Getting fit is a difficult task that puts great demands on your body and mind. One of the aspects that derails many is the motivation side. Maintaining your motivation to exercise is often hindered by excuses, such as feeling tired or not having the time.
But, the best way to keep motivated is to set and review your fitness goals. For example, setting a goal of losing 12lbs or being able to bench press a further 10lbs and tracking your progress can help a lot. Another way is to try to improve at a sport. As sport is competitive and allows you to develop skill, it can be a huge aid in helping you get fit and keep you committed.
One sport that entails full body fitness and is very cost effective to train is boxing. To improve at the sport, you can do sparring, bag work, and pad work to train your punching combinations, but there’s another aspect to the very athletic sport which takes the best boxers to another level and vastly improves fitness levels if you incorporate them into your training.
Hit the streets and do some roadwork
To the uninitiated, boxing involves two people meeting in a ring to throw punches at each other for three minutes at a time, which doesn’t appear to be the most aerobic of sports. But, boxing is a very demanding sport, requiring stacks of endurance to allow boxers to take punishment, to move around the ring swiftly, and deal out punishing blows. A classic element of boxing training that has stood the test of time and the greatest boxers of today still utilize is roadwork.
Perhaps the greatest sportsperson of all-time, Muhammad Ali, was infamously lax in sparring, but he loved his roadwork. Ali would run three-to-five miles up to four times a week according to Livestrong, which was a base of his training and mighty 56-5 record. Joseph Parker is the 24-1 former heavyweight world champion who most recently was the first boxer to take the notorious, now 21-0 Anthony Joshua 12 rounds for the first time in the Brit’s career. On March 31, 2018, Parker was impressive against Joshua, possessing energy and fight to the end.
One of the main aspects of his training is roadwork – which is the boxing term for going for a run outdoors. His coach, Kevin Barry, says that Parker wakes up early, has a bit of fruit, and sets off on 3.5-to-five-mile runs, as reported by Boxing Scene. There’s no doubt that Parker will be getting in his roadwork as a key part of his training for his upcoming bout with the dangerous Dillian Whyte. As of June 20, some see the -105.26 Whyte as the favorite, but Parker’s athleticism could very well see him past the fleshy Whyte with odds of -125 with Betway. Endurance training changes boxers from being skilled or heavy hitters into world champions. Your body adapts to endurance training, making it use oxygen far more efficiently. Having a high level of endurance will not only keep you fit in itself, but it will also allow you to push yourself further when performing workouts or during training.
Fuelling your body the right way
There are a lot of misconceptions about fitness and dieting. Crash course diets are never the answer, but tweaking your diet to ensure that your body gets the fuel that it needs can make all of the difference. In healthy proportions, fat and carbohydrates are necessary for your nutrition. Adding the right amounts of protein and eating at the right times is also important and also follows the five nutritional rules that are as good as gold. Dillian Whyte, who’s set to face the athletic Joseph Parker at the end of July, found out the benefits of structured and calculated diet and exercise when he faces Anthony Joshua in December 2015. It was Whyte’s 17th fight, but the 15-0 Joshua annihilated him in seven rounds.
As reported by ESPN, Whyte says that he learned a lot from his fight with Joshua. Joshua incorporates a very scientific approach to his diet and training, while Whyte says he was training more like a caveman. Whyte’s new approach has seen him shed a lot of excess weight and allowed him to improve his endurance in fights. He went all 12 rounds in a thrilling match against Dereck Chisora in 2016 and clocked a stunning knockout win against Lucas Browne in March of this year.
Getting into boxing is a very enjoyable experience, allowing you to exercise in fun and exciting ways. Seeking to improve at boxing will only help to improve your overall fitness. You don’t necessarily even have to step into a ring and engage in a match to get the motivation kick or enjoyment from the activity. Simply training to be faster, stronger, and smarter as a combatant is inspiration enough – and may even come in handy one day. Boxing is an incredibly athletic sport. The best ways to bolster your ability to box are by training endurance and incorporating a healthy and calculated diet. You’ll see your ability to box increase ten-fold as well as your overall fitness improve as well.
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