The Benefits Of Kickboxing
Many people think of martial arts such as jiu jitsu when they consider ways of self defense and exercise; however, kickboxing can offer many similar benefits. A couple of the most significant include:
- Self Defense. Like learning a martial art, kickboxing can help you build a better self defense skills. While we certainly hope these skills will never have to be put into action, knowing that you can defend yourself can help you feel more confident overall.
- Being Social. One of the best things about taking kickboxing classes is that you get to interact with so many different people. Learning these skills alongside others can help you make new lifelong friends, and new relationships that you never would have found otherwise. This is beneficial no matter how old you are, as we can never have too many friends.
- A Full Body Workout. Unlike simply hitting the gym, kickboxing teaches you new skills will give you all the benefits of a full body workout. This can help you build strength quickly, and help define muscles more than simple weight lifting. Additionally, kickboxing also keeps you engaged, meaning you won’t get bored simply completing the same reps over and over again. The major benefits of kickboxing as a workout helps you build larger muscles in your legs, arms, and core; however, you’ll definitely be working on everything else along the way.
- Stress Relief. Another one of the biggest benefits of kickboxing include stress relief. Kickboxing can act as a fantastic outlet for anger and stress by giving a 300 pound punching back to throttle. (It really is cathartic.) This means your not only training your body, but your helping to settle your mind, and relax after a long stressful week. Without a healthy outlet for stress, you can begin to feel more run down, even depressed. In this way kickboxing benefits not only your body but also your mind.
- Flexibility. Learning kickboxing can also help increase your flexibility and sense of balance. This is because many classes start out with a series of stretching routines to help everyone limber up before getting started, over time this helps you prevent injury, and increases your flexibility. In turn being more flexible helps build a better sense of balance, as you’ll have a broader range of motion that your body can engage in. In everyday like this can help you prevent slips and falls, which can be especially beneficial during the winter months.
- Cardio. Kickboxing also serves as a great cardio exercise which can help make your lungs and heart stronger over time. This is because you will constantly be engaged and moving causing your heart to speed up and your lungs to work harder to draw in breath. Having a strong heart can benefit you by helping prevent heart attacks, heart disease, and high blood pressure or cholesterol. Likewise strong lungs ensure that your body is able to better absorb oxygen and filter it into your bloodstream. By being able to this you also help increase your endurance.
- Endurance. As touched on above, one of the benefits of kickboxing is increased endurance. As you train and strengthen your body, you will be able to go longer and harder than ever before. This is due in large part to the above, as a strong heart and lungs is imperative to increasing your stamina and endurance.
- Weight Loss. If it wasn’t already a given, kickboxing helps you shed those unwanted pounds and keep them off. And, since it’s not mindlessly completing sets of reps, you can have fun while losing the weight. Between the sparring, technique and weight training, you can expect to see results faster than with simply running on a treadmill.