Probably, today everyone has heard at least once about a sport called boxing. For many years, he belongs to the popular types of martial arts: the number of his fans is only growing year after year.
What is boxing for a person who is practically unfamiliar with this sport? A competition consisting in beating each other until one of the rivals collapses from a loss of strength. It is not surprising that ordinary people often consider it harmful and dangerous. The practitioners, such as Victor Ortiz, profile at 234fight.com, argue that this sport has mostly one benefit. Is it really? Who is right after all?
Let’s try to figure it out. Let’s talk about the main pros and cons of classes. We’ll start with the benefits.
Why do you need boxing
First of all, the immediate goal of practicing any martial arts, be it, for example, Thai boxing, is the ability to stand up for oneself as effectively as possible, acquire important and valuable self-defense skills. That is, it is equally useful for women, men and children . It directly contributes to the formation of a person’s personality and character. We can say that this expresses its benefits for men. Not everyone can withstand constant stress, regular training, frequent setbacks. But those who managed to hold out in this sport for at least a year will hardly be able to refuse it.
What qualities does boxing develop? Willpower, strengthening the spirit, overcoming one’s own fears, weakness and self-doubt, developing endurance, increasing reaction speed … This list can be continued for a very long time. Let’s also note which muscles work during training and fighting.
These are the muscles of the arms, legs, shoulder girdle, chest, press. Regular exercise contributes to the effective maintenance of excellent physical shape, as well as general tone.
Contrary to popular belief, boxers are not at all aggressive, overly emotional hot-tempered people who go into conflict at any opportunity. On the contrary, boxing forms such important character traits as calmness, composure and restraint. In training or during sparring, athletes have an excellent opportunity to throw out accumulated emotions, even relieve stress.
Coming to training for the first time, some find themselves anew, acquire new acquaintances, friends and, possibly, a purpose in life. By starting intelligent training at an early age, the child develops discipline and responsibility, which will be very useful to him later in life.
So, there are many pluses, they are all quite significant. In general terms, boxing is good for both physical and mental health. But at the same time, this is a struggle, which means there are risks. Let’s try to figure it out with this.
Is boxing harmful?
Like any wrestling, boxing is a dangerous sport in which there is a possibility of getting various kinds of injuries. Injuries to the hands, sprains, concussion … But let’s not forget that there is simply no absolutely safe sport. These risks are ubiquitous in sports, from football to rhythmic gymnastics.
In the classroom, they teach safety techniques, teach how to strike correctly and avoid them. If a beginner athlete listens carefully to the coach, memorizes the information and then applies it in practice, the risk of injury drops significantly.
So is boxing unhealthy? For amateurs – definitely not with the right approach and knowledge of technology. Professional boxers may have some inherent problems, but with early detection they can be remedied.
Is boxing harmful to the brain? Boxing does not directly affect brain activity in any way. It is believed that frequent and strong blows to the head in professional combat can provoke circulatory disorders, rupture of capillaries and the formation of blood clots in the brain, but this opinion has not been fully proven by scientists.
Those who are familiar with boxing know that in the history of this sport there have been tragic fights that ended with severe injuries for the fighters. But if you go deeper, then behind all of them were the mistakes of coaches and boxers. With a reasonable approach to training and the ability to stop on time, boxing is no more dangerous than any other sport.
One way or another, we return to the previous point: the correct conduct of the battle and knowledge of the technique practically makes it impossible to get a significant head injury.
Boxing after 40: benefit or harm
Coaches say there is no ideal age to start boxing. What prevents you from entering the ring for the first time at 40, 45 or 50?
This sport in adulthood has all the same advantages. There will be no harm from it if the novice athlete has no contraindications, namely:
- Problems with the vestibular apparatus;
- Problems with the musculoskeletal system;
- Diseases of the cardiovascular system;
- Disorders in the work of the kidneys;
- Serious congenital and acquired pathologies.
Only in these cases, training, unfortunately, is contraindicated. In all the rest, you can safely find the perfect instructor and go to conquer the ring!
To summarize, we have confirmed the benefits and denied the harm of boxing. It is up to you to choose this sport or not. And if you nevertheless decide to devote yourself to him, we want to wish you great success. Remember: “Whatever your goal, you can achieve it if you only want to work hard,” as the famous boxer Mohammed Ali said.
Great Boxers
American boxer Joe Louis is the world heavyweight champion. He won 72 wins and 3 defeats.
Rocky Marciano is an undefeated boxer, world heavyweight champion.
Cassius Clay or Mohammed Ali is the world heavyweight champion. He has 56 victories and 5 defeats to his credit.
American Sugar Ray Robinson is the world middleweight and light heavyweight champion. Has 173 wins and 19 losses.
Mike Tyson is the world heavyweight champion. The record is 150-6, 44 KOs. Recall that Mike had the fastest fight in boxing history, this result was even entered in the Guinness Book of Records.
Nicola Holder 
Rhydian Choi