Boxing is a rigorous workout. You burn between 350 and 600 calories in an hour, which is roughly the same as running. Unlike running, however, boxing works your body evenly and completely: upper and lower, your abs, arms, glutes and thighs. It\u2019s good for reflexes and hand-eye coordination. It\u2019s also fun, so you rarely even notice how hard you\u2019re working until you stop (and collapse).<\/p>\n
Boxing has entirely altered my shape. Once I was skinny, waify; now I have a little bulk. Definition on my thighs from all the squatting. Abs. Side abs! Then there are the emotional benefits of training. Boxing is an epic stress reliever, a great diminisher of anxiety. All the petty injustices I felt so acutely when I first started ebbed away, transforming themselves, magically, into better shoulder definition.<\/p>\n
Above and beyond even this, boxing has bestowed on me a greater confidence than I knew I was capable of. This is something that happens to you once you understand how to throw a punch. There\u2019s a sense of being useful. Could I hit an attacker, say, if required? My guess is: I\u2019d have a go. There\u2019s stuff that has now been trained into me, stuff that wouldn\u2019t give in easily; stuff that means these days I walk with more composure and swagger.<\/p>\n
![\"Sydney](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/b9ae0746-c9a7-4933-a7f6-d7d760303951.jpg\")
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Sweeney trained in jujitsu as a teenager<\/p>\n
KARWAI TANG\/WIREIMAGE<\/p>\n
It was back in 2017 that I first joined a Saturday women\u2019s class alongside 20 others. Our ages, bodies and fitness levels varied so dramatically there was no possibility of feeling out of place. No one looked anyone else up and down, as women are inclined to do in smart gyms. No one judged.<\/p>\n
There were moments in that first class when I thought I\u2019d either die or puke, or both. I hadn\u2019t done any cardio exercise since school; what sort of an idiot attempts her first burpee at 40-odd? But for all that, for the times my vision clouded over and blood buzzed in my ears, there were also moments when I found myself utterly enchanted. The first time I raised my gloved fist, swung it into a punchbag and marvelled at how good it felt. The first time I swung my hip behind a punch, twisting on the ball of my foot as if squidging out a fag. The first time I watched the trainer, Sunni, spar with one of the group regulars capable of matching her. There\u2019s something about seeing women unleash the aggression we\u2019re otherwise trained to hide, suppress, deny.<\/p>\n
When the first hour ended, I crawled out, knowing I\u2019d be back the next week and the one after that; that I wouldn\u2019t even have to force it. I was right. I have still never dreaded a boxing class, never told myself, \u201cI should go, I suppose \u2026\u201d <\/p>\n