Seven percent voluntary body weight decrease by boxers requires 21 days while 4.4 percent increase needs only one day. Energy and fluid intakes reduct ion does not affect boxers punching force. Boxers effective punch masses and body weights correlate. Wrist girths and competition rankings of boxers cor relate. Boxers show leanness body fat percentage. Boxers, generally highly mesomorphic, with increasing body weight, show ectomorphy decrease s but endomorph y and mesomorphy increase s . Vibration treatment enhances power in boxers arm flexors. Presence, nature and thickness of bandages and gloves donned influence boxers punch force. Stance posture adopted by boxers ends in locomotion functional parameters adaptations. Muscular recruitment sequence during rear straight punches may be influenced by the target height (head or body levels) and the boxer intention (produce maximal force or maximal speed). Handgrip strength : 1 ) increases from younger to older and from ligh ter to heavier boxers, and 2 ) correlates with competition ranking. Rear knee ex tension increases rear straight punching force to the head. Compared to uppercut and straight punches, the hook produces the highest change in hand velocity . Maximal forces are larger for the rear than the lead hand, and greater in more than in less experienced boxers. Hook punch force is greater than those of uppercut and straight punches. Boxer aim (produce maximum force or maximum speed) influence his punching force. Massage neither prevents a decrement in repeated performance nor has detrimental effects on performance, but increases recovery perceptions, compared with the passive rest intervention.
Physiology is a biological science that deals with functions of living organisms.
Boxing concerned in the present study is the combat sport where attacking weapons are the fists which must be landed to the opponent’s legal targets. The targets comprise the anterior and lateral surfaces of the head, the neck and the trunk, surfaces that lie from the face to an imaginary line that links the top of both iliac crests through a transverse plane.
The human body functions may be influenced by physical activity either as responses or as adaptations to the activity.
The present study carries out the task of gathering and commenting available and pertinent information on boxing practitioner physiology.
For that, the keywords “boxing” and “physiology” have been entered in Google and Medline search engines. However, other sources of information have also been consulted: books, journal papers, etc.
Information gathered and commented may be summarized as follows.
2. Kinanthropometric Parameters, Skeletal Muscle Recruitment, and Ergometry
2.1. Kinanthropometric Parameters
2.1.1. Posture
2.1.2. Body Weight Changes
2.1.3. Body Fat Percentage
2.1.4. Wrist Girth
2.1.5. Somatotype
2.2. Skeletal Muscle Recruitment
2.3. Ergometry
2.3.1. Force and Strength
1) Handgrip Strength
2) Effective Punch Mass
3) Rear Hand vs. Lead Hand
4) Hook vs. Uppercut and Straight
5) Head vs. Body
6) Intention
7) Knee Extension
8) Bandages
9) Dietary Behavior
10) Massage
11) Additional Force Values
2.3.2. Velocity
2.3.3. Power
2.3.4. Additional Ergometry Values
2.4. Suggestions to Boxing Contributors Reminder
Anthropometry is the science of measurement applied to the human body [
Kinanthropometry [
Posture is the way someone positions his body when sitting or standing [
Boxers are encouraged to adopt as stance a slight forward-lent posture, trunk-bent, lower limbs half-slit with either the left led or the right led, and wearing up to 0.5 cm-heeled shoes [
Concerns of sound energy management, balance, efficient performance and safety of the boxer may probably have directed the suggestion of the stance above described. However, people acquire postural habits by repeating the same body alignment on many occasions [
A boxing practice-related adaptation is illustrated by the fact that a locomotor system functional parameters analysis yielded significant differences between 11 young boxers (age: 14.6 ± 0.6 years; 7.3 ± 0.6 training units per week) and a control group made of 52 male pupils (age: 15.4 ± 0.4 years) [
Weight is how heavy something is when it is measured [
In boxing, a weight-category sport, athletes attempt to gain a competitive advantage by making the lowest weight category possible [
In 82 Senior England international amateur boxers [
Boxers would better take those average values into account before deciding the weight division in which they would like to belong during the coming competitions.
Relative percentage of fat body mass, along with that of fat-free body mass, can express basic body composition in a two-compartment model [
Excess body fat does not contribute to work output [
Day | Body Weight Percentage Variation | |
---|---|---|
Senior Boxers | Junior Boxers | |
−21 | 0% | 0% |
0 | −7% | −7% |
1 | −2.60% | −1.90% |
Seven percent decrease needs 21 days efforts but only one recovery day yields increases of 4.4 percent in Senior and 5.1 percent in Junior boxers.
locomotion during play [
In boxing, work output is essential and upper limbs are repeatedly moved against gravity in the stance and while attacking, defending or doing both simultaneously. Normal or lower than normal body fat percentage values are thus expected to be shown by boxers.
