Boxing workout is the perfect exercise for building strength and getting rid of stress. But while it may look intuitive, proper technique is important for getting the most out of your workout while protecting your joints.
Boxing workout are often long—at least an hour—to fit in a warmup, conditioning, and drills. And when preparing for a match, sessions are five or six days a week. “Rest is very important, but you need to be able to perform under pressure,” Strout says. “The training gets your mind prepared for it, too.”
Even when you don’t have gloves or an opponent, the principles of the “Sweet Science” can be applied to make you a more formidable athlete. And if you’re frustrated and you want to unleash some pent up aggression during your workout, there’s nothing better than grabbing some boxing gloves and whaling on a heavy bag.
Drilling for the sport can help to improve your cardio stamina, endurance, balance, and coordination. You’ll be working your upper body, lower body, and core, and the intense, fat-burning workouts can help to drop weight, too — plus you’ll be able to handle yourself better if someone starts swinging at you.
Whether you’re looking to get in shape or feel empowered, boxing is an incredible workout that boosts endurance and builds full-body strength. From improving balance and coordination to even helping manage stress, this effective workout can be done at home or in the gym, and works wonders for the mind-body connection.
But if you’re wondering which of them you should do and you’re looking for a complete boxing workout, you are in the right place. In this article, we are going to talk about the best boxing workout routine for beginners.
Lavinia explains that this boxing workout consists of five rounds, including the warm-up round. Each round includes three minutes of work, and then a one minute of active recovery, which means you continue moving your body to keep your heart rate elevated and prepare for the next round of work.
If you want to get rid of belly fat, boxing workout is a great workout to fulfil your exercise quota. However, losing belly or body fat sustainably is about more than just doing one specific type of workout. It’s also about how you’re fuelling yourself, what foods you’re eating, whether you’re in a calorie deficit and how your nervous system and hormones are doing, as well.
Plus (and we know we bang on about this), you cannot spot reduce body fat. That means you need to get your whole health-house in order to start losing body fat from your entire body, including your stomach. It’s impossible to zero in on one area and have the fat melt away. No way, no how. Instead, focus on getting the small things right regularly and watch your successes pile up.
The Best Boxing Workout for Beginners
Boxing is an effective cardio, strength, and HIIT workout all-in-one. However, unlike many other types of workouts, it is also a skill that you can improve over time. In addition to helping you achieve your fitness goals, including building muscle, improving cardiovascular fitness, and blasting calories, it can also improve your overall confidence and inspire empowerment. A boxing workout can be done in a fitness studio, boxing gym, or even the comfort of your home, making it incredibly convenient. However, as with any exercise regimen, you should be cleared by your doctor before participating.
Shadowbox with Knees
Shadow boxing workout is probably one of the easiest forms of training. You don’t need gloves or other gear, you don’t need a partner to hold pads, you don’t need a bag and you don’t even need to be at a gym. Shadow boxing is one of the few forms of training you could practise almost anywhere at any time. You don’t have to just focus on boxing either, it’s easy to throw in kicks, elbows and knees if you’re more of a kickboxer, or even practice stepping in for takedowns or add in a few sprawls if you’re training in MMA.
While it may initially feel a bit silly attacking air, shadow boxing actually has a whole load of benefits which can drastically improve the rest of your training.
How to: Starting in a standing position, throw four punches (Jab/Cross/Hook/Hook). Keep your shoulders down and elbows soft. Exhale as you throw the punches. After your punches, pull one knee up at a time. Engage your abdominal muscles as you drive each knee up.
Running
Running is great for a few reasons. The first surprisingly has nothing to do with the physical aspect of it. As most fighters will admit, fighting is as much mental as it is physical, if not more. Running helps build mental toughness. When you set a goal for the number of miles you want to run, you have to push yourself to get through it. Push yourself to do it daily whether it’s rain, sleet, or snow, whether you feel good, bad, or just lazy. Doing your miles every day will build the mental toughness and mental endurance that is necessary for the grueling nature of every battle.
Bruce Lee ran at the same time every day no matter the weather conditions. I suggest you do the same.
