Boxing is likely one of the most well-known sports in the world. Some of the most famous athletes in the world were boxers, including the legendary Muhammad Ali—a name you’ll see on virtually every list of recognizable athletes. And even those who don’t actually watch boxing have at least seen it in pop culture through the countless movies that chronicle the lives of fighters both real and fictional.
With that in mind, it makes sense that boxing-style training has become increasingly popular over the years. Who wouldn’t want to feel like Rocky when he reaches the top of that staircase? But working out like a boxer isn’t just punching with reckless abandon—at least not if you want to do it right and get a good workout out of it.
Boxing involves power, strategy, spot-on technique, and good conditioning to help fighters get through round after round against their opponents. In pro boxing, a fight can last up to 12 three-minute rounds with one-minute breaks in-between. That’s a long time to fight.
If you’re interested in training like a fighter, you’ll have to start much smaller than that. To get the basics on boxing training, we spoke with Everlast Trainer Dr. Rick Richey, DHSc, MS, and co-founder of RēCOVER in NYC.
You can get going with some shadow boxing and conditioning right in your living room or backyard with minimal equipment, but you’ll want to make sure you nail some basics and take some safety guidelines into account. It may not seem important while you’re just shadow boxing, but if you plan on actually hitting a heavy bag at home or joining a boxing gym in the long run, you’ll be glad you did.
From the proper stance to the four basic punches and tips for getting the most out of shadow boxing, we’ve got you covered.
Whether or not you join a gym from the start, you’ll want to make sure you have proper training gear. This is especially true if you’re hitting a heavy bag, but it can’t hurt to get used to suiting up while you shadowbox.
If you’re in the market for a heavy bag, there are plenty of options to choose from. Everlast has options you can hang, like the Powercore Nevatear Heavy Bag, as well as some freestanding bags, like the OmniFlex Free Standing Heavy Bag, for those with no room for the former.
If you do opt to get a heavy bag, keep in mind that you shouldn’t be going from zero to 100 right away.
“People love hitting heavy bags hard, but just think about this in terms of fitness. Just like lifting weights or any type of exercise, it’s a progression to get up to full speed,” Richey cautions. “You have to get your joints used to those impacts and get your muscles used to it. If you go right into it hitting hard, you could really hurt yourself.”
And if you’re going for the bare minimum as far as gear, you need to at least wrap your wrists and throw some gloves on before hitting the bag.
“Wrapping your wrists is the most important thing when you’re working with a heavy bag,” Richey says. “People are very intimidated by the wraps, but they’re there to protect those little bones in your wrist. And you have to use gloves.” If you skip those, you risk injury and potentially losing a day or two of training afterward.
Traditional canvas wraps are cheap and simple enough to put on with some practice, and there are countless YouTube tutorials demonstrating proper wrapping technique. Richey is also a fan of wraps that slide right on, like Everlast’s Evergel Hand Wraps, if he’s training at home and wants to get right to working out.
You’ll also want to get your hands in some gloves to protect them. Whether you go for a budget option or something higher-end, buy a weight that suits your needs. If you’re only going to hit a bag, you can go minimal with gloves meant for bag work (like these).
If you’re planning on sparring eventually (safely, at a gym with a coach), go for 14 or 16-ounce gloves. As a beginner, heavier gloves will offer more protection for your hands.
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Proper Stance
Before you start throwing punches, make sure you’re standing properly.
First, situate your feet so that they’re shoulder-width apart, with one foot in front of the other.
Your front foot should basically be pointed straight ahead at your imaginary opponent. If you’re right-handed, your left foot is going straight ahead. If you’re left-handed, aka Southpaw in boxing terms, it’s just the opposite. Either way, Richey recommends starting off by keeping your back foot out at about a 45-degree angle from the imaginary line your front foot is sitting on.
Your lead shoulder should also be forward, so you’re not standing square facing your opponent. This is key, because rotating your body will translate to more power in your punches.
“The boxing stance allows a much better springing to your step, whether it’s forward or backwards,” Richey says. ”If you watch boxers, you see them move backwards as much as they move forward for an attack—it’s a defensive and offensive position.”
If your feet are too close or too far apart, you’ll be less agile, and you want to be in a position where you’re able to move forward and back as easily as you can move left and right.
As far as your hands, keep them both up in front of your face—imagine you’re in a fight and want to protect your head. Get in the habit of pulling your hands right back in after throwing punches.
Now, you’re ready to throw some jabs, crosses, hooks, and uppercuts.