Mean body fat values of 6.9% ± 1.6% have been found in American male boxers participating in Olympic events [
A comparison made between 11 female boxers and physically active female controls with low (n = 16) or average (n = 17) fat mass showed that the two former groups had a significantly (p < 0.001) lower fat percentage than the latter: 14.6% ± 2.0%, 15.5% ± 4.2% and 25.8% ± 3.4%, respectively [
A consensus opinion for an exact percentage body-fat value associated with optimal health risk has yet to be defined; however, a range 10% to 22% and 20% to 32% for men and women, respectively, is considered satisfactory for health [
While an increase in habitual physical activity, through fitness training programs, has been shown to decrease body fat in male subjects, the available evidence suggests that similar changes in body composition may not occur so readily in females [
To make their weight limits before competition, boxers would better lose weight by decreasing superfluous body fat instead of cutting down on fluids, in order to avoid impaired performance resulting from the forced dehydration. Nevertheless, female boxers must take into account the fact that [
Girth is the size of something or someone large when one measures around them rather than measuring their height [
The variable concerned with here is the minimum wrist girth distal to the styloid processes, with the forearm supinated and the hand relaxed [
Wrist girth (17.6 ± 0.6 cm) has been found related (r = 0.78, p < 0.05) to boxing competition ranking as showed by a Spearman rho correlation analysis of the data obtained in 8 middleweight class elite Italian amateur boxers [first series AIBA (“Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur”) ranking] [
The positive correlation that links AIBA ranking and wrist girth may contribute to foreseeing and thus preventing a possible fall in a boxer ranking. For that, girth measurement should be made at the beginning of a sporting season with the purpose of comparing to subsequent measurements.
The somatotype is a quantified expression or description of the present morphological conformation of a person [
Boxers show increases in endomorphy and mesomorphy and a decrease in ectomorphy as body weight increases: 1.5-5.0-3.0 (<60 kg), 2.0-5.5-2.5 (60 - 79.9 kg) and 2.5-6.0-2.0 (80 - 89.9 kg) [
Despite the fact that in Indian National male boxers, the Junior have shown an ectomorphic body conformation, contrary to the Senior who have shown a mesomorphic one, the somatotype variation follows the above signaled variation according to the weight [
The somatotype ratings above mentioned show that boxers generally are highly mesomorphic and that with increasing body weight, there are increasing endomorpphy, increasing mesomorphy and decreasing ectomorphy.
High mesomorphy rating is mainly due to the fact that [
Contrary to muscle mass, superfluous body fat acts as a dead weight and may probably contribute to boxing velocity decrease in heavy boxers compared to lighter. That may be reflected in the lesser endomorphy found in boxers of body weight < 60 kg, compared to heavier boxers’ endomorphy [
with weight may be reflected in the following: in the Indian male boxers above mentioned, the Junior (ectomorphic and lighter) showed back strength (kg), right hand grip strength (kg), left hand grip strength (kg) and anaerobic power (W·kg−1 BW) values of 125.7 (6.4), 45.6 (6.5), 44.9 (4.6) and 4.9 (0.7), respectively vs. 156.5 (8.6), 62.7 (4.8), 50.1 (3.8) and 6.5 (0.5), respectively, shown by the Senior (mesomorphic and heavier) [
To adapt the somatotype of a practitioner to the ideal somatotype of boxing practitioners, 1) endomorphy could: a) be decreased by increasing aerobic exercise volume and/or reducing food intake, but b) increased via calorie intake increase, while 2) mesomorphy may be increased via strength training as [
Recruitment refers to the involvement of motor units in a given muscle contraction from both the qualitative (which) and the quantitative (how many motor units) standpoints [
Some muscles engaged in a boxer performance have been determined [
Electromyography (EMG) has proved useful in identifying the specific muscle involvement and in establishing the sequences of muscles while performing sports
skills, what allow to isolate the muscles in specific training drills, to design training programs and fitness test batteries, as well as the extent to which available training devices faithfully represent the muscle activity of the concerned sport [
A study [
The results showed a similarity in the early muscular recruitment sequence. The similarity was influenced by the target (manikin head or manikin body) as well as by the boxer intention (landing fists with maximal force or with maximal speed): 1) when the target was the head, the sequence began by G, while when the target was the body, the sequence began by RF-G-BF; 2) the mean (± SE) uniaxial punching forces values were a) 3956 ± 110 N, the intention being the maximal punch force to the head; b) 2459 ± 61 N, the intention being the maximal speed to the head; c) 3244 ± 48 N, the intention being the maximal punch force to the body; and d) 2256 ± 44 N, the intention being the maximal speed to the body. See
Fist landing derives from what is referred to as an open kinetic chain [
As is the case while performing a job task [
Once the positioning of the hands is complete, which includes the muscular activity to support the upper limb mass, the reserve strength capacity of the involved musculature is now available for work (lifting, pushing, using screwdrivers …) [
That explains why in the six male competitive amateur boxers, 1) muscle recruitment begins by G, the gastrocnemius, which allows plantar flexion of the foot and knee flexion when a closed fist has to be landed to the head; and 2) when a closed fist has to be landed to the body, the gastrocnemius, G, is preceded in the early sequence RF-G-BF by RF, the rectus femoris, which allows body positioning in the suitable position by permitting hip flexion.
