Which Are the Best Boxing Gloves for Beginners

At Sporteq, we strongly believe in the value of taking care of your health in many forms, we have found that boxing can be a great introduction to exercise for people at any age or level.

Starting a new sport can be intimidating. That’s why in this article, we will be showing you which are the best boxing gloves for beginners.

Sadly, as of 2022, less than half of children aged 5-16 are actually engaged in daily physical activity for at least an hour. As of 2021, approximately 4.97 million respondents in the age group of 25-34 in England were physically active with at least moderate intensity for more than 150 minutes a week.

These statistics tell us that there are still a lot of people who don’t exercise regularly. We know there may be physical reasons why they can’t engage in exercise, which we understand. But we also are aware that sometimes people don’t do any exercise, let alone boxing due to feeling intimidated. Anybody can start boxing at any age. The purpose of this article is to show you where you can start as a beginner.

At Sporteq, we truly believe that your health is your wealth, and we want to help you know what your options can be when it comes to looking after your physical health. As we continue, will be sharing with you the amazing health benefits of boxing.

What is boxing? And the benefits of boxing

Boxing is a contact sport in which athletes fight each other via punching, which scores points that are then tallied by judges at the end of the allocated rounds, or they can win via KO (Knockout).

Even though the nature of boxing is technique driven, physically demanding and dangerous (if there are no professionals there to coordinate) you don’t need to have an opponent if you want to practice your technique or get on the path to start improving your general health through boxing.

Boxing can be considered an aerobic sport, meaning you need to have an aerobic capacity (or develop one) to be able to be proficient or see the benefits of it. Boxing has many benefits, this includes:

• Improves balance and coordination: Throwing punches to a specific area, using combos and utilising footwork to able to dodge your opponent and manoeuvre around them to land a clean hit, are key features of boxing. As such, the routine of practising these elements leads to your body adapting and improving your baseline balance and coordination.
• Improves concentration: A professional boxer or even anyone with sufficient practice is able to dodge, punch, and manoeuvre to a new position within seconds. As with physical conditioning, over time boxing provides mental conditioning through the harnessing of focus, this improved concentration can be used in many other areas of your life and develops a level of discipline.
• Stress relief: boxing provides an opportunity for stress to be released through the hitting of the punch bag, as opposed to screaming, slamming or destroying objects.
• Weight loss: Due to the aerobic demand of boxing, punching, dodging and moving for three-minute rounds, people who are not used to prolonged physical activity may find that they lose weight as a result.
• Confidence booster: Boxing, as with any physical activity can boost your confidence the more you do it, this is because your consistency will be rewarded through results, whether it’s better technique, weight loss, or even feeling your improvement compared to when you first started. This empowerment and self-belief that you attain through your own actions will boost your confidence and can help your mental health.

With all of these mental and physical benefits, it’s no surprise boxing is such a popular sport. We at Sporteq can help facilitate the beginning of your boxing/fitness journey, so now that we know about boxing, let us talk about equipment.

Boxing Gloves and other equipment to get you started

For someone who has never exercised, or practised boxing before, wearing boxing gloves can be difficult at the start. This is because boxing gloves are weighted, and the extra weight being carried by your hands, which need to be up and moving constantly can cause your shoulders to ache quite quickly. This is why we recommend the lightest weight possible for people beginning boxing.

As time develops, your muscles may gain size or become denser in order to accommodate the extra weight of the gloves.

It must be noted that we do not recommend sharing boxing gloves with others, especially if you suffer from hyperhidrosis, or have skin conditions that can spread.

Luckily, at Sporteq we cater to your boxing needs. Whether you are after punchbags or boxing gloves, we supply them and much more.

Boxing Gloves

The Boxing Gloves we supply range from Junior sets (4oz – 12oz) to adult-size gloves (10oz – 16oz). We know everyone has different levels of strength and endurance, which is why we recommend starting with the lightest gloves and slowly working your way to heavier gloves the more comfortable your technique becomes.

We always recommend seeking lessons from a professional, if that option isn’t available or you just want your own space to train, then our blogs on what is a BOB Punching bag may give you the help you need in setting up your own home gym.

Punch Bags

Punch bags give the participant the sensation of hitting an opponent without physically hurting anyone else. Punch bags offer a variety of benefits including but not limited to:

• Can be used to condition the body by hitting it

• Can use to boost endurance and stamina by practising circuits with it ( A circuit is exercises done one after the other, e.g Squat continuously for 1 minute, skip for 1 minute, hit the punchbag for 3 mins)
• An excellent option to alleviate stress through punching

• The swinging of a punchbag can help you develop your footwork. By having to move to avoid being hit by the swinging punchbag you are subconsciously developing the skills to move in a nimble and efficient manner.
• It highlights if your technique is incorrect. If your technique is wrong when punching, it will hurt. Whether it’s your elbow, shoulder, wrist or fist, regardless of the equipment you have on. Shadow boxing although helpful can not physically tell you where your technique needs work.

Punch bags should always be used with proper protective gear, this being hand wraps and boxing gloves. But why is that?

• Punch bags have different textures, and depending on the frequency of use, method of cleaning and other factors, punch bags can become slightly rougher on the outside. If punching barehanded, there is more of a chance to get a friction burn on your skin, especially with poor technique.
• The amount of sweat punchbags can accumulate can also lead to skin issues if not cleaned regularly. If you punch & end up cutting skin without any safety gear on, with a punch bag that is unclean, you can risk infecting your skin.
• As we previously mentioned, improper technique will end up hurting you when using a punchbag, however without any safety equipment, the damage can be a lot more detrimental, this is because of the stabilisation and cushioning offered by hand wraps and gloves when worn properly.

Now that we have addressed the benefits and needs for some of the boxing equipment we offer, we feel that it is now appropriate to talk about the mental aspects of getting into boxing for the first time.

Overcoming doubt

We truly understand how nervous you must feel when starting something that is outside your comfort zone and boxing is no exception. We believe in seeking classes and lessons from professionals as they can draw you outside of your comfort zone, whilst placing you in an environment with like-minded people, with whom you may end up becoming friends.

Training by yourself can be done, but unless you know what you are doing it’s going to be really difficult to be motivated and know how to improve.

The most important thing as a beginner in boxing, as with anything else in life, is to be consistent. The likelihood is when you start boxing you won’t be the best, you may find yourself feeling embarrassed about your lack of fitness or technique or what it takes to adapt to the pace of boxing. This is natural. A good coach will support your development and offer advice for you to improve whilst working towards your set goals whatever they may be.

A very helpful indicator for your boxing progression is to record yourself on your first session. Then a month or two down the line, record yourself again and note the changes you can see in yourself, whether it’s how quickly you move, how much weight you have lost or how confident you are when boxing. This can help you see objectively how much your consistency has

helped you improve.

Begin boxing with help from Sporteq

In this blog, we hope to have shown you which are the best boxing gloves for beginners, whilst also sharing valuable tips to help you flourish on your boxing/fitness journey. The team at Sporteq is always here to help. If you would like to contact us via email, click the link here.

You can call us at 0161 354 2579

If you’d like more information on all things sports, head over to our blog page.