So now that I have gotten into the next lowest range of 10 pounds, safely, I am interested in finding something that is really focused on fat rather than getting at my muscle. What do you all know about boxing? I feel like boxing is great for fat loss because boxers have to be lean, but I don't know.

Kicking boxing and Ti-kwon-doe are meant to be very good for burning fat. My dad just earned his black belt in Ti-Kwon~ (sorry for spelling).

Ide love to do a martial art but I want to cut down first :P

This is an interesting question.

I used to do some boxing workouts -- a la the old school. Frankly, I'm not sure what modern boxers are doing. But it's true, if you weren't in a heavyweight division, a boxer would often need to lose excess bodyweight to make the weight class.

What I know of devoted boxers the training was rigorous, and on a daily basis would probably have to burn fat just given the amount of energy expended. Consider, old schoolers might be up in the earlyl a.m. for a conditioning run, then to work on the various skills sessions -- rope work, speed bag, heavy bag, calistthenics, etc.

Then of course, there was the sparring with training partners. It amounted to lots and lots of work. Of course, the one thing about a boxing workout is that it would be conducted based on the time for rounds. That is an amateur would work the heavy bag, for example, for two minutes -- the duration of a round -- rest for a minute, then back for a two minute round.

Anyway, that's the type of stuff done years and years ago. Then there were always variations -- like Ali running with army boots on the sands of Miami Beach, and later chopping wood at his training camp in Pennsylvania.

I'd like to hear, too, how contemporary boxers are training.

Jim

I trained with amateurs at a local gym in Austin and the workout was the same you describe. Two min training intervals with one minute of rest. It was brutal for those who weren't used to the training. My college Shotokan training was also similar but more physically brutal. The other cardio I do now (racquetball and mountain biking) doesn't compare to what I've experienced with boxing and competitive martial arts training.

During my college years I trained 20-25 hours a week in Shotokan and never watched my diet (which led to my fat gain problems after 35). I was always around 9-10% body fat. The amount of calories you burn off has to be very high.

I use boxing as a good cardio workout, that if done intensely enough can be done in a fairly short time. I try to throw in some other things inbetween rounds, like pushups, stair climbing, or burpees.

danboback I never understand the intense cardio workout. When I go to the gym ide like to work hard for 20-30 mins but people say you need to workout for 15 mins before your body starts to burn fat or does it change if the workout is more intense?

I find boxing great for two reasons:
1 - It gets you fit, its a high intensity activity that usually hits your whole body.
2 - It motivates me to be fit and train to get stronger and fitter for when I do go to boxing, so basically motivation to train outside of boxing classes.

danboback I never understand the intense cardio workout. When I go to the gym ide like to work hard for 20-30 mins but people say you need to workout for 15 mins before your body starts to burn fat or does it change if the workout is more intense?

I honestly don't read much into fat burning zone, but I know if I bust my ass for 15mins boxing, that I burned more cals than if I slowly jogged on a treadmill for 45mins. I'm just trying to eat right and work hard and let my body figure out where to burn the cals from. Make sure you supplement this with lifting so you dont just burn your muscles though...

There are 4 types of endurance training:-

1. Long Slow Distance Training:- LSD
2. Interval Training:- IT
3. Threshold Training:- TT
4. Peaking Threshold Training:- PTT

Boxing training uses some of these protocols.....so do other sports like martial arts and MMA.

Of these, MMA training is probably the most intense because other sports mentioned train with the idea that you will train intensely for a specified time and then rest ( the rest possibly being in the form of say something like punching a bag for 30 seconds flat out and then resting for 60 seconds etc etc etc., where you drop back into an active but non-taxing zone.

If you train like this your body will come to expect these rest periods.

Peaking Threshold Training does not allow you to drop back into the comfort zone. It drops you back to a level that is higher than that.

PTT is pretty intense and should not be done more than once a week as it is too exhausting on the body.


Professor Martin Gibala of McMaster University did a test on a subject group.

LSD:- group cycled for 2 hours
IT:- group cycled for 10 minutes but included a few 60 second bursts.
TT:- group cycled all-out for 4 thirty-second bursts with 4 minutes of rest bewteen bursts.

At the conclusion of the 3 week test, each group achieved the same increase in fitness and VO2 max.

But the third group did it with only 3 minutes of exercise time per session.

According to studies by Angelo Tremblay, Claude Bouchard and others, the third method (TT) is more efficient at burning fat despite burning fewer calories than LSD method.

I would give MMA training a slight edge over Boxing because you have to use your whole body for a longer period.

Pulling power is more important in MMA than pushing power.

Many MMA trainers use PTT, which is more intense than TT. Although they will use all 4 methods in combination as well.

True, alot of MMA'ers will go a whole fight using "standup", but that isn't how they trained for the match.

Heavyweight MMA'ers are IMO more active overall round per round than many of the heavyweight boxers I've watched. (And many of the heavyweight boxers around these days seem to be way overweight, move too slow and get "gassed" way too soon.)

Of course, no two boxers train the same. So it will not be because you are training for boxing that determines your results. It will be HOW you train for boxing that determines it.

The other factors are "specifity", "intensity" and "efficiency".

"Efficiency" is how well an activity serves a purpose.
For fat burning , some activities and regimens will outclass others.
You want the biggest bang for your buck in reagrd to how much time you are going to spend on one particular thing.
If ,say, you only have 2 hours twice a week to work out , you are not going to spend all 4 hours walking because that eats too much time where you could have been doing a better fat-loss routine and training regimen.

"Intensity" is needed to kick the results up several notches in a shorter time-frame.

"Specifity":-is...picking a routine/exercise/activity that closely matches what you hope to achieve. Boxing is a completely different activity than long-distance bicycling etc. Boxing favors endurance/circuit work over straight strength.