Tailored Workout - Boxing

Right, I recently had a request from a friend to come up with a workout to test him and get him fitter and stronger. I decided that as he was a boxer, I should try my hand at tailoring a workout specifically to optimise his goals towards his sport. It took a bit more research than usual, but it was definitely a challenge to make sure that I had all bases covered from the sport's point of view. After hours of research, I finally found out what I needed to know - which was the specific muscles used whilst executing certain movements such as punching and parrying. There are four main body parts involved with the movement of punching for example - these are your legs, your core, your lats, and your pecs. So with information such as this, I decided to focus the workout on the areas that I had found. I decided to incorporate a bag drill (courtesy of @JonesxG ) and a footwork drill, which was modified by my guinea pig for this workout. Obviously before posting it on the blog I wanted to make sure that it had been tried and tested to save people from wasting their own time. Also, I'd recommend that a cardio routine be added to this workout. For serious fighters I'd recommend doing that cardio daily; If necessary, I'm also happy to provide a cardio workout to go with this weights routine. So without further ado, here it is -

Core Circuit -
Suicide Planks
Balance Sit
Side Plank Raises
Leg Raise into twist on bench
 Weighted cable crunch on swiss ball

Bench press - 2 sets, failure
Wide Grip Bench press - 2 sets, failure
Back Squats - 3 sets, failure
Barbell bent over row - 4 sets, failure
Clean and press - 4 sets, failure

 Bag routine - 3 minute round. 30 seconds - combinations, next 30 seconds - fast hands (low power needed), next 30 seconds - knockout/heavy blows (give it all you've got) - Repeat that again to make it 3 minutes long. (Note for this routine, keep your feet moving at all times, do not stay static!


Bent legged deadlifts - 3 sets, failure
Press ups (Feet on bosu ball, hands on medicine balls) - 4 sets, failure
Calf Raises (Weighted) - 4 sets, failure
Lat pulldown - 4 sets, failure
Lateral raises - 4 sets, failure

Footwork routine (Ladder Drills) - If your gym has an agility training ladder then that's ideal, if not then you'll just have to mark out an area in your head for this. For anyone that hasn't used an agility ladder before, the premise is really simple, its a line of boxes that you have on the floor, the aim is to complete the ladder placing one foot in each box as fast as you can. I recommend doing this with a dumbbell in each hand. Also try sidestepping through the ladder, completing it in almost a zig zag motion.

Repeat the first bag routine.

So as you can see, you've got a core circuit that targets your Transversus Abdominis and your internal obliques, but also your Rectus Abdominis aswell. This means that you've targeted your deepest and most powerful abdominal muscles to ensure that you really get the full range of power out of them. Again, there's huge emphasis on legs, pecs and lats in this workout, and with the compound movements you'll also be working your shoulders, especially with the clean and press. Your biceps and triceps are also worked hard through compound movements rather than isolation. I've included the bag and footwork routines to keep your body working the muscles that need to be worked; keeping them warm and active at all times. Plus with the footwork routine, you're trying to up your agility as well, which is very important for boxers. You can mix the ladder drills up, maybe stepping both feet in the same box one after the other to make it more difficult, even doing the routine backwards! Just keep changing it up to really work yourself hard! A small note about cardio, skipping is also a good way to improve your agility and warm your body up, however I would recommend other cardio on top of that too. Also, make sure you're stretching your muscles properly before and after! Can't be having any injuries occuring! If you're confused about any of the exercises in the workout, particularly the core ones, you can find them in earlier posts in this blog. The core ones are all contained in the 'Blasting your core' post.

Again I hope that this post has been useful to you all, especially all of you fighters. I'm also happy to tailor workouts for certain sports, just have to ask me people! Responses are always welcome to this blog, suggestions, general comments, questions, and any other feedback. Please get some of your feedback in, let me know if there's anything I can improve on. Constructive criticism is always welcome. So you can find me on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/Wrightyx or Twitter  - @_Bazinga_Punk_ . Failing that, you can always leave a comment underneath this post or any other and I'll get back to you as quick as possible! Stay tuned to the blog for tomorrow's training pictures with @JonesGx and possibly another post tonight if I get enough feedback, but until then,
Keep testing the limits!
Alex.