Fit Boxe by R.Borgacci

What's this

What is fit boxing?

Fit boxing is a fitness training method - designed to optimize the state of general fitness - developed in a kickboxing style.

Very often it is accompanied by music tracks with motivational intent or that mark the rhythm of the strokes.

Fit boxing is not a combat sport and there are no opponents; the blows are taken exclusively against a special bag or, at the limit, against the gloves of a training partner - at the discretion of the coach.

Did you know that ...

In recent years not only the fit boxing, but also the athletic preparation of kickboxing and boxing (pre-school), have become a very popular training style.

The health benefits that can be derived from practicing fit boxing are numerous; among the various we recognize them as general and specific. The main ones are:

1. Stress relief
2. Weight loss optimization - especially in sedentary patients
3. Improvement of general fitness - especially in sedentary patients.

What is it about

How it is organized and how a fit boxing session is run

From a technical point of view, the fit boxing has little to do with kickboxing and boxing. To be sure, this depends a lot on the level of preparation of the coach and on the importance it wants to give to these details. Broadly speaking, a boxer as much as a kickboxer would shudder at the sight of a fit boxing session; it does not matter, since punches and kicks are only a means of training, while the goal is not combat but fitness.

Before starting the session it is necessary to practice a bandage; wrists and hands should be stabilized with special taping, to avoid injuries. The lower limbs instead remain free.

The training begins with muscle warming, performed on movements with wide articular excursion, followed by an initial phase called activation or approach to effort; the latter, on the other hand, is specific and serves both to consolidate muscle warming - while activating aerobic metabolism - and to initiate cardio circulatory and respiratory systems; it has a progressive intensity. Heating and activation have a highly preventive purpose on injuries and optimize performance.

The real effort begins when you put on your gloves - they are not boxing gloves, they are thinner and lighter. The basic position is that of guard, with the fists closed in contact with the face and the elbows closed on the chest; the body is slightly in profile - not totally frontal - with the right foot half way down ahead of the left (if the guard is for a right-handed one, vice versa for a left-handed one). The following movements are mainly used:

• Fists with both arms: direct, hook, upright
• Kicks with both legs: "would be" frontal, lateral, semi-circular and circular
• Guard exchange, dodges, advancing, backward and sideways movements
• Bag lock to allow the partner to hit with energy.

The trainer manages the session by announcing the movements - for example: 6 direct left-to-right strokes ... then dodged left and right ... and 4 circular kicks with the right - and correcting technical errors or emphasizing attention to certain details.

The session concludes with a cool down and muscle stretching - static or with dynamic movements, with a wide articular excursion. The total duration is about half an hour.

Benefits

Benefits of boxing fit

As anticipated, the practice of fit boxing can help improve the quality of life in different ways.

Let me be clear, the same goals could be pursued with other methods - fitness activities or real sports - even if, from the psychological point of view, perhaps the fit boxing has "something more". This means that some of the benefits we will mention are not highly specific, while others do.

Above all, with regard to sedentaries, it is undeniable that, by seriously respecting this training system, an improvement in one's general psycho-physical condition can be achieved. Let's go into detail.

Fit box and reduction of psychological nervous stress

According to the "Sports and Fitness Industry Association", this activity can significantly help reduce psychological nervous stress.

This is due primarily, as for other motor activities, to a basic physiological mechanism; we talk about the release of endorphins, the same hormones that are released by eating chocolate or practicing fulfilling sexual activity.

Secondly, fit boxing also has a purely psychological and rather complex aspect; we will try to summarize it briefly:

• The boxing fit allows you to vent aggression, or more correctly, physically. It may seem a twisted but absolutely true reasoning. In contemporary society, physical violence is progressively becoming a taboo. Instead of learning to manage it, as an essential component of psyche and behavior, people tend to repress it, with devastating consequences for their mental and behavioral balance. The fit boxing allows you to maintain a good relationship with your aggression without addressing it to other people.

Did you know that ...

There are other disciplines that teach more about self-control and self-defense or offense compared to fit boxing, but they are much more technical, demanding and serious; the opposite of fit boxing which, for its part, is much more affordable for the community.

• As a group, fit boxing has a highly developed social component; this gives a sense of belonging that is crucial to the loyalty and consolidation of the participation routine.

Fit box and improvement of cardio-vascular and respiratory fitness

From a strictly metabolic point of view, fit boxing has mixed aerobic and anaerobic characteristics.

More specifically we could argue that it is an aerobic-based training, with a significant cardio-vascular and respiratory component, during which intensity increments are applied that exceed the anaerobic threshold with consequent production of lactic acid.

deepening

Paradoxically, increasing the intensity of the aerobic effort beyond the anaerobic threshold - after which the production of lactic acid begins - serves to activate totally the aerobic metabolism, approaching the maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max).

Depending on the metabolic commitment, lactic acid production can be modest or significant. A technician in the sector would define this kind of training as "continuous and with rhythm variations".

