Lots of people in New Zealand and around the world choose boxing as their preferred sport for several reasons.
In this article, we're going to look at why you should start boxing, the benefits of doing it, and the best places to do it in Christchurch.
The Pros and Cons of Boxing
As with any kind of exercise, sport, or physical activity, boxing comes with advantages and disadvantages. Before you start boxing or any other combat sport or martial art, think carefully about why you're doing it, what you stand to gain from it, and the risks involved.
Reasons to Do Boxing Classes
Boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, and any other combat sport or martial art are great for your physical health. Here are just some of the great reasons you should consider looking for boxing classes.
Cardiovascular Health
Boxing classes tend to include intensive cardio workouts that will push you and improve the overall health of your heart and lungs. Boxers need endurance and excellent cardiovascular health to last until the end of a fight and whether you're doing boxing classes to fight or just for your health, your cardio will improve.
Strength Training
Boxers aren't just endurance athletes, though. You'll also do a lot of work on your strength.
The amount of strength training you'll do will depend on the kind of boxing classes you do and you'll likely do less of it if you're doing a boxing fitness class. If you're training to fight, however, strength training is unavoidable.
Stress Relief
Boxing is good for your body, but it's also great for your mind and soul. Boxing training can help you relieve stress. There's something cathartic about throwing punches and working out that helps manage stress, but you'll also enjoy the benefits after each workout when your body releases endorphins and other hormones that improve your mood.
Weight Management
Lots of people choose sports to better manage their weight. Whether it's for losing weight, gaining weight, or maintaining a healthy weight, it's all about diet and exercise, and boxing training offers the latter. That said, you can also get dietary advice from most boxing coaches and gyms if you ask.
Self-Defence
While no boxing coach will encourage you to go out looking for fights, boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, or any other martial art can provide you with useful skills to defend yourself.
Even the simple fact of having situational awareness from sparring can help you out of tricky situations without having to even throw a punch.
Improved Confidence
You don't need to win a fight to improve your confidence, the simple fact that you're doing something and improving can boost your confidence. If you're boxing to manage your weight, it can also improve your confidence as you approach your target weight.
The Downsides to Boxing
As you've seen, there are plenty of benefits to boxing, combat sports, and martial arts, but there are also inherent risks and downsides to them.
Some are certainly worse than others and most people who do boxing will naturally feel that the pros outweigh the cons, but you should certainly keep them in mind when making the decision to start boxing.
Injuries
Boxing, combat sports, and martial arts all come with a risk of injury, even if you're just doing classes and not sparring or competing.
The risk of injury naturally increases if you compete and spar, but there are also risks of injury in the same way that any physical activity risks injury.
With boxing, you risk injury and damage to your joints, bruises, and sprains, even if you aren't actually fighting. If you train to fight and compete, then there's the risk of more severe injuries including brain injury.
The Cost
On a less serious note, you also will have to pay for your boxing classes or training sessions. This cost is one that you should certainly consider, especially if you plan on doing boxing for a while.
In addition to the cost of the sessions themselves, you also need to pay for equipment, getting to your gym, and the food and drink you may have to consume while you're at your boxing gym.
There's also the amount of time boxing will take up in your life and while this isn't a financial cost, busy individuals may struggle to regularly attend boxing classes.
Unhealthy Weight Loss
In competitive boxing, which includes weight classes for different fighters, weight cutting is a side of the sport that most people would rather not talk about.
For a fighter to meet the weight requirements for a fight, some will attempt to lose weight in incredibly unhealthy ways including dehydrating themselves and using saunas.
While healthy weight loss should be promoted, the practice of cutting still exists in boxing and other combat sports, though there are efforts to stop it as it's resulted in the deaths of fighters in the past.
Where to Do Boxing in Christchurch
Generally, the benefits of boxing far outweigh the risks, especially if you're just doing boxing classes that focus on fitness, strength, and technique.
Let's look at some of the places in and around Christchurch where you could start doing boxing classes or personal training.
9Round
9 Round is a chain of gyms that offers a 30-minute kickboxing training program. They have locations all over New Zealand including locations in Christchurch CBD (on Madras Street), Ferrymead, Barrington, Papanui, and Kaiapoi.
These are definitely kickboxing sessions for fitness and if you're looking to do boxing or kickboxing competitively, 9Round probably wouldn't be the right choice. However, if you're looking to lose weight or improve your fitness, this could be a pretty useful solution.
Check out the best boxing gyms in Auckland.
Muay Thai Christchurch
While we've been talking about boxing, you might be interested in kickboxing or Muay Thai. Muay Thai Christchurch offers classes for all levels and various ages.
The classes for children are suitable for those 8 and older whilst the adult classes are for various levels. Personal training is also available.
Muay Thai Christchurch can be found at 6/515 Wairakei Road, Burnside, Christchurch.
Proactive Martial Arts
Proactive Martial Arts has locations in Riccarton, Cashmere, Papanui, Rolleston, Mt Pleasant, and Parklands.
They offer a huge range of classes across a range of combat sports for all ages and levels including boxing, Krav Maga, Eskrima, Muay Thai, kickboxing, karate, and self-defence classes.
If you're interested, they also offer free trial classes.
Round 12
Round 12 is a boxing gym that offers a range of different boxing classes and affordable membership options.
Like most other gyms, there's a discount if you choose a longer membership and the longer you commit, the cheaper it'll work out for you each month.
You can find Round 12 at 450 Tuam St, Christchurch.
Titan Training Ground
Titan Training Ground is a gym that offers classes in various combat sports including Muay Thai, Dutch kickboxing, MMA, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and NoGi.
There are also classes, clinics, and sessions on strength and conditioning and sessions for children and teens.
UBX
UBX is another chain of gyms that offers a specific kind of boxing and strength training. In the case of UBX, sessions are 12 rounds and last 45 minutes.
UBX was started in Australia but now has locations all over the world including in the UK, the US, Singapore, and New Zealand of course.
You can find locations in Riccarton, Wigram, and Rolleston.
Look for boxing gyms in Wellington.
Get Boxing Classes from a Private Tutor or Coach
If you'd prefer tailored boxing sessions that are adapted to you, then you might want to consider working with a private tutor or coach. You can enjoy sessions that are fully tailored to you, your boxing and fitness goals, and your preferred learning style.
On the Superprof website, you can search for boxing or any combat sport that you're interested in and start browsing the profiles of private tutors and coaches.
You can see how much they charge, what kinds of classes they offer, and what their other clients have to say about them.
Many of the tutors and coaches on the Superprof site also offer the first session for free so you can try a few potential coaches out before choosing the one that's right for you and your goals.
Even if you can't find any suitable local coaches, you'd be surprised at how much you can get out of online tutoring and coaching. While online tutoring is usually reserved for more academic pursuits, an online boxing coach, especially one for fitness, can put together both training and nutrition plans for you to follow on your own time and offer consultation.
For those on a budget, you can also look for group sessions where you'll all share the cost of your coach's time and expertise. Naturally, these kinds of sessions won't come with all the benefits of one-on-one coaching, but they do tend to be far more affordable.
Just search for “boxing” or any other combat sport on our website today!
Enjoyed this article? Leave a rating!
Loading...
