Today martial arts have a prominent role in today’s society. Many individuals have started their fighting journey, each for one’s reason. However, there’s one thing in common for all of them. Martial arts, particularly boxing, help shed excess fat and ensure your abs are more visible.
Boxing will give you abs since it’s an exercise that burns plenty of calories and helps you lose body fat quickly. As a result, you will have visible abs after you lose a specific amount of body fat, depending on your current body fat percentage. Likewise, boxing works your core and abdominal area, which makes them stronger.
One study actually found that ab exercise won’t help you lose body fat in the abdominal area. So, there’s one thing we can understand from that; you don’t get abs from training them but from decreasing your body fat percentage.
This can be life-changing for some folks trying to get visible abs but couldn’t understand why their ab workouts don’t work.
There’s plenty you can optimize in your lifestyle to get abs. In the section: “How to get abs with boxing,” I’ll dive into much greater detail on the lifestyle changes you need to make to get more visible abs with boxing.
Before we dive in, if you want to save money by training in boxing at home, follow the link to see exactly how you can do that.
Boxing – will it give you abs?
Boxing is a fantastic way to lose excess body fat and get your abs out there. However, some people make a mistake by thinking that core workouts are the primary way to get there. Unfortunately, that’s not accurate.
Boxing can get you more visible abs by allowing you to burn fat efficiently and work your core. As a result, once your body fat percentage decreases, you’ll notice how your entire abdominal area is suddenly more visible. To lose body fat percentage, you need to be in a caloric deficit; In fact, boxing can burn up to 800 calories an hour.
Let’s look at a study that found a rather interesting result. This study examined the effects of ab workouts on body fat percentage, the primary metric for how visible your abs will be.
There was no significant effect of abdominal exercises on body weight, body fat percentage, android fat percentage, android fat, abdominal circumference, abdominal skinfold and suprailiac skinfold measurements.
SOURCE
As you can see, ab workouts aren’t enough to lose body fat. Instead, being in a caloric deficit should be your primary goal. That’s, if you’re unfamiliar with this term, to consume fewer calories than your daily burning number.
That’s why boxing will be beneficial for making your abs visible; it burns plenty of calories. As a result, it will be much easier to be in a caloric deficit, making fat loss effortless.
| Calorie consumption | Calorie burn | Caloric deficit | Fat loss? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 2000 | 0 | Maintainance |
| 2500 | 2000 | +500 | Fat gain |
| 2000 | 2500 | -500 | Fat loss |
By boxing, you’ll burn more calories. Therefore, it’ll be much easier to get into a caloric deficit, thus, making it easier to get abs.
Burn more calories than you consume by increasing your physical activity. If you eat enough calories to support your BMR, but add more exercise, you’ll create a caloric deficit simply by burning extra calories. This only works if you’re not overeating to begin with.
SOURCE
How to get abs with boxing?
Getting abs—is extremely difficult. If you want to do so—you must begin by losing body fat, which can be tough for many folks. Although exercise alone won’t do that for you, it’ll help you get where you want. This section will discuss all the factors that will eventually help you get a more visible abdominal area.
Boxing training won’t make your abs more visible, although it works your abdominal area. Instead, it helps you burn more calories and thus makes fat loss more manageable. That will make your abs show up by having a lower body fat percentage, which boxing helps you get fast.
There are a couple of subjects we’ll discuss today. But, first, here’s a sneak peek at how to get abs with boxing.
- Being in a caloric deficit
- Genetics
- Training the core
- Optimizing your training routine
- Keeping patient
Before we do that, though, let’s discuss a couple of exercises you can perform to get your abs to pop up with boxing.
Boxing exercises to get abs fast
#1 – Punching bag session
The first exercise is to go all-in on a punching bag. When throwing a punch, most of your core works. Although it won’t make it bigger, it’ll strengthen it.
As a result, throwing punches at a punching bag—will help your abs show up faster.
#2 – Core workout
The second workout you can perform—is a resistance core workout. Most boxing gyms will actually have one of these once in a while.
However, some won’t. So, it would be best if you did that alone, either at home or in the gym.
This is what I recommend you do.
#3 – Sparring
The last exercise is sparring. When you spar, you’ll be sweating your body off. In fact, sparring will actually burn more calories than regular boxing.
That’s because you’ll be moving around freely in the ring. Likewise, you’ll be in the flow state, making it more enjoyable than regular boxing training.
Of course, your core will also work.
If you don’t know, sparring is the act of boxing inside a ring against another trainee to work on your fighting skills.
#4 – Combination drills on the punching bag
The 4th boxing exercise that’ll help you get abs—is performing combinations on the punching bag. I’ve decided to make it a separate workout because it’s different.
Although I’ve included going all-in on the punching bag, I do believe this brings a different perspective to the workout.
If you practice specific combinations, such as jab, cross, left hook – or jab, right hook followed by an uppercut, you will be able to amp up your boxing skills.