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How to Throw a Jab
The jab is thrown with your lead hand (left for righties, right for Southpaw boxers), and it’s not going to be the punch you knock someone out with.
“It’s a setup punch,” Richey explains, “so if you see that hand coming, it’s used oftentimes to mask or set up another punch that’s a bit more powerful.”
When you jab, you’ll basically be reaching forward with your two larger knuckles pointed straight ahead and your palm facing down—with your fist closed, of course. Again, you’re not meant to put all of your strength into it.
Richey also stresses the importance of keeping your thumbs outside of your fists. If you keep your thumbs inside your fingers, you risk seriously injuring your hands. That goes for all punches, and it’s especially important for when you graduate from shadowboxing to the heavy bag.
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How to Throw a Cross
A cross is similar to a jab in that you’re punching straight into your imaginary opponent, but it’s executed by your rear hand coming across your body instead. Your rear hand should still be pointed forward with your palm facing down, but you’ll use your hips to generate more power.
“It’s not just arms pushing forward, it is the rotation of the hips and waist, and the extension of the arm where you get your power,” Richey says. He compares it to baseball, where you’ll never see someone hit a home run swinging with just their arms. Similarly, the entire body is involved to create the power behind the punch.
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How to Throw a Hook
A good punch to follow the cross is the hook—the lead hook, in particular, according to Richey. That way, you’d be alternating hands. This is probably the most common knockout punch you see in boxing, he adds. You can throw a rear hook, too, but the lead is more common and doesn’t leave your torso as open to a strike.
To throw a lead hook, you’re basically going to hook your fist around your opponent or the bag in a semicircle, hence the name. “Think like your opponent has their hands up in front of them, and if you throw a straight punch, they’ll block it,” Richey says. “If you throw kind of a circular punch, you’re going around their hands in order to get to them.”
For this one, your fist will be coming at the bag from the side. Your elbow should be at about shoulder height or a little bit below shoulder height, and your fist should be in line with that. “It’s almost like you could put a tray on top of your arm in that position and the tray wouldn’t fall over,” Richey says. Your palm will be facing you instead of facing down as it did in the previous punches.
Richey notes that some people opt to execute this punch with their palms down, but that keeping your palm toward you helps ensure that you hit the bag with your whole fist and don’t just clip it with your pinky knuckle and risk hurting your fingers.
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How to Throw an Uppercut
The final basic punch is an uppercut, most often done with your rear hand. For an uppercut, your hand will drop away from your face, down a little bit toward the belly—but not too low.
“A lot of people drop their hand too low, and you know what they’re about to do,” Richey says. “That’s what they call telegraphing your punches.”
Just drop your hand slightly, then it’s similar to a hook in concept, but instead of coming around the body, you’re coming from underneath. Lower your rear hand down, then make a straight line from belly to chin right in front of you.
Those are the four basic punches that you can use as you work into shadowboxing and bag work.
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Shadowboxing Basics
Shadowboxing can be a great workout. Keyword: can. But if you’re not doing it properly, you won’t understand what the hype is all about or why it’s considered a great cardio workout.
It’s a simple concept, and you don’t need to be overly concerned with the combos you’re throwing as a beginner. To make sure you get a good workout in, the more important aspect is getting your body involved. Throwing punches without involving the rest of the body is a common rookie mistake.
“If you’re just moving your arms, then you’re not moving your body,” Richey says. “And if you want to burn calories, moving your arms is not the best way to do it. Major muscle groups are how you get the cardio aspect, because they’re a lot larger and they consume more oxygen to burn more calories.”
To get the rest of your body involved, you can change the levels of your punches by squatting down and back up and making sure you really rotate your torso into your strikes. Another aspect that comes into play is stopping those punches, particularly in shadowboxing.
“If you throw a hard, fast punch, you’re also responsible for stopping it,” Richey says. “So there’s work that goes into decelerating a punch. In a fight that’s called pulling your punches, but you have to pull your punches in shadowboxing, otherwise you can hyperextend your arm and hurt yourself.”
Finally, make sure you’re moving your feet, shifting your weight between legs and hopping back and forth. Those aspects make it a total-body workout that’s safe for anyone to try, and it takes minimal space.
If you want to train like a true boxer, you can try doing full three-minute rounds of shadowboxing with one-minute “breaks” in-between. By breaks, we mean conditioning—popular options are core work like jackknives, planks, or crunches, or bodyweight moves like squats to keep your heart rate up and work different muscle groups.