While the mind is important, your body has to be able to do what the mind wants it to do. Even if your mind is ready to do a long battle, you need to make sure your body is conditioned enough to comply. Doing your miles will help build endurance in your lungs, legs, and overall body. It teaches your body to bring oxygen to your muscles and keeps you in the game longer.
You will build more endurance in your legs and it will help keep you on your pivot in the later rounds instead of getting flat-footed.
The consistent pace of running also gets your lungs used to a nonstop workload, which will make you recover quicker between rounds.
Running preps you for a tough battle, both physically and mentally.
Read more Health Benefits Of Running That Will Make You Want To Run Right Now
Squat Kick
This Boxing workout exercise will be working your quads, your hamstrings, calves, glutes, and even your core.
How to: Starting in a standing position with feet just wider than your hips, come down into a squat position. As you stand up, kick one leg out in front of you at hip height. Repeat and alternate legs as you kick. Keep your weight in your heels as you squat. As you kick, exhale as you engage your abdominal and gluteal muscles.
Combat Burpees
Burpees are a calisthenics exercise. This means they use your body weight for resistance. With burpees, the focus is on a full-body calisthenics workout that aims to build muscle strength and endurance in both your lower and upper body.
A standard burpee exercise works to strengthen the muscles in your legs, hips, buttocks, abdomen, arms, chest, and shoulders.
How to: Starting in a standing position, punch four times (Jab/Cross/Jab/Cross). Come down into a sprawl on the floor (plank position with feet wider than hips and hands wider than shoulders and lower the body onto the floor). From the sprawl, push your body back up into the wide plank and jump back up to a standing position. Repeat exercise for the remainder of the interval.
Jump Rope
Over my years of training, I’ve seen many amateurs skipping this workout(no pun intended). Which is a bad idea.
Jump roping is one of the best exercises a fighter can do for footwork and agility. It’s one of the Boxing workout that many people who first start boxing, skip because they’re afraid of looking like third-grade school girls on the playground. The reality is, the first time you do it you will probably look worse. Those third graders would put you to shame. But you can’t get good at anything unless you’re willing to get through the embarrassing phase of sucking really bad.
The first few times out you will probably catch yourself having to double-hop to jump over the rope once like a cute little bunny. It will emasculate you and make you look like a sissy. But that’s okay because it is temporary. If you stick with it eventually you will end up looking just as badass as Tyson, Floyd, Ali, and Holyfield when on that rope.
This is another Boxing workout that will help you stay on your pivot throughout the fight and teach you how to be agile with your footwork. It forces you to stay on your toes, which is a must in boxing, in a much more literal sense than in life. Do it for at a minimum of twenty minutes a day, at least 5 days a week, to keep your calves/legs in good enough shape to keep your footwork sharp for the fight.
Another reason to jump rope is that it’s just plain old fun. Especially once you get good
Punch and Pull
Use light dumbbells and a stretch band with a handle to balance out your strikes and build punching power with this drill.
Run through six cycles of the exercises described above to simulate three rounds of heavy boxing workout work.
Under the Line
Use a slack line for this boxing workout, or just imagine one for the purposes of the drill. You’ll be shifting and squatting under the line, so a good stance is key.
Hold 2.5 lb. or 5 lb. weights and advance back and forth down the line for a minute straight, throwing crosses and left hooks. Then, rip through 30 air squats right away. Perform the whole series six times to mimic the action you might face during two 3-minute rounds in the ring.
Calisthenics
Calisthenics is the most popular form of strength training amongst fighters. This is because most weight lifting exercises focus on too much isolation of muscle groups while calisthenics is more a compound exercise. Pushups, for example, don’t just work your chest, but your back, shoulders, arms, and core. It builds connectivity and explosive power while also working your endurance. Bodyweight exercises are all in one exercise when done right. They help build strength without slowing you down, making you too tight, or building too much muscle. It allows you to develop power and explosiveness without losing speed and agility. Mike Tyson was famous for not lifting weights and sticking to calisthenics, saying that “weights have as much to do with boxing as cheesecake.” Great analogy Mike. Considering he was one of the biggest punchers of all time, I’d say calisthenics can go a long way in training your body.
One of the best bodyweight workouts you must do is neck bridges. Training your neck will help you take a mean punch.
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