So, you will become a better boxer and work your core.
#5 – Shadowboxing
Next up, shadowboxing. Shadowboxing is a highly effective workout in both working your core and burning plenty of calories.
If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s essentially when you punch the air by imagining an opponent. You can perform it wherever you want, as long as your imagination is working.
I wrote an entire article on why you should shadowbox; follow the link to read it.
#6 – Jump rope
The last exercise most boxers do, especially professional ones who need to constantly be at their prime—is the jump rope.
Jump rope will make you sweat a lot. You will burn plenty of calories, allowing you to be at a caloric deficit effortlessly.
If you combine it with your boxing training, you will be much more likely to burn body fat and lower your fat percentage.
I highly recommend going over these exercises and seeing what suits you best. Who knows? You might be able to get your abs out there only by implementing a single of these exercises!
Being in a caloric deficit
The first issue we’ll discuss today is that you must be in a caloric deficit. To get abs, you must have a lower body fat percentage. To do so, you must eat less than what you burn.
Now, this can be quite problematic for people with various eating disorders. Hence, the immediate solution is to burn more calories through intense exercise (whether it’s resistance training, cardio, or HIIT).
Boxing will help you burn more calories, as it can burn up to 800 calories per hour. That number will be the difference between gaining and losing fat.
How much abdominal muscle do you have?
The second issue is looking at how much muscle you currently have in your abdominal area. The more you have, the easier it’ll be to make it appear.
While your body fat percentage plays a more prominent role in getting your core to show up, how much muscle you will have there—will influence how fast it’ll show up.
If you want to build abdominal abs, follow the link.
Genetics
This is a factor we can’t control but has quite an influence on our discussion. For example, genetics will determine how your abs look when you’re lean and how fast they’ll show up.
For instance, one person will have his abs show up when he’s at 15% body fat. However, another individual will only have it when he’s at 13% body fat.
Training the actual abs
Training the abs will be a significant part of getting your abs to show up. But, as we’ve examined, training your core will not help you reduce body fat percentage.
Nevertheless, it’ll slowly strengthen your core, which will help you to get them to show up quicker. Therefore, it’ll be best if you adopt an ab routine to ensure you’re actually working your core.
Here’s the one I use!
Optimizing your training routine
The next step will be to optimize your training routine. This can be critical for maintaining a low body fat percentage over time while building muscle. If you’re interested in doing so, you must include resistance training in your weekly schedule.
I know many people don’t have the time to optimize their training routine fully. But you must be willing to invest some time if you want to get abs.
As such, it’ll be best if you, at the minimum, hire a fitness coach to build you a fitness program.
Personally, I do martial arts once or twice, lift weights 5 times, and run 3-4 times per week. But, of course, you don’t have to adopt my vigorous training program; it fits my schedule and allows me to keep my fitness shape at peak performance.
Keeping patient
The last step will be to hold for a bit. But, again, don’t expect to see results after you’ve done the right things for a month. It will take more time than that to lose body fat or gain muscle.
Getting your abs to show up will take an entire shift in your lifestyle. So don’t bother checking results as often. Instead, watch how you change from the lifestyle shift you’ll do.
How you act, how you view yourself and others, and what you begin valuing will change. Notice how mature and appreciative you become, not how your physical body changes. This will help you stay consistent.
How fast will I get abs with boxing?
The pace at which you get your first set of abs from boxing—depends on many factors. However, for the most part, you can expect to see noticeable changes after a month of doing everything right.
You can expect to see your abs show up after 3-6 weeks of consistent boxing. However, this number can be much bigger or lower depending on your fat-loss rate and your current body fat percentage. But, if you keep up with your training schedule while being in a caloric deficit, you will get abs eventually.
Of course, getting abs happens in the kitchen. What you eat is who you are. Or, what you eat is your body fat percentage.
- Beans. “Becoming a bean lover can help you lose weight and whittle your middle,” registered dietitian Cynthia Sass told Today.
- Swap your beef for salmon.
- Yogurt.
- Red bell peppers.
- Broccoli.
- Edamame.
- Diluted vinegar
You will do good in your fat-loss journey if you eat the proper amounts of calories.
Does boxing gets rid of belly fat?
Boxing gets rid of the overall body fat percentage by being an exercise that burns plenty of calories, allowing you to be at a caloric deficit. In such a case, your body will begin burning fat to compensate for the missing calories you usually gain from foods. As a result, your body fat percentage—will lower.
Final words
Getting abs—is difficult. You will need to eat the right things and optimize your training routine. After a few weeks, depending on your current body fat percentage—they will inevitably show up.
I highly recommend you start your boxing journey, as it’ll provide you countless physical benefits, such as better endurance and aerobic shape and being more active while getting abs! So if that’s one of your goals, boxing is for you.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you’d also enjoy reading about how fast boxing can get you in shape.