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Fitnance boxing courses beneficial for both clients and trainers alike

Fitnance boxing courses beneficial for both clients and trainers alike.

The benefits of boxing to improve multiple aspects of fitness have long been promoted within the health and fitness industry. A form of both upper and lower body activity, boxing has the advantage of using more major muscle groups and consequently burn more kilojoules than other traditional forms of aerobic exercise.

Along with increasing the number of calories burned in a single session, boxing also enables both clients and trainers variety throughout sessions. Used as an alternative method of aerobic training, boxing equipment is cheap and can be used virtually anywhere, unlike expensive cardio machines such as cross-trainers, treadmills or rowing machines.

Non-contact boxing has been shown to burn on average a massive 2800kJ/hour, which is equivalent to running 9km in 60 minutes on a treadmill (Bellinger et al, 1997). Depending on the interest level and skill of your client, you can advance their boxing sessions to incorporate basic self defence techniques, and introduce more advanced manoeuvres and specific training equipment.

Fitness boxing is fast becoming one of the most popular forms of exercise used by personal trainers and enjoyed by clients. Fitness boxing is not just for your aspiring boxer looking to earn a title shot, quite the opposite, fitness boxing is for everyone.

Boxing provides a full body workout with the capacity to provide both physical and psychological benefits whilst still offering an enjoyable means of exercise. Physical benefits of fitness boxing include;

• § Improved muscular endurance, strength and power
• § Increased aerobic and anaerobic fitness conditioning
• § Higher caloric expenditure contributing to fat loss compared to other modes of aerobic training
• § Improved reaction time and coordination
• § Improved foot speed, balance and agility
• § Improved shoulder and hip stability

It is obvious that fitness boxing is a useful method of training for many different fitness goals. The additional psychological benefits of fitness boxing include;

• § Increased motivation due to exercise variety and enjoyment
• § Improved ability to focus and think
• § Satisfaction from completing a challenge
• § Improved self confidence
• § Management of stress and depression

The combination of both physical and psychological benefits of fitness boxing demonstrates how important it is for the personal trainer to be familiar with this type of training. These benefits are useful for many different population groups, from those looking to lose weight to those looking to improve sports performance. It is reliant on the trainer to structure the fitness boxing sessions appropriately to meet each of your client's desired goals and cater for their respective fitness levels. Boxing can be an effective training tool from promoting the loss of fat mass, to improving anaerobic capacity in middle distance runners. Boxing is a transferable training modality that applies to a range of sports including, soccer, rugby, cricket, swimming, tennis, and dancing.

All these sports require a degree of physical excellence relating to speed, power, endurance, and balance which only boxing training can provide, especially when training time is limited.

Fitnance offers beginner, intermediate and advanced boxing courses to accredit personal trainers and group fitness instructors. Get an edge on other P.Ts! Check out the Fitnance website regarding the upcoming course dates at http://www.fitnance.com.au/.

Source: BELLINGER B., GIBSON A., OELOFSE A., OELOFSE R. & LAMBERT M. (1997). Energy expenditure of a noncontact boxing training session compared with sub-maximal treadmill running. MSSE.  29 (12) 1653-1656.