How Do I Train Myself to Start Boxing?

Boxing is a great way of staying in shape, socialising with friends, learning important defensive skills and, of course for those looking to be professional, it’s an excellent sport with a great deal of skill and tactics involved.

One of the best ways to start boxing is by training yourself at home through shadow boxing drills, cardiovascular exercise and muscle-building exercises, so you can get into great fighting shape, whether you plan on going pro or just starting a healthy habit.

Let’s look into it in more detail.

How to Start Boxing

When you’re looking to start something, the best way to start is usually to just go ahead and start doing the activity rather than procrastinating or looking for perfection. That’s not to say go and punch the nearest person, but start throwing some punches in the air in front of the mirror, and well, you’ll be boxing! To start training for boxing properly, however, you’ll need to start by learning a few different punching techniques.

Shots in boxing include:

• Jab
• Hook
• Uppercut

These are the three most basic shots that every boxer will have in their repertoire as they’re not just simple, but when used in rhythmic combinations, they can be incredibly effective. There are plenty of helpful boxing how-tos online, especially on YouTube, so you can learn from the pros without forking out for boxing classes. But essentially, a jab is a straight arm shot, usually the leading hand but also with the rear hand, known as a cross, depending on the combination; a hook swings the leading arm around in a semi-circular motion to strike from the side; an uppercut swings the arm from low to high, striking from underneath.

The best way to practise boxing shots as a beginner is by shadow boxing as you can easily repeat the punches with no resistance so that you can improve your punching technique without risking injury. If you bring in too much power to your shots before you’ve learned the right technique, you’re increasing your chances of injuring your hands, wrists and shoulders.

While you’re practising your punches, you can also hit the gym, or train at home, to increase your muscle mass, strength, power and endurance.

Getting in Fighting Shape

A big part of a boxer’s training routine, the part that achieves the well-known boxer’s physique, is strength, power and endurance training. Boxing drills are designed to learn and improve boxing skills, but, while some may incorporate cardio and help you burn fat and tone up, boxing drills don’t build muscle.

To get into great fighting shape and get some power into your boxing, you can try:

• Weight lifting – short reps with heavy weights build muscle, while longer repetitions with lighter weights will improve muscular endurance
• Circuit training – 30-45 second rounds of squats, press-ups, pull-ups and sit-ups will increase muscle power

There are plenty of exercises and gym equipment that can help increase muscle strength and endurance, however, these are the two most basic options to help get you on your way to being fighting fit. What’s more, you can do circuit training and weight lifting with limited space and no equipment, so they’re perfect to try at home.

What Equipment Do You Need to Box at Home?

In theory, you don’t need any equipment to start boxing at home as you can practise air shots to improve your punching technique, however, once you’ve got the basics, you need to get a few pieces of equipment to help you improve. These are the most useful for at-home boxers:

Boxing Gloves and Hand Wraps

Every boxer needs a pair of boxing gloves once they take the step up from shadow boxing. You can, of course, wear boxing gloves while shadowboxing so you get used to the weight and feel of the gloves, but since you’re not making any impact with anything, they’re not necessary.

When you begin to strike focus pads or punching bags, however, you should ensure your hands are wrapped well and you have a well-fitting pair of boxing gloves so that your knuckles, hands and wrists are all well protected from the impact of striking the pads.

Without boxing gloves, you’re risking taking several steps back with your boxing training by injuring yourself.

Focus Pads

Focus pads, also known as focus mitts, are an excellent way of boxing with a friend and improving your boxing techniques. Focus pads are small cushions worn on the hands of a partner to act as moving targets for the boxer-in-training, so they can practise their shot accuracy as well as combinations, speed and footwork.

Overall, focus pads are one of the most useful pieces of equipment in boxing, and have the added benefit of being reasonably priced, long-lasting and small enough to put away if you don’t have the space for a permanent at-home gym.

Punching Bags

Punching bags are another great piece of equipment for boxers as you can practise different punches and drills with them, without the need for a sparring partner or friend with an equal interest in combat sports.

Coming in various shapes and sizes for practising different techniques, there are many types of punching bags, but the most common types are straight hanging punching bags, freestanding punching bags, wrecking bags and speed bags.

Each has its benefit, allowing boxers to use their power as well as their other skill, and can be easily installed at home. Speed bags are the smallest and more home-friendly, however, if you have the space available, straight bags are the best for powerful shots and cardiovascular exercise, and freestanding punch bags are also easily put away after training.

Dumbbells

You don’t have to use actual weights for weight-lifting if you don’t have the money or space at home, you can use a kilo bag of sugar in each hand instead, for example. However, psychology is important in exercise and to be in the mental space for exercising, it’s helpful to have the right equipment.

Fortunately, dumbbells aren’t expensive and they can be quite small relative to their weight, so if you want to take the muscle-building aspect of your training seriously, you can invest in some dumbbells for at-home use.

As you progress from shadow boxing to training with equipment, you can even start (carefully) throwing punches while holding light dumbbells to practise shots with added weight and power.

Boxing Footwork Exercises

Boxing may seem to be all about the upper body, however, excellent footwork is integral to keep boxers in the proper fighting stance to be able to attack and defend at will. Most footwork drills require space to run or at least fall over and swing your arms, so it’s not recommended to perform these exercises in your house, but you can try them in your garden or your nearest park if you’re serious about learning to box.

Running is useful for your overall physical fitness, however, as boxing matches are composed of many short rounds with breaks in between, it’s more useful to replicate this in your training. As such, you can try 5 minutes of 100m sprints with 15-30 seconds rest between each sprint to get your muscle memory used to using up lots of energy in short bursts rather than endurance training like long-distance running, which isn’t so important in boxing or other combat sports.

To improve your agility when it comes to your footwork, drills like the grapevine – running side to side with feet overlapping – and the ladder – laid flat on the ground so you can take rapid short steps above each rung – are very useful and will improve your footwork in boxing no end. Once you’ve mastered quick and agile footwork, you’ll notice your boxing technique improve as you can switch from an offensive to a defensive fighting stance quickly and easily, as well as being able to shift your weight from your rear foot to your front foot to be able to maximise the power behind your punches.

Where to Buy the Best Boxing Equipment

Maxx Pro Boxing is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of boxing equipment for gyms and for personal use at home. Buy the best boxing gloves and focus pads now so you can get fighting fit in no time.