How Kickboxing Builds Strength and Endurance
Kickboxing delivers a one-of-a-kind workout that blends high-intensity cardio, full-body strength training, and mental resilience into every session. Unlike most fitness programs, it challenges your endurance, power, and focus all at once. It’s this powerful integration of mind and body that sets kickboxing apart. Let’s take a closer look at how the structure of a kickboxing workout helps build strength and endurance in a unique way.
STRENGTH GAINS FROM KICKBOXING
Unlike traditional strength training, which often isolates specific muscle groups, like upper body, lower body, or core, kickboxing engages your entire body simultaneously while still delivering high-quality results, primarily because multi-joint movements like those used in kickboxing help stimulate muscle fibers and increase overall strength gains.
Core Strength
Rotational movements play a key role in kickboxing, engaging the core with every punch and kick. These dynamic exercises are essential for improving core stability and power as they activate key muscles in the obliques, lower back, and abdominal region.
In kickboxing, each strike draws power from the core, not just the arms or legs, which helps to continuously strengthen the core with every movement. From twisting your torso to power a cross punch to rotating your hips and core for balance in a round kick, this consistent engagement not only enhances core strength but also improves functional movement, making it easier to perform at your best in both your workouts and in everyday tasks.
Lower-Body Strength
The lower body is strengthened through a variety of kicks, functional exercises like squats and lunges, and the footwork essential for mastering kickboxing technique. Functional exercises that mimic real-world movements, such as lunges and squats, activate multiple muscle groups and effectively target lower-body muscles.
Additionally, the constant resistance from kicking heavy bags challenges your muscles, hitting key areas like the glutes, quads, and hamstrings. This combination of functional moves and powerful kicks helps improve your lower-body strength.
Kickboxing footwork is another dynamic aspect of the workout that actively engages your lower body, requiring quick pivots, shuffles, and precise movements. This constant motion helps activate and strengthen key muscles in the legs, including the quads, hamstrings, calves, and glutes, improving both power and stability with every step.
Upper-Body Strength
The upper body is challenged through boxing with the powerful repetition of punching and striking on heavy bags. Exercises involving repeated forceful motions can significantly improve overall upper body strength. Every punch targets your arms, shoulders, and chest, building muscle tone and strength.
The resistance from hitting the bags also provides a unique form of strength training, similar to traditional weightlifting but with the added benefit of improving speed, explosiveness, and coordination.
Want to get more out of your kickboxing resistance training? Hit the bag harder. That extra power delivers the same strength-building benefits as upping your weight load—without needing dumbbells.
Kickboxing Combinations
One of the key ways kickboxing helps build full-body strength is through the use of kickboxing combinations. These complex movement patterns challenge your muscles in a way that improves neuromuscular adaptation, making your body more efficient at generating strength and power with less effort over time.
This holistic approach to training helps you build functional strength that not only enhances your athletic performance but also improves your ability to handle everyday physical tasks. By engaging multiple muscle groups at once, these combinations force your body to work harder, boosting strength, power, and coordination with every move.
HOW KICKBOXING IMPROVES ENDURANCE
Kickboxing isn’t just about building strength—it’s also a powerhouse for boosting endurance through high-intensity cardio, muscle stamina, and mental toughness. The science behind this is rooted in the principles of interval training and muscular adaptation, which enhance both aerobic and anaerobic endurance.
Cardio Endurance
The high-energy nature of kickboxing helps raise your heart rate, tapping into the benefits of cardiovascular fitness. High-intensity interval training (HIIT), like the different rounds of our 9Round workouts, can significantly improve heart and lung capacity.
Our workouts are designed to keep you moving through these high-intensity intervals with active rests in between, keeping your heart rate elevated for longer. This structure challenges your heart and lungs to work harder and recover faster, steadily improving your cardiovascular endurance over time.
By consistently elevating your heart rate, kickboxing enhances both your aerobic fitness (endurance over time) and your anaerobic capacity (short bursts of high-intensity effort). Your anaerobic capacity is strategically challenged in the final 30 seconds of every round at 9Round—where we encourage you to dig deep, go harder, and finish strong.
Muscle Stamina
Kickboxing also pushes you to maintain power throughout the entire workout, delivering combinations of punching, kicking, and functional exercises without letting up. This sustained effort places constant demand on your muscles, forcing them to continue working, which builds muscular endurance with every round.
Repeated, high-intensity movements also help increase muscle stamina by improving the muscles' ability to resist fatigue. As you push through each station, your body adapts, improving its ability to sustain energy and strength over longer periods.
MENTAL RESILIENCE
In addition to physical endurance, kickboxing also strengthens your mental resilience, teaching you how to stay disciplined and focused when the going gets tough. Mental endurance is just as important as physical endurance, and research suggests that challenging workouts like kickboxing build mental toughness by helping you push through discomfort and fatigue.
These workouts train your mind to stay calm, focused, and determined under pressure, helping you to push through challenges both in the gym and in everyday life. By constantly overcoming both physical and mental barriers in each session, you develop the ability to go the distance when it matters most.
As you can see, kickboxing fitness provides the perfect formula for achieving both strength and endurance in a single workout—without the need for multiple sessions targeting different areas of the body.
By engaging your entire body through powerful movements, kickboxing helps you build functional strength and endurance that translates directly into real-life benefits.
Whether you’re looking to enhance your athletic performance, improve your overall fitness, or just stay motivated and focused, kickboxing delivers results that are both effective and empowering.
So, if you’re ready to take your strength and endurance to the next level, a kickboxing workout at 9Round is the perfect way to get started—no matter your fitness level.
