Boxing Archives - Page 10 of 36

Eating healthy is what missing for most people who train and want to optimize their performance. This is especially important in competitive sports, such as boxing. If you eat properly before your session, you'll also perform much better, as your body will be comfortable working hard. Because boxing is an intense workout that is usually around 120 minutes, it'll be best if you eat small snacks, such as an energy bar, a yogurt, a fruit smoothie, or even a peanut butter sandwich. You might feel fatigued during the workout if you don't eat anything. Likewise, you must drink more water than usual. Drinking plenty of water—also plays a significant role in optimizing your sports performance. Some of the people most close to me have suffered greatly because they haven't drunk enough water. To avoid such issues, be sure never to be thirsty again. Really, I don't remember the last time I was thirsty. Back to the subject, eating a small snack right before a vigorous boxing session—is extremely wise. Your body will find it difficult to manage the stress if it doesn't have anywhere to take energy from. You'll feel if that happens by noticing extreme fatigue. In that case, it'll be best if you take a break from the workout to drink some water and eat something small. I personally am a big fan of fruits before and during an intense and long boxing session. It'll give you enough energy without making you feel all heavy and uncomfortable. If you want to pair yourself with the best boxing shoes to ensure you're more stable and won't slip inside the boxing ring, follow the link to see which are the best ones. What should I eat before boxing for weight loss? Boxing can be a suitable platform to promote body fat loss. If that's your goal, I have no doubt that it will get you to where you want to be. However, there's more to the equation, nutrition. If you don't pair your lifestyle with healthy eating habits, you won't see any results, even if you work extremely hard. If you want to lose weight, you should still eat a small snack and drink a lot of water before your boxing workout. You'll burn plenty of calories during the workout, so you want to supplement your body beforehand, so it'll have an available energy source. That will eventually optimize your performance. Photo by Alexander Redl on Unsplash I see boxers going all out in the training itself. Then, once they're out of the gym, they indulge in everything they should stay away from. The foods that you should avoid is basically anything that's high in sugar or processed. Of course, it can be both. If it's both, you should take a few steps back to really think whether you want to force your body to digest such unhealthy foods. Your body really is a machine. Would you fuel your car with the wrong fuel type because it's cheaper and takes less time to do? My guess is not. The same thing applies with your body. Now that you know what to avoid, I highly recommend for you to really understand how much you should eat, for yourself, to ensure your body burns fat. I recently wrote an article about losing fat using boxing; the article goes into detail about how many calories you should eat to ensure you lose body fat. Follow the link to learn more. What should I eat before boxing to gain muscle? Now that we understand when and what to eat for weight loss, let's go over the second most popular goal of boxers, bulking up and packin' on some muscle. Increasing your muscle mass and losing weight—lead to entirely different eating habits. If one is your goal, don't expect to eat anywhere close to someone with the second goal. To gain muscle, it'll be best if you eat a large meal 2-4 hours before the boxing session itself. Then, eat a small snack, such as a fruit, an energy bar, or even a fruit smoothie—about 30 minutes before your workout. You can even eat during the workout's break if you feel fatigued as if your body doesn't have energy. So yes, it'll be best if you eat a large meal, which should be high in protein and medium in carbs. Now, I'm not a qualified dietician, but here's what the professional say: A peanut butter and banana or PBJ sandwich. Greek yogurt with berries. Oatmeal with low-fat milk and fruit. Apple and peanut or almond butter. Handful of nuts and raisins (two parts raisins: one part nuts) These are some examples of pre-workouts you should eat to fuel your performance during the boxing session. If you box for an hour, you can burn up to 800 calories, a detrimental amount if you want to pack on some muscle. According to everyoneactive.com, In order to build muscle mass, you need a positive calorie balance – i.e., you need to consume more than you burn. For every pound (450g) of muscle you want to build, you'll need to take in around 2,800 calories. This is mostly to support your increased protein turnover, which is likely to be elevated with training. Examples of foods you should eat before boxing According to BetterHealth, "The link between good health and good nutrition is well established. Interest in nutrition and its impact on sporting performance is now a science in itself. Whether you are a competing athlete, a weekend sports player or a dedicated daily exerciser, the foundation to improved performance is a nutritionally adequate diet." Before we dive into the examples of foods you should eat before boxing, I wrote an article about the complete fitness guide all boxers should read. If you want to ensure you optimize your performance, do give it a read. Thus far, we've discussed the basics of eating before a workout to gain muscle or lose weight. The primary concept is eating a large meal 2-4 hours before the session itself. That's to avoid feeling clumsy and heavy while boxing. Then, fueling your body with small snacks 30 minutes before you begin—will be the wisest choice. So, now, let's examine examples of foods to quickly fuel your body the right way. #1 – A fruit The first food are fruits. If you eat a single fruit 30 minutes before your intense boxing session, you'll be much better off during and post workout. That's because your body will have available calories for it to burn and turn into energy. I've only studied this particular process in high-school; but still, the process of producing the ATP molecule, the energy molecule, requires you to have some type of food in the system. Sugars are easily processed, so eating foods with relatively high sugars in them—will give you more energy during the workout. As