9 Top Boxing Exercises During COVID-19 Lockdown

Stuck in quarantine and missing boxing…?

Well, you found the right place.

As requested by several users, we bring you in this article some practical workout routines you can do while at home during the Coronavirus lockdown. Do note, some exercises do need some tools, but the majority of them can be done at home without any equipment.

If you haven’t checked it out already, we also have an article about home workout tips during lockdown. We highly recommend to check it out here!

Anyway, let’s get started.

#StaySafe #StayHome #knockcoronavirusout

#1: Heavy Bag

If you have a heavy bag to train on at your home—your home is practically as good as a boxing gym.

The heavy bag is arguably the most reliable and important tool to hone your boxing skills.

As we mentioned in this article previously, the most important tip to train boxing at home during lockdown is to be active! Hence why, it doesn’t really matter how you plan your heavy bag workout routine at home—the most important thing is to just do it and let your hangs go.

If you want to form a specific heavy bag routine nevertheless, here’s the one we recommend to do:

Heavy Bag Workout

A usual training on the heavy bag is composed of 10 rounds. Specifically, this routine is composed of 3 sets of 3 different rounds and an additional special round at the end. The sets are as follows:

At the end of each set, rest for 30 seconds. After the rest at the end of the third set, do the final, special round:

For this final round, you must fight as if you know that there is only few seconds before the end and as if you lose the fight if you stop.

If you can’t keep up with the workout, do less sets and gradually increase the number of sets until you’re able to complete all 10 rounds. However, if it’s too easy for you, then do more sets. Essentially, adjust the workout according to your level and cardio.

#2: Long Runs

This particular roadwork is a staple for any boxer.

They provide a lot of benefits to your boxing. Firstly, it works really well for your cardio and overall endurance. Secondly, it strengthens your legs and core. Hence, if you are stuck and your boxing gym is closed, running is a very good idea and requires no tools.

Long Run Workout

How much you should run depends on your current fitness level, but do at least 3 times per week. A routine of this is as follows:

Notice here that there is a break between the days. This allows you to let your legs rest but not fully recover—the workout becomes harder as the week progresses and the culmination is on Saturday, where you’re barely walking after the session.

Whether you want to follow this exact training routine or modify it to your needs is up to you. But again, what’s most important is to actually do it on a regular basis, as it’s very good for boxing and easy to do while in lockdown.

#3: Hill Runs

If you are fortunate enough to live near a steep hill, you should be very grateful. If you don’t live near a steep hill—find one, instead of upcoming up with excuses.

Hill runs are an absolute necessity for boxing cardio.

As much as a long run session is good, they do not imitate boxing cardio as much as a hill sprint. However, when you sprint under a steep 50-60 meter hill, you feel exactly like fighting in the ring. In your boxing training, the more you imitate the cardio used in the ring, the better your fighting cardio gets. At the end of the day, boxing is not a sport that you perform for 2 hours like a marathon, but for few short rounds like a sprint.

An important thing to note about this exercise is to perform sprints as fast as possible. As such, if you cannot make a 80-meter hill sprint, then don’t do it. Instead, start with a 30 – 40 meter hill sprint, but during the sprint, make sure to maintain the highest pace you can.

This is one of the best cardio workout for boxing—a must do!

Hill Run Workout

For starters, a good hill run routine would be:

with a rest in between sets. You can rest by walking back down to the starting point after completing a set and should not take you more than 30 to 60 seconds before starting a new set.

As you improve, you should increase the number of sets by up to 10 sets before increasing the distance of your hill runs.

#4: Shadow-boxing

A very underrated exercise and also a very important one.

Remember about this old boxing truth—if you feel uncomfortable, unstable, or awkward while throwing some punches while shadowboxing, you certainly won’t throw them during your sparring or bout. You learn the movement and muscle memory while performing this exercise, hence why it is another must-do while stuck on quarantine.

Shadow-boxing Workout

A typical shadow-boxing workout consists of 7 rounds of 2 minutes. In between rounds, rest for about 30 seconds before starting a new round. The rounds are as follows:

Round 1: warm up round without going full speed or power.
Round 2: concentrate on technique and footwork, while trying to throw punches as smoothly and elegantly as possible.
Round 3: fight on the outside by keeping the distance (use the jab often!).
Round 4: fight on the inside—get in and maul your opponent with hooks and uppercuts!
Round 5: speed. Bang, bang, bang. Let it go.
Round 6: power.
Round 7: a chill, cool down round, with the intensity just like round 1.

Remember you can do shadow-boxing anywhere, so no excuses to not put in those rounds.

