Whether it’s bicycling, tennis, or running, every athlete wants to know how often to train to help them reach their goal; and boxers are no different. How often should you train? How long? At what intensity? These are important questions to answer when choosing a training regimen.
Most competitive boxers find a 4-6 day schedule, 2-5 hours per day, the “sweet spot” necessary to improve. In fact, most coaches will tell you that you can train nearly everyday as long as you’re mixing up your types of training. Many amateur and professional boxers will train 6 days a week at various levels of intensity, allowing them to improve greatly without risking over-training.
But you’re not “most boxers.” You’re you. And odds are good you can’t devote 30 hours week to the gym. Well don’t worry, by the time you finish this article you you’ll have a unique plan suited to you.
Step 1: Honestly Assess your Goals
When a person asks, “How often should I train for boxing?” a knowledgeable coach should answer, “Well, why do you want to box?”. This is because the answer varies depending on your goal and your resources. If your only interest in boxing is to help shed some excess body weight, then that is a vastly different answer than if you were want to “go pro”.
Take some time and write down why you want to step into a gym. Don’t write what you think you “should” want, because nobody else is going to be looking over your shoulder. This is all about YOU, and what you ACTUALLY WANT. Are you:
- Just trying to lose a few extra pounds?
- A classical martial artist trying to cross train and fill in some gaps?
- An office worker needing to burn off some pent up frustration at your boss? (Trust me, I’ve been there.)
No matter where you’re coming from, you need to think about this before you commit to any training schedule.
Okay, you’ve identified your goal. Now we need to ask yourself, “How much of myself am I willing to commit to this?” Now, similar to the goal question, most people will reflexively answer something like, “100%! All day! Everyday!“, thinking that anything less is the “wrong” answer or means that they’re uncommitted to success. But there are no wrong answers here. This isn’t geometry class, it’s your life.
Real talk: I’ll tell you, no matter how much I love training, I love being home with my wife even more. So every time I leave to train, I always fight the desire to stay home. Every. Single. Time. This is made harder when I’m sore, when the weather is bad, when Venus is in the second house of Jupiter…. you get the point.
The good news is after you’ve been training for a while you’ll often be able to ignore that desire and just get to work. But there will be some days when you just don’t wanna hit the gym. So what do you do when your commitment is tested? More on this in Step 3.
Step 2: Create Your Plan (or borrow someone else’s!)
Now that you’ve had the honest conversation with yourself and identified what you want out of your boxing training, it’s time to create the plan to get you there. It goes without saying that a qualified and experienced coach working with you is almost always going to be superior to a ready-made plan you get from someone else. But even if you don’t have a coach then you can still get started right where you are. In fact, there are hundreds of books out there which will help the newbie and intermediate boxer improve.
While I don’t know what your personal goal might be, let me offer you a head start by outlining what the training program might look like for three different individuals:
Mary
Mary is 31, single, and wants to lose weight but hates running and pushups. She also believes she’ll get bulky if she lifts weights. She’s heard that boxing is good for fitness and wants to give it a try. She’s a little self conscious, though. So she’s decided to buy a floor standing punching bag and set it up in her spare bedroom.
| Monday | Warm up – 15 min, Shadow boxing – 15 min, Combinations – 20 min, Burnout – 2 min, Cool down – 15 min |
| Tuesday | Warm up – 15 min, Shadow boxing – 15 min, Walk outside – 20 min, Cool down – 15 min |
| Wednesday | Warm up – 15 min, Heavy bag – 20 min, Combinations – 20 min, Burnout – 2 min, Cool down – 15 min |
| Thursday | Warm up – 15 min, Shadow boxing – 15 min, Walk outside – 20 min, Cool down – 15 min |
| Friday | Warm up – 15 min, Heavy bag – 20 min, Combinations – 20 min, Burnout – 2 min, Cool down – 15 min |
Fred
Fred is 23, has a job and a girlfriend but isn’t looking to get serious. He’s trained in Karate since his teens and he’s pretty good against other Karate guys, but he sometimes gets the floor mopped with himself when he spars with boxers. He decides to incorporate boxing training to supplement his Karate and joins a gym, but only on Saturday so he doesn’t have to give up any time in the dojo.
| Saturday | Warm up – 15 min, Shadow Boxing – 20 min, Combination Drills – 45 Min, Heavy bag, 15 min, Sparring – 30 min Cool Down – 15 min |
Will
Will is 44, married, and has two kids. Will is an accountant and his boss is sometimes, well, an asshole. All his life Will has been a rule-follower and it’s made him comfortably successful, if not rich. But it has also made him easy to walk over. In fact, Will sometimes feels like his boss’s punching bag and it’s starting to affect his health…and his marriage. Will’s doctor told him he needs to get his stress under control and his wife agrees. But instead of spending thousands of dollars on a couch with a shrink talking about his mother, he decides to buy some gloves and do some punching of his own.
| Tuesday | Warm up – 15 min, Shadow Boxing – 15 min, Heavy Bag – 15 min, Cool Down – 15 min |
| Thursday | Warm up – 15 min, Speed Bag – 15 min, Heavy Bag – 15 min, Cool Down – 15 min |
| Saturday | Warm up – 15 min, Pad work – 30 min, Partner Drills – 45 min, Sparring 25 min, Cool Down – 15 min |
Step 3: Commit and Make it Happen
Here comes the tough part: committing to your goal. Let’s say you determine that you need to train 2 hours a day, 4 days a week. Today’s training starts with 30 minutes of “road work” but you’ve looked outside and saw that it’s drizzling out and a little cold. You immediately picture the misery of doing sprints in soggy shoes in the cold and compare it with the image of staying inside today and catching up on the next episode of “New Popular Netflix Show“.
I won’t lie to you. I know which of those two I’d rather be doing. But this isn’t about what feels good right now. It’s about what you really want, and how badly do you want it. That’s why Step 1 was all about having that honest conversation with yourself.
With that said, relying on willpower is a losing strategy, though. Your best bet would be to make thing as automatic as you possibly can. This might include:
- Going to bed in your workout clothes so you all you need to do is just wake up, grab your keys, and get out the door.
- Packing your gym bag in the car on your way to work so you can hit the gym before you get home.
- Eating a small snack at 4pm, so you aren’t starving and tempted to go home to dinner instead of training.
- Get a friend to keep you accountable or, even better, get them to join you!
The Cool Down
How often should you train in boxing is something you’ll eventually answer for yourself. Be candid with your goals and your level of commitment. Create, apply, and refine a thorough workout plan. And get the help of an experienced coach. Do this, and you’ll find that “Goldilocks” balance between training enough to get good, and training too much and burning out. .
Post Script – Coach’s Top Tips:
- A beginner in good health should strive to push past the point where his or her body is telling them to stop. Navy Seal David Goggins said, “When you think you’re done, you’re only at 40% of your body’s capability“.
- Conversely, training is a conversation between your body and your mind. Listen to your body if it’s saying that you’re feeling off. This may be an warning to revise your nutrition, your sleep schedule, or that you’re pushing too hard too soon.
- Make friends at your boxing gym. Even if their specific goal is different, they can still help guide you, push you, inspire you, or show you where you may be making a mistake.
- Study and imitate top performers, but don’t stray from your goal when trying to follow their example.
- Beginner progress often comes rapidly. Intermediate and advanced progress is supposed to be slow and steady. Don’t be discouraged when you move past the beginner stages and see your progress appearing to slow.