Losing weight with kickboxing?
Yes indeed, kickboxing offers you a full-body conditioning workout that burns a lot of calories. In this article, we will talk about why kickboxing is such a good way to lose weight.
Kickboxing has become very popular in recent years. Many gyms, such as David Lloyd, Fitland, Basic-Fit, and Fit4Free, have started offering group classes where you do boxing/kickboxing training.
But why can you lose weight so well through kickboxing?
If you look at famous kickboxers like Rico Verhoeven, Alex Pereira, and Nieky Holzken, you see that these are two very well-trained men.
Now I don’t guarantee that you will look exactly like these two top 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.
Do you really want to learn boxing/kickboxing in a professional school where competitive fighters are also trained? Then I recommend looking around on Google Maps in your own area.
Here you can find real kickboxing gyms near you.
What do you need
- A pair of boxing gloves
- A pair of shin guards (only if you are going to kickbox)
- Boxing trunks
- A mouthguard (dental protection)
- Groin protection
- Possibly a headgear (ask about it at the gym)
Are you looking for the ideal complete kickboxing set?:
If you find this too big a step, or you just prefer to train in a quieter environment, that is of course also possible.
You can visit your local gym and see if they offer group classes where they provide boxing training.
Or maybe you are really an outdoors person, then you also have the option to join an outdoor bootcamp team. These are often smaller groups of people who like to train outdoors.
In these kinds of group classes, they often also offer boxing training and you participate in a conditioning circuit. So you can also lose weight with kickboxing here.
Most gyms and bootcamps lend you boxing gloves, but for hygiene reasons, I recommend buying your own boxing gloves. I recommend one of these boxing gloves!
Of course, you can also follow these kinds of training sessions at home, but if you want to do this, I recommend looking for a schedule on the internet or hiring a personal trainer to give you a plan and teach you the basics of punching/kicking.
In boxing/kickboxing training, you can do many different exercises, and you can make these exercises as easy or as difficult as you want.
Jump rope
Most boxing/kickboxing schools do this during warm-up. With jump rope, you work on your footwork (being able to hop on the balls of your feet) as well as your conditioning.
You also train your shoulders by jumping longer and rotating your arms, which causes fatigue in the shoulders.
The fun thing about jump rope is that you can make it as hard as you want by using tricks and sprint rounds to add variety during your jump rope session.
Are you looking for a good jump rope to train with? Of course, we have those.
Shadowboxing
This exercise is also used during warm-ups and cool-downs. The idea behind shadowboxing is that you spar in your mind; it’s important to keep it as realistic as possible by staying moving, keeping your hands up, and not using long punch combinations (because you don’t do that in a real fight either).
Even with shadowboxing, you can make it as difficult and challenging as you want. You can do sprint rounds and also 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 bit. Push-ups are one of the best bodyweight exercises you can do.
With push-ups, you train your biceps, triceps, chest muscles, and shoulders. So it’s an important exercise to strengthen your punches.
You can also make push-ups harder as you get stronger. For example, by doing clap push-ups, explosive push-up exercises, handstand push-ups, and of course push-ups with supports.
Push-ups with supports allow you to go deeper down, which targets your chest even more.
Ab training
Well-trained abs not only look great, but they are also very functional in boxing.
They help with better balance and improved resilience. That’s why ab training is definitely relevant in a good boxing/kickboxing workout. You can train your abs in many different ways.
From classic sit-ups to leg raises on a bar. You can also vary your ab workouts a lot by experimenting with different exercises.
A very good abdominal exercise that I recommend to you is using an ab wheel. With an ab wheel, you train stability in your abdominal muscles. Make sure to tense your abs and keep your back straight.
Pads training
In this exercise, you have to practice combinations with a partner who holds the mitts for you. You can do this with a pair of mitts or just 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 mitts has many advantages. First, you train your technique; second, you train your reflexes. If someone gives you the command to do a certain combination on their cue, you train your reflexes and the speed of your punches.
You can also improve your defense with punching mitts; by receiving punches, you practice your blocks and dodges. If you’re still looking for a good pair of mitts, check out the collection of punching mitts & pads in our webshop.
Sparren
This is probably the very best way to lose weight with kickboxing, but also the scariest at first. Many people find sparren scary because they fear getting hit hard in the face.
Fortunately, at most boxing schools, the trainers are very attentive to how hard everything goes, especially in recreational settings. Make sure you have good mouth protection and wear headgear.
Headgear absorbs most of the impact from punches and kicks you get to your head. If you’re still looking for a very good headgear, check out the collection of headgear in our webshop.
Punching bag training
This is probably the most popular boxing/kickboxing training. A big advantage of the punching bag is that you don’t have to take any hits yourself.
Many gyms offer group classes with punching bag training. And this was just a small example of the different trainings you can follow in boxing/kickboxing.
Because of the intensive cardio training that kickboxing is, you burn a lot of calories and build a super good condition. With boxing/kickboxing training, you also train your power and speed of your punches and kicks.
You can do this kind of training in many different places. You can do these workouts both in a gym and at home.
What you need for a punching bag training:
- A good space (think about 3 by 3 meters)
- A punching bag, this can be a standing and/or a regular hanging punching bag
- Good boxing gloves
- Handwraps/inner gloves
If you're looking for a good punching bag to train with, check out the collection of punching bags and speedballs in our webshop.