Is Boxing the Right Workout for You?

April Daniels Hussar,SELF magazine

This summer in London, along with 250 men, there will be 36 women competing for the boxing gold -- for the first time ever at the Olympic games!

"This is a very exciting time for women's boxing," Teresa Scott, registered USA boxing coach and the founder of Women's World of Boxing in New York City, tells HealthySELF. "The world's most important sporting body including women in the games gives legitimacy to and validates women's boxing and the participating athletes."

And here where your bikini body comes into the picture. According to Scott, "There is no comparison to the total-body rewards of boxing."

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Boxing burns between 500 and 1,000 calories an hour, depending upon the intensity, Scott explains. "It promotes weight loss, improves balance, coordination, reflexes, strength and flexibility," she says -- but the benefits aren't just physical. "Along with being the ultimate stress reliever, boxing strengthens your mind, spirit and body. It's an empowering sport that provides a woman with discipline, inner strength, options a voice -- and courage to use your voice," she adds.

There are three women's boxing events scheduled for London: women's Fly, women's Middle and women's Light. Women's bouts are four rounds of two minutes each, compared to three rounds of three minutes each for men.

Scott explains that the International Boxing Association wanted to incorporate Women's Boxing into the existing boxing schedule, while maintaining the preexisting fight structure with minimal changes. "They reduced 40 boxers from the men's quota of 286 to allow for the women's quota," she says. "As far as the bout time difference, in women's amateur and professional boxing, fights have two-minute rounds. Amateur fights consist of three two-minute rounds, while professional fights can go as long as 10 rounds."

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Can you picture yourself in the ring for 10 rounds? Scott, who took up boxing eight years ago as a way to get in shape (she dropped over 60 of her 215 pounds), says you should! "I highly recommend women and girls to take up boxing," she says. "In addition to being a form of self-defense, it takes the 'work' out of workout. Boxing is never something you 'have to' do, it's something you WANT to do."

Wondering what you'd be getting yourself into? Here's the Women's World of Boxing's Going For The Gold Workout (it takes about an hour):

1. Begin with four rounds of jumping rope, stretching for one minute in between rounds
(one round should last for three minutes):

Round 1: Skip from foot to foot, shifting your weight side to side
Round 2: Jump with high knees
Round 3: Jump while running -- forward and then back
Round 4: Speed jumping! Start with sets of 20

2. Shadow box for four rounds:

Using your Jab, Cross, Hooks and Uppers in various combinations, keep your lower body moving with a light bounce, shifting your weight from side to side. (Check out SELF's boxing-ballet workout video for some tips on your swing.) Alternate push-ups, planks, mountain climbers and burpees for one minute in between rounds.

3. Eight rounds on the heavy bag:

Work the bag, incorporating various combinations for three minutes, alternating between full exertion power-punching and speed rounds. In between rounds, do one minute of isolating core exercises: sit-ups, planks, crunches, etc.

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Don't have access to a heavy bag? "You definitely get quicker results and it's more gratifying with the bag," says Scott, "but you can always improvise by shadow boxing the entire workout!"

4. End! Finish with two rounds of jumping rope, then stretching (shoulders, triceps, lats, quads and hamstrings).


Scott acknowledges that it can take nerve for a woman to go to a typical boxing gym, because it's still a male-dominated arena. But she anticipates that more and more ladies will be getting in the ring.

"Women's boxing will continue to be an epic evolution that will only grow stronger with time," she says. "When I was a growing up, girls didn't box. Boxing fell under the 'what boys do' category." But, she says, since the news broke about Women's Boxing coming to the Olympics, parents have been calling her gym, searching for a safe environment for their 9-year-old daughters to begin training now, with the hopes of someday competing for the gold.


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