I’m a big fan of training every day. However, eagerness to exercise can lead to a state of overtraining. As you can imagine, this will lead to harmful symptoms that may be permanent. And as such, it’ll be best to avoid them at all costs. Let’s examine whether boxing every day—is wise:
You shouldn’t box every day because it’ll lead to your body and muscles overtraining. As a result, you’ll start being more fatigued, both mentally and physically. Overtraining is caused by training the same muscles on consecutive days. If you repeat that process multiple times, you’ll also cause permanent damage.
What most people don’t understand is that our body builds itself in recovery—not in the training itself. While lifting weights, your muscles don’t grow.
Rather, when you go to sleep, your body recovers itself from the micro-tears you caused to your muscles while working out. If you don’t sleep or eat well enough, your body won’t be able to recover itself either. As a result, both nutrition and bedtime—are critical.
Boxing every day—isn’t wise, as you’ll be training the same muscles over and over again. Imagine your body still being sore from the previous exercise—and then you cause more micro tears. I’ll tell you what won’t be the consequence of such actions: growth and progression.
Before we dive in, if you want to know why boxing helps you lose weight quickly, ensure to follow the link to an article of mine.
This article will discuss whether training boxing every day—is wise. Likewise, we’ll examine the optimal number of training sessions per week to maximize your progression and growth in the art of punching.
How many times a week should I box
If you want to improve yourself physically, your primary goal should be to be fully recovered before entering another intense workout. That way, you’ll ensure your growth is optimal. Let’s examine how many times a week you should box:
Doing boxing 3 times a week—will ensure you optimize your progression and results. That’s because 3 times per week will ensure you don’t train on consecutive days (hence Sunday followed by Monday), while training as much as possible. As a result, your body will be able to fully recover itself, thus avoiding overtraining.
Why do you think weightlifters have different workout routines? To ensure they don’t train the same muscles on consecutive days. For example, if you train your chest and triceps on Sunday, you can’t start bench-pressing on Monday.
If you do, you’ll notice your body starting to scream for help. You’ll feel more fatigued than ever. Of course, the only way you can solve that issue, is to give your body plenty of time to recover, and thus, not training.
Here are the primary symptoms of overtraining, according to research:
Common symptoms of overtraining syndrome, in addition to an unexplained performance decrement, include generalized fatigue, mood disturbance, poor sleep, and increased rates of illness and injury. By definition, these symptoms persist despite more than 2 weeks of rest.
SOURCE
As you can see, the symptoms of overtraining—are severe. You don’t want to experience these, especially if you want to keep yourself healthy in the long-term.
Concluding, training for more than 3 times per week—may attract symptoms of overtraining, as your body doesn’t have enough time to recover itself.
How long should I box a day?
Now that we understand that boxing every day—can negatively influence our overall physical and mental health, let’s discuss how long should our sessions be.
Your boxing sessions can last anywhere from 20-120 minutes. However, as a general rule, they should last for 90 minutes. If you train at home by yourself, more than 20 minutes can be difficult, as you’re likely punching a punching bag, which is highly intensive. Keep the training times adaptive to the intensity.
When I started to train at home, the intensity of my workouts drastically increased. That happened because I’ve been able to increase the intensity of my sessions by not giving into the urge to take it easy.
The increase in intensity also attracted a decrease in the amount of time each session lasts. I was simply unable to continue training more because I was already fatigued from the high intensity.
If I were to box every day, the length of my training would inevitably decrease, as I would feel more tired in each training session. So, to ensure you keep yourself healthy, don’t push your body to places it can’t sustain or recover itself after.
A good rule of thumb is when feeling fatigued, to push yourself just a bit over your limit. That way, you’ll be progressing after every difficult workout.
I saw plenty of articles advising you to train every day because the more you train, the more results. However, that’s simply untrue. You’ll never see weightlifters deadlifting heavy weights every day. If they were to do so, their bodies wouldn’t handle nearly as much weight as the day before, as it’s still fatigued.
If you want to learn more about how often you should train boxing a week, follow the link to an entire article I wrote on the topic.
Is boxing every day beneficial?
Athletes who want to maximize their progression—don’t train every day. Instead, they work both on their mental and physical selves. As a result, they’re able to see the most results, as their bodies are completely recovered.
Boxing every day isn’t as beneficial as giving your body enough time to rest. For the same reason running long-distances every day—can permanently harm your legs, punching intensely every single day, can hurt the relevant muscles, such as your back, arms, and even shoulders.
Don’t listen to the people who suggest that training more will lead to more results. That’s not the case because your body doesn’t work that way.
You grow when you rest, not in the training itself. Now, if you don’t allow your muscles to grow intently, you won’t progress nearly as much as if you were to rest sufficiently.
Lifestyle-related signs of overtraining (SOURCE)
- Prolonged general fatigue.
- Increase in tension, depression, anger, or confusion.
- Inability to relax.
- Poor-quality sleep.
- Lack of energy, decreased motivation, moodiness.
- Not feeling joy from things that were once enjoyable.
As you can see, the negative impact training every day can have on your life—are critical to understand. You must avoid these at all costs, even if it means you’ll skip a few sessions to ensure your muscles are fully rested.
Final words
If you still want to box every day, although everything I’ve said, you can still manage to do so. However, that’ll require you to go easy on yourself, especially when your body is fatigued from the latest intense session.
You’d have to listen to your body, even if you want to go all-out. You’ll feel your muscles burn and grow if you listen carefully to the quiet shouts for help from your own muscles.
That’s why you have to include sessions that you work on your technique. At most, go with a low-intensive session. However, that can still harm you if your body is fatigued from the last difficult session.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you’ll also enjoy reading about the true cost of boxing classes. If you think you may not want to invest plenty of money on martial arts classes, follow the link to learn how to avoid it.