Kickboxing for females has become more and more popular in the mainstream with fitness cardio kickboxing programs as well as female professional fighting
In this post we list 9 powerful benefits of training kickboxing for females that will provide a strong case for any women to try kickboxing to get in shape or to consider competing in.
1. Kickboxing Burns a Tonne of Calories per Session
An article published by The Independent in 2017 found that martial arts such as muay thai/kickboxing burned around 752 calories per hour for an average women.
According to a study by Harvard Health Publications, a 125-lb. person burns an average of 600 calories in an hour of kickboxing.
Consisting of fulll body movements and use of the major muscle groups especially the legs and core, kickboxing/muay thai was found to burn more calories than Boxing and Running in a comparison you can see below:
| Running | Boxing | Muay Thai | |
| Calories/Hour | 472 | 531 | 600 |
As kickboxing uses punches, kicks, knees and elbows, it is understandable that you would burn more calories per hour in comparison to Boxing (which focuses on hand techniques) and Running.
This is one of the major benefits of kickboxing for females in that it is a great total body workout effective for burning calories.
2. Development of Functional Fitness
Kickboxing is a total martial art that utilizes full body functional movements.
Kickboxing will challenge and develop your balance, coordination, flexibility and core stability through consistent training.
Many of the movements and techniques in kickboxing are unilateral and require good balance and stability on one leg to perform correctly – further pushing your body to develop real world functional fitness.
In comparison to treadmill running and lifting weights, kickboxing will better develop your functional fitness through full body natural movements.
The National Institutes of Health in a 2014 study found that after 5 weeks of kickboxing training, study participants showed significant improvement (p < 0.05) in upper-body muscle power, aerobic power, anaerobic fitness, flexibility, speed and agility.
3. Stress Reflief
Kickboxing is an excellent meachanism to handle and deal with stress in your life.
Whether you are banging out punches kicks and knees on the heavy bag or sweating it out drilling kickboxing movements, you will get the positive well-being effects from the post-workout endorphin release.
Also there is really fewer greater ways to beat stress than beating up the heavy bag while getting an fat burning workout for your body.
4. Self Defense
As an effective striking art, kickboxing is an effective form of self defense.
The techniques can be deadly and very effective for dealing with an attacker. This is one of the major benefits of kickboxing for females.
As kickboxing is also a competitive sport, the techniques are ring tested over many, many years and are proven to work in real life combat.
For a women wanting to learn aspects of self defense also, kickboxing will help you develop specific techniques for dealing with an attacker, develop your distance and spatial awareness as well as your strength and conditioning to be able to handle physical situations and safely run away and escape.
5. You Can Train Solo at Home
For a lot of women, the thought of showing up at a kickboxing gym or class may be too much to handle initially.
The great thing about kickboxing is that you can learn a lot and train effectively solo at home. You can make great progress in your skill and technique as well as strength and conditioning is you are committed with you home training.
There are a lot of online sources of instruction for kickboxing that you can use to learn and train at home.
This makes getting into kickboxing for females a lot easier, as you learn and train effectively alone.
In comparison to grappling arts such as Judo, Wrestling or BJJ (that depend highly on partner training), kickboxing, boxing, muay thai and other striking based arts are well suited to solo training to build all the attributes required to fight professionally or just be a bad ass in general 🙂
Minimum equipment is required also to get in a effective workout for your goals, whether they are developing your technique, speed and power or training to get in shape.
You can learn muay thai at home for free with a free video series I put together.
Check it out below!
6. Cardio Health Development
Kickboxing is a well recognized workout that utilizes both the aerobic and anaerobic systems of the body.
A study from 2014 published the National Institutes of Health revealed that training kickboxing for one hour three days a week increased maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max), which is an indicator of your cardiovascular endurance and cardio health.
A higher VO2max means your body is more efficient and obtaining and using oxygen.
In addition to the cardio health benefits, sweating it out in a kickboxing session flushes out toxins from the skin and enhances your overall well-being.
7. Developing Healthy Habits
Incorporating kickboxing into your health and ftiness lifestyle will help you develop good habits when it comes to your eating, sleep and recovery as well as developing consistency and determination as attributes.
Getting through a one hour kickobinxg session is no walk in the park and doing this consistently will develop your determination and mental toughness to be able to handle stress and get through it.
In order to stay consistent with your workout, eating well and sleeping well will also tend to come about naturally through choosing to remain consistent with your kickboxing workouts.
8. Self-confidence
Kickboxing is a tough sport and martial art. Being able to put in consistent weekly sessions of good training will help you become more self-confident.
Knowing that you can get through tough kickboxing sessions makes you more determined and strong willed to be able to handle tough situations in your family, work and personal life as well through the strength and mental fortitude developed in your kickboxing training.
Knowing that you have the ability to be able to defend yourself and handle a physical altercation will also boost your self-confidence which will shine through in your work and family life as well.
Hopefully this self confidence will also be able to inspire your loved ones to also begin making commitments to improve their mental and physical health through martial arts or similar pursuits.
9. Friendhips
Some of the most coolest and chilled people I hav emet have been professional fighters and general bad assess in the gym.
Through training kickboxing and muay thai as well as other martial arts, you have the opportunity to grow your social circle and meet and interact with people you would otherwise not have an opportunity ta make friends with.
This social aspect of kickboxing is also important for mental health development.
Benefits of Kickboxing for Females
So there you have it. 9 powerful tips for any female who is thinking about taking up kckboxing, muay thai or a similar martial art.
If you have been wondering about kickboxing for a while as a female I really hope this post, and the powerful benefits shared here will help you in your decision to perhaps take up this wonderful martial art.
If you do decide to take it up consider these helpful beginner tips which will help you get started more effectively and ease the learning curve a bit 🙂