The decrease of punching forces when landing fists to the body, comparing with when landing them to the head, reminds of what has been found while working on maximum voluntary isometric strength: the need to bend and/or to twist to reach a work piece generally decreased the maximum exertion force, what led the research workers conclude that the details of body configuration can significantly influence maximum voluntary strengths [
The boxer who lacks endurance would better try to knock out his opponent early in the battle. With that purpose, hitting the head is more helpful to the boxer than hitting the opponent body.
Force is what makes change happen [
1) Handgrip Strength
Strength is the ability to exert force [
A study [
In another study, a Spearman rho correlation analysis revealed that the handgrip strength (58.2 ± 6.9 kg, r = 0.87) of the dominant hand was highly related (p < 0.01) to boxing competition ranking in eight elite Italian amateur boxers first series (AIBA ranking) [
As thought by Khanna and Manna [
A retrospective analysis of handgrip strength measurement values is thus one of the tools that may be used by a coach to assess the suitability of a boxer to meet competition demands. That stays valid for the study carried out on the eight elite Italian amateur boxers, considering that the results show a high link between handgrip strength and boxing competition ranking.
2) Effective Punch Mass
The effective mass of a boxer’s punch may be determined [
m h V p = ( m h + m ) V h (1)
Straight punch force averaged 3427 (standard deviation (SD) 811) N when landed by seven Olympic boxers from four weight classes to the frangible face of a Hybrid III dummy [
The higher punch force of the heavier weight classes was attributed primarily by the authors of the study to the higher effective mass of the punch. That is not in contradiction with the fact that heavier subjects have been found to exert larger horizontal hand forces than lighter [
The study offers, among other things, the possibility for developing training techniques aimed to increase punch effective mass and thus punch force.
3) Rear Hand vs. Lead Hand
Most boxers stand using a stance such as there is lead hand and foot anterior to the body coronal plane as well as rear hand and foot posterior to the body coronal plane. Pre-rotation is thus part of boxer stance.
Body configuration can significantly influence maximum voluntary strength [
That is illustrated by the results of a study where comparison of the maximal straight punching forces of seven elite, eight intermediate and eight novice boxers has been made to assess the discrimination efficacy of a boxing dynamometer [
As is the case while performing a job task [
“Motor learning” refers to the fact that subjects learn to coordinate the proper muscles involved in a given training, with the resulting improvement of muscle strength, at least in untrained subjects during the first period of training with
submaximal loads [
When the intention is other than hitting hard the opponent, amateur and professional boxers are advised to use preferably the lead hand. The study results afore mentioned support the advice for safety and for efficiency reasons.
In fact, boxer safety is higher while landing a lead closed fist than while landing a rear closed fist to the opponent because the resulting trunk rotation made in the direction of the pre-rotation decreases the legal target area offered to the opponent’s closed fists: landing a rear hand closed fist and its resulting trunk rotation made in opposite direction of the pre-rotation increases the legal target area offered to the opponent’s closed fists by unveiling what was covered during the boxer stance by rear forearm and rear arm.
Either for discouraging the opponent from attacking or intending to knock out the opponent, the energy expended by the boxer is higher than the energy expended when the intention is other. So, for not mismanaging energy, the boxers are advised to reserve landing the rear closed fist only for those two purposes. The reason is that of efficiency.
