Boxing and marital arts offer superb body co-ordination and evasion training as you have to practice moving your body so as not to get hit just as much as you seek to hit your target. Because of this aerobic factor, boxing, for example, has moved beyond the youth boxing clubs and is now a more common feature of some health clubs.

Boxing practice is a great way to burn fat and develop lean muscle mass, especially nowadays when so many of us are inclined to overeat. When someone eats too much the excess calories are stored as fat. In order to convert the fat to energy it is necessary to engage in some form of physical activity. Boxing is an excellent solution. It is so much more enjoyable than jogging or simply working out in a gym, and you also get an opportunity to take out your stress on the punch-bag!

As part of your boxing routine you should also include skipping and medicine ball practice for further aerobic and strength building work.

How many days a week should you train? Twice or three times a week is sufficient for ordinary purposes of improving overall health, weight regulation and aerobic fitness. Taking up boxing as a method of weight control is a pretty straightforward procedure. All you need is time, a desire to improve and the persistence to see it through two or three times a week. Do that and you will obtain some good results.

While it is true that a lot of boxing practice actually involves equipment training more than punching, some form of sparring practice is recommended in order to get the full benefit out of your boxing training. For this reason a gym that features boxing workouts, or a dojo where you can practice mixed martial arts, boxing kung fu or something similar, are ideal for this sort of training.

However, if for some reason you are unable to attend a gym or sign up to a dojo, you can easily practice most aspects of a boxing regime at home. You can easily set up a punch-bag. Hitting a heavy bag will still a very beneficial part of your aerobic workout.

What you would most likely be missing out on by not attending a gym would be the chance to spar with a partner. One of the great benefits of having a sparring partner is that it makes you focus. You also have to deal with a higher level of unpredictability as your partner throws a variety of punches that come at you at different velocities and trajectories and from different angles.

But, even without the benefits of a sparring partner, boxing training, whether undertaken by yourself at home, or in a gym, offers an excellent method of improving your strength, stamina, co-ordination and aerobic condition, while at the same time helping you to shed excess body fat.