Losing weight with kickboxing?
Absolutely, kickboxing provides you with a full-body fitness workout that burns a lot of calories. In this article, we will discuss why kickboxing is such a good way to lose weight.
Kickboxing has grown significantly in popularity in recent years. Many gyms, such as David Lloyd, Fitland, Basic-Fit and Fit4Free, have started offering group classes that include boxing/kickboxing training.
But why can you lose weight so effectively through kickboxing?
When you look at well-known kickboxers such as Rico Verhoeven, Alex Pereira and Nieky Holzken, you can see that these are three very fit, well-toned men.
Now, I cannot guarantee that you will look exactly like these elite athletes, but what I can guarantee is that if you find a good boxing/kickboxing school with a good trainer, you will notice that you can burn fat very quickly.
Would you really like to learn boxing/kickboxing at a genuine professional school where competition fighters are also trained? Then I recommend looking around on Google Maps in your local area. There, you can find genuine kickboxing gyms near you.
What you need
- A pair of boxing gloves
- A pair of shin guards (only if you are going to do kickboxing)
- Boxing shorts
- A mouthguard (dental protection)
- Groin protector
- Optional headgear (ask the gym about it)
Other ways to train
Do you feel this is too big a step, or would you simply prefer to train in a somewhat quieter environment? That is of course possible too.
You can visit your local gym and see whether they offer group classes that include boxing training.
Or perhaps you are a real outdoor person. In that case, you also have the option of joining an outdoor boot camp team. These are often smaller groups of people who enjoy training outdoors.
These types of group classes often also offer boxing training, and you take part in a fitness circuit. So you can also lose weight through kickboxing here.
Most gyms and boot camps lend you boxing gloves, but for hygiene reasons, I still recommend buying your own boxing gloves.
Of course, you can also do this kind of training at home, but if you want to do that, I recommend looking for a training plan online or hiring a personal trainer to give you a plan and teach you the basics of punching and kicking.
Exercises for losing weight with kickboxing
During boxing/kickboxing training, you can do many different exercises; you can make these exercises as easy or as difficult as you want.
Jumping rope
Most boxing/kickboxing schools do this during the warm-up. Jumping rope helps you work on your footwork (being able to bounce on the balls of your feet) as well as your fitness.
You also train your shoulders by jumping for longer and rotating your arms; this causes your shoulders to fatigue.
The great thing about jumping rope is that you can make it as difficult as you want. Using tricks and sprint rounds adds variety to your jump-rope workout.
Shadowboxing
This exercise is also used during the warm-up and cool-down. The idea behind shadowboxing is to spar in your mind. It is important to keep it as realistic as possible by continuing to move, keeping your hands up, and avoiding overly long punch combinations (you would not do this in a real fight either).
You can also make shadowboxing as difficult and challenging as you want. You can do sprint rounds and shadowbox with dumbbells, which trains your shoulders. This helps you keep your hands up.
Push-ups
For a good workout, you also need to train your muscles a little. Push-ups are one of the best bodyweight exercises you can do.
Push-ups train your biceps, triceps, chest muscles, and shoulders. They are therefore an important exercise for strengthening your punches.
As you get stronger, you can also make push-ups more difficult or heavier. For example, by doing clap push-ups, explosive push-up exercises, handstand push-ups, and, of course, push-ups with push-up bars.
Push-ups with push-up bars allow you to lower yourself farther, engaging your chest even more.
Abdominal exercises
Well-trained abdominal muscles not only look great, they are also highly functional in boxing.
They help improve balance and your ability to absorb punches. That’s why abdominal exercises are also an essential part of good boxing/kickboxing training. You can train your abdominal muscles in many different ways.
From classic sit-ups to leg raises on a bar. You can also add a lot of variety to your ab workouts by experimenting with multiple exercises.
A very good abdominal exercise I recommend is using an ab wheel. An ab wheel trains the stability of your abdominal muscles. Make sure you engage your abdominal muscles and keep your back straight.
Pad training
In this exercise, you practice combinations with a partner who holds the pads for you. You can do this with a pair of pads or simply with your boxing gloves. With this training, you learn the techniques best because you have a training partner who helps you with the exercise and corrects your technique.
Training on the pads has many benefits. First, you train your technique; second, you train your reflexes. When someone instructs you to perform a specific combination on their command, you train your reflexes and the speed of your punches.
You can also improve your defense with pads: by taking punches directed at you, you practice your blocks and evasions.
Sparring
This is probably the very best way to lose weight with kickboxing, but also the most intimidating at first. Many people find sparring scary because they are afraid of being hit hard in the face.
Fortunately, trainers at most boxing gyms are very attentive to how hard everything gets, especially in recreational classes. Make sure you have good mouth protection and wear headgear.
A headgear absorbs most of the impact from punches and kicks aimed at your head.
Punching bag training
This is probably the most popular boxing/kickboxing workout. A major advantage of the punching bag is that, of course, you do not have to take any punches yourself.
Many gyms offer group classes with punching bag training. And this was just a small example of the different workouts you can do in boxing/kickboxing.
Because kickboxing is such an intensive conditioning workout, you burn a lot of calories and build excellent fitness. With boxing/kickboxing workouts, you also train your strength and the speed of your punches and kicks.
You can do this type of workout in many different places. You can do these workouts both at a gym and at home.
What do you need for a punching bag workout:
- A suitable space (approximately 3 by 3 meters)
- A punching bag, which can be a freestanding and/or a regular hanging punching bag
- Good boxing gloves
- Handwraps/inner gloves
