Aerobic and Anaerobic are two well-known concepts in every sport, especially boxing. These are the body’s two main respiration processes, which greatly determine athletes’ speed, strength, and endurance. Once you have the answer for “Is Boxing Aerobic or Anaerobic” you will be able to plan your practice effectively.
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The Energy Bar In Old Boxing Games
You surely used to play fighting games as a kid, do you? In these games, each opponent will have two bars showing their character’s remaining health. One of them will drop when you hit the punch, and the other will decrease gradually. Surprisingly, our body works the same way.
For light physical activities, the body tends to prioritize aerobic activity to fuel the muscles. And when we exhale, the body activates the anaerobic process.
Both Aerobic And Anaerobic Are Important For Boxers!
Is Boxing Aerobic or Anaerobic
Boxing Is Both Aerobic And Anaerobic!
The Aerobic System Of Boxing
Aerobic respiration is the process of breaking down raw materials to generate energy for the body’s activities. The raw materials include simple sugars, going through the glycolysis phase, and producing ATP as the final product.
The most significant feature of aerobic respiration is that it needs an oxygen-rich medium to perform respiration. This process can be lengthy to provide essential energy for body activities.
In simple words, during aerobic respiration, the body will use the entire oxygen you have to efficiently fuel the body when you inhale. When you practice boxing in an “aerobic” state, it feels pretty easy, as muscles are provided with enough oxygen to move and maintain.
Therefore, focusing on the efficient use of available o2 to generate energy will help you become more powerful.
The effect of aerobic boxing is to increase oxygen consumption after exercise. Besides, this accumulates during training, often rated on a 0 to 5 scale to represent your fitness level and training habits.
During a training session, creating 60 m-02 / kg EPOC may provide great training benefits for your health. But it may not help if you want to improve your health to perfection.
However, if muscle contraction becomes intense, aerobic energy generation does not generate enough oxygen and energy for a reaction to occur. Immediately, the body will trigger anaerobic (no oxygen) energy generation to take place, creating energy for the muscles to use without oxygen.
The Anaerobic System Of Boxing
Anaerobic respiration is the process of breaking down carbohydrates to obtain energy for cells. It will accept the last electron of the electron transmission chain as an inorganic molecule, not molecular oxygen. Examples of the ultimate electron acceptor are NO3 for nitrate respiration and SO4 in sulfate respiration.
These final electron acceptors have a lower reduction capacity than O2, meaning less energy is produced per molecule of oxidation. Therefore, anaerobic respiration is less effective than aerobic respiration.
However, this does not mean that the process is less important. Normally in each match, the boxers will have a period of muscle tension, muscle contraction, accumulating kinetic energy before launching punches, and a phase of blowing punches, releasing breath to blow. If aerobic plays a role in coordinating strength in the whole round, anaerobic will be the premise for strong movements such as punching, blocking, surfing, or fast-moving steps.
Anaerobic breathing tells the brain that we are exhausted and need oxygen, accelerating the process of getting nutrients and oxygen back into our muscles faster. Hence, the boxers will become stronger and faster due to the body’s survival mechanism.
How to Increase Your Power of Aerobic and Anaerobic
After we’ve answered the question “Is boxing aerobic or anaerobic?” now we will move to the way of increasing your power.
For Aerobic
Aerobic training takes time, discipline, and, most importantly, controlling your competitive nature.
Swimming
Capillaries are the smallest blood vessels in the body. Thanks to them, oxygen and nutrients can be delivered to muscle tissue. The speed of oxygen transporting will based on the amount of capillaries you have around each muscle fiber.
Special aerobic exercise increases the number of capillaries per muscle fiber. Also, it improves the ability to supply oxygen to fuel muscles. However, it is also important to note that aerobic training is not for speed training. You should run moderately and practice breathing for the best results.
Read also: Benefits Of Swimming For Boxers
Running
Similar to swimming, long-distance runs are an effective exercise for aerobic respiration. Long distances such as 15 or 20 km greatly increase lung regulation, helping you learn how to distribute force in a match.
For effective training, run for a short distance when starting and gradually increase the distance every day. Running faster not only reduces your ability to develop aerobic but also increases the likelihood of injury and overtraining.
For Anaerobic
Anaerobic exercise is a partial exercise, acting on some muscle groups, heart rate, and irregular breathing. Holding your breath when you stop the exercise will increase your breathing rate.
Sprints
For the Sprint exercise group, speed is the most important factor. During this time, the body reaches its limit, which causes changes in the nervous-muscle system.
Studies show that you can create greater strength, higher speed as individual muscle groups begin to work better together. Simultaneously, the large muscle groups also have better coordination which will increase flexibility in punches.
Circuits
The next exercise is circuit, which mainly focuses on endurance. This activity requires you to combine several exercises in a short amount of time. While practicing these exercises, your heart rate and oxygen consumption are often very high.
Circuits will help the body improve its performance, reduce the accumulation of lactate and hydrogen ions in the body, push your speed and health to a higher level. You’ll feel these changes as you find yourself able to train longer before reaching your limit.
Conclusion
There you go, a complete answer for the question “Is Boxing Aerobic or Anaerobic.” For boxers, both aerobic and anaerobic exercise types are essential to the body. Practicing both respiratory processes will help you increase strength, speed, and endurance in competition. We hope that this article provides you helpful information!
Related: Why is boxing more popular than mma?
With a passion for combat sports and a wealth of experience, Mike Colon stands as a seasoned figure in the world of martial arts, hailing from the vibrant city of Las Vegas, Nevada. Mike has honed the skills of numerous fighters, guiding them through the intricacies of the sweet science of Boxing and the multifaceted challenges of MMA.
