Boxing Session - Where to Start?
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Hi,
We received a great question from Felicity asking about a boxing class workout. Please read below and fire through any advice, hints or tips that you believe would be helpful.
I work with a group of 30 ladies doing boot camp on my farm. Please can you give me some ideas about a boxing class workout. We have boxing gloves and focus mits.
Regards Felicity
Hi Felicity,
Great to hear that you are running bootcamps and are wanting to incorporate boxing – from my experience everyone loves to have a go at boxing and it can add a fun and exciting element to your classes.
Without knowing anything about the group of ladies you work with, or how familiar you are with the moves and techniques in boxing, I will try and share a few tips on things that I have found work well, and will give you an example of how I would structure a class. It’s quite hard explaining what certain types of moves or exercises are, so I will try and keep to basic ones, but if you need clarification, please ask.
You said you have gloves and Mitts (focus pads I assume?), which is great. Even better would be if everyone just had a set of gloves, as the gloves can act as focus pads, so you don’t need to change equipment over all the time. You will see that I have written a sample class plan below. Before trying to understand the class plan, here are a few of the reasons behind the structure and exercise choices:
Ø I write out approximately 8 different class plans for boxing, and then use them on a rotational basis. Each one has a slightly different focus (e.g. more endurance based some days, more power based other days; focus might be on upper body some days and lower body on others)
Ø I always use music to get my classes going – this is not essential, but it helps to get them more excited. Also, for this type of class I use CDs that play for 45seconds or 1 minute, or 1minute 15seconds, and then stop for 10, 15, or 20 seconds respectively as a rest period (they have been designed especially for boxing). Boxing style classes should be taught in ‘rounds’ as this reflects the nature of the sport, and I find that having music that does the timing for me means that I can focus more on helping the class with technique, and motivating them. Alternatively, you can use a stopwatch and time their work and rest periods (personally I find this quite hard to do because I get caught up with everything that’s going on, and then the poor participants end up going non stop for 2 minutes……and all of a sudden they’re too knackered for subsequent rounds, thus defeating the purpose of the class structure)
Ø I often use skipping for a warm up – this is a preferred warm up method for boxers as it replicates the footwork they do in the ring, and it’s very effective at getting your participants warmed up quickly. As with the rest of the class, I do the warm up in rounds……it’s pretty hard to skip for 5 minutes without stopping…..
Ø I use the first half of the class for shadow boxing activities to start them working on punch combinations that they will use in the pad-work section of the class (set the nervous system up, etc), and then we move to the contact stuff later on. That way you can just stop at the halfway point to put on gloves (and mitts if needed), and the gloves can be left on for the remainder of the class to minimize time wasting. Get them to pair up early on (with someone at relatively the same fitness/strength level), and work with the same partner throughout the class. CV fitness and muscle conditioning exercises are interspersed with boxing based activities/drills, and wherever possible these should replicate actions/movements used in the sport
Ø The following workout is based on a 45 minutes session – you could go up to an hour but would need to allow more rest, or maybe some technique based work, unless your participants are absolute machines.
45 Minute PROGRAM – ENDURANCE 1
(Play CD 1min work: 15 sec rest)
- Skipping (5 mins) 4
Rounds
(As an option, for the final 2 rounds, you can add in 3 push ups (or similar) every time they trip on the rope)
- Shadow box + push ups + star jumps (3 mins 45 sec) 3 Rounds
(For this, they just practice punching the combo into the air, and work on fast, light footwork. Somewhere during the round, I get them to drop and do a few push ups and then jump back up for some star jumps. The level at which you do this will of course depend on your participants. I use the 15 second rest period to show them the combo in slow motion)
i. Jab cross upper upper
ii. Jab cross hook
iii. Jab cross hook cross
3. Partners (no gloves) (5 mins) 2 Supersets (= 4 rounds)
i. Shadow box; any combos – not too close (stand facing each other and move around practicing different arm combos. Guard should be kept up when not punching, and there should be no contact!)
ii. Hold hands, fast arms; add running feet after 30 seconds
4. Muscle Conditioning (3 mins 45 sec) 3 rounds
These are sample exercises. Please adjust to suit your participants
i. Bicycle leg crunch (elbow to knee)
ii. Crossover push ups
iii. Squats 30 sec/jump squats 30 sec
5. DRINK STOP/PUT ON GLOVES (2 mins)
6. Partner contact work (7 mins 30 sec) 3 rounds each person (alternating)
They end up doing a 1 minute round, then rest for 15 seconds, then their partner does a 1 minute round.
They are still working pretty hard when holding the pads/gloves up, depending on how tough their partner is! For this section, I use the same combinations that were done in the shadow boxing section.
i. jab cross upper upper
ii. jab cross hook
iii. jab cross hook cross hook cross
7. Split up – 2 ends of gym (2 mins 30 sec) 2 rounds
You can do this in teams, or pairs, or get everyone to go at once – depends on how fit they are.
I usually get them to keep their gloves on so that we don’t waste time.
i. punch & run on spot, run to end x2, 5 push ups, run x2, repeat
ii. punch & run on spot, run to end x2, 10 mountain climbers, run x2, repeat
8. Partner contact work (7 mins 30 sec) 3 rounds each person (alternating)
i. Double jab, double cross
ii. Sit up, 4 punches (1 person lies on their back in the sit up position, other person stands on their feet and holds their mitts/gloves in front. The person on the floor does a sit up, and then does 4 punches to the pad at the top of the sit up, then lowers back to the floor. Repeat for duration of the round.
iii. Jab, cross, hook, upper
9. COOL DOWN & STRETCH (5 minutes)
Hi Elly
Many thanks for the boxing program looking forward to puting in my next boxing session. You mentioned a boxing CD where can I purchase one of these from
Regards Felicity
Hi Felicity
With regards to the boxing CD's with the breaks at each minute, I've had them for a very long time, and I'm not sure whether you can buy that type of CD format anymore. I tried to to buy it again last year but wasn't able to. However I did put in my suggestion to rhythm express music, which is where I get my class music from. The different companies that sell music for classes should have music to cover all different class formats. If you look on their websites, you should be able to find a boxing category, which will at least give you music that has a reasonable beat and intensity for that type of workout, and you may have to do the stop/start bit yourself. If you can get a watch that beeps at different intervals, that would probably be useful?
Here are some of the different companies you can get music from - have a browse and see what you think.
1. http://www.instructor.co.nz/
(This is rhythm express music (REM), where I get my music from. They also sell choreography notes. Suppliers of music to Australia and NZ. I see they have just developed a NZ website - previously it was just Australian)
(This is a UK based company, but they advertise shipping worldwide)
3. http://www.traxmusic.com.au/
(Australian company - I know this is a common choice for instructors in NZ as we don't have our own music provider)
(This is another Australian one that I know instructors over here use....they advertise tapes (?!) and CDs....when I looked at their music last year though there appeared only to be tapes - but their website has been updated since then, so hopefully the rest of their technology has also.
Some others that I am less familiar with, but you could try:
Hope this helps
