This is an installment of excellent fita column about exercise.
When Felicia Alexander was 16 years old, her father died of a heart attack. Her loss was both sad and terrifying. “It was really scary going to bed at night without her father in her house,” she recalls. There was the emotional side of losing her parent, but there was also the practical side. Their home had been broken into before. She wanted to feel that even without her father, she could protect herself and her family.
Alexander ended up in a no-frills boxing gym in downtown San Diego, filled with strong-willed men who took the sport seriously. When she entered, the room fell silent. But that didn't stop her. “When I put on her gloves, it was like her inner self was unleashed,” she says. “I felt like I was the bad guy.” Hitting the bag was a huge catharsis, stress reliever, and empowering.
Accessing that catharsis has traditionally required a willingness to step into a gym like the one Alexander stepped into in the 1990s. rocky Movies—willing to get punched in the face. If I didn't want to get hit, I wouldn't have boxed.
That has changed. In the past few decades, with the rise of group fitness classes, “boxing” Expanded Includes “boxing fitness”: non-contact boxing (hitting the bag or the air) combined with strength and core training, where you don't expect to face an opponent. This change opened up boxing to almost everyone. “I think this is great,” boxing instructor Colin Bishop said. boxing match In Queens. This allows him to work with both youth and adults who come to the gym for all the benefits of boxing without getting a broken nose or concussion. (I was also one of his clients this summer when I attended a BOUT boxing class in the middle of a fitness tour of his studio that I was doing thanks to a free trial of ClassPass.)
Boxing has a reputation for being a good workout, and for good reason. Since this sport is structured around his three-minute rounds, boxing fitness classes typically involve several short intervals of high-intensity exercise that gets your heart pumping and burns a lot of calories. But instructors and even scientists suggest considering other benefits. It is a great source of stress relief and can also be an effective intervention for mental health.
As a teenager, Alexander felt so empowered by the sport that he wanted to “capture that feeling” and sell it. It took a while, but I was able to quit my job and start my own business in my mid-40s. box union, currently has three stores in California. She quickly realized that coaches and clients alike were incredibly open to talking to each other about the challenges they faced outside of the studio. “I felt like I wasn't the only one who really resonated with this,” she recalls. Since then, the studio has incorporated mental health into its ethos, encouraging coaches to be vulnerable and clients to see boxing as an outlet.
“In the fitness world, you often hear people say, 'Come on, this is your time. Leave everything going on in the world outside the door and make this time your own. “Please,” she says. “We have the opposite philosophy. We ask that you leave anything you bring indoors in your bag.”
One of the most obvious stress relief benefits of picking up gloves is hitting things. Bishop’s clients often say to him at the end of class, “You know what? Banging the bag is a way to release anger and stress in a productive way.
But suggests there may be more to it than that Johnny Bozdarov, a psychiatrist at the University of Toronto. Bozdarov, who has been boxing since childhood, noticed firsthand the mental health benefits of dealing with daily stressors. So when he began studying psychiatry, he wondered if boxing had been studied as a therapeutic intervention.
He reviewed the literature and identified 16 studies that specifically focused on non-contact boxing and mental health.Overall, the study proven Mood, self-esteem, and concentration are significantly improved, and symptoms associated with depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder are reduced. Although most of the studies were of low quality and had small sample sizes (one of them had only three participants), the results were consistent with more refined analyzes conducted on martial arts and mental health, stating that “a significant but “There was a small positive effect.” happiness. ”
One of the unique things about boxing for mental health is that it integrates high-intensity cardio with good old-fashioned mindfulness. The sport requires a high degree of skill and control, and the three-minute rounds require complete concentration. It can be very grounding, especially for minds that tend to wander. “What's important in boxing is the grounding techniques you can use in boxing,” Bozdarov says. “When you hit things, you use technique to stay in the moment, but when you go for a run, you ruminate on a lot of things.”
Bozdarov believes that boxing is an area with untapped potential that requires further research. He has created what he calls a mindfulness-based, non-contact boxing therapy that uses boxing alongside more traditional mental health practices. He recently conducted a feasibility study on the intervention at the Canadian Center for Addiction and Mental Health and plans to conduct a large-scale clinical trial soon. The hope is that combining workouts and therapy in a structured format can improve mental health outcomes while increasing fitness.
Other boxing programs include pair boxing Includes activities such as mentoring and meditation. shape your life In Toronto, it is designed for people who have experienced trauma. In the UK, a research project called . empire fighting chance We combined non-contact boxing with personal development resources in a study investigating the benefits for at-risk youth.Boxing fitness may also be a possibility useful treatments As a way to manage symptoms in Parkinson's disease patients. One of those symptoms is unsteadiness in gait, leading to frequent falls. Practicing the boxer's position (a stable, balanced position with both hands raised to the sides of the face) may help reduce the risk of falls in people with neurological conditions, according to one researcher. That's what it means. 2021 Longitudinal Study About boxing therapy. One focus is fall avoidance and fall recovery. rock steady boxing, a boxing gym founded with the aim of helping people with Parkinson's disease.in large scale survey Percentage of Rocksteady participants in 2020 found that participants reported a reduced fear of falling, as well as improved social life and reduced fatigue, depression, and anxiety, all of which are associated with the disease. It is well reported by people.
But even if it's not tailored to your specific health condition, boxing encourages behaviors that are beneficial to everyone. In his BOUT Boxing classes, Bishop intentionally focuses on breathing techniques. He used to suffer from panic attacks, which in retrospect could have been alleviated by slow, conscious breathing, like the one he masters during recovery after an intense three-minute round of boxing. , he thinks. He hopes his clients can apply the skills they learn in his classes to real-life situations that cause stress and panic attacks. He points out that this type of learning can be particularly beneficial for men who: unlikely Seeking traditional mental health services.
When I tried boxing myself, I didn't know anything about studies like this, so I didn't have high expectations (my experiment with trying different fitness classes) Also He took me to a “surfing” class on the rooftop of the Margaritaville Resort in Times Square. But in fact, during my 45-minute focus session, I realized that I didn't have time to think about everything that was stressing me out. Each round included a combination of punches in a specific order that required concentration. And in keeping with Bishop's philosophy, we focused on breathing techniques, finding steady breathing and lowering heart rates after intense rounds. Since that first class, I have returned to BOUT several times. After each session, I leave the studio feeling exhausted and grounded. bad.
State of Mind is Slate
arizona state university
It provides a practical perspective on our mental health system and how to improve it.
