the heart. The energy in kickboxing strengthens the heart muscle.
And there is no way an unhealthy or weak heart can do that.
Kickboxing helps the heart to pump blood containing oxygen to all parts of the body and force the body to adapt to this new routine.
With your heart working like this, you can perform just any high-intensity exercise leaving your heart as healthy as never before.
2. You’ll increase your metabolism
One of the benefits of kickboxing is that it boosts metabolism.
Metabolism is the process in which our bodies absorb food and drink, and convert it to energy.
It’s the constant cellular process that helps that enables us to breathe and do other daily tasks.
The intensity of kickboxing increases your metabolism.
This is because you’re using up more energy. And the body needs to provide this energy faster.
When your metabolic rate is high, you’re able to convert food to energy faster. And that, in turn, helps you lose weight, feel refreshed, and healthier.
If you do kickboxing in a fasted state, the body begins to convert stored energy (fat) into energy. This can help you burn body fat a lot faster.
3. You’ll get an intense workout
Kickboxing is a kind of exercise where you use all the efforts. And you have in you to perform quick and intense bursts of exercises.
This high level of intensity also means there are short bursts of punches and kicking. Followed by brief and active recovery periods.
Moreover, kickboxing uses up a lot of energy (and a lot of oxygen) and needs even more oxygen for recovery.
It is a good form of high-intensity training. A study confirms that HIIT is effective in promoting health and fitness in less fit people.
4. You’ll have more energy and be alert
If you often feel tired and groggy during the day, kickboxing can help.
Studies suggest that when exercise directly impacts the central nervous system to boost energy and reduce fatigue.
Think about it. Researchers found that even a low-intensity exercise like jogging or even casual stroll can boost energy levels by 20 percent.
It can also decrease fatigue by 65 percent. The key is to do it regularly.
As we discussed, kickboxing takes intensity to the next level. It’s more intense. And this increases the likelihood of improving your energy levels.
Sometimes, caffeine is not the only energy booster.
5. You’ll get rid of stress
Stress affects us in so many ways. It negatively affects our immune system, inhibits sleep, and our nervous system.
Unfortunately, our modern society is full of stress. From work, school, relationships, and causes we care about.
It makes us all tensed up and stiff.
But here’s the good news:
Kickboxing is one way to kick out stress (pun intended). Kicking and punching and the constant movement loosen up our tensed muscles.
It gets even better.
Kickboxing helps the brain to produce a hormone called serotonin. It is in charge of making the brain feel happy which has effects on our moods.
It enables us to free ourselves from all the negative emotions. And makes us happier.
6. You’ll improve self-defense
Violence is not good. We do not encourage it. But it helps to know how to defend yourself when others are violent to you.
Kickboxing is a great training ground for learning the basics of self-defense.
You learn how to kick a target with force. Also, you learn how to through targeted punches without fail.
And over time, with muscle memory, the art of kicking and punching well becomes unconscious.
It’s like learning to drive. Once you do it over and over again, it stays with you for a long time.
These learned skills in kickboxing could come in handy when you need them.
7. You’ll learn new skills
If you’re new to kickboxing, you’re in for a treat. I remember when I bought my gloves for the first time.
The process of wrapping the gloves around your hands is one of the skills that you’ll need.
In the age where almost everything is digital, this is a unique opportunity to get crafty with your hands.
But the learning doesn’t stop there.
You’ll also learn good techniques in how to throw a punch with force without hurting your arms or hands.
Another great learning experience is how you balance your feet as you throw punches and remain elusive to an imaginary opponent.
All these skills are something you will not learn by watching Netflix or browsing Facebook.
8. You’ll improve your teamwork
Kickboxing is not all about your punching and kicking some bags.
In some kickboxing classes, instructors require that you partner with other trainees on simple bodyweight exercises.
Instructors do this to add intensity to the kickboxing session. Other times, they do it to change things up.
Either way, the process of working with a stranger on reps of exercises is a great partnership.
Yes, it gets you to talk to someone and understand how the two of you can achieve the goals of that workout.
9. You’ll sleep better at night
One of the benefits of kickboxing is that it helps you sleep better at night. I’ll explain.
While researchers are yet to find the definitive mechanism in the human body that connects exercise with sleep, there’s some promising evidence.
According to Charlene Gamaldo, M.D., medical director of Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep:
“moderate aerobic exercise increases the amount of slow-wave sleep you get. Slow-wave sleep refers to deep sleep, where the brain and body have a chance to rejuvenate.”
If you have trouble falling asleep at night, kickboxing exercises can help set you up for a restful night
10. You’ll have a safe place to release the rage
I get it. Sometimes, anger builds up because of something that happens during the day.
It may be your boss, an annoying colleague, or the passion for a social cause. Or maybe you just got out of a toxic relationship.
People have different ways of discharging their rage.
Kickboxing is a safe place to unleash the rage.
I know some people who image the bag being someone they dislike or like to punch. It’s one of the cherished benefits of kickboxing.
This imaginary setup gives them more energy to kick and punch with maximum effort.
Nobody is going to judge you for kicking so hard and punch so strongly. So yes, go ahead and attack the bag as you unleash that rage.
Takeaway
Kickboxing is a great and complete workout. If you’re just starting, you’ll need to take baby steps.
Don’t rush into overexerting yourself (yes, you can exercise too much!). Learn the proper techniques and form from instructors.
If you don’t take these baby steps, you’ll expose yourself to all kinds of injury.
