Punchfit® Articles

Tips to Minimize Muscle Soreness after Boxing and Kickboxing Work Outs

By February 17, 2009March 24th, 2020No Comments

Explosive Training Tips

Strategies to help minimise the incidence of Sore Muscles

For anyone participating in fitness training, it’s common to hear complaints about dull muscular pain and soreness. Overexertion can cause muscle damage and rupture that requires intervention and rehabilitation. But high-intensity exercise like boxing and kickboxing can also create muscle soreness as a result of overtraining and metabolic buildup in the tissues and joints.

The following tips will help reduce the incidence of pain and sore muscles by:

  • Good training habits are key, that is, it’s best to exercise regularly, use appropriate equipment and technique, and balance session intensity according to your fitness levels. Certainly, avoid being a weekend warrior.
  • Start with a slow warm-up for the heart and lungs, and to increase the levels of oxygen and nutrients available to your muscles before you begin your workout. In addition, more synovial fluid (the body’s lubricant) is released into the joints, which become supple and mobile, ready for the heightened demands of a boxing or kickboxing workout.
  • Follow the warm-up with ten minutes of stretching (see our benefits of stretching article for more information)
  • Be sure to hydrate before and after by drinking sufficient water
  • Diet is also important; your muscles need fuel so eat a high carbohydrate, low-fat diet to nourish the body in sufficient time before exercise.
  • Remember to warm down and stretch after exercise to help the muscles return to their normal resting state and facilitate the removal of metabolites.
  • If you want to intensify your boxing or kickboxing workouts, be sure not to increase both intensity and duration during the same week as this will cause unnecessary stress and reduce the cost to benefit ratio. It’s important to allow your body to recover properly and adapt slowly to improved performance levels.
  • If you do weight training in addition to your boxing or kickboxing workouts – it’s better to split your weight training sessions out rather than doing full-body workouts every day. Instead, modify your weight training routine by, working upper body and arms one day; and quads, hamstrings, calves, abs the next day.

Apart from the core advice above, try incorporating a sports massage into your overall fitness regime now and then. Massage has similar benefits to stretching but can be more specific to various sore spots and injuries.

It’s also good to soak in a bath once in a while; again this will relax the muscles and ease tension.

Article by Dr. Phil Mason
Sports Chiropractor and Author
Sydney 2000 Olympics Team USA
ABC Guide to Fit Kids, Murdoch Books, 2008.

To view all Punchfit Courses in State order click: FIND A COURSE NEAR ME