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Movement Handbook
For every athlete we work with, mobility and movement training will be the very first step on
their Boxing Science journey. Before we even lift a weight, we need to ensure that athletes
have the foundational movement skills to perform exercises correctly. This enables our
athletes to achieve better results and avoid injury.
However, it’s not just for the beginning of a programme, mobility training plays a big role
throughout all of our programme because it has so many benefits…
• It enables more fluid and faster rotation through the kinetic chain.
• It enables the lower body to produce more force during punching motion, leading to a
harder punch.
• It can help to reduce and prevent injury in boxers, which is important for long term
development.
In this handbook, we’ll introduce mobility, movement and plyometric exercises to improve the
way you move and deliver faster, harder punches.
Contents
These are the key areas we focus on at Boxing Science, the causations from the demands of
the sport and how they might affect performance.
Below are the results from a variety of junior and youth athletes we have tested. The reason
why we’re sharing these results in particular is because these are athletes that have little
exposure to S&C training, so represent the movement issues that can be caused by boxing.
Another key reason is that these boxers probably have a shorter training history than other
athletes using this programme – so imagine how much more restricted you could be!
These restrictions are caused by the demands of the sport, and the lack of S&C culture in
Boxing to help prevent these mobility issues.
This can restrict strength, speed and movement, as well as increasing the likelihood of injury.
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Mobility Training for Boxing
Hip Mobility
Hip flexor tightness is a common issue for boxers and combat
athletes. Many people suffer from hip flexor tightness due to
extended periods of sitting. When athletes pair this with thousands
of quad-dominant actions, hip mobility must be a focus in movement
training.
Hip flexor tightness can cause many different injuries and dysfunctions, including lower back
pain and limit glute strength. Hip stretches and mobility exercises can help you flow in the
ring, increase hip rotation strength and speed contributing to a harder punch, as well as
reducing the likelihood of injury.
Shoulder Mobility
“Hands up, chin down” is often the coaching point to a defensive guard, requiring rounding
the upper back and shrugging the shoulders. If you’re throwing 100’s of punches thrown in a
week’s training, the anterior shoulder and trapezius muscles can become over-active.
This alone can cause shoulder mobility issues for boxers. Large volumes of strength exercises
like press ups and shoulder press further confound the issue meaning shoulder mobility
should be a focus for boxers. Poor shoulder mobility often creates over-active anterior
deltoids and upper traps, causing the middle and lower traps become
weak which affects the natural movement of the shoulder and arm.
This can also cause shoulder impingement, rotator cuff weakness and
lower-back injuries.
To make beneficial long-term changes, you should focus on improving thoracic and core
rotation. This will reduce the compensatory patterns of the QL and use the preferred muscles
in your kinetic chain.
Glute Strength
Glute strength is an important contributor to forceful hip extension and rotation needed
during running, jumping and more importantly, punching.
The gluteal muscles have the potential to be the biggest contributor to hip extension and
rotation. However, many athletes have under-active glutes due to mobility issues and
activation.
Stronger glutes can improve your ability to engage and strengthen the core, which can help
protect against injuries to the lower back muscles.
Instead of decoration and making fixtures, our DIY programs let you build the foundations of
movement for boxing and repair any muscular tightness or imbalances in your own time.
The DIY Program has a mixture of controlled and dynamic mobility exercises, focussing on the
areas that need targeting for optimal boxing performance.
On the page overleaf is your 10-week mobility program. These exercises will develop
shoulder, hip and rotational mobility, and fire up your glutes.
Perform this workout 1 to 2 times per day to stay loose and fresh. It only takes 10 minutes to
do. Here are ideal times to fit your DIY workouts into your daily schedule
• Integrate into your warm-up for strength / running sessions (page 12)
• Before your boxing specific warm-up when sparring / doing padwork
• Recovery sessions (perform 2-3 sets instead of 1-2)
• First thing when you wake up, or just before bed
Start by laying on your side, with the legs straight and arms perpendicular
Rotation to the body.
Open up the chest, bringing the top shoulder to the floor by rotating the
Eagles Shoulder Mobility
Thoracic / Rotation
upper body, and aim to bring the top knee close to the floor.
Pause and return to the start position
Core Mobility
Begin lay on the side, pinning the top knee to the floor with the bottom
Rotation hand.
Quadruped
Perform a circular motion with the hand over and past the head, opening
Shoulder Slide to Shoulder Mobility up the shoulder and brushing the fingers against the floor.
Twist Pause, and return to the middle, keeping the knee fixed the whole time.
