What sport is more effective when it comes on building muscles and reflexes? Boxing or Karate?

Question

What sport is more effective when it comes on building muscles and reflexes? Boxing or Karate?

Answer 1

Regular Karate training will build good lower body strength which translates into powerful punching and kicking power.

Regular boxing training will develop good stamina, and reflexes, power etc.

It depends on the karate or boxing place. Some karate places have tough conditioning that build muscle and reflexes. I'm not too sure if boxing will make you much stronger (unless you're weak when you start then you'll definitely get stronger with regular training), I know that boxers are powerful but that is not the same as strength. Boxers aim to get fast and hit hard, not to be big and strong.

Overall you can't really generalize on the art, it just depends on the place and the teacher/instructor that is teaching the boxing or karate classes.

Hope that helps

Answer 2

Muscles=boxing

Reflexes=karate

Answer 3

Boxing, hands down. "Who's bigger and faster: Chuck Norris or Mike Tyson". Karate's good for lower body, but boxing's better over all..

Answer 4

Both are heavily based in atemiwaza which makes them both equal in hand-eye cordination and reflexes.  The big plus for Karate is that it teaches striking with all of your limbs as to where boxing is limited to the use of the arms only while striking.  As far as core muscles and building up core muscle strength that all lies on the shoulders of any practitioner in any type of art form to get accomplished for them selves.  

In this case there is no one's better than the other answer.  Boxing has it's good points as well as Karate and they both make perfect sense for any one looking to learn with either or both of these two types of fighting styles.

Like I've said in the past every art out there is worth its weight in gold....they all have their good points physically, mentally and spiritually.

Answer 5

Neither; both are all endurance and muscle tone, although, Karate will develop muscle tone from head to foot done on its own, Boxing, all on its own (whout road work and all that stuff), only tones the upper body.  Both though are primarily toning, no real building.  If you want to build up muscle, these are your choices, from best, to worst;

1)  The Charles Atlas Dynamic Tension method.

2)  The Total Gym, promoted and used by Chuck Norris who has a reputation for honesty.

3)  Bowflex select tech dumbells, or dumbells plus free weights.  Stay the h**l away from machines.  No joke, stay away from them; they develop a lot of bad habits, and require little to no concentration to use them, whereas with free weights, if you don't focus, you can end up decapitated on the bench press rack, or without a foot while doing curls.  For safety, free weights force you to concentrate and use more muscles working together.

4)  A standard bowflex with power rods, which actually train more muscle fibers than other methods described here, plus the tendons, problem is the durability of the power rods is EXTREMELY questionable.

5) Calisthenics; good overral, and a great foundational set of exercises problem is, to build up muscle in later stages you end up doing 200 reps in a row or more, and for body weight exercises later on, you will need to train in parks, or any places that have bars you can hang from, in addition to doing exercises bordering on acrobatics.  Now, don't get me wrong; there is no more surefire a test of overral fitness, than the ability to do a perfect hand stand.  The illusions of the hand stand, is that only the arms are working but this isn't true.

For a hand stand to be done, and held properly, every single one of your body's muscles have to work in harmony with each other, meaning, they all need to be strong.  Head to foot, inside and out, your muscles need to be strong.  If any muscle groups in your body are weak, or neglected, the hand stand will not work.  Indeed, what separates champion, or rather professional bodybuilders, from amateurs who look big and strong, but are lacking somewhere, is the ability to do a hand stand.

You need strength in the upper body to hold it, in the mid section to prevent your legs from swinging this way or that, and in your legs, to hold them perfectly straight, or whatever angle you are holding them at.  I your legs are too weak, you will not be able to hold the body's balance.  In other words, when you do a hand stand your whole entire skeletal muscle structure is being put to work.  If you can grab dipping bars, and slowly raise yourself up into a "hand stand" on the dipping bars, it means you posses an incredible amount of physical strength for your size.

Charles Atlas could do it, Arnold Swarzennegger in his bodybuilding days could do it, and so could his friend Franco Columbo.  Despite his massive size, for bars that can hold him, Lou Ferigno can do it, believe it or not, so could Steve Reeves and virtually all men who won a bodybuilding championship.  All of them could do it.

If you want to build muscular strength, its up to you what method you chose but remember this much; if you can not slowly raise yourself up to a handstand, and hold it for 15 minutes, then you are not strong.  The hand stand is something you will need to practice, and it is truly the only test of strength that is universal.  Regardless of size or build, doing a proper hand stand requires all the body's muscles to work in total harmony with one another, not to mention, they all need to be strong.

Oh yeah, regarding reflexes, I would say Karate; Kata + pre-arranged Kumite forces you to focus, and the focus developed there increases reflex speed better than boxing.  Although, to glean real benefits you will need to train for 4 to 5 days a week.

hope that helps.

Answer 6

boxing

Answer 7

I'd say karate

Answer 8

Easy.

Boxing training is more effective for a boxing match.

Karate training is more effective for a karate match.

As far as intensity of training for crossover purposes, boxing is superior as it involves the most brutal training.

As far as zone coverage, Karate is superior as it uses the feet and some grappling.

As far as who would win in a bout where each discipline could apply its own techniques, (and given equal talent) boxing would win due to the superior striking technique, conditioning, and regular sparring.