If you’ve ever watched boxing or even tried it, you know that it takes supreme lung capacity to be able to last multiple rounds. That’s why for all athletes aspiring to become professional boxers, fitness is key. It’s what can win fights and what can contribute to a person’s natural ability and boxing skills. More often than not, the better-conditioned athlete is the one that comes out as a winner.
Boxing is one of the most demanding sports in the world physically. It requires strength, explosiveness, quickness, power, and endurance. That’s why the typical training regime for professional boxers is incredibly difficult and time-consuming. For you to become a great boxer, you have to not only do boxing-specific training, but you also have to train for strength and endurance.
Today, the focus of our article will be on that last word, “endurance,” as we will be showing you the best cardio workouts for boxers.
The 5 Best Cardio Exercises for Boxers
Of course, working on the bag and doing intervals is a terrific way to increase your endurance, all while performing boxing-specific movements. But that’s not the only kind of cardio you need to be doing as a boxer. Below you will find all of our suggestions for the best cardio workouts, and hopefully, you will feel inspired to test them out.
Skipping
You can’t think of boxing without thinking of skipping as well. We’ve all watched those movies – “Creed,” “Rocky,” you name it. In all of them, the main character is constantly skipping rope, performing all kinds of variations of the movement with varying speeds. And this part of the films is completely true to life. Skipping is one of the best forms of cardio for boxers and has been used in the preparation of professionals for decades. You can do it as an interval workout and also use it as a warm-up and cool-down.
Assault or Air Bike
You’ve likely seen people dying on a machine that looks like a crazy bike with handles. For a few years now, the air bike has become a staple not only in CrossFit but also in commercial gyms, as they’re one of the best ways to challenge your cardiovascular system and improve it over time. The great thing about the air bike is that it improves your stamina and endurance, all the while helping you maintain muscle mass. It’s been used in the training regime of many great champions, such as Tyson Fury, and it’s now considered to be one of the best cardio workouts overall. As a beginner, you can start by doing short intervals of 20 seconds of work with 20 seconds of rest; then, as you get better and better, you can start to increase the interval times.
Sprinting
All forms of running are essential for boxers as they’re one of the best ways to build an engine in the build-up to a fight. And while long, steady running sessions are a fantastic method for active recovery, weekly sprinting sessions can add another gear to your cardio preparation. Regardless of whether you do them on a treadmill, in the gym, or up the hills, sprints will help you increase the ability to dig deep in the ring, as they prepare you to endure while your body is working at full capacity.
The Prowler
This exercise is similar to the air bike and sprinting as it also requires you to push yourself to the limit, giving maximum output in the movement. It’s often part of a strength and conditioning training program, but it can be used for cardio as well, as long as it’s done with more pace. You can start by doing intervals with the prowler – 30 seconds on/30 seconds rest and then repeat for several rounds. As you get better and better, you can increase the weight you’re pushing or lower your rest time for more of a challenge.
Tire Slams
This is an old-school exercise that was typically used for building power for boxing. It requires you to take a heavy hammer and slam it on a tire, generating as much power as you possibly can. It’s a move that can help you build your overall fitness while also focusing on helping you generate more rotational power, which is key for boxing. The combination of power and speed required for this exercise will also boost your overall endurance and enable you to land more punches in a fight.
In Conclusion
There are many workouts you can do to increase your endurance and become a better boxer. In this article, we’ve shared the ones that research has shown are the most effective. Hopefully, we’ve inspired you to add them to your weekly workout sessions. And if you want to learn more about training and nutrition, head on over to read the rest of our blogs.