“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion’.” – Muhammad Ali
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There’s no feeling in the world that’s worse than wanting to quit mid-workout, but boxing provides benefits that push you to glove up, box harder, and stay in the ring.
However, that doesn’t mean you have to be precisely like Muhammad Ali to take up boxing. Today’s version of boxing isn’t necessarily designed to get you in the next UFC tournament, but it gets you in shape like the top UFC athletes.

Here are the top benefits of boxing:

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Full-Body, All-In Workout:

“All that punching, kicking, and jumping requires a surprising amount of strength. Think about it – most professional heavy bags weigh at least 100 pounds.

During a boxing workout, you may punch or kick a bag hundreds of times, requiring your upper body, lower body, and core to engage as you make contact with the bag. Plus, most boxing gyms incorporate other strength training moves into a boxing workout. For instance, when I took a class at a local 9Round, I did squats, pushups, planks, and weighted medicine ball exercises all within the context of my fast-paced 30-minute circuit workout.” – (Money Crashers)

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Stress Reliever:

“Exercise has stress relieving effects. It triggers a release of the feel-good hormone, dopamine. When it comes to boxing, many find relief from the stress of work, school and daily life by hitting the bag and releasing energy in a constructive environment ‑ because it feels good. Boxing workouts take stress relief up a notch to by transforming stress into power and strength.”  – (Title Boxing)

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Better Coordination:

“The next big benefit that you can reap from boxing and training for boxing on a regular basis is that you will develop better hand-eye coordination. Training your hand-eye coordination works in the same way as training your cardiovascular endurance or your muscle strength, in the sense that the more you challenge it, the better it will get.

Boxing involves a lot of coordination because you need to be able to bounce around and move in certain direction with your feet, while at the same time landing punches on your opponent. Moreover, you have to be able to aim your hands perfectly to get that big punch in on your opponent’s sweet spot, something that requires a heck of a lot of coordination.

Moreover, training for boxing, such as skipping rope, or better yet using a speed bag, also helps to train hand-eye coordination and the connection between your brain, the part that tells you to do something, and your hands and feet, the parts which execute the maneuvers which your brain has instructed them to do.” – (Fit and Me)

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Better Endurance:

“Another thing which boxing can help you with is to increase your overall endurance. As we have mentioned before, boxing both strengthens your muscles and gives you a great cardiovascular workout at the same time. When you have stronger muscles it means that you can punch harder for longer without getting tired because they are used to the increased work load which you are putting them through. Moreover, since your cardiovascular system is being strengthened due to various forms of training, your heart and lungs have the ability to pump more blood and oxygen to your muscles in a limited period of time. More blood and oxygen in your muscles means that they can go for much longer without getting tired. There is also the fact that when you train, you train your lungs to be more efficient at absorbing oxygen and processing it into your blood stream, therefore you will also run out of breath much less quickly when you engage in regular boxing training sessions.” – (Fit and Me)

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Learn Some Self-Defense:

Learning a useful skill while having fun and working out has never been easier. Just in case anything arises outside of the ring, you’ll have the ability and foundation to feel more prepared and confident in throwing a punch. Although this isn’t a true self-defense course, boxing gives people the foundations of protecting themselves against anything.

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Don’t believe us, yet? Check out some of the benefits from the Buzzfeed crew!