To further increase the importance of anaerobic effort, the trainer can apply the concept of "Interval Training" (IT) to the fit box training, more precisely of the "High Intensity Interval Training" (HIIT). This can easily be achieved by alternating the packed series between the companions, or by dividing the session into rounds - for example from 3 'each - alternated by passive recovery - for example of 1'. Later we will find out more about what it is.

Improved specific muscle fitness

Fit boxing improves most of the muscular fitness, involving:

• Shoulders (deltoids)
• Chest (bibs)
• Core (set of: rectum of the abdomen, obliques, transverse, paraspinal muscles, square of the loins, muscles of the pelvic floor, buttocks and hip flexors
• Brachial triceps
• Brachial biceps
• Lower limbs (femoral quadriceps, hamstring, adductors, abductors, calves, etc.

A sedentary subject who begins to practice fit boxing can immediately notice an increase in general muscle tone (toning), then a slight increase in strength - which however does not progressively increase - and finally an increase in speed of movement and specific resistance - also at speed.

Improved coordination

The boxing fit allows to train the communication between mind and body, therefore to decrease the time necessary to think about a movement, process it and transmit the impulse. In a sedentary, this translates into an improvement in global coordination skills.

Weight loss optimization

To avoid spreading easily equivocal concepts, we specify that: "the practice of fit boxing allows to increase the caloric expenditure but, in itself, it is not enough to make you lose weight". Let's try to be clearer.

Weight loss is given by an energy consumption higher than that introduced with food. The practice of fit boxing contributes to weight loss only if it determines a negative caloric balance [Caloric balance = IN energy - OUT energy]. Unfortunately this does not happen in all cases, because (as it should be) physical movement requires nutrients and consequently increases appetite; to get a slimming you must therefore look for the right balance between training load and appetite satisfaction.

To be fair, if well used, fit boxing is an excellent tool to "rebalance" body composition - increasing the percentage of lean mass at the expense of fat. Muscles burn calories during movement and, if properly activated, continue to "consume" even during recovery, feeding the basal metabolic rate. This allows you to eat more freely compared to a sedentary condition, without too many restrictions, however, affecting the excess fatty tissue. Obviously, as we have pointed out, everything depends on the number, duration and intensity of training, but above all on what happens during meals.

Improvement of mood and self-esteem

This is a critical point because it is extremely relative. We say that the practice of fit boxing, even in light of what has been said about psychological nervous stress, is considered all in all positive for mood and self-esteem.

But we must not make the mistake of letting ourselves go into inappropriate behavior, such as the ability to compensate for binges by training compulsively. If extreme, this attitude is typical of certain eating disorders (DCA), such as bulimia nervosa (BN).

Contraindications

Contraindications of fit boxing

Neither more nor less than many other fitness activities, even the boxing fit may have contraindications. Let us not forget that, after all, this discipline recruits and engages the entire kinetic chain of the human body and intensively activates the cardiovascular and respiratory system.

The boxing fit is therefore not recommended in case of:

• Certain severe and painful chronic joint diseases of the hands and wrists, for example rheumatoid arthritis or arthrosis
• Ligamentous or tendinous disorders of the shoulder or elbow. This applies definitively if the anatomical structure or functionality is compromised; some examples are severe tendon thinning, joint instability, fibrous cysts located in critical points, etc. On the other hand, a periodic suspension in acute and less serious inflammations may be sufficient; a typical example is the mild forms of impingement (subacromial conflict syndrome), epicondylitis, epitrocleitis, etc.
• High cardiovascular risk; the risk of ischemia is potentially lethal or debilitating, which is why it should not be taken lightly
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) uncompensated, or difficult to control
• Underweight, especially with DCA - typical of anorexia nervosa (AN) - or overweight, especially with severe obesity and linked to metabolic disorders or other conditions that dramatically increase cardiovascular risk.

risks

Risks of fit boxing

The only risk closely related to the practice of fit boxing is that of trauma. These do not occur due to the blows received since, as we have already said, no type of combat is reproduced; but because of the bad shots against the bag. Statistically this concerns above all:

• The joints of the wrist and hands. If the wrist is not rigid and the hand properly closed (with the thumb outside the fist but wrapped on the fingers), the risks of ligamentous or tendinous overdistension and joint distortion increase
• Elbow and shoulder joints. This happens especially when the distance between the body and the bag is miscalculated
• Ankle and foot joints. If the kicks are unleashed with the tip of the foot or the neck instead of the tibia, the risks of ligamentous or tendinous overdistension and joint distortion increase

There is also a lower incidence of knee and ankle distortions of support - not that of the hitting leg - which occur especially during kicks due to the rotation of the body on the too-tight leg. The possibilities increase if the contact on the ground occurs on the entire surface of the sole of the foot - rather than on the forefoot - and / or if the knee is tense and / or balance is lost.

In light of the above, the risks of fit boxing can be grouped into a series of cases attributable to pre-existing pathological states. In itself, the activity is not risky, but it must be addressed for what it is: a motor activity that can also be very intense. In order not to suffer unpleasant incidents or preventable injuries, it is therefore first of all necessary to undergo a medical examination with an electrocardiogram, preferably a competitive one.