Boxer Strength Training Workout – Introduction
What’s the best strength training for boxers workout, even if you never plan to step in the ring?
Very few sports require the same level of all-around fitness as boxing.
Boxers need speed, power, strength, endurance, agility, fast reactions, and cardiovascular fitness.
Plus, they must demonstrate all these characteristics while trying to hit their opponent and not getting hit themselves!
Because of this, boxers dedicate a lot of time to training.
After all, they need to develop all of these fitness components while continuing to work on their boxing skills.
For example, many boxers train twice a day and seven days a week.
That said, a lot of exercisers like to train like boxers.
They want to develop a fighter’s physique, i.e., lean and muscular but not bulky like a bodybuilder.
And if you want to look like a boxer, then that’s how you need to train, even if you have no intention of stepping into the ring.
In this article, we reveal some of the best strength training exercises for boxers and give you a full-body boxing-inspired strength training workout to try.
The Benefits of Strength Training for Boxers
Strength training is a controversial topic in boxing.
While some boxers lift weights to develop physical strength, others focus almost exclusively on calisthenics to build their muscles.
The likely reason for this division is that many old-school boxing trainers believe lifting weights makes boxers slow.
They use terms like “muscle bound” to illustrate their point.
The good news is that such worries are unfounded, and lifting weights won’t automatically make you slow.
That’s especially true if you avoid bodybuilding-style workouts that focus more on aesthetics than performance.
So, you can lift weights, or you can do calisthenics, or you can do both.
However you do it, strength training offers several benefits to boxers:
Increased strength and power
Strength is the maximum force your muscles can produce, and power is your ability to generate that force quickly.
A boxer strength training workout will improve both of these components, resulting in faster, harder, and more powerful punches.
Improved endurance
Endurance is the ability of your muscles to continue generating force despite being fatigued.
A round last three minutes, and boxing matches can be as long as 15 rounds, so boxers need massive amounts of muscular endurance to continue fighting for that long.
Core strength
Core is the collective term for the muscles of your midsection, including the rectus abdominis, obliques, and transverse abdominis.
These muscles are central to a boxer’s performance.
A strong core protects the fighter from body blows and is critical for punching power.
Injury prevention
Boxing and boxing training can take a lot out of your body, and injuries are not uncommon.
Strength training increases joint stability, ensures all muscles are developed equally, and helps prevent overuse injuries.
Many boxing strength training exercises are basically pre-hab.
Weight management
Boxers fight in weight categories.
To go up a weight class, a fighter can gain fat or muscle.
As you cannot flex fat, boxers usually want to gain muscle so they can fight against bigger opponents.
Strength training leads to muscle gain and allows fighters to move up in weight.
7 Best Strength Training Exercises for Boxing
- Trap bar deadlifts
- Barbell banded hip thrusts
- Dumbbell push-presses
- Pull-ups
- Alternating dumbbell bench presses
- Barbell hang cleans
- Barbell rollouts
Boxers need full-body strength and power, so bodybuilding isolation exercises are not especially useful.
The main focus of strength training for boxing should be compound or multijoint exercises.
The best compound strength training exercises for boxers include:
Boxer Strength Exercise Descriptions
#1. Trap bar deadlift
Target muscles: Quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus, core.
The trap bar deadlift is easier to learn and safer than the conventional barbell deadlift.
This makes it ideal for boxers looking to develop lower body strength while minimizing the risk of injury.
Trap bar deadlifts are also more quads-centric than regular deadlifts, making them a more time-efficient exercise.
How to do it:
- Stand between the trap bar handles with your feet roughly shoulder-width apart.
- Squat down and grip the handles with your palms facing inward.
- Drop your hips, lift your chest, and straighten your arms.
- Pull your shoulders down and back, and brace your core.
- Drive your feet into the floor and, without rounding your lower back or bending your arms, stand up straight.
- Lower the bar back to the floor, reset your core and grip, and repeat.
How to Trap Bar Deadlift
#2. Barbell banded hip thrust
Target muscles: Glutes, hamstrings.
The barbell banded hip thrust is a very safe, low-back-friendly posterior chain exercise.
A lot of a boxer’s power comes from the posterior chain.
How to do it:
- Sit on the floor with your back against an exercise bench.
- Put a booty band around your knees, and rest a barbell across your hips.
- Drive your feet into the floor and lift your hips up until they form a straight line with your knees and shoulders.
- Simultaneously push your knees outward against the resistance offered by the band.
- Lower your butt back to the floor and repeat.
Banded barbell hip thrust
#3. Dumbbell push-press
Target muscles: Quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus, core, deltoids, triceps.
