Boxing is one of the most beneficial activities you can involve yourself in. The number of benefits you’ll experience is countless, both mentally and physically.
It’s not uncommon to see boxing trainees report feeling more fulfilled and have better mental health. This comes, of course, with other benefits, such as increased confidence and self-esteem.
In today’s world, society doesn’t help us, to say the least, in improving our mental selves. As a result, negative feelings surround us all the time. Glimpsing at one of the latest depression surveys in the United States—demonstrates us exactly this point.
Boxing helps you improve your mental self by being difficult. Anything worthwhile in life—is going to be difficult, as the barrier of entry is higher than the average activity. For that reason, fewer people will go out and try to accomplish that activity, as it’s hard.
You can be different, tho. You may think of investing some monthly cash and some of your time for a weekly boxing lesson. The dividends you’ll receive from that decision in the long-term—are astounding.
This article will demonstrate some dividends you’ll receive from investing your time into boxing. Likewise, we’ll discuss mental results only. However, know that it also improves your physical self, such as in helping you lose body fat faster than other activities, such as walking.
Before diving into the article, I encourage you to follow the link to learn about the reasons people start to box for. Knowing why you want to begin training in martial arts—will help you stay consistent in the long-term, which is the most difficult part.
#8. Positive feelings
The first mental benefit you’ll receive from consistent and dedicated boxing—is feeling better.
Remaining optimistic is extremely difficult. In fact, all my friends and I face the same issue: staying positive most of the time. Life can get tough. If your natural response is to stay in bed all day long, you may be one of the fellas that need to start improving themselves.
Boxing makes you feel good because it allows you to better yourself while learning to fight. Essentially, it’s a platform you can use to set a goal and reach it, and thus, feel better about yourself.
One of the following mental results is grown self-esteem. This is caused by the same mechanism, you train and progress. As time goes on, you begin appreciating yourself to a higher degree. That’s what self-improvement is all about.
To conclude, if you want to overall feel better, start learning to box.
#7. Stress management
The next mental benefit you’ll experience—is being less stressed. Today, people are more stressed than ever before. Such feelings are usually caused by an annoying boss or any issue in your personal life.
The same way you treat your physical body with exercise, you should do the same for your soul. If you feel weak, what would you do? Start lifting weights and increase your muscle mass.
If you feel stressed, what do you do? Let me tell you, most people do nothing about that. However, you’re reading this article, so you’re likely doing something about it.
Boxing decreases your stress by being a platform that includes various intensive drills and exercises that release built tension. Some of these exercises include sparring, hitting a punching bag, and shadowboxing.
Here’s a study on the topic:
The regular practice of martial arts could elevate mindfulness levels of practitioners and thus influence positively on stress management and therefore quality of life and well-being
SOURCE
You’ll notice yourself feeling tired after an extended boxing session. That happens because your body has just partaken in an intense exercise. Thus, it needs rest. Well, you’ll also notice being in a flow state more often, during, or after you box.
These are all symptoms you have successfully reduced your stress. You should be proud of yourself.
If you want to further learn about why martial arts reduce anger, stress, and violence levels, follow the link to an article of mine on the topic.
#6. Confidence
The next benefit we’ll discuss is—being more confident and sure of yourself. Today, it’s not uncommon to see people trusting others more than themselves. Therefore, they’re incapable of making long-term, decisive choices.
Boxing will increase your confidence by forcing you to make immediate choices and roll with them. As time will progress, you’ll notice yourself trusting yourself more than what you had initially had planned.
All martial arts are a great source of confidence, as they are platforms you can set goals in. As you get better, you’ll inevitably get closer to your goals, such as learning to fight or improving your physical shape.
The entire point of boxing is to help you reach your goals. You may start because you want to learn how to fight. Or, you may want to have an attractive body; Frankly, it doesn’t matter. The more consistent you are, the more results you’ll attain, the more confident you’ll be.