4) Hook vs. Uppercut and Straight
With the purpose of landing a fist to an opponent, a boxer may use a hook (elbow flexed and forearm totally or partially in pronation), an uppercut (elbow flexed and forearm in supination) or a straight (elbow extended and forearm in pronation).
The functional anatomy of the concerned muscles while landing the three afore mentioned kinds of blows to an opponent may impact on the strength of the latters as has been found in the results of a study that addressed impact biomechanics from boxing punches: hooks, uppercuts and straights have been landed to the forehead and jaw of an instrumented Hybrid III dummy by eleven Olympic boxers weighing 51 to 130 kg (112 - 285 lb) [
Hook punch force was greater than uppercut punch force: punch force with forearm totally or partially in pronation was higher than punch force with forearm in supination. That reminds of what signaled by Amell: males can exert up to 14 N.m on a handle in pronation and 13 N.m in supination while females can exert approximately 50% of these values [
Hook punch force was greater than straight punch force: punch force with elbow flexed was higher than punch force with elbow extended. That is close to what mentioned by Tyldesley and Grieve: movements with the elbow flexed so that the load arm is short require less effort than those that use the shoulder to reach with the extended upper limb (load arm longer) [
5) Head vs. Body
As aforementioned, body configuration can significantly influence maximum voluntary strength [
On the one hand, to blow the body, one may either flex the trunk (bend the body) with lower limbs extended, what results in a relative feeble trunk rotation, or increase lower limbs flexion with the resulting relative higher trunk rotation. On the other hand, body asymmetry is higher while blowing the body than while striking the head.
The need to bend and/or to twist to reach a work piece while pushing or pulling in horizontal direction generally decreases the maximum voluntary isometric strength [
All that could make one expect forces generated by punches landed to the head to have higher values than those generated by punches landed to the body. But the below mentioned results of study do not sustain that. However they are consistent with the fact that punching forces from the rear hand have values higher than those from the rear hand, as has been mentioned above (See 3) Rear Hand vs. Lead Hand).
Maximum single punch force for the straight and hook punches to the head and body has been measured (means ± SD) in 29 Senior England international amateur boxers [
6) Intention
The aim of a boxer (either maximum force or maximum speed) while landing a blow may influence the punching force as showed the results from a work which utilized six male competitive amateur boxers (mean ± SD age: 24.6 ± 3.3 years; height: 1.82 ± 0.05 m; mass: 73.3 ± 19.0 kg) wearing 0.284 kg Top Ten competition gloves over their normal hand bandages, and adopted a lead left hand and rear right hand boxing style [
The American boxer Mike Tyson belonged to the heavyweight division, a division in which hard punching is the point [
In fact, on 16 February 1986, Tyson broke Jesse Ferguson’s nose during the match. To give the reason for the fracture, Tyson said: “because I want to punch the bone into the brain” [
On 22 November 1986, Tyson knocked down Trevor Berbick twice during the second round. After trying to rise from the second knockdown, Berbick fell after two intents to. Tyson said afterward that “every punch had a murderous intention”. The last blow landed by Tyson was a left hook to right temple of Berbick [
The influence of intention is also expressed in the fact that boxers are able to postpone a knockout victory. For example, on 16 October 1987, Tyson knocked out Tyrell Biggs at the seventh round. Post-fight, Tyson said that he could have knocked Biggs in the third round but chose to knock him out slowly “so that he would remember it for a long time” [
It is worth signaling that the results here mentioned sustain what expected comparing blows landed to the head with blows landed to the body (See5) Head vs. Body): punching forces are here higher while blowing to the head than blowing to the body.
It appears that, when maximum punch force value is very low, compared to the mean value, a boxer showing the value may improve it by using intention influence on punching force.
7) Knee Extension
The quadriceps femoris muscle (composed of four separated heads: rectus femoris, vastus intermedius, vastus lateralis and vastus medialis) represents the primary knee extensor, although the tensor fasciae latae also contributes to knee extension [
Electromyography has been carried out to investigate recruitment of eight muscles (gastrocnemius, biceps femoris, rectus femoris, upper trapezius, anterior deltoid, biceps brachii, flexor carpi radialis and triceps brachii) during rear hand straight punches delivered to a dynamometer by six male competitive amateur boxers (mean ± SD age: 24.6 ± 3.3 years; height 1.82 ± 0.05 m; mass: 73.3 ± 19.0 kg) who wore 0.284 kg Top Ten competition gloves over their normal hand bandages and adopted a stance with a lead left hand and a rear right hand [
When the intention has been maximum force, rear straight punching force to the head took the value of 4202 ± 1037 N and rectus femoris muscle activity took the value of 1248 ± 306 µV, while lower values have been obtained when the intention has been maximum speed: 2614 ± 591 N and 910 ± 256 µV, respectively [
Early rectus femoris muscle recruitment, earlier for maximum force than for maximum speed, as well as concomitant increase of both rear straight head
punching force values and rectus femoris activity when the intention has been maximum force, compared to maximum speed, make coaches right when they advise boxers to extend the leg of the same body side while, using the rear hand, they land a straight blow to the opponent’s head.