you may know, fruits are a rich source for sugar, natural one. Unlike processed snacks, which are filled with sugars and lacking in real nutrients, fruits are healthy. You should even consider eating them on a daily basis. Some examples of fruits are: Bananas Apples Oranges Dates Pears Berries Melons #2 – A fruit smoothie A fruit smoothie has one primary advantage: you can play around with it and see what you like most. That's why you'll never get tired of drinking it, as it'll always come out different. As you can imagine, a fruit smoothie is also high in sugar, meaning that it's a solid pre-workout. It'll give you enough energy for more than an hour of vigorous boxing without making you feel too heavy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CzMagqdjko I highly recommend you to play around with the different tastes and foods. You can even add other ingredients, such as various vegetables and even dark chocolate. Eventually, this makes eating fun. Thus, I'm a big fan of smoothies. #3 – A peanut butter sandwich The third example of food you can eat as a snack before your workout—is a peanut butter sandwich. However, it's not as suitable for weight loss as it is for bulking. That's because it's high in calories, even if the bread itself isn't white. It can even be grain or other healthy varieties of bread. When I was in the military, we used to always carry peanut butter in field weeks. We always had around 10 minutes to eat, including the time it takes to wash your hands and pack up everything. That's why I've always had at least 2 peanut butter sandwiches with me, at all times. It will give you a boost of energy without making you feel too heavy. However, it'll be a bit harder on the stomach than fruits, for instance. As such, consider eating it an hour before the workout. #4 – Yogurt with granola The next food is a combination of two foods, yogurt and granola. If you have yet to try this fantastic combination, you're missing out. While yogurt alone can be both tasty and filled with nutrients, adding granola will add up more flavor and make it healthier. Granola provides vitamin E, thiamin, vitamin K, riboflavin, vitamin B6, folate, and pantothenic acid. Minerals in granola include manganese, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, potassium, zinc, copper, and selenium. SOURCE Photo by Ovidiu Creanga on Unsplash As you can see, granola is filled with such vitamins and minerals, which can help boost your boxing performance. I highly recommend trying it out, if you haven't yet. #5 – Bread with lean meat The last food is a bit of an odd one. If you're a vegetarian, you can skip this one. But, if you're not, I highly recommend sticking around. All of these foods are ones I particularly find to boost my boxing performance. Frankly, smoothies are my favorite. Nevertheless, bread with lean meat—is up next. You can even have it as a large meal 2-4 hours before the workout itself. However, it's also suitable as a pre-workout 30 minutes before the boxing session itself. I prefer this sandwich over the peanut butter one because I've already had around 2,000 of peanut butter sandwiches. So, I much prefer eating lean meat. Photo by Jonathan Pielmayer on Unsplash I recommend adding various vegetables, such as lettuce or tomato, to make it even healthier and more nourishing. You'll find that you perform much better if you fill your body with minerals and vitamins. But, most people don't bother doing so. As a last note, you can make the process of eating healthy more enjoyable than eating junk food. I know it may be more attractive to eat that McDonald's. However, if you decide to take your fitness journey seriously, you can expect to progress much faster; hence learn boxing, lose weight, and gain muscle. When should I eat before boxing? Your meal timings—are critical to ensure you perform at your peak in every workout. Imagine eating a hamburger 2 minutes before you start boxing. The only possible result of that is you puking 3 minutes after throwing the first punch. You should eat a big meal 2-4 hours before the boxing workout itself. Moreover, it'll be best if you eat a small snack before going to your workout. A small snack can be a fruit, a smoothie, a granola bar. Really, it can be as simple as eating a banana. Doing so will allow you not to feel too heavy, but still have energy available. I encourage you to experiment with different timings to see what feel best for you. I can preach you about eating a large meal 2-4 hours before boxing for the rest of this article. However, it may not be suitable to you. But still, it generally applies. If you want to buy the best headgear to ensure the long-term protection of your head, follow the link to read about the best ones for your money. What foods to avoid before boxing? Eating healthy goes hand in hand with becoming a better boxer. You won't be able to practice for a long time if you feel clumsy and heavy from eating junk food an hour before you began your intense session. As a general rule, it'll be best if you avoid eating high fat, processed foods, such as snacks, before your boxing session. Likewise, you should avoid eating too much before a workout; while it'll be best if you eat a large meal 2-4 hours before your boxing session, you shouldn't do so just before you start training. Like the meal timings, I encourage you to experiment with different foods to see what best suits your body. Likewise, start researching different diets and food types to see what feels enjoyable to you while being suitable to your fitness goals. If, for example, you want to bulk, don't start a low-carb diet. Final words To end this article, I want to emphasize the importance of eating correctly and healthy to your boxing journey. Our bodies really are machines. Your body rely on you feeding it the right fuel. You wouldn't fuel your car with diesel if gasoline is the proper one. The same analogy applies to your body. Don't feed your body junk food, and it'll treat you right. Healthy eating is even correlated to not being sick as often, having less headaches, and having better mental health. As an end note, I have a question for you: who do you think feels and performs better, the person who just ate junk burger, or the person who ate rice, chicken, and vegetables? If you enjoyed reading this article, you'll also enjoy reading about the best boxing clothing for comfort and flexibility. If you want to boost your performance, check out this article!