The sport of boxing requires strength, quickness, flexibility and cardiovascular endurance. Whether someone plans on competitive fighting or not, a regular program of boxing training provides a way of achieving and maintaining a high level of muscular and cardiovascular fitness. It is also a great way to help maintain a healthy body weight.
Warm Up
Boxing training provides a vigorous workout for the heart and muscles and a proper period of warm up is essential. A good warm up should utilize all the muscles that are to be trained in a workout and should raise both the heart rate and respiratory rate. A typical warm up in boxing training is a light session of jumping rope, usually for a period of 10 to 15 minutes.
Cardiovascular
According to USA Boxing, the governing body for amateur boxing in the United States, running--the traditional boxing roadwork--provides the single most important mechanism for aerobic training. Long distance, slow-paced runs are great for developing baseline cardiovascular fitness. Gradually adding interval training runs will help prepare a person for the rigor of multiple rounds of boxing, which for women typically last for two minutes each.
Muscle Endurance
In addition to improving cardiovascular endurance, boxing requires high endurance levels in the muscles of shoulders, arms and legs to withstand the stress of throwing multiple punches and constant changes in stance. Jumping rope will help improve the endurance of the arm and leg muscles as well as contribute to further improving cardiovascular fitness. Punching drills performed on the heavy bag and speed bag will build endurance in the shoulder and arm muscles.
Muscle Strength
Since the power behind punches is an important component of boxing, exercises to improve the upper body strength comprise an important part of boxing training for women. Most of the punching power in boxing comes from the anterior deltoids, pectoralis major and triceps muscles. Strong leg muscles allowing someone to push punches up from the floor, and strong muscles of the abdominal core that allow a boxer to rotate the shoulders into the punch, should be strengthened as well. Resistance training exercises with weights added to calisthenic push-ups and sit-ups should be part of the training program.
Boxing Skills
It requires a high degree of skill to avoid the punches of an opponent and to ensure that the punches connect where yo want them to on a fast-moving opponent. Once a person learns the fundamentals from a trained boxing coach, these skills can be developed through shadow boxing in front of a mirror, sparring with an opponent, and drills on both the heavy bag and speed bag.
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