Best Boxing Workout for Home Exercisers—With or Without Bags

When thinking of home workouts, certain activities automatically come to mind. Bodyweight exercises are a good strength training option. To build your cardio, you can walk or run outdoors. Another great workout you can do at home is boxing. 

Learn the benefits of this fitness activity. We also share a ready-to-do home boxing workout. And if you don’t have a heavy bag or punching bag, don’t worry. We also tell you how you can do this workout without boxing equipment.

Benefits of Boxing Training

Boxing is great for working the upper body. Each punch or jab builds the arms, shoulder, and chest. Add an uppercut or two and you can build strength in the biceps and deltoids.

Holding a proper boxing stance also helps build strength in the lower body and core. Your calves, quads, glutes, hips, and abs must all work together to stay in form. A strong core provides benefits related to balance and stability.

Boxing isn’t just a good workout for people with high fitness levels either. In fact, it may offer even more benefits than other forms of exercise for those who are overweight.

One small-scale study involved participants considered obese based on their abdominal fat levels and body mass index. For 12 weeks, some subjects engaged in boxing workouts. The remainder took brisk walks.

At the end of the study, the boxing group had greater improvements in body fat percentage, physical function, and vitality. They also attended more workout sessions. The latter suggests that boxing kept them more engaged. This helps them sustain an exercise plan long-term. 

Before Starting a Boxing Workout

If you’re new to this sport, practice your boxing stance before doing the workout. Stance is important because it protects you from injury. It also helps put power behind your punch. 

To get into position, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Imagine that you are standing with your toes against a line on the floor. If you are right-handed, move your left foot forward so its heel is on the line versus the toes. If you are left-handed, move your right foot forward. Bend your knees slightly and put your body weight on the balls of your feet. 

Make a fist with both hands and bring them up to your face. If you are right-handed, your right fist will be near the right side of your chin and your left fist will be a bit higher or closer to your left cheek. If you are left-handed, you will do the opposite. Your elbows are tucked in close to your body.

From this stance, practice some of the basic boxing moves that will be in the workout. These include:

• Jab punch: Punch straight forward with your non-dominant hand (left hand if you are right-handed, right hand if you are left-handed). It can help to imagine that you are trying to punch an opponent in the chin. 

• Cross punch: Now, punch straight forward with your dominant hand (right hand if you are right-handed, left hand if you are left-handed). In this case, you’re punching your imaginary opponent on the opposite side of their chin. Twist your torso slightly when making the punch. This adds more power to the movement.

• Hook punch: Using your dominant hand, punch with a hooking movement. This involves taking your fist out slightly, then back in. With this punch, you would be hitting your opponent from the side. Like with the cross punch, shift your torso to put more power behind it.

Once you’re comfortable with these movements, you can practice them with a heavy bag. If you use a bag, wearing boxing gloves can help protect your wrists and hands.

Now is also a good time to practice your speed bag punch. Instead of staggering your feet with one in front of the other, you will stand square to the bag. The bottom or belly part of the bag is about chin height. Lift your fists to your chin and raise your elbows until your arms are almost parallel to the floor. 

Punch forward with your right hand (right jab), hitting the bag with the side of your fist. When the bag is tilted away from you, punch it again. You can continue to punch the speed bag with the same fist, or you can alternate right arm and left arm.

Best Boxing Workout for Home Fitness

This boxing workout calls for use of a heavy bag and speed bag. If you don’t have this equipment, that’s okay. After the workout, we share a few ways to gain the cardio benefits of boxing using just your body weight.

Warm-Up

Do a light cardio activity for 5 minutes. Options include walking on a treadmill or using a jump rope. 

Boxing Workout

For this boxing workout, begin with 3 rounds of basic punch combinations against a heavy bag. Each round is 2.5 to 3 minutes in length, and you rest for 30 seconds between rounds.

If you are a beginner, start with simple combinations like a jab-cross or jab-cross-hook. If you are a more advanced boxer, your combinations may be longer. You might do a jab-cross-hook-cross or jab-cross-jab-cross-hook-hook.

Once those rounds are done, move to the speed bag. Do 3 rounds of speed bag punching (2.5 to 3 minutes each), resting 30 seconds between each round. Alternate hands when punching. 

Next, do five sets with five reps each of the following bodyweight exercises:

• push-ups

• lunges

• squats

• burpees

To finish up, do 5 minutes of footwork, split into two segments:

• 2.5 minutes of side steps (from a boxing stance, quickly step or shuffle to the right 10 steps, step to the left 10 steps, and repeat)

• 2.5 minutes of forward-back steps (from a boxing stance, quickly step or shuffle forward 10 steps, step back 10 steps, and repeat)  

Cool Down

Do a light cardio exercise for 5 to 10 minutes to allow your body to cool down. 

Workout Recap

5-minute warm-up

3 rounds of punch combinations against a heavy bag (2.5-3 minutes each, 30 seconds rest in between)

3 rounds of punching a speed bag (2.5-3 minutes each, 30 seconds rest in between)

5 sets of four bodyweight exercises, 5 reps each

5 minutes of footwork drills

5-10 minutes of light cardio to cool down

If You Don’t Have a Heavy Bag, Punching Bag, Etc.

You can still do this workout if you don’t have any boxing equipment. Simply do each movement as if a bag were there. This is known as shadow boxing.  

If over time you decide that you enjoy boxing enough to invest in the equipment, you can get it then. You can also take a boxing class at a boxing gym to help you decide whether you enjoy this activity enough to do it long-term.

You don’t have to stop at boxing either. You can also take a martial arts class. By taking martial arts too, you can exercise your body in different ways. Plus, both use similar stances.

Tips for Maximizing Your Boxing Workout

If you’re new to boxing, doing a few conditioning exercises can better prepare your body for this type of workout. Boxing requires a fair amount of cardio endurance. Physical activities good for building aerobic endurance include:

• Jumping rope

• Mountain climbers

• Burpees

• Box jumps

• High-intensity interval training

Depending on your level of fitness, you may want to work on your endurance for several weeks before jumping into boxing. This can help you sustain the exercise longer, giving you a better workout.

Also, give your upper body time to recover between training sessions. Do this workout two or three times a week. On the other days, work on your cardio or strength with different fitness activities. 

Want to help others fine-tune their bodies to reach peak performance? Anatomy, body composition, and the way you move affect energy and performance. The best trainers use this to their benefit. As a certified Strength and Conditioning coach, you’ll learn exactly how to help clients work with what they have to build unbelievable endurance, strength, power, and speed.