#5: Push-ups

There’s some of you who try to be like Vasyl Lomachenko and solve puzzles or do other complicated mental exercises, but don’t do that—stick to basics.

It’s actually really annoying to see, how some people try to do those complicated exercises but cannot do simple push-ups. An old-school Polish boxing coach I once trained under taught me that if you cannot do 50 push-ups in one go, then don’t look to do other exercises.

Push-ups are much greater than you think. In fact, they are beneficial for building the entire upper body—pectoral muscles, back, shoulders, arms, triceps, and even abs. They stimulate the punching movement and are great exercises if you are stuck at home. Below are few types of push-ups that are the best for boxing:

Normal push-up: hands beneath your shoulder or slightly wider.
Diamond push-up: a push-up variant where the two index fingers and the thumbs are touching to form a triangle (diamond). Very good for triceps and arms.
Wide grip push-up: hands are placed way wider than your shoulders. Very good for chest muscles.
Clap push-up: normal push-up with a jump that is followed by a clap. Amazing exercise for explosiveness.
Superman push-up: next level of clap push-up. Those push-ups demand you to jump with not only your hands but also with the entire body. Difficult exercise that’s excellent for explosiveness.

Push-up Workout

The workout routine entirely depends on how much push-ups you can do and so it’s important to record the amount of push-ups you can do in one go.

First, a day before starting the routine, warm up by doing a few and then do push-ups in one go until muscle failure. Once you know the maximum number of push-ups, you can start the workout:

Include a rest of 30 – 60 seconds in between sets.

Once every week, you should dedicate a day where you do push-ups in one go to determine the new maximum number of push-ups. Then, you should use this new number in your next push-up workout. Rinse and repeat every week to see improvement.

If you’re new to doing push-ups, you should stick to normal push-ups. Once you can do more than 50 push-ups in one go, start doing variations of push-ups mentioned previously, in set 3.

#6: Leg-Back-Core Strategy

As the name suggests, this is a special workout concentrating on three muscle groups—legs, back, and core.

Many fighters use it and it is predominantly used in the Eastern European school of boxing. At the end of the day, when you look at the muscles that you use the most for boxing, there is no doubt that they are the legs, back, and core. The power of punches comes from those muscles and not the arms, contrary to popular belief.

So, if you want to be good boxer, concentrate on those rather than complicated training that makes you look good.

The Leg-Back-Core Workout

What to do is simple. You guys can call it the #900challenge where you perform twice or three times per week:

Make sure to add a rest between the sets!

If you just started boxing or you came back from a period of inactivity, then you might not be able to do that many. If that’s the case, decrease the overall number to, for example, 300. What’s important is to do the workout few times per week and constantly increase the number as you get better.

#7: Explosiveness

We won’t get into how important explosiveness is for boxing, as we believe that if you are already here—you should know it by heart.

Again, we don’t think there is a need for some weird exercises when old-school one’s will really do the job.

Explosiveness Workout

Do the below mentioned exercises once or twice a week. The format of the workout is that you do three sets with a break in between. Do at least 5 different exercises in each set and try to cover all the exercises by the end of the third set.

Exercises for explosiveness:

Star Jumps
Star Jumps with a jump
Burpees
Burpees with a push- up
‘Knees to your chest’ jumps
Superman + clap push-ups
Double/Triple under on skipping rope
Mountain climbers
Box jumps

The number of reps for each exercises is up to the boxer, but as a rule of thumb, you must do two to three times more reps for the “easier” exercises than the “harder” exercises. For example, if you do 10 burpees each rep, then you must do 30 star jumps reps (if you choose this exercise!).

For consistent progress, continue to increase the number of reps and/or sets as you become better and better. As long as you feel exhausted by the end of the workout, it should be good enough.

#8: Footwork

Similarly to shadowboxing, footwork exercises are also one of those that you can easily do at home.

As we mentioned in the previous article regarding home boxing workout during COVID-19 lockdown, if you do not have a boxing ladder, then you can use tape or some rudimentary tools to make it. With a boxing ladder, you can really do everything related to boxing footwork, without moving from your living room.

Another excellent tool to improve your footwork is the skipping rope. Very cheap, very easy to use, and necessary for every boxer. Most importantly, the entire boxing movement is based on skipping movement. After skipping for a while, you will see how easier it is to fight.

Footwork Workout

For this workout, you can perform it once per 2 or 3 days for about 30 minutes—half the session, you should do skipping ropes and the other half do boxing ladder drills.

