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Move over Floyd Mayweather, there are some 65-plus year old grandmother's who are training in a new boxing program specifically for their age group. The boxing grannies are getting so many health benefits in return that they keep getting back in the ring, ready to go round for round and pound for pound.
Claude Maphosa, better known as "Coach," is the one who has been training the fierce senior citizens. Even he was astonished at all they've been able to do in the ring.
"Some of them have had operations, some had breast cancer…and if you see them now you can’t believe it,” Coach says. ”If I take these grandmas and compare them to other grandmas who don’t exercise, there is a big difference.”
Maria Mokhine, 77, had high blood pressure before she laced up the gloves and joined the boxing group. “After I started boxing it went down to normal,” she says. “Before, we were sick, we were tired. Now that we box, we are not tired any more. When you are boxing, you feel all right, you feel fit, gardening is easier, you are stronger.” Lydia Letswalo, 70, was recovering from broken bones after a taxi accident when she started boxing. “I was sick, but now I don’t take any tablets, I’m very healthy. After three months here I went to the clinic and they couldn’t believe it, they said, ’How did you improve so much?’ And I said, ‘I am exercising.’”
75-year-old Zodwa Twala enjoys the sport, “I like boxing. Whenever I train I feel younger, I don’t get pains, I feel good.” She says she is getting older and doesn’t have much strength for boxing, but she will never quit it.
At 66, Mabel Mokgosi is one of the youngest grannies in the group. She has diabetes and high blood pressure, both of which have improved since she started boxing.
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”When I come here, I have no stress,” she says. “It keeps me fit and I’m happy here.”
The stress that she speaks of has a lot to do with money issues. With a mortgage on a house and a fixed income, some months can be tight.
“I am a penisoner and so is my husband, we have no jobs any more. My three sons live with us and they also have no work, they eat our money. Sometimes, I can’t buy electricity, sometimes we are short on food. I am in debt because I have to borrow money. Then , when I get my pension, I have to pay it back. It gets tough. But boxing relieves the stress.
Mabel's results are typical because of the what boxing can do for anyone. Here are three ways boxing helps and what you can do:
By simply “doing cardio” it doesn’t have to mean hopping on a treadmill or doing jumping jacks to log your required minutes – how boring is that?
The whole point of cardio is to place a moderate amount of stress on your heart and lungs so that they’re challenged enough to make beneficial physiologic adaptations to support the higher level of physical activity. But how you choose to place stress on your heart and lungs is up to you. As long as you keep your heart rate up during your workout, there’s no reason you can’t punch and box your way to a healthy heart at your local boxing gym or at home.
How To Start Boxing
If you like to exercise without a gym membership, you can also set up your own boxing workout at home – but you need...
... to purchase some equipment to get started. It’s a good idea to buy a 75- to 100-pound bag (a long, cylindrical bag that can be hung from a stand or a sturdy ceiling beam), boxing gloves, a medicine ball, and a jump rope. These four items combined enable you to run through boxing sequences, cardio sequences, and strength training sequences to put together a full home workout.
You can actually pick up a set that includes a heavy bag stand, speed bag, heavy bag, jump rope, and gloves. All you’d need to purchase separately is a medicine ball, which you can pick up at a local sporting goods store.
Here's an example of a great home workout:
With the items suggested, you could run through the following workout in about 30 minutes, all without needing a partner to box with:
- 5-minute steady jump rope warmup
- 3 minutes heavy bag work, cycling between 30 seconds of all-out punching and 30 seconds of “recovery” punching at a
slower rate
- 3 minutes of speed bag work and cardio, cycling between 30 seconds of alternating punching with the speed bag and - - 30 seconds of jumping jacks
- 3 minutes of core work – one minute plank, one minute medicine ball oblique twists, and one minute leg lifts
- 3 minutes of strength work – one minute of medicine ball squats, one minute walking lunges, and one minute
staggered pushups on the medicine ball (rolling the ball between your hands for each pushup)
- 3 minutes power work – one minute broad jumps (jumping as far as you can, back and forth), and one minute per leg
of side-kicking the bag (kicking the bag with the bottom of your foot as you kick your leg out laterally and lean
your torso to the opposite direction)
- Repeat the heavy bag sequence
- Repeat the speed bag sequence
- 3-minute cool down with a slow and steady jump rope
“They need your support whenever you see them and encourage them," says Coach Maphosa. "Because at home, they are more than what you think they are. And the more you give them, it would give your more fulfillment within yourself.”
