In professional boxing, fighters are expected to last for a full fifteen round bout. What’s their secret to having so much energy?
The key is learning how to breathe when boxing.
No matter how fast you move or how hard you hit, if you’re not practicing proper breathing technique, you’ll gas out and won’t last more than two rounds.
This article will discuss proper breathing technique for boxing.
How To Breathe When Boxing
Follow these tips to breathe properly while boxing:
- Match Your Breathing Rate To Your Movement
- Exhale While Throwing Punches
- Take Deep Breaths In Between Rounds
Proper breathing technique is overlooked by beginners and boxing classes.
They only realize the importance of it after gassing out and panicking in their first spar.
To start, we need to differentiate nose breathing versus mouth breathing.
Many people simply don’t know how to breathe properly.
They breathe with only with their mouth and shoulders, never reaching the full capacity of their lungs.
As you read this, breathe in deep through your nose and follow the breath into your stomach instead of taking shallow breaths through your mouth.
Hold it for a few seconds then let your nose exhale slowly.
Doing this will saturate your blood will oxygen and calm your heart rate.
Below, we’ll discuss how you can apply these ideas while you’re boxing.
Match Your Breathing Rate To Your Movement
First, match your breathing rate to your movement.
An easy movement, such as a shuffle or the Soviet style pendulum step, should be paired with slow controlled breathing through your nose.
On the other hand, a sharp movement, such as punching, should be paired with a fast exhale.
It’s important to remember that fast breathing (i.e. hyperventilating) doesn’t mean that you’re getting more oxygen.
Not matching your breathing rate to your movement will tire you out.
Next time you’re in the ring, try fast breathing when you’re doing easy movements or slow breathing when you’re doing a sharp movement, and see how fast you gas out.
Exhale While Throwing Punches
Next, exhale while throwing punches.
This is an extension of the previous tip mentioned before. Releasing air in short bursts and explosive movements will force you to breathe in.
If you hear boxers making noise while punching, this is how they ration their breath and not run out of oxygen after a combination.
Take Deep Breaths In Between Rounds
Lastly, take deep breaths in between rounds.
You only have a limited amount of time to rest, so use it to reset yourself.
Inhale slowly through your nose and hold in your belly for three seconds, then exhale.
Research shows that breathing slow will saturate your blood with oxygen and calm your heart rate.
With this simple habit, you can get an edge over your opponent who’s gasping for air.
It’s good to get into this habit even when you’re training. Boxers jump rope to train this deep breathing and make it muscle memory.
Train with a mouthpiece in so you get used to practicing proper breathing.
Benefits of Proper Breathing Techniques
Learning how to breathe when boxing and using proper breathing technique gives you many benefits, including:
- Energy Efficiency
- Increased Flow and Movement
- More Power
While boxing is full of debates over which technique or stance is better, all boxers agree that breathing techniques are essential to success.
Energy Efficiency
First, using proper breathing technique will help you use your energy efficiently.
When you’re outside of your opponent’s range and moving around the ring, you should breathe slow. This will keep you from getting tired quickly.
Even in an amateur three round fight, good breathing technique will help you have more energy than your opponent in the last minute of each round.
When your opponent is tired, they’ll make mistakes that you can take advantage of.
Increased Flow and Movement
Next, using proper breathing technique will give you increased flow and movement.
This will make you feel relaxed and keep from getting tense while under pressure; you won’t clench up and lose focus just like you did the first time you sparred.
Very skilled boxers can even continue breathing when they’re getting hit in the head.
Some boxers can even time their exhale when they get hit with a body shot. The wind only gets knockout of you if you get hit during an inhale.
More Power
Lastly, using proper breathing technique will give you more power.
Exhale quickly during short bursts of explosive movement to give you extra power.
Try this simple experiment: do one push-up while inhaling and do another push-up while exhaling.
The first feels unnatural, while the second one feels right since the fast movement of your chest and arms matches the air exhaled.
This concept applies in all exercise movements, whether it’s a sprint or a bench press.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to breathe when boxing, you can apply these techniques to other martial arts and combat sports.
They’ll prevent you from getting tired and running out of oxygen when you’re moving around the ring.
Professional boxers constantly have their breath in sync with their movements and so should you.
Practice breathing with simple boxing exercises, such as jumping rope and shadow boxing. Make sure to use slow breathing to match your rhythm.
Once you get that down, apply the same concept to the heavy bag and then to sparring.
You can also practice yoga on your recovery days to develop your breathing technique.
Practicing proper boxing breathing is something that will help you outside of the ring too.
Any time you’re stressed or overwhelmed, pretend you’re in between rounds and take those deep breaths to center yourself and prepare yourself for whatever comes next.
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