If you started with this sport, you may be wondering “how often should I train for boxing?” The answer is “it depends on your objectives”.
You could be training to lose weight or body fat, or maybe to improve your physical condition. Some people box to gain muscle and tone up, others to relieve stress. There are boxers who love the sport because it allows them to practice cardio and get in shape. Therefore, to answer this question for you, you need to know what you are looking to get out of training.
Even though you may have started to practice boxing just for fun, we are sure that as time goes by you will want to improve your technique and also develop more endurance. However, this requires discipline and motivation (for which we have a list of great boxing movies and quotes you need to check out).
Besides determining how often to train for boxing, you need to always give your all in training, whether it is at your home boxing gym on your own or at a boxing club. In addition to that, you will need to get the appropriate rest time between sessions, maintain a healthy diet and learn and practice the technique.
How often should you train in boxing?
Boxers that train at an elite level usually do it from three to five hours each time they go to the gym and their routine looks somewhat like this, according to information from Super Prof:
- Footwork: 30 minutes to 1 hour
- Warming up: 30 minutes
- Punching bag and speed bag: 30 minutes to 1 hour
- Glovework/exercises to work on technique: 30 minutes
- Shadowboxing or sparring: 30 minutes
- Strength training and physical conditioning: 30 minutes to 1 hour
- Stretching and abs: 30 minutes
Boxers who are just starting out at the sport can do similar routines but they may not be able to hold some of the exercises for as long. However, the key in every discipline is to gradually progress.
Exercises that require an excellent physical condition can be done first for 15 minutes each and then gradually increase the time. Jumping rope is another exercise that will help you improve in boxing. Read some of its benefits here.
However, don’t forget that you should know what your limits are and stick to them, otherwise you could get injured. And it is your own body who will decide what those limits are, so learn to listen to it and don’t go beyond its capabilities. “You will progress faster by gradually gaining in flexibility, muscle tone and power… than by burning out, turning yourself off the sport, or getting injured”, Super Prof says.
Expert Boxing also explains how many times per week fighters usually train. Those who are competing, usually train about three to five hours five times a week. So, if you were a competitive boxer and you are asking yourself “how often should I train for boxing?”, your workout routine would be something like this:
- Roadwork: 30 minutes to an hour
- Warm-up: 30 minutes
- Bag work: 30 minutes to an hour
- Focus mitts and/or skill work, drills: 30 minutes
- Sparring: 30 minutes
- Strength & conditioning: one hour
- Cooldown and crunches: 30 minutes
Maximum performance work
In boxing, you only have about an hour of maximum performance work. This means that you can sustain a high-intensity work out for a certain period of time before it becomes endurance work. In other words, “you have to save the best of yourself for the most important part of the day. This might be sparring (if it’s a sparring day) or drills and skill work or for strength and conditioning. It’s up to you. But you can’t expect to deliver six rounds of hard sparring AND record-breaking sets of strength and conditioning”, Expert Boxing says.
Additionally, as we said before, do not pay attention to what others in the gym are doing, concentrate on your body, your limits and your own progress. If you force yourself you could overtrain and get injured.
Can I train boxing every day?
Another question that sometimes is asked along “how often should I train for boxing?” is “can I train boxing every day?” The quick answer is YES, but you need to combine intense workouts with less intense ones appropriately. Short Boxing says that if you only do intense workouts your body will not have enough time to recover and you will begin to feel tired all of the time.
“You will start feeling tired and will start suffering from things like persistent muscle soreness, lack of motivation, insomnia, etc., which are the main symptoms of overtraining”, they explain.
If you do decide to train every day, combine intense workouts with light workouts where you only do cardio, shadow boxing or cross-training. However, take into consideration the following if you are considering training every single day:
Nutrition is important
Boxing will require a lot of energy from you, therefore you will be burning calories all the time. To help your body recover, you need a healthy diet or your workouts will be affected. This diet should include the right amounts of protein, carbs and fats. Check out our post on how to eat like a boxer and consult with a health professional who will also evaluate your current condition. The days you are doing more intense work you can add 250 – 350 more calories to your diet.
Conditioning work
Besides training at the gym, you should combine with exercises that will improve your performance in the ring, such as doing sprints, running, swimming and light exercises for the days of light training.
Give your body enough time to recover
Overtraining will slow your progress down. Muscle soreness and fatigue are some of the things that will contribute to slow progress and also loss of muscle mass. Punching power? No, you will have no punching power at all if you are fatigued.
For all these reasons, it is important for you to take time to recover from training. If you want to work out every single day, it is fine, as long as you do not do intense workouts every one of those days. However, how about taking at least one day off? There’s much more to do in life than just boxing!
Stretching is just as important
You need to stretch your body before and after training. When you do it before, you warm up your muscles for what is about to happen. It also decreases the chances of getting injured and having muscle soreness after.
After you finished working out, stretch again as a way to cool down and alleviate stress on the muscles. You will rest and recover better if you stretch, we guarantee it.
Don’t train the same group of muscles
Your muscles need up to 48 hours to recover after an intense workout. Therefore, it is not good to train the same muscle group for two or more days in a row. You can do exercises for your upper body one day, and heavy bag work the next, and maybe legs on the third day, and upper body again on the fourth, and so on.
Get enough sleep
When you train every day, your body will need more sleep than someone who doesn’t train every day in order to recover properly. This means that 7 or 8 hours won’t be enough and you will need about 9 hours of sleep as an athlete. So, go to sleep earlier and turn off TV, cell phone and any technology one hour before going to bed so that you can unwind and relax better.
Drink enough water
Your body requires at least two liters of water every day to be balanced. This will also help energize your muscles and also eliminate toxins.
How much do professional boxers train?
We have told you about an average person training time and explain a little bit how often do professionals train during the week. However, here are some ideas of how a professional boxer does it:
- Floyd Mayweather:
- Cardio exercises for warming up;
- At least 2 hours of sparring and technical work;
- Several hours of heavy bag work;
- Skipping rope;
- For the less intensive days: swimming, jogging, yoga.
- Saturdays; ring strategy.
- Sundays: rest day.
- Antony Joshua:
- Cardio early in the morning;
- Strength exercises;
- Sparring in the evening;
- Heavy bag work
How often do you train in boxing and what would you recommend others? Tell us in the comment section!
