All posts by bgarmston

Boxing 4 Fitness

Getting fit can be boring, following the same routines day in day out can make you become unmotivated. Boxing exercises can work the whole body, giving you a range of fun exercises to do to work the parts of the body you want to work on, mixing weights with cardio exercises.  Learn how to get the most from your workout by making your daily routine more exciting, we will give you a step by step guide on boxing exercises which will help you burn fat, tone up and improve your overall fitness.  We will give you the knowledge and understanding of how to use the equipment to get the most for your money, giving you the best chance to reach your goals.

Easy to get started

All you need is a space that is your arms width, the most fun about boxing exercises is throwing the punches. Shadow boxing is a simple exercise where you can do your own thing, throwing jab, hooks and upper cuts. If you are unsure don’t worry, here is former boxer Tony Jeffries to show you how its done. This is all about the intensity, creating your own combinations and having fun. Breaking into a sweat is easy with shadow boxing as you are always on the move, you will be able to feel the fat burning.

Add equipment, Step it up

With boxing the equipment is at the lower end of the price scale, adding simple equipment to your home workout can step you up to the next level, making your goals more achievable.  We want to add resistance to the workout, pushing your body to burn fat and tone the upper body. You can use hand warps or gloves with the equipment, whatever makes you feel comfortable

The equipment
  • Dumbbells upto 5kg – simply hold them in your hands while you do your shadow boxing, this will make you work harder to hold your hands up when you are throw your punches
  • Heavy boxing bag – this will give you a target to hit and motivate you to put more power into your punches
  • Relax punch bag – this will get you moving and increasing your punching speed, increasing your energy out put

What you need to know

Introducing boxing into your workout is great for your overall fitness and health, it will help you tone your arms and burn fat, find out more here. Taking up boxing doesn’t just have a positive impact on your physical heath but it will have help with your mental well-being.  You need to know what not to do, its important to make sure you avoid making mistakes when starting something new. Technique is key to making sure you get the most from your workout and you avoid injury, find out more here. The equipment is essential for pushing your workout to the next level, giving you the best chance at achieving the goals you have set out for yourself.

Healthy Plate, Healthy Weight

Changing your lifestyle and workout routine is always the main focus when trying to become a healthier version of yourself.  How about looking at what’s on your plate, if you want a healthy weight you need to change your plate. 

When, What, Why

When to eat and Why

Timing your meals is as important as what you are eating, you need to make sure you start the day off with a healthy breakfast to get your digestive system working.  This will help to speed up your metabolism, which will result in you burning your maximum amount of calories without doing exercise. Do you eat late at night? Maybe this is why you struggle to fall straight to sleep and you aren’t giving your body the time to break down the nutrients. This will mean the body doesn’t use the nutrients and end up storing them as fats, remember whatever you eat is fuel for the body and it needs to have time to use this fuel or store in correctly.  

Timing your meal around a busy life can be hard but you need to make sure you do this, your body can’t run on nothing and you need to make sure you give your body what it needs to function as normal, this is not just food but water as well.  If you simply don’t have time to make a healthy meal then snacks can be used keep the body functioning, keep your strong with some great ideas here or for some healthy snacks take a look at this and make these in 5 minutes. 

What to eat and Why

Start the day off with a colourful plate, or even maybe a smoothie. This is all about giving your body vitamins it needs to allow your brain to function at its highest level, this will make you feel energised and refreshed.  For some breakfast ideas following the link here.

12pm hits you need to top up your fuel supply, it is a good idea to continue with the light meal theme as this will ensure that you don’t feel like you have over eaten and resulting in you feeling unmotivated for the rest of the working day.  Look here for foods that you can use to keep you energised for the hard afternoon ahead.

its the end of the working day you have been working hard all day and enjoying some light healthy food to get you through the day, now its time to reward yourself with one of your favourite meals. This meal should be a nice balanced out plate, you want to use all the nutritional groups. find out more about how to balance out your diet with the NHS Eat Well guide. 

What’s the Difference

It is easy to eat foods that you might think are healthy for you without knowing what you are putting into your body, follow these links to understand how you can effect you diet, understand carbohydrates, understand fats and understand nutrients.