8) Bandages
Bandaging hands while boxing has been expected to constitute a prophylactic means to the benefit of the attacking boxer [
Bouttier and Lustyk consider the bandage as a convenient setting for the wrist and an efficient protection of the metacarpophalangeal joints [
Schmidt-Olsen, Jensen and Mortensen speak of a survey of all amateur boxing matches in Denmark made during a 3-year period that led to the conclusion that unlimited length of bandages, voluntary use of boxing helmets, and heavier gloves for boxers greater than 149 pounds did not affect the frequency of matches being stopped because of knock outs or blows to the head [
Unlimited length of bandages is only one of the three mentioned prophylactic intervention means. Maybe, working only on hand bandaging could show better the presence or the absence of the bandaging effect on stopping of the matches. Another thing that must be emphasized is that the effect of a blow depends not only on the blow itself but also on the sensitivity of the boxer attacked.
Kim and Bishu [
While leather gloves remind of boxing gloves, cotton gloves remind of boxers hand bandages.
In boxers, the 6-ounce (171 g) glove is donned by light flight to light weight boxers; the 8-ounce (227 g) glove is donned by the welterweight to light heavyweight boxers; and the 10-ounce (283 g) glove is donned by the heavyweight boxers [
Besides, foam rubber boxing gloves have been found to absorb blows in the order of 80%, while horsehair gloves absorb approximately 37% [
A research aimed to compare the impact forces which could be attained barehanded versus those obtained with different types of bandages made up of gauze and diachylon utilized 22 boxers, measured the impact force with a Kistler force plate covered with a synthetic mattress, and made the workers draw the following conclusions: 1) bandaging increases the rigidity of the hands and facilitates the transfer of the punch impact force in comparison to a similar punch without a bandage or with a thinner one, 2) the force increases in relation to the thickness of the bandage, and 3) the use of additional pieces of diachylon has a greater influence than gauzes [
In light of what afore mentioned, it may be concluded that force expressed by boxers blows and expression of variables depending on that force (power …) may be influenced by the presence, the nature as well as the thickness of the bandages and the gloves donned by the boxers.
9) Dietary Behavior
A study aimed to examine the effects of serial reduction in energy and fluid intakes utilized eight amateur boxers [age: 23.6 ± 3.2 years; height: 175 ± 5 cm; and body mass 73.3 ± 8.3 kg (means ± SD)]. Subjects acted as their own controls. A 9-day period of normal dietary behavior separated a 5-day normal diet trial and a 5-day restricted diet trial. During each 5-day trial, body mass has been recorded on the days 1, 3 and 5; simulated boxing bouts took place on the days 3 and 5. Each boxing bout consisted of 3-minutes rounds with 1-minute recovery. Energy and fluid intakes were significantly (p < 0.05) lower during the restricted diet trial than the normal diet trial.
Compared to the normal diet trial bouts, during the restricted diet trial bouts, boxers body mass was 3% lower (p < 0.05) but there were no statistical significance in the punching force differences that were 3.2% (first bout) and 4.6% (second bout) lower.
It should be borne in mind that boxing performance does not rely only on punching force. Boxers and other boxing contributors must take into account the fact that strategies used to make weight by boxers have been found [
10) Massage
An interdisciplinary study [
Boxers initially completed a boxing performance, next received either a massage or a passive rest intervention before completing a second performance.
Massage was found unable to prevent a decrement in repeated performance and not to have detrimental effects on performance.
However, massage intervention significantly (p < 0.01) increased perceptions of recovery, compared with the passive rest intervention.
11) Additional Force Values
The peak force on impact of a straight punch delivered by Frank Bruno, a World ranked British professional heavyweight boxer, to an instrumented padded target mass suspended as a ballistic pendulum was 4096 N (0.4 ton), attained within 14 ms of contact and represented a blow to the human head up to 6320 N (0.63 ton) [
As mentioned by the study authors, the results generalization cannot be applied to the boxing population, the scope of the work being limited to only one subject.
