ADHD & Fitness: Boxing? Short duration, high energy workouts? Need Advice for getting started!

rorybees

Hey everyone!

I am 311 lbs and a 5'0 woman. I recently started my wellness journey with my diet the past two weeks and it has been going AMAZINGLY. I want to now incorporate a fitness routine into my day now that I have a routine in place for my diet! I have ADHD and any long activity that doesn't change up what you're doing is really boring and won't keep my interest. My limit is a few minutes per activity.

I've ALWAYS been interested in boxing. And I don't mean to fight with another person, sparring or competitively. I literally mean the body movements of punching, dodging and foot movements. If there is a better word to describe this, then please let me know! But for my lack of a better word, I'll be referring to it as boxing.

I tried to do workouts in the past that incorporated punches just in the air or with weights but I didn't like the lack of resistance. It didn't feel natural. And I recently saw some videos of a person using the gloves and pads with a partner to practice and I really liked this idea.

My only problem is, the entire community around boxing gatekeeps and seems very "gymbro" as well. I usually go to reddit to read peoples' shared experiences and the entire amateur boxing page is filled with these people literally telling people it is better to do nothing than trying to learn on your own.

I am looking for at-home advice only. Do not tell me to go to a class, get a trainer, or go to the gym. We're still very much in a pandemic and all of the experiences I've read sound like a high school popularity contest in gym boxing classes or with a trainer.


I'm looking to learn some basic punches I can do with my husband and want to safely do so, which I know requires specific form and technique. Has anyone gone through teaching themselves the basics or gone through the basics to know if there are any resources I can watch to learn these things? With as big as I am, I just need to move my body. And this is something fun that I can do in my home.

I'm also open to any suggestions for high energy but shorter duration workouts I can do! With my size, my body doesn't bend/get up down very easily/can't do sit ups. And I want to do things that aren't doing the same thing for a long period of time.

SnifterPug

I'm a 52 year old woman and I LOVE boxing, and I was a lot bigger than I am now when I started back in 2017.

Check out the Fight Tips channel on You Tube.

Working with another person with pads is really good fun. When you feel safe to do so I strongly recommend you try to find a personal trainer who will do some pad work with you. You could just get some gloves and pads and do it with your husband, of course, but it is way better if you have some idea of what you are doing because you have had some training with someone who knows the ropes. You also need to be punching at the correct angle if you're actually going to hit a bag or pads to reduce injury risk.

In the meantime, shadow boxing (you can hold light - say 2lb - dumbbells if you want but it's not necessary) is really good exercise. Be careful not to over-extend your arm as you punch out or you could hurt your elbow.

I've just bought an app called Punch Lab. I bought it because you can strap the phone around the heavy bag and it will give you a guided work out. I don't have a bag at home but our gym has one. I think (though I have not had time to explore the app yet) that there's plenty you can do without a bag, but as that was not my purpose for buying I did not check it out in any detail before purchase. That might be something you could look at.

Katie43210

What about a HIIT workout on YouTube there are lots of short videos to follow some just 3mins long with 30-40secs per exercise so will keep your attention I find these great as don't have much time to workout hope this helps 😁 my daughter has ADHD and ASD and I know how hard it is to keep her on one activity for long! Xx

pahapillon

Title Boxing has a really great app for boxing workouts, with some intros for beginners. It's called Title Boxing Club On Demand.