Part 1: Jump Rope Session

During your jump rope session, there is really no specific routine, but rather you should set a timer and skip rope continuously for the entire session. If you don’t have enough endurance to last the session, then you can divide the skipping rope session into sets so you can include small breaks in between. Also, you should mix the session with different jumps and pace. For example, you can do double-unders and then switch to doing the boxer step.

Below are some different skipping rope steps you can do during your skipping rope session.

Basic jump
Boxer step
High knees
Criss-cross
Double-under
Triple-under (if you’re ambitious!)
Mayweather step
Squat jump

Vary the workout by doing different skips but most importantly, do not stop midway! If you stumble on the rope, carry on the session immediately!

Part 2: Boxing Ladder

For this part of the footwork workout routine, you will do at least 8 different footwork drill and for each drill, do 10 sets. Each set you will go through the ladder once. Also, in the first 2 sets, you will do a warm-up to go through the drill slowly to ensure that you get used to the drill’s movement. After the warm-up set, you will go full speed and walk back to the starting point as a rest in between sets.

As for the actual drills, there are infinitely many different drills you can do, so choose eight different ones and do them. For inspiration, you can copy from the master himself: Vasyl Lomachenko.

Observe the footwork drill and apply it as part of the workout.

#9: Puching Power

Punching power is not something we consider the most important aspect of boxing, as we know that many of the greatest champions were not necessarily the greatest punchers. For example, to support this fact, you have the likes of Floyd Mayweather, Pernell Whitaker, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Muhammad Ali.

But let’s be honest, it is good to have a shotgun in your hand for that spectacular knock-out. Fortunately, there are some exercises you can perform at home that will increase your punching power.

1) Look back at points 5, 6, and 7

Those exercises will certainly increase the power with which you hit. No doubt about it. So, if you have free time during the quarantine, we recommend concentrating on them rather than doing other fancy exercises.

2) Sledgehammer & Tire:

You can’t get more Rocky-type, old-school shit to improve your punching power than a sledgehammer and tire. The exercise is simple—you use a sledgehammer to hit a tire with full force.

Alternatively, you can also do it with a wood log and an axe. Here, you can use the left hand, right hand, or both hands. Plus, you’re helping yourself stocking up on firewood for the chimney .

This type of workout is simple, yet very effective and besides, you look cool.

3) Medicine ball

More of a modern way of improving your punching power in boxing, but equally effective. In this exercise, you use a medicine ball and in your boxing stance, throw the ball towards the wall the hardest you can (make sure the wall is hard enough!). Make sure when you throw it, you imitate the punching movement for maximum effectiveness. Also, you can use both hands to throw it, like you would pass a basket ball to your teammates.

If you don’t have access to it during lockdown, you can grab something heavy (preferably a stone or a piece of wood/log) and do the same movement in your backyard. If you use this, you won’t have to throw it towards a wall and throwing it in open air will do the job.

Liked our boxing workout at home?

Comment below or send us a message (via contact form) to describe your favorite boxing home workout while on quarantine! Perhaps you have other home boxing workout you have in mind that’s not listed here? Then we’d be happy to hear it!

I hope you guys and your families stay safe during these troubled times. And happy training!

#knockcoronavirusout #homeboxingworkout

Gerhard

April 29, 2020 at 6:14 am

Hi,

Overall a tough but good workout. Some of the exercises I will definately implement.

One question:
What type of lock down do you have in your country? Here in South Africa our lock down is LOCK DOWN. You are not supposed to get out of your property at all except to buy food, medicine or essential service and that means NO running whatsoever! Not even walking the dog. I have sneaked out of the gate for my run very early in the mornings when nobody about and I stay in very quite suburb in Pretoria but should they catch me its jail stories – authorities very difficult about it. Thus no chance of your running program at all.We have partial lift from Friday on wards and then we can go jogging but only alone, only in your area of your home (I think 5 km radius not sure) and between 5 am and 8 pm only. No opening of gyms at all.

Regards.

Boxingholic Editorial Staff
May 2, 2020 at 2:39 pm

Hi Gerhard, we’re glad that you like our workout! Here in the UK, the lockdown is less strict and allow one form of exercise outside per day as long as social distancing rules are obeyed, hence why we included the running workout in here. Apart from the one form of exercise, you are only allowed outside for medical purposes, food, and other essential services. This form of lockdown is quite common in Europe. However, in almost all countries, non-essential facilities like boxing gyms (we consider it essential through our eyes though!) are all closed and expect to be for at least several months. I hope you stay safe during these troubled times.

Regards,

Boxingholic Team