I’ve thought about my journey, and I’ve realized that confidence was one of the earlier traits I received in my batch of results. I’ve been investing all that time and effort into one large cause; isn’t that enough to give me self-satisfaction? In my experience, it is.
#5. Growth mindset
If you’ve wanted to change your mindset to a growth one rather than a fixed one, boxing is a suitable platform you can do so. Likewise, it’ll help you see more results in every area in your life – that’s the beauty of it.
Boxing will help you attain more results by forcing you to stay consistent with it, regardless of how you feel. That’ll change your mindset in every area in your life, as you’ll now be more eager to stay consistent in them as well.
Throughout history, this growth mindset has been the sole factor of human progression. Without people having the desire to constantly progress and evolve, you wouldn’t be reading these words from a screen you own.
The same applies to martial arts. They’ll change your mindset and transform you into a new you. You’ll be able to trust yourself more, which is the first step toward self-development.
All you need to do is trust boxing and what it can do for you. Start training, even if you’re unsure whether you want to. Really, that’s all there is to it; just start your journey.
If you want to learn more about the rules of boxing, I encourage you to follow the link to an article of mine on the topic. Knowing them—is crucial, as it’ll help you keep yourself and other boxers safe.
#4. Self-esteem
Your self-esteem is a crucial factor when planning your future. If you think highly of yourself, and you love yourself, fully, you’ll also be more trustworthy of yourself. As a result, you will think you deserve more than just being average.
If the case is the other way around, and you don’t appreciate yourself as much, it’s easy to fall into the average trap. You’ll start comparing yourself to other people, in irrelevant metrics, such as physical appearance.
What do you think will happen if your self-esteem is low? Do you think you’ll be able to set yourself up for ultimate success? I think not.
Boxing improves your self-esteem by allowing you to stick with a single activity and progress while overcoming difficulties and hard times. These hard times are what create strong people. Anything worthwhile in life—will require you to invest precious time and effort.
Any sport is likely to increase your self-esteem and how you view yourself because it’ll attract many benefits and results. Once you see them flowing into your life, you would immediately start appreciating yourself more often.
After all, you’ve worked hard to attain them, and as such, you deserve to appreciate yourself.
Visual inspection showed that four participants improved their global self-esteem.
SOURCE
#3. Mindfulness
The next three benefits are the ones I thought were the most important. They’ve also been the ones to have the most influence on my personal life. So, I’ve decided to include them in the top 3 mental benefits.
Mindfulness is present attention. It is the divine feeling of being aware and conscious now. Being mindful is one of the most sought out feelings in this day and era, as more people are extremely distracted.
What do you think happens when you scroll on social media for an hour? You habituate having new information pop every couple of seconds. What will that cause? Primarily an inability to focus (be mindful).
Boxing improves your focus and thus allows you to be mindful, as it’s an activity without any distractions. Many advanced boxers will tell you that training is like entering a flow state; hence, you’re not thinking of anything else other than the training itself.
That will counter the harmful consequences of being distracted all the time. With time and deliberate, conscious practice, you’ll be improving your ability to focus and be present. That will, of course, improve your well-being by plenty.
#2. Fulfillment
The second most influential mental benefit of boxing—is being fulfilled. Some people have their life-crisis when they’re young. Younger than what you may think. Such feelings occur because of feelings of not being fulfilled.
Boxing makes you feel more fulfilled because it’s a hobby and an activity you can improve in. As a result, trainees can feel a sense of accomplishment and progression they may otherwise lack in their personal lives. That alone will counter feelings of not being as fulfilled in your life.
Many folks don’t start training because they claim to be too old. However, when looking at the actual facts, unless you’re 88 years old, you can still start your training.
You don’t have to start at the age of 6 years old and become the next Mike Tyson. No, that’s not what you should aim for. You can start at the age of 45 and boost your well-being and quality of living. All you need to do is start; simply begin training.
Seeing people not begin training because they haven’t done so up until now—is painful to me. I want to see more people feeling more fulfilled in their lives. That will not happen if we remain stuck in the misconception of not having started until now – so is there even a point in trying?
