Building muscle isn’t the easiest task in hand. To do so, you must tear down your muscles, so your body will build them up again, only stronger this time. That process is called Hypertrophy and requires you to participate in resistance training, such as lifting weights. VR boxing has a similar effect, but is it enough?
As a standalone workout, VR boxing won’t build muscle because it won’t tear your muscles. Such tears are mostly caused by resistance training, such as body weight exercises and lifting heavy weights. On the other hand, Virtual Reality boxing won’t provide the same effect, as it doesn’t involve resistance.
While that’s true, progressive overload plays a major role as well. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it basically refers to the fact that you must always load more weight and resistance to constantly build muscle. Other than time, there’s no progressive overload in VR boxing.
That said, it does have numerous health benefits, such as better aerobic and anaerobic shape. Likewise, you can expect your stress to reduce from constantly participating in it.
But, do remember that there’s no resistance involved in it. Therefore, unless you lift weights in between matches, you won’t be able to build any muscle; while it is a solid workout to burn calories, you won’t be able to grow your mass by boxing.
Before we dive in, if you want to learn more about whether real boxing builds muscle, follow the link to an article of mine revealing the answer.
Is VR boxing a good workout?
Virtual Reality boxing is a solid workout. You will use many muscle groups vigorously and thus burn plenty of calories. Likewise, you constantly will be moving around to dodge and launch attacks. As a result, your heart rate will be high enough for you to start sweating, even with AC on.
VR boxing is a good workout, as it uses many muscles and thus burns lots of calories. As a result, you’ll be able to stay active while participating in a fun sport, in virtual reality. Likewise, it’ll also teach you how to fight, if you use it as a platform to practice box techniques, such as the jab, hook, upper, and straight punch.
VR boxing is like shadowboxing. Have you ever seen a boxer exiting his changing room all sweaty? What do you think he did back there? Most likely, the fighter used shadowboxing and pad work to warm up for his fight.
Well, you can see yourself sweating as much if not more by shadowboxing. And, VR boxing is the same; Just try a single fight. You’ll see how warmed up you start being, simply by moving around and throwing punches in thin air.
You can burn up to 800 calories per hour from boxing. Such a number, even on a weekly basis, will be the difference between losing and gaining fat. If you desire to lose body fat quickly, you can do so by participating in Virtual Reality boxing.
Does VR boxing build muscle?
If you desire to grow your muscle mass, you must participate in resistance training. That way, you’ll cause micro tears in your muscles, which will cause the process of hypertrophy to commence. Let’s see whether it’s possible to do so.
VR boxing won’t build muscle because it won’t cause micro-tears in your muscles. Thus, hypertrophy, which is the process of muscle building in your body, won’t commence. You can cause micro tears from workouts, such as resistance training; hence, lifting weights, calisthenics, and other forms of resistance training.
And still, there are many health benefits to VR boxing, as we’ll examine in one of the following sections. If you desire to better your physical self, you should strive to remain as active as possible, which you can do by participating in boxing.
If you want to learn how to practice boxing without a punching bag, follow the link to an article of mine on the topic.
Can you build muscle through VR boxing?
As we understood thus far, building muscle by only using VR boxing—is impossible. But, can we use it to promote our muscle building process in our bodies. Such a question can be difficult to answer for sure, as there are no medical studies in the topic. And still, it’s possible to know the answer:
You can build muscle with the assistance of VR boxing, assuming you incorporate resistance training in the workout. It may look something like this: 10 minutes of Virtual Reality boxing followed by 10 minutes of pull-ups, dips, and push-ups. By involving resistance training with box training, you’ll build muscle.
By involving yourself in Virtual Reality boxing, you’ll be more active in both the short and long-term. As such, you’ll become healthier, and thus, more likely to stick with your physical regime. That is all it takes to promote muscle building in your body.
Of course, you must also combine proper nutrition to fit your fitness goal, which is, in our case, growing muscle mass. As such, you’d have to consume more calories than what you burn. With the help of boxing, you’ll burn more calories and thus need to eat more.
I do encourage you to research the topic of muscle building before you optimize your diet, sleep, and training. If you do so, you’ll be able to further understand what you need to be doing to grow muscle mass. The key, however, is resistance training.
The health benefits of VR boxing
Participating in regular exercise—is known to have countless health benefits, such as living longer. If you desire to experience some of these benefits, you can start doing any martial art, boxing included. Of course, Virtual Reality is the same as shadowboxing, both will help you stay active.
The health benefits of VR boxing are in the following list:
- Burning calories
- Staying active
- Better endurance
- Improved aerobic shape
- Better anaerobic shape
- Reduces stress
- Lower aggression and violence levels
- Better mental health
These benefits are highly desirable in today’s society. Today, people would do anything in their ability to be less stressed. For the most part, however, they won’t succeed in doing so, as they won’t take the extra steps to achieve such a result.
Likewise, burning more calories is difficult. However, it’ll definitely help you shed some extra body fat that you’ve always wanted to get rid of. Now, you can participate in an enjoyable sport, without leaving your house.
Truly, starting VR boxing can be precisely what you need to experience more growth physically. Even without Virtual Reality, you can still participate in regular boxing, which has even more physical and mental benefits, such as a better social life.
Concluding, both regular and VR boxing have plenty of mental and physical benefits, such as reduced stress and lower aggression levels. Both can be the difference between gaining and losing body fat. So, be sure to start your journey as soon as possible.
Final words
To end this article, I want to show my appreciation for the martial art that is boxing. While you may prefer training at home, you can use VR to do so. It’s essentially the same as shadowboxing.
However, you won’t be able to build muscle, as it doesn’t involve any resistance training whatsoever. If you desire to do so, you should lift weights or perform body weight exercises. VR boxing, as a standalone workout, won’t help you build muscle.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you’ll also enjoy reading about the best boxing clothing for training, sparring, and competing. If you want to be more comfortable, this is the article you should read.