Core Mobility
Begin lay on the back, bringing the heels in so they can be touched by the
Glute Strength hands, with a mini band placed around the knees.
Banded Glute Brace the core, then drive the hips up towards the ceiling by squeezing
Hip Mobility the glutes.
Bridges
Glute Med Work
Pause, and return back to the start position, and repeat, making sure that
Core Strength the knees stay in line with the feet and hips.
Lay on side with both legs bent, heels stay tucked inline with hips and
Glute Strength mini-bands placed around the knees.
Keeping the hips perfectly still, open up the knees by pushing against the
Banded Side Clams Hip Mobility band and squeezing the glutes.
Pause before returning to the start position to repeat the next rep,
Abductor Strength maintaining constant tension against the band.
Begin in a press up position, with the hands underneath the shoulders
Core Strength and the core tight.
Ground Based Movements
Press Up to Toe Perform a press up, keeping the elbows in, then pike the hips to the
Hamstring Mobility ceiling. At the top, touch one hand to the opposite foot.
Touch
Return to the press up position and flow into the next repetition where
Shoulder Mobility you will repeat the movement on the opposite side.
Begin in a press up position, with the hands underneath the shoulders.
Hip Mobility
Place the left foot next to the left hand, and drop the back knee so it is
Spiderman to Twist Rotation slightly off the floor.
Rotate the left hand up and round, brushing the shoulder as it passes,
Shoulder Mobility pause, return to the centre and repeat on the opposite side.
Hold a small weight (2.5 – 5 kg) at the chest.
Leg Strength
Descend slowly into a squat, keeping the chest up, knees wide, and heels
Foundational Lower-Body Movements
Squat with Press Core Strength on the ground, pressing the weight out at the same time.
Pause at the bottom and keep the knees wide. Drive weight through the
Hip Mobility heels to stand back up and bring the weight back to the chest
Stand with feet roughly hip width apart. Take a big step forward, at the
Leg Strength same time as flexing at both knees.
Rotate the upper body over the front knee, keeping the lower body still,
Lunge and Rotation Core Mobility and the hips, knees and feet in line.
Return the upper body to the centre, then stand back up.
Rotation
Stand with feet roughly hip width apart. Take a big step to the side,
Leg Strength bending the leading knee and sitting the hips backward.
Press out either the arms or a small object such as a foam roller, to help
Lateral Lunge Core Strength counterbalance and cue sitting the hips backwards.
Keep the feet, knees, and hips all facing forward, pause, then return to
Adductor Mobility the centre.
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Lateral Movement
Having good footwork is the foundation of many boxing champions, in particular lateral
movement. This can be developed through shadow boxing, padwork and in sparring, but how
many develop lateral movement through general movement drills?
Using isolated exercises and drills can improve the quality of your lateral movement and
transfer to your movement in the ring. This works by strengthening and engaging the gluteal
muscle groups, adductors and lateral stabilisers of the core. These are the desired muscle
groups for effective lateral movements.
If these types of movement are not trained, an athlete can start to super-compensate using
other muscle groups, like the back or knee joints. Combine this with high training volumes,
intense movements and a low calorie diet, a boxer can be susceptible to injury.
Ice Skaters
This is an exercise that challenges and develops lateral movement with high speeds and forces.
Main Coaching Points
- Start on one leg, push through your heel to extend leg
and hop to the side.
- Land softly onto the heels and pushing the hips back.
Hold for 1-2 seconds before repeating.
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Plyometrics for Boxing and Combat Sports
‘Plyometrics’ is a term used to describe jumping and speed exercises. However, by definition,
a plyometric action is only achieved when ground contact time is under 0.25 seconds.
This is just a quick tap on the floor, just like you would perform during skipping.
Many strength and conditioning coaches set up drills from different heights, distances,
single/double leg exercises and prescribe lots of contact to provide training adaptation.
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Plyometrics for Boxers
In our research we found the higher a boxer can jump, the harder that boxer can punch.
We tested two types of jumps. A counter movement jump and squat jump. Normally counter
movement jump height is much greater than squat jump height because the counter
movement jump can harness the benefits of the stretch shortening cycle.
However, our research shows only a small difference between countermovement jump and
squat jump. This suggests boxers struggle with eccentric demands during lower-body actions
and means boxers should take care when performing plyometrics.
