Boxing may be even more therapeutic than we ever imagined

Permission to Punch

Empowerment, confidence, emotional release: Gaining an increased sense of control is by no means a new concept to boxing, especially among teenagers.  Give a depressed or at-risk teen a set of gloves and a boxing coach and witness the therapeutic benefits unfold. Away from the dreaded computer screens, his or her skills will quickly sharpen in: emotional regulation, self-discipline, trust and respect. What if this increase wasn’t just a response to the general benefits of exercise? Could it be that that the benefits run deeper, as deep as our neuronal responses?

Can we punch it out?

Years ago, pre-COVID times (so yes, it feels like a lifetime) when I was wearing my Private Trainer hat, and using boxing for cardio, my clients and I sparred inches apart in my private little therapy room, which also served as a gym.

"Jab/hook, I'm yelling out as we circle and she’s punching the targets on my padded hands. Each blow is consistently contained by my shock absorbing hands and taken off her chest. Sharing the workout burden, and experiencing the empowerment together, all while watching the balance, confidence, poise, and strength overflowing out of this women with each strike getting harder and more directed.

One day she says, "You know this back and forth with the jab/hook is a lot like the back and forth in EMDR therapy for trauma." 

Boom, it was like getting punched in the face. The idea had been there all along, it was just a matter of making that initial contact. (puns intended).

Committed boxing improves our balance, fitness, hand eye coordination, memory skills, and critical thinking skills. It also provides skills and practice for healthy crisis reactions, stress reduction, depression relieving, overcoming trauma and assault, the therapeutic list is endless. And the benefits are so individually based and all occurring on different levels for each boxing client. Some on purely the physical level and some on multiple mental, physical and emotional levels.

Back to our current case example who is jab/cross and hooking and standing stronger and more confident over time. One day she says, "Ya know this back and forth with the jab/hook is a lot like the back and forth in EMDR therapy for trauma." 

Boom, it was like getting smacked in the face, it was so clear. The idea was so wonderful and so spot on. For years now, I have watched the previous benefits develop person to person, but I am wondering now how the EMDR research may apply to the back and forth during a boxing session. Could that motion not only provide the amygdala and hippocampus communication necessary to relieve trauma from continually resurfacing in our current day to day lives, but also while the frontal cortex is at its max due to the benefit of exercise during heart rate increase and the improved brain thinking capacities?

After an intriguing research sweep, I am deeply convinced that research needs to be done to explore these theories. We may be able to simultaneously help people get healthier in the body and the mind, heal from past trauma, rewire our nervous to direct better hormone secretions for a calmer and happier life- all in one treatment that also provides proper self defense skills. There's already a ton of supporting evidence for the benefits of exercise in peoples lives. That every person needs to be active at least three times a week for their heart, which is also a muscle, (the muscle that pumps the blood around) to stay fit.

So what about the crossover of where boxing and physical conditioning, mixes with skilled mental and emotional therapy?

Really looking forward to continuing to offer boxing, therapeutic boxing, and eventually research further just how much more benefit people can get from these sessions.

Interested in opinions and connections with like minded people for further development.

A big thank you to Andrew Keefe who in his own London based psycho-therapy and fitness business, offers clients EMDR therapy, talk therapy, mindfulness and breathing groups and therapeutic personal training sessions. His experiences with the overlap in therapy and personal training for more comprehensive and balanced client services has been extremely helpful for my practice and research development.