Do you want to lose weight in a more fun way rather than linear, monotonous machines at the gym? Luckily, you have found the right spot as in this article, bit by bit, you will become familiar with what shadow boxing is and how does shadow boxing burn fat.
So, stay tuned till the end to know all the ways to get a toned body. Without any further delay, let’s find out about shadow boxing and its benefits so that you can make it your go-to workout.
What is Shadow Boxing?
Shadow Boxing is combat cardio in which you openly throw punches in the air, thinking of your shadow as your imaginary opponent.
It is a staple for fighters as it sharpens and improves your body coordination and tones your body muscles, in addition to strengthening your upper body posture. It basically focuses on some of the basic boxing combos of slips, footwork, and punches.
7 Reasons why you should do Shadow Boxing
Now that you are well up with what shadow boxing is, let’s dive into the key benefits of shadow boxing so that you become well aware of why you should adopt it, even if you aren’t a professional boxer at the moment. The significant benefits are:
Fat cutter
Shadow boxing is excellent cardio to opt for, as with a bit of speed and practice, you get the maximum. Approximately 140 lb. person burns nearly 400 calories by practicing shadow boxing for one hour. It is such a powerful fat cutter that it results in obese athletes’ weight loss.
Gain strength and core muscles
In shadowboxing, your whole body is involved and well-coordinated, especially your triceps and biceps. There is a lot of contraction involved when you throw air punches, resulting in the gain of muscles and toning them.
It is just like mimicking the natural boxing style. It enhances your core strength. Moreover, it also fastens your heart rate.
No need for any equipment
One of the best things about shadow boxing is that you don’t need to buy any equipment like gloves, dumbbells, drills, or punching bags.
You need to have willpower and two hands that can throw punches. It is the cheapest sport that doesn’t cost you a single penny.
Improves your balance and optimizes posture
Have you ever seen a boxer losing his balance? No, and if you also want to be one, having a tight core is essential. And that’s what shadowboxing helps you in.
It enables you to balance better and for a longer time and become well aware of your center of balance to focus on it as you throw pushes. It keeps you strongly attached to the ground.
Can be mixed with other exercises
Yet another point to consider is that you don’t need to follow any exact routine or sets of exercises like in other workouts. You can mix with squats, crunches, etc. And make your version of it.
Frustration Relief
Another benefit of shadow boxing, or we can say of boxing overall, is that it is an excellent way to relieve your anxiety, stress, and frustration without hurting anyone or yourself
How does shadow boxing burn fat?
You must be wondering that although there are many other benefits of it, how does shadow boxing burn fat in an efficient way. So, here are the basics ways to use shadowboxing to lose weight.
Jabs
Jab is one of the most common punches used in boxing, and when it comes to shadow boxing, it engages all the major muscle groups, causing maximum weight loss.
So, delivering a perfect jab is helpful in both ways. All you need to do is think of an imaginary opponent in front of you and throw a jab.
Process: Start with making a relaxed fist of your dominant hand, and extend to the fullest from the shoulder. Make sure your fist is closed and positioned such that your knuckles are flat and in front of your imaginary opponent.
It includes the contraction of the bicep and triceps muscles and utilizes the shoulder muscles too. It burns a lot of calories. Undoubtedly, more calories are shed off by hitting punching bags; shadow boxing is more convenient as you can practice it anywhere.
Uppercuts
Just like a jab, uppercuts also involve your arm muscles and shoulders. In this, you keep your feet shoulders width apart, and while holding the biceps and muscles relaxed, rotate on your toe and throw an uppercut beneath your opponent’s chin. As you need to keep the muscles contracted and move your upper body. It also involves extension and flexion, which is a perfect workout for the upper body.
Hooks
Hooks are just similar to uppercuts, but in this, your main aim is to hit the opponent’s torso. Moreover, it is said that the total energy for hooks comes from the pivot of the foot. So, it engages feet and legs too, in addition to arms and shoulders, resulting in more muscle stimulation.
Footwork
Including footwork in shadow boxing dramatically sheds the body weight, but apart from shoulders and arms, it includes calves, quads, and hamstrings. Whether trying orthodox or southpaw, both the footwork of shadow boxing involves both the legs and hands. Moreover, it is excellent for bringing belly fat, and it stimulates the muscles of that part explicitly too.
Slips
Slips, whether the backward slip, left slip, or right slip causes high-intensity movement of the whole body, including the head. So, it contributes to maximum weight loss. In slips, the entire body moves in one direction, and the head moves in the opposite direction.
MOVE AND THROW
All the techniques of shadow boxing stimulate the movement of every part of the body. Concentrate on the moves as much as possible because, just like any other workout, any step, if not performed correctly, doesn’t lead to fat burn.
