Workouts on off-days?

[nutrick]

i plan on going to the boxing gym on tuesdays and thursdays, and i'm wondering what exercises i should do on the off-days.

[donnydarkoIRL]

I find it highly beneficial to keep my fitness training seperate from my boxing training.

I f you improve your anaerobic and aerobic fitness away from the boxing gym, you will have more time in the gym to work on actual boxing skill.

[Douglas]

i plan on going to the boxing gym on tuesdays and thursdays, and i'm wondering what exercises i should do on the off-days.

Running, perhaps weightlifting, and if you don't do them in boxing training, pushups, sittups, leg-lifts, and you can still shadowbox from time to time as well.

[Bomp]

Definitely shadow box, do the stuff you learned in the gym over and over.

[Sharla]

I think all the suggestions here are pretty good. I think though we might have more hope of giving you good ideas if we can get some more info from you.

What you're aiming for? Boxing for fun or fitness or to compete one day or?

What do you want to get out of your training as a whole? Some guys who just want big muscles rather than the best overall fitness will have different training plans.


How much time do you have?

How old are you? Any things you can't do because of cost or injury etc?

[nutrick]

I think all the suggestions here are pretty good. I think though we might have more hope of giving you good ideas if we can get some more info from you.

What you're aiming for? Boxing for fun or fitness or to compete one day or?

What do you want to get out of your training as a whole? Some guys who just want big muscles rather than the best overall fitness will have different training plans.


How much time do you have?

How old are you? Any things you can't do because of cost or injury
etc?

I'm aiming to compete in the summer and improve on overall fitness. I have probably a lot of time on off days around 2-4 hours that i can devote to working out. and I'm 16

[Sharla]

Maybe you can split the off day workouts into 2 shorter ones. Then you can maybe get some cardio work in - perhaps running 2 min intervals as fast as you can with a timed break and repeat it so the workout mimics the type of intensity you'll see when you compete.

Then you can include some shadow boxing and maybe light weights or bodyweight exercises. You might find you do shadow boxing after a brief warm up and finish with your weights/body weight exercises perhaps?

Making sure you work all balancing muscle groups eg don't do too many push ups without working your back with chin ups etc also.

If you have a floor to cieling ball or something at home that would be good too. There's a tennis ball one some people make in some old Ask the Trainer threads which looks good.

That's my input anyway but now you've given us more info I'm sure you'll get a few more replies.

How much you get into the weights or body weight exercises will also depend on how much of that sort of thing you do in your boxing training too. You don't want to overdo it. You might put some balance work in like a wobble board or something as part of your cool down too perhaps.

[nutrick]

thanks sharla, would you recommend maybe asking my trainer at the gym some things to do as well? i'll probably start with some bodyweight exercises ( i bought a pull up bar over the weekend) and some road work as well on off days. and i might do some weight exercises too. my school's gym is open on mondays and wednesdays, do you think i could like split up bodyweight and weight lifting exercises? ie bodyweights on monday and weight lifting on wednesday? (along with roadwork too cuz my school's track is right next to the weight room) i may need some help with the order of doing things.

EDIT: Also, my trainer said he's going to first condition me to be ready, then move onto probably sport specific exercises and skill workouts.

[Sharla]

You're welcome

I think definately get some advice from your trainer. He'll probably have some basic technical things he would like you to work on.

He might also have an idea of whether or not you really need to be doing heavy weights for you healthiest weight class. You might not need to do heavy weights at all. In that case you might be fine combining bodyweight exercises and light dumbell exercises in one workout and doing that twice a week.

If your gym has a fit ball you can use it for things like dumbell chest press - you won't want to try to push heavy weights - especially if you don't have someone there to spot you. Little things like that will help you develop better balance from the beginning though which will make your whole boxing career much easier.

If the track and the gym are close together I'd run intervals and them do your resistance session afterwards. Make sure you walm up first - run maybe 4 or 5 X 2 minute intervals fast with 30 seconds break and then do your weights/ resistance stuff.

I'd start off keeping it simple - not spending more than 20 or 30 minutes max on your resistance routine to prevent injuries and give yourself a chance to recover from and benefit from the sessions. You don't want to be too exhausted for your boxing trainings either since these will be the most important sessions of your week by the sounds.

You could do your boxing workout over as little as 30 minutes in another session to work on the key things your trainer chooses. Maybe warm up with a short, light jog or a fwe rounds of footwork and light shadow boxing. I would NOT recommend skipping at home because if you do not have sprung floorboards like good gyms have you will hurt yourself.

Don't forget to stretch either. Being 16 you might not feel like you need it yet but as an old fart let me assure you it's worth the pain it will prevent and will help your muscles recover from your workouts.

[Sharla]

I forgot to mention that you shouldn't do the same workout on consecutive days either. I sort of pictured you planning something for Monday's and Wednesdays.

I like the idea of doing your own boxing practice the day after your official boxing trainings when things the coach may have had you working on or picked up are still fresh in your mind.

[:::PSL:::]

Hit the heavybag.

[nutrick]

oh okay thanks again. i'll definitely look into incorporating bodyweight exercises and either heavy or light (depending on my trainer's recommendations) weight exercises. and on the road work, should i be doing it every day with my workout? and when you say 4 or 5x2 is that by 200m? i did run track, but it never applied to my event, i did long jump and got kicked off.

[Sharla]

oh okay thanks again. i'll definitely look into incorporating bodyweight exercises and either heavy or light (depending on my trainer's recommendations) weight exercises. and on the road work, should i be doing it every day with my workout? and when you say 4 or 5x2 is that by 200m? i did run track, but it never applied to my event, i did long jump and got kicked off.

If you can I would do some cross trainng cardio like rowing or swimming on some days. I don't think it's a good idea to run everyday at least to begin with and especially if you are still growing. Mixing it up with other cardio sessions and having no cardio at all a couple of days a week should be safer and give your whole body a workout.

Sorry by 2 I meant 2 minutes. I would only do that once or twice a week though. You might have another speed session with sprints and a walk recovery back to the start which could be something like 14 X 100 m or 10 X 200, once a week. Other cardio sessions could be done at a moderate pace or easy pace for say 30 minutes. I would say 3 hardish cardio sessions per week or even 2 should be enough to begin with. If you find you recover really easy and want to add more to challenge yourself you can do that later.

I sucked at long jump too

[nutrick]

okay, we do have ergs at my school, i'll probably do those. i'm also planning on buying a heavy bag, and i'm thinkin leather and 70lb considering i'm 5'5 and 118lbs. any suggestions? what other alternative materials do you guys recommend?

[donnydarkoIRL]

Nope a leather bag is both the highest quality and most economical as it'll last you so much longer!