How to Train Like a Professional Boxer in Melbourne
A professional boxer trains between 3 and 5 hours a day and between 4 and 6 days a week. They focus on high-intensity exercises to improve their cardiovascular fitness, strength and endurance to allow them to remain calm and in control during a boxing match. Professional boxing training can help you improve your overall fitness, develop your boxing skills and reduce your risk of injury. This blog from Brooklyn Boxing in Melbourne provides tips on how to create the best boxing training routine to reach your goals. Contact our team today to register for our boxing classes or download our free boxing program.
How to Create the Best Boxing Training Routine
Here are some tips on how to train like a professional boxer and what to think about before you start.
Assess Your Current Fitness Level
Performing an assessment of your current fitness level will help you set realistic goals for your fitness or boxing competency. This will allow you to create a routine of boxing exercises suited to your needs. If you’re an entry-level boxer with average fitness, you need to create a structured routine that slowly increases with time. Speak to a professional to avoid injury and keep you from pushing yourself too hard too early.
Identify Your Fitness Goals
You need to customise your boxing workouts around your fitness goals. To allow you to tailor a suitable training routine, first identify your goals. These could include developing your boxing skills, increasing your strength and endurance or improving your cardiovascular fitness.
Include a Variety of Exercises in Your Routine
Professional boxing training involves a wide variety of exercises to develop all aspects of fitness necessary for competing in the ring. Different exercises prevent boredom and ensure you are working all the necessary muscle groups. Workouts for cardiovascular fitness include swimming, running and sparring. To develop your strength and conditioning, you can try push-ups, burpees and squat jumps.
Listen to Your Body
One of the most important aspects of boxing training is to listen to the needs of your body. It’s easy to over-exercise in pursuit of your fitness goals, which can lead to mental and physical fatigue and injury. Consistent rest, sleep and proper nutrition are essential for maintaining energy levels, fitness, muscular growth and healing.
Sample Training Routine
If you’re a beginner looking for advice on how to train like a professional boxer, we’ve put together a sample training routine you can follow.
Warm-Up
Warming up is an important part of a boxing workout. It loosens the muscle and gets blood flowing to all areas of your body, which decreases the risk of strain and injury. A typical warm-up might include 15 minutes of light cardio exercises, such as:
- Jogging
- Jumping jacks
- Swinging arm circles
- Leg swings
- Individual stretching for legs, arms and back
Shadowboxing
After warming up your muscles and stretching, you can practise some light boxing exercises. These get your mind and body working together, helping to coordinate your punching and footwork technique. You can try between 3 and 5 rounds of different forms of shadowboxing, focusing on:
- Not throwing punches and focusing on defensive head movement
- Not throwing punches and focusing on your footwork
- Throwing punches to work on your combinations
- Combining head movement, footwork and punches, while focusing on controlling your breathing
Speedbag
Spending time on the speedbag is an excellent exercise that can help improve your boxing skills. It can develop your hand-eye coordination, increase the speed of your punches and teach you how to find a rhythm with your body and combinations. This is a difficult exercise to learn, so start slowly. There’s a variety of combinations you can try, including between 3 and 5 rounds of:
- Left hand only
- Right hand only
- Left and right hand combined
Heavy Bag
Spending time punching a heavy bag is an extremely effective way of developing your power and muscular endurance. You can use a heavy bag to practice your punching combinations and improve your technique. Punching a heavy bag can also stimulate an increase in the minerals in your bones, leading to greater bone density, which can help prevent osteoporosis.
Cooldown
It’s important to allow your body to cool down immediately after your workout. This typically involves stretching all areas of your body to help reduce the potential for muscle soreness. Areas you should stretch include:
- Single and double leg hamstring and calf stretch
- Sitting and standing groin stretch
- Back and peck stretch
- Quad and ankle stretch
Boxing Training Tips
There’s a variety of boxing training tips to help you get the most out of your routine.
Eat a Balance Diet
Nutrition is one of the most important parts of maintaining the energy levels required to sustain the high-intensity workout regime of a professional boxer. A consistent balance of carbohydrates and proteins provides you with energy and helps with muscle repair and growth.
Get Enough Sleep
A regular and restful sleep cycle plays an important part in muscle recovery. A good night’s sleep also promotes a healthy mind, which is essential for maintaining motivation and focus.
Focus on Technique
Technique is a fundamental part of being a good boxer. Training at a slower and less powerful pace can help you focus on perfecting the technique of your punches and movement, which can improve your skills and reduce the risk of injuries.
Be Consistent
The best way to see results in your boxing training is to exercise consistently. Training between 3 and 4 times a week ensures you maintain the strength, conditioning and cardiovascular endurance needed to perform in the ring.
If you’re serious about training like a professional boxer, you must maintain a consistent approach to your exercise, nutrition and rest, customising a routine that suits your abilities and goals. Call the friendly team at Brooklyn Boxing in Melbourne on 0434 113 113 or contact us online to discuss your needs.