Velocity, also known as speed [
The following are velocity values shown after studies dealing with the subject.
In four experienced boxers, average velocities at contact ranged from 5.9 to 8.2 m·s−1 with peak velocities of 6.6 to 12.5 m·s−1 reached 8 to 21 ms prior to hand/glove contact with the bag; the comparison of gloved vs. barehanded punches kinematics showed only few differences while comparison of hooks and jabs yielded significant differences in shoulder and wrist velocities, elbow angle excursions, and elbow angular velocities [
The hook produced the highest change in hand velocity (11.0 ± 3.4 m·s−1) when 11 Olympic boxers weighing 51 to 130 kg (112 - 285 lb) landed hooks, uppercuts and straight punches to the forehead and jaw of the Hybrid III dummy [
Average hand velocity of 9.14 (SD 2.06) m·s−1 was attained when seven Olympic boxers from five weight classes delivered 18 straight punches to the frangible face of the Hybrid III dummy [
Power is defined as the rate that work is being done [
A study aimed to evaluate the influence of vibration on the mechanical properties of arm flexors utilized 12 international level boxers from the Italian national team still engaged in regular boxing training [
The results showed statistically significant average power enhancement in vibration-treated arms.
Various values of a heavyweight professional boxer (only one subject, Frank Bruno) punch were determined from the moment the blow was committed—that is, from the moment the elbow first began to extend—until the completion of the follow through [
As mentioned by the study authors, the results generalization cannot be applied to the boxing population, the scope of the work being limited to only one subject.
Before deciding the weight division in which they would like to belong during the coming competition, boxers would better remember that body weight reached 7.0% ± 0.8% at the end of a 21 day pre-contest period but only one day recovery yielded an increase of 4.4% ± 3.3%.
To make their weight limits before competition, boxers would better lose weight by decreasing superfluous body fat instead of cutting down on fluids. Nevertheless, female boxers must take into account the fact that low body fat mass is related to oligomenorrhea.
Boxers and other boxing contributors must take into account the fact that strategies used to make weight by boxers have been found associated with a negative mood profile and a poor performance.
Training techniques aimed to increase punch effective mass, and thus punch force, must be developed.
In the aim of foreseeing and thus preventing a possible fall in a boxer ranking, girth measurement should be made at the beginning of a sporting season with the purpose of comparing to subsequent measurements.
Vibration treatment as well as boxing tasks may increase boxer skeletal muscles power but boxing tasks have the advantage of improving at the same time boxing skills.
To adapt the somatotype of a practitioner to the ideal somatotype of boxing, 1) endomorphy could: a) be decreased by increasing aerobic exercise volume and/or reducing food intake, but b) increased via calorie intake increase, while 2˚ mesomorphy may be increased via strength training.
A retrospective analysis of handgrip strength measurement values is one of the tools that may be used by a coach to assess the suitability of a boxer to meet competition demands.
Boxers would better use thick hand bandages to which they must add diachylon pieces before donning appropriate boxing gloves.
Boxers may adopt the above mentioned stance for sound energy management, balance, efficient performance and safety.
The boxer who lacks endurance would better try to knock out his opponent early in the battle. With that purpose, hitting the head is more helpful to the boxer than hitting the opponent’s body.
Boxers should extend the leg of the same body side while, using the rear hand, they land a straight blow to the opponent’s head.
After the use of a straight punch as preparation for knocking out the opponent, straight or uppercut punches may be used but it is preferable to use a hook.
When the intention is other than hitting hard, the boxer should use preferably straight punches and reserve uppercuts and especially hooks either for discouraging the opponent from attacking or in the intent to knock out the opponent.
When the intention of the boxer is either discouraging the opponent from attacking or intending to knock out the opponent, the boxer should use the rear fist and use the lead hand when the intention is other.
In the case that maximum punch force value is very low in a boxer, compared to the mean value, the boxer may improve his value by using intention influence on punching force.
Before performing further performance, intervention other than massage must be used instead of massage if the aim is prevention of repeated performance decrement.
Systemic Responses and Adaptations are going to be dealt with next.
Recovery, Weight Control, Dietary Supplementation, Childhood, Gender, Altitude, Life Expectancy and Faith are going to be dealt with next.
The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.
Tshibangu, A.M.N. (2020) Boxing Practitioners Physiology Review 1. Kinanthropometric Parameters, Skeletal Muscle Recruitment and Ergometry. Open Journal of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, 10, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojmip.2020.101001