Running is an aerobic workout but it is also a strength workout in some ways. For one thing, your legs are actively pushing you forward, so your leg muscles are working throughout the motion. You arms and shoulders help to propel you forward, and if you place a hand against your abs, you will feel how tight they are when you run (the faster you go the tighter they become). One way in which running burns fat is by getting your muscles to make a concentrated effort during the entire workout.

The main way in which running burns fat is that it forces your body to use a lot of energy. Running can be quite intensive and requires a lot of energy to perform. Naturally, the amount of energy required and used depends a lot on the speed you’re running at and the angle on which you run. Two of the easiest ways to make any running workout burn more fat is to increase your speed and to run at an incline. Naturally, you can’t just do a hundred yard sprint and wait for the fat to melt away. You do need to make the workout longer than that.

One of the best ways to increase the fat burning from any running workout is to do intervals. This is a workout style that has been proven as very effective in fat burning and one which more and more people are doing these days. Doing intervals requires you to change your running speed every once in a while changing every minute or few between high speed and intensity and low and medium intensities. The idea is that you’re pushing yourself hard on one interval and then lowering the intensity and allowing your body to catch its breath so to speak in preparation of another high intensity interval.

Road running for boxers isn’t just a case of heading out every morning and jogging a few miles before breakfast anymore. Many people still think that is the case though…All boxers wakening up early in the morning and wearily jogging 3 or 4 miles before breakfast. While that kind of routine is still a lot better than bouncing your alarm clock off the wall, turning over and going back to sleep again, it isn’t really making the best use of your training time. Boxing is largely a fast paced anaerobic event, so why would you choose to limit your road running to aerobic jogging?…It would be FAR more effective to switch from aerobic jogging to anaerobic running a few days per week.

First of all though, you can’t over emphasize enough the importance of a proper “warm-up” before any kind of running, and a “cool down” afterward. The obvious benefits being the prevention of injury and an improved performance as you warm up the body and raise the heart rate in preparation for hard work. More blood flow to the body tissues also improves oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide removal too. Plus psychologically, it helps to focus your attention.

So the best kind of road running would ideally be directly related to the sport you’re involved with. In the case of a boxer, that consists of a 2 or 3 minute round followed by a one minute rest between rounds. Therefore your road work should be the same…Bursts of running hard for those 2 or 3 minutes, followed by a 1 minute rest period. Aim for three or four rounds to begin with, working up to maybe eight or so. Don’t go too far beyond that though for fear of over-training.

Try to bring variety into these sessions too. Mix things up a bit with sprints, hill running, and by varying the distance of your runs by incorporating 200, 400, & 800 metre bursts. This type of training is very intense and your body will need time to recover, so aim to do this kind of road work two or three times a week, with the more traditional 2 to 4 mile run on the other days. These longer runs are still important as they enable your body to endure the harder work. Ideally you want to do the “sport specific” road work on non-sparring days too, as it’s no fun trying to spar with worn out legs.