If you want to learn about the history of boxing and who invented it, follow the link to a post of mine on the topic.
#1. Mental health
The last mental benefit of boxing we’ll discuss is one that combines everything we’ve talked about thus far. If you can improve that specific aspect in your life, you’ll be solid for the rest of your life.
People don’t understand how important having a solid mental health is. Therefore, they don’t bother improving it through various means, such as meditation or training in martial arts.
So, what happens? Society’s norms are to be sad all the time. Likewise, people tell us it’s normal to be depressed and unsatisfied with your life. But, it really is not.
Boxing improves your mental health by increasing your capability of self-love and mindfulness through consistent and dedicated efforts. Additionally, it pushes your physical and mental boundaries all the time. Thus, you’ll feel more fulfilled and have a sense of appreciation for yourself.
Today, most people don’t bother pushing themselves the same way boxing does for you. Consequently, they’re incapable of improving their mental selves, which closely correlates with your physical self.
Your physical self and mental selves are, indeed, correlated. Just read the following study:
People with serious mental health conditions are at high risk of experiencing chronic physical conditions. People with chronic physical conditions are at risk of developing poor mental health.
SOURCE
And as you know, boxing improves your physical self as much as the mental. Therefore, if you can improve both these aspects in your life, you’ll feel overall much better and be much more satisfied with your life. So, don’t hesitate to start boxing today.
Boost your progression by fixing these 7 easy-to-spot mistakes in your boxing training. Follow the link to learn more!
Does boxing make you mentally stronger?
Improving your mental health, and becoming “tougher”—is difficult. As a result, most people don’t bother starting to better themselves in the first place, as they know the journey ahead is difficult. Let’s examine whether you’ll become mentally strong through consistent boxing training.
Boxing makes you mentally tougher by being a platform that allows you to overcome obstacles and reach short and long-term goals, such as learning a technique or winning a fight. In consequence of overcoming said obstacles, you’ll appreciate yourself for your self-improvement journey.
Some don’t bother training their souls and minds, as they’re too busy with their everyday lives. However, improving your soul is the first step to success.
The same way you train your physical body to become stronger, you can do the same for your soul. Boxing is a suitable platform for that because it’ll constantly push your physical and mental comfort zones.
What do you think will happen as a result of you continuously bettering yourself? That’s right, you’ll learn to withstand greater difficulties in life; hence mentally stronger.
If you want to know what boxing teaches you about life, follow the link to an article of mine on the topic.
Is boxing more mental than physical?
When discussing your mental and physical selves, we must first understand the connection between them. If you desire to know how to improve both these sides in yourself, you must start partaking in self-improvement activities, such as meditation and exercising.
Let’s examine whether boxing is more mental or physical:
Boxing is equally demanding mentally and physically. Every session pushes your physical and mental boundaries by being an intense exercise. As a result, you’ll be bettering yourself after every workout. For instance, you’re able to reach your fitness goal and improve your mental health with dedicated and consistent boxing training.
Learning how to fight—is what martial arts are all about. However, that’s not everything they do. In fact, the opposite is true. Many novice boxers are attracted to boxing because of the many physical and mental benefits they may eventually attain.
So, before you ask, you’ll be an entirely different person after a year of dedicated boxing training.
If you want to read more about the deadliest martial arts in the entire world, follow the link to an article of mine on the topic.
Final words
Before you leave this article, I want to emphasize the importance of having an activity, such as boxing or any other martial art, in your life. Your quality of living will immediately increase if you invest time and effort to progress in your life.
Once you do so, you’ll notice both mental and physical benefits, such as increased confidence and have better endurance. The combination of the mental and physical benefits—will make you more fulfilled and happy in your life.
Of course, you’ll also learn how to fight fiercely, which is what boxing is all about. So, before you move on with your life, consider starting to train in the art of punching to see magnificent results and change your personal and work lives.
If you want to know what boxing teaches you about life, follow the link to an article of mine that includes the complete list.