WORKS THE ENTIRE BODY
The best part of shadow boxing is that, more or less, it involves the entire body in exercise. Your feet, claws, quads, core muscles, temple area, shoulder, arms, and even neck are constantly in motion in one way or another. However, in contrast, most other workouts like brisk walking or treadmill don’t give you a full-body workout. Secondly, it can be converted into something more interesting by adding your favorite exercises like jumping the rope or squats, whatever you want. This will not only make it less boring for you but turn into a more intense workout.
FASTEST WAY TO SHED OFF CALORIES
One might find jogging and walk more tiring, shadow boxing kills the fat among these. Yes, according to the research made, it has been found that
- A typical session of jogging burns 400 calories
- A typical session of walking burns 245 calories
- Running session sheds off almost 545 calories
- One round of shadow boxing burns 1000 calories
So, if you are looking for some exciting workouts that help you lose weight quickly and in a more efficient way that sculpts your body, shadow boxing is made for you.
DOES SHADOW BOXING BURN BELLY FAT?
One of the thoughts that might come is whether shadow boxing exercises can shed off the stubborn weight from the belly. Yes, it does. There is no second thought that the excess fat around the waist is the house of many diseases, including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases, and elevated cholesterol level.
But the question arises, how shadow boxing benefits this all cumbersome problem. Shadow boxing includes throwing punches, kicks, feints, and footwear -all together. These all stimulate the muscles and fasten the metabolism. These specifically target the core muscles and stomach muscles, so they shed off calories and stored fat around the belly.
IS SHADOW BOXING GOOD CARDIO?
When it comes to deciding whether a specific shadow boxing workout can be considered good cardio or not, you need to look at the heart rate. Good cardio is the one in which the energy output required is way more than the normal range of body. But when it comes to deciding if shadow boxing is good cardio or not, you need to see multiple factors like:
- Number of rounds you do
- The total time you practice
- Type of punches, footwear, and other tricks you involve
- How much intensity you put it
- If you combine it with other exercises or not
Shadow boxing includes a lot of cardiovascular exercises, and if done correctly, is a perfect cardio exercise.
WHAT IS INCLUDED IN A SHADOW BOXING WORKOUT?
When we consider shadow boxing routines and workouts, there is a variety to choose from. However, a good shadow boxing workout with a low-carb diet is an ideal combo to choose for effective weight loss. Usually, the drills of shadow boxing have three levels, each of its sets:
- Warmup
- The fight
- The final
Warm-up:
Warm-up is a fundamental level of all workouts so is shadow boxing. For shadow boxing, a warm-up consists of
- Jogging
- Push-ups for 30 seconds
- Mountain climbers for 30 to 40 seconds
- Squats for 30 seconds
The fight:
Once done with the warm-up, next comes the second level, the fight, which includes 2-minute rounds of the following in the order given:
- Shadow boxing including non-stop air punches exercises, rear hooks, uppercuts, feinting, and defensive techniques.
- A brisk walk or running
- Again, another round of shadow boxing, this time focusing on the footwork primarily.
- Rest
- Repeat the whole process one more time
The final:
After the fight comes the most intense level, the final level. It includes all exercises to be done for 1 minute.
- Burpee
- Broad jump
- All the shadow boxing drills
- All boxing punches
- Sprint punches
- Rest
- Repeat
These three rounds, if done correctly, are the best way to practice shadow boxing for weight loss without the cost of your health. Instead, it relieves stress.
HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU DO SHADOW BOXING?
The duration of shadow boxing and the number of times you should do it depends entirely on your preference. But for weight loss, a shadow boxing workout of 30 minutes should be done three to four times a week one more thing that people ask is how many calories shadow boxing burns, so it burns almost 350 to 400 calories in 30 minutes. Some professional boxers do shadow boxing drills nearly every day as a part of their warm-up exercise.
TIPS FOR SHADOW BOXING
Apart from weight, shadow boxing is essential in various other terms like developing fluency and rhythm in your body, footwork, and head movement. The top four tips to become better in shadow boxing are:
- Don’t stare at your hands, as it would divert your focus
- Always imagine an imaginary opponent. If you can’t imagine one, you won’t exert full force in throwing punches, ultimately neither will you burn more calories, nor will you have a toned body. Moreover, your punches will not become better.
- Never use a mirror.
- Try to move and coordinate your head with several combinations. In this way, the memory becomes stored in your mind, resulting in rapid and more precise movements when boxing in real life.
CONCLUSION- A Final Thought
Now that you are abreast of what shadow boxing is and how does shadow boxing helps in weight loss, follow various combinations of shadow boxing drills, and shed off as many calories as you want!
