Staying active—will ensure you live a healthier life. Like a muscle, you can the heart to be stronger and be more capable of pumping more blood with less effort. That’s essentially your aerobic shape. Running and boxing are both fantastic exercises for such purpose. Let’s see which is better.
Boxing is a better workout than running because it burns more calories and uses more muscle groups. Likewise, boxing works on both your aerobic and anaerobic shapes, as it’s part HIIT part cardio. Running will mostly work on your aerobic shape, although it can improve both if you run fast enough.
Boxing is a better workout, since it works both your aerobic and anaerobic shape. Moreover, it uses more muscle groups: thus, burning more calories. Eventually, this will be the primary factor for many people, who are interested in improving their physical condition.
However, I do have to add something here; don’t expect to have it easy if you’re doing either boxing or running. They might sound easy, but you will have to work extremely hard to stay consistent in both of them.
It won’t be easy to wake up in the morning and go for a 5-mile run. Although I’m trying to do it in 4 out of 7 mornings per week, it’s extremely hard to do so. You shouldn’t expect it to be easy as well.
Before we dive in, however, if this topic interests you, you’ll also enjoy reading about whether you can do boxing if you’re overweight. Follow the link to see the answer.
Is boxing better than running for losing weight?
If you want to lose weight, the type of exercise you do—doesn’t matter as much as what and how much you eat. Your nutrition plays a significant role if you’re interested in getting rid of excess body fat. So, this section will also discuss the science behind weight loss.
Boxing is better than running for losing weight because it uses more muscle groups. Thus, it’ll burn more calories per hour. To be exact, while boxing can burn 800 calories and going north, running doesn’t burn as much, as it doesn’t use as many muscle groups – 557 calories per hour, precisely.
Now that we understand that boxing burns more calories than running, let’s understand why that even matters.
To lose body fat, you need to eat fewer calories than the number you burn. If, for example, burn 2000 calories per day, on average, you should eat around 1700 calories to start losing body fat.
Your body will essentially take the missing calories from the fat storage. That said, eating too little won’t cause you to lose more fat. Rather, you’ll begin losing muscle mass as much as body fat, which is extremely unhealthy and not a good idea.
The physiological process of fat loss occurs when fats are liberated from adipocytes into circulation to supply the needed energy. Nutrition supplements that increase fat metabolism, impair fat absorption, increase weight loss, and increase fat oxidation during exercise are known as fat burners. SOURCE
Can I do boxing and running?
Training in two sports, simultaneously—is always a wise choice. If you avoid overtraining your body, you’ll see how much more benefits you can gain when participating in two different activities. Also, it’ll ensure you diversify your routine more often, increasing your motivation and eagerness to train.
You can do both boxing and running, since they focus on different muscle groups. While both use the legs, especially the quads and hamstrings, you can rest to ensure you’re completely recovered in between workouts. As a result, you’ll enjoy training more by combining a few different exercises.
Studies have shown that consistent running can lower blood pressure and resting heart rate, improve blood sugar control, lower triglycerides, and lower cholesterol. It can also reduce waist circumference and body fat percentage. SOURCE
As you can see, you should want to start your running or boxing training; look at the health benefits you’ll experience from participating in such activities. Of course, there are plenty of others. And, your hazard ratio of all-cause mortality will also increase, making you live a healthier life. That’s all from running or simply remaining active.
Which burns more calories, boxing or running?
Burning more calories should be most people’s first step before they start their fitness journey. Lifting weights, for example, also burns more calories. Essentially, if you move your body, you’ll burn some calories, even when you walk around in circles.
Boxing burns more calories than running because it uses more muscle groups. Precisely, boxing can burn up to 800, while running will burn up to 557. Of course, this depends on the intensity of the workout and your weight. Generally, however, boxing will almost always burn more calories.
Eventually, 800 calories, even in only weekly, can be the primary difference between losing or gaining fat. As a result, if you can remain consistent with your training, let it be boxing or running, you’ll begin to burn more calories and be more active. With time and effort, you’ll eventually burn body fat.
Which is better, running or boxing?
When comparing two different activities, we can’t come up with a single decisive answer as to which is better. I personally love the act of running; I love when you enter your zone and get that runner’s high. However, I’m also addicted to the feeling of throwing a powerful punch or kick.
Running and boxing are both superb workouts for improving your physical shape and losing excess body fat. Doing both will ensure you keep your training schedule dynamic while enjoying both worlds. But, if you can only choose one, I encourage you to go with boxing, as it can be more enjoyable and burn more calories.
Most people will, indeed, find boxing more enjoyable than running. Unless you love to listen to your favorite music, and you want to pair it with jogging, I believe you’ll find boxing more enjoyable. For that matter, all martial arts can be as addicting.
Nevertheless, you may be more like me and prefer running to boxing. I wouldn’t give it up for the world, as I love everything about it. Especially, however, I love to finish a run and feel my legs fatigued for the entire day. It makes me feel that I’ve worked hard and bettered myself in the process.
Can shadowboxing replace running?
