Boxing Workouts for Beginners

"It ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done." - Rocky (Rocky Balboa, 2006)

This is one of the many quotes that were made immortal in the Rocky series starring Sylvester Stallone. And how true it is! Most people believe that the key to boxing is punching the opponent harder. But that is just one of the factors that a boxer needs to look at. Another important factor that makes you a great boxer is how hard you can get hit, how much fight there is within you. Boxing is not just about the amount of strength that you pack into each punch, but how much punch you can stomach.

Boxing Exercises for Beginners

Let us get one thing straight. A boxer has three best friends - power, stamina and alertness. So boxing workouts should try to improve the skills of a boxer on all these three fronts.

Improve Stamina
Before starting with anything else, the first thing a boxer needs to have is a good enough stamina. The number of rounds that a boxer has to fight depends on the weight category that he falls under. Hence to last that many rounds, a boxer needs to have a good stamina. Running is an important aspect of your new workout. Ideally you should be able to run continuously for about 45-60 minutes with no stops. And yes, that is just the beginning! Another good exercise recommended by most boxing coaches is the jump rope. Yes, the jump rope is one of the most crucial boxing lessons for beginners and you should be able to do it for 15 minutes at almost 85% speed intensity. This will get you to improve your stamina.

Improve Strength
There is no debating the fact that strength plays a crucial role in the performance of a boxer. More than a bodybuilding workout, a boxer needs a powerlifting workout to improve his endurance. Amongst others, a boxer needs to have well-developed chest and back muscles as most of the power in a boxer's punch is generated there. So make sure that you do three rounds of all the strength training exercises that condition all your muscle groups with a special focus on the chest and the back. It is important that in every routine, you push your limits further. Push-ups, chin-ups and pull-ups are a good warm-up. Three sets of bench press and cable and dumbbell rows is a good workout. These muscle building plyometric exercises will go a long way in increasing your strength.

To build strength, start learning the basic types of punches and defenses. For this, you will need a punching bag and boxing gloves for beginners. Use your punching bag as your opponent and punch it as hard as you can, 100 shots of each type of punch: the jab, the upper cut, the hook, the cross and the bolo punch. Next, start by making a sequence of hits. I won't suggest any combination as it would be better if you improvise and create your own sequence of punches.

Improve Alertness
Another crucial requirement for boxers is that they need to be very alert. Boxing is a very fast paced game and your opponent will always know how to get a fast one past your defense. Hence you need to be alert and be able to anticipate his next move. For that shadow boxing is known to be one of the best boxing exercises for beginners to get you started. Simply speaking, shadow boxing is a technique where a person stands facing the wall, against a source of light and starts throwing punches at his shadow and at the same time looks to improve his defense. A shadow is a good opponent as it is just as good as you are! Hence start shadow boxing to practice your moves, your defense and your offense.

It is advisable that you get the beginner level training rather than trying these workouts by yourself as in the early stages your technique and work-rate will need to be monitored and improved by a good instructor.