Throwing a punch is a full-body movement.
It starts at your feet, ends at your knuckles, and involves virtually every muscle in between.
The dumbbell push-press works your body in much the same way.
How to do it:
- Hold a dumbbell in each hand and raise them to your shoulders.
- Turn your palms inward or forward as preferred.
- Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart.
- Brace your core.
- Bend your knees and descend into a quarter-depth squat.
- Rapidly extend your legs and stand up.
- Use this momentum to help you drive the weights powerfully overhead to arm’s length.
- Lower the dumbbells back to your shoulders and repeat.
How to Dumbbell push press
#4. Pull-ups
Target muscles: Latissimus dorsi, biceps.
Pull-ups test and develop relative strength, which is your strength compared to your body weight.
Boxers need a high level of relative strength.
Pull-ups are also an effective reminder for fighters not to get too heavy, as pull-ups are MUCH more challenging when you’re carrying a few too many pounds of unwanted fat.
How to do it:
- Hang from an overhead bar using a shoulder-width overhand grip.
- Brace your core and pull your shoulders down and back.
- Without kicking or swinging your legs, bend your arms and pull your chin up and over the bar.
- Drive your elbows down and back to maximize muscle engagement.
- Descend smoothly and repeat.
Conor McGregor pull-ups for MMA defense tips
#5. Alternating dumbbell bench press
Target muscles: Pectoralis major, deltoids, triceps.
This exercise closely mimics throwing a punch.
As such, it will strengthen all your boxing muscles.
However, the alternating arm action means you’ll have to hold one arm stationary, which will help improve joint stability and muscle control, making this exercise even better for building boxing strength.
How to do it:
- Lie on an exercise bench with a dumbbell in each hand.
- Extend your arms and hold the weights vertically over your shoulders.
- Press your feet into the floor, push your upper back into the bench, and brace your core.
- Keeping your right arm straight and stationary, bend your left elbow and lower the weight down to your shoulder.
- Press it back up.
- Next, keeping your left arm stationary, bend your right arm and lower the dumbbell down to your shoulder.
- Press it back up.
- Continue alternating arms for the duration of your set.
Alternating dumbbell bench press
#6. Barbell hang clean
Target muscles: Quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus, core, biceps, deltoids, trapezius.
The barbell hang clean develops full-body strength and power.
Like the push-press and punching, it starts with a powerful leg extension and then uses the upper body to complete the movement.
This is a very boxing-specific exercise.
How to do it:
- Hold a barbell with an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip.
- Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent.
- Brace your abs and pull your shoulders down and back.
- Hinging from the hips, lean forward and lower the bar midway down your thighs.
- Take care not to round your lower back.
- Rapidly stand up as if jumping and use this momentum to pull the bar up the front of your body to mid-chest height.
- Dip your knees, drive your elbows forward, and catch the bar across the front of your shoulders.
- Stand up straight to complete the lift.
- Roll the barbell down the front of your body and repeat.
Barbell hang clean demo
#7. Barbell rollout
Target muscles: Core
While there is a time and a place in a fighter’s training for high-rep abs exercises, at least some core work should involve heavier weights and lower reps.
The barbell rollout is one of the most effective ways to overload the core and make it stronger.
How to do it:
- Place your loaded barbell on the floor and kneel behind it.
- Hold the bar with an overhand shoulder-width grip.
- Brace your core.
- With your arms straight, roll the barbell away and lower your chest toward the floor.
- Do not hyperextend your lower back.
- Using your abs, pull the bar toward your legs and lift your body back up.
- That’s one rep – keep going!
How to Barbell ab rollout tutorial
Strength Training Workout for Boxers
Most boxers should do full-body workouts.
That way, they only need to lift weights 2-3 times per week, leaving plenty of time for the rest of their training.
Do the following workout twice a week, e.g., Monday and Thursday.
Fit Apprentice® Boxer Strength Training Workout
AMRAP = As Many Reps as Possible.
Just rep out to form failure, rest a moment, and repeat.
Try to increase your rep count as you get stronger.
Strength Training for Boxers – Wrapping Up
Strength training can have a significant impact on your boxing performance.
Lifting weights or doing calisthenics will increase general muscle strength, power, and endurance so you can punch harder and for longer.
It can also help injury-proof your body.
However, it’s also just one small part of the boxing conditioning puzzle.
You still need to find time for pad and bag work, jump rope, road work, sparring, and all the other things boxers do to get in shape.
Stick to full-body workouts and compound exercises to get strong for boxing in just two workouts per week.
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Rich is a NASM-CPT (Certified Personal Trainer),