You can even train boxing without having any gear or previous experience. All you need to do is want to start. Then, you can begin following a training activity which is called shadowboxing. I wrote an article on the top reasons you should want to shadowbox, do give it a read.
Shadowboxing can replace running, as both workouts are cardio. Likewise, shadowboxing can also be a HIIT workout, and thus, work both on your aerobic and anaerobic shape. As such, some will claim that it’s better because you can enjoy the benefits of both cardio and HIIT while burning more calories.
I’ll include a video that demonstrates how you can start to use shadowboxing to compliment your boxing journey. It can be a tool for you to use to train wherever and whenever you’d like. That’s why you see all martial arts movies having a scene where the main trainee is shadowboxing while being in front of beautiful view.
Are boxers fast runners?
Running fast can be attributed to having a solid aerobic shape. Your heart is actually a muscular organ. As such, you can work to improve and grow it the same way you do for your chest or arms in the gym. However, you can work on your heart by indulging in various exercises, such as swimming, running, and cycling.
Boxers are elite runners, as they must be so to withstand 12 rounds inside the boxing ring while enduring large amounts of physical pain. For instance, Kelly Pavlik ran a 10k (6.2 miles) in 40 minutes. When doing the math, we’ll get 4 minutes per kilometer, which is an insanely fast pace for someone who’s not a runner.
So, returning to our muscle-heart analogy; you can better your heart’s function by participating in exercises that, well, increase your heart rate. These are usually difficult to perform, and you’ll mostly want to avoid them. However, if you consistently involve yourself in such exercises, you can expect your heart to become stronger and work more efficiently.
I highly recommend watching this video, as it explains perfectly what happens inside your body, and specifically in the heart, when you exercise.
When you box, your heart rate will be elevated, and it’ll happen quickly. As a result, it’s not uncommon to see elite boxers run in elite paces. Of course, they also run, regardless of their boxing training. But still, both workouts will contribute to each other.
I wrote an entire article on how much do professional boxers run, and I encourage you to give it a read.
Will boxing make me run faster?
Boxing and running work on the same physical traits. Of course, they don’t work on the same muscle groups; hence the difference in calories burned per hour. And still, both will ensure you grow both your aerobic and sometimes your anaerobic shape.
Boxing will make you run faster, since it’ll improve both your aerobic and anaerobic shape. As a result, you’ll, over time, become more capable of enduring faster paces. That’ll also help you keep your blood pressure and base heart rate lower than if you were to not be as active. Hence, you’ll also become healthier.
You’ll truly become much healthier when you remain active with either boxing or running, or, of course, both. And still, most individuals with a packed schedule wouldn’t want to squeeze in the maximum number of workouts per week.
Rather, they’d prefer to do the opposite: which is to insert the minimum number of workouts to their schedule. If you’re one of these fellas who wish to be more healthy or shed some excess body fat, I highly recommend choosing boxing over running.
Although I run 4 times a week, I know how many more people will enjoy the benefits and the act of learning to box. It also benefits your mental health, hence increasing your confidence, self-esteem, and even making you feel more fulfilled.
If you want to read about the 8 mental benefits of boxing, do follow the link to an article of mine on the topic.
How much, and how fast, do professional boxers run?
Boxing and running both work on similar traits; mainly aerobic shape. That’s why one will compliment the other. For instance, the main character in all boxing movies will always have plenty of running scenes. That’s because they know it’s a part of most boxers’ training schedule.
As a general rule, professional boxers run in elite paces, even in long distances, such as 4 minutes per kilometer for a 10k run. Of course, some boxers will run faster than that, closing in on the 3:40 per kilometer, the equivalent of 5:53 minutes per mile. Essentially, fast paces for long distances.
That’s a sign of their elite aerobic shape. I mean, can you imagine not focusing on running and performing such paces? Of course, they do run quite often, sometimes up to 5 times per week. And still, it’s not their primary focus.
As such, seeing such results—is incredible. Boxing can truly be a complimentary workout to ensure both your aerobic and anaerobic shape are on-point. Likewise, it’ll help you lose excess body fat fast.
I don’t see a reason why someone will not start to box. The only excuse is that its injury rate—is up there. While that’s true, it’s mostly for boxers who spar and compete regularly. You don’t have to participate in any spars, if that’s what you want.
I wrote an entire article on how fast do professional boxers run. In it, I also give various examples of boxers who run in elite paces. Follow the link to give it a read and see it for yourself.
Final words
Running and boxing are both superb ways to get yourself going and better your physical shape. If you want to improve your physical shape while losing body fat in the process, you can use either of the activities I presented in this article to do so.
However, don’t expect it to be easy. The process of staying consistent and choosing a healthier lifestyle—won’t come naturally. You’d have to deliberately select the path of work and not being lazy. I know how difficult it can be, as I experience the same hardships every single day.
And, you’ll soon feel that way, too.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you’ll also enjoy reading about the complete guide to what you should eat before boxing or doing any other intense activity. Do follow the link to learn more about it!