It’s not all negative, as we know that most boxers are well-adapted to fast SSC movements
due to skipping and being light on their feet. This can help us gain benefits from fast SSC
exercises by challenging height, complexity and single leg exercises. However, this should be
approached with caution as they do struggle with progressions, single leg exercises and ankle
mobility
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Land / Jump Phase
Here are the exercises to add to the end of your warm-up (see page 13) at different stages of
camp to improve your ability to land, absorb forces and use the stretch-shortening cycle
effectively. Perform 5-8 reps x 3-4 sets of each exercise.
Altitude Landings
Main Coaching Points
- Start on a platform 30-50 cm from the floor.
- Step off, land softly on both feet with knees slightly
flexed and hips pushed back. Hold for 1-2 seconds
then repeat.
Box Jumps
Main Coaching Points
- Perform a small dip of the knees and hips, before
explosively extending upwards and jumping on to a
box (approximately (20-40 cm).
- Land in a similar position to that which you would in
an altitude landing, landing in a strong and solid
position. Hold for 1-2 seconds, then repeat.
Countermovement Jumps
Main Coaching Points
- Start by standing upright, feet hip width apart and
hands on hips.
- Perform a quick dip of the hips before performing
the jump.
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Effective Warm-Ups
If you are reading this booklet, you will have taken part in an exercise class or lesson under
qualified personnel many times. This means you’ve been told the importance of warming-up
more than once, and you probably do one every session.
However, ask yourself these questions…. How effective is our warm-up?
How well is it structured? Does it have positive effects on your session?
Every strength session is an opportunity to get faster and stronger, so
we need to get the most out of every session. Why not optimise your
results with an effective warm-up?
• Increased muscle temperature improves the ability to perform more forceful actions,
whilst increased metabolism benefits performance by changing the energetic state of
the muscle and elevates blood flow.
• RAISE – The first phase of the warm-up is to elevate body temperature and blood flow
demands.
• ACTIVATE AND MOBILISE – Various dynamic stretches and stabilisation exercises to improve
range of motion and muscle activation to help engage the muscles that will be used in
the workout.
• POTENTIATE – Fast or heavy-loaded exercise that requires near-maximal effort will get the
muscles fired up ready for the workout.
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Warm-Up for Boxing
Most successful boxing performances are a result of great amounts of technical, tactical,
physical and psychological preparation. The final part of that journey is the warm-up. This is a
vital stage, if you get this wrong, all your hard work could be undone by doing too little or too
much.
99% of boxers will shadow box and perform pad work before a fight. However, only a small
percentage will perform a structured physical warm-up.
What about if we told you that there’s a range of research that supports a structured warm-
up, and that there are simple and effective ways that can help you feel and perform even
better?
Would you be more open to integrating a structured warm up into your fight prep?
A warm-up can also have psychological benefits by decreasing stress, anxiety and tension. We
put our warm-up before pads to help the boxer get more out of his technical warm-up, raising
his confidence when entering the ring.
2. Raise
Perform low-intensity activities to elevate body temperature and metabolism. This will
stimulate the cardiorespiratory system and improve blood flow to the muscles.
• Jogging, Skipping, Shadow Boxing
o 5-10 minutes
o Monitor with heart rate, try to work in zone 2-3 (60-80% max heart rate)
• Eagles, Glute Bridge, Side Clams, Glute Stretch, Squat and Lunges
o Medium Tempo, Progressing to Fast Tempo.
o 8-10 reps / 20 seconds.
o 1-2 sets.
4. Potentiate / Specific
We often use jumping exercises to encourage fast, forceful
extension of the hips. Then transfer this into shadow boxing
drills to get the neuromuscular system firing in boxing specific
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movements. We encourage fast lateral movements and hip drive whilst using mini-resistance
bands around the knees.
This fires up the gluteal and core muscles during punching movements.
• Countermovement / pogo jumps
o 3-5 reps, 2-3 sets
• Banded shadow box
o 30 seconds, 2-3 sets
Boxers should aim to work in the red zone to stimulate the cardiorespiratory system and
speed up oxygen kinetics. This means oxygen will be delivered to the working muscles more
effectively and utilised more effectively.
Boxers should aim to work in the red zone for between 3 to 6 minutes. This is dependent on
the boxers’ fitness, and what they are comfortable with. We can achieve this by performing
sprints/high-intensity skipping. However, boxers may opt to achieve this during pad work.
• Padwork
o This is up to the boxing coach, but we advise
to monitor heart rate closely, stick to
structured work and rest intervals.
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DISCLAIMER: Boxing Science provide a guide to help educate better training practices in Boxing. Methods used in this
guide is supported by scientific research that has been granted ethical approval. Therefore, Boxing Science, or any of the authors,
do not take responsibility of any injuries or illness any user may experience whilst on the program.