This 20-Minute At-Home Boxing Workout Will Help You Blow Off Steam

Boxing is the perfect exercise for building strength and getting rid of stress. But while it may look intuitive, proper technique is essential for getting the most out of your workout while protecting your joints. 

Mona Laviñia Garcia, a founding trainer at Rumble Boxing, gave Health a 20-minute boxing lesson you can do from your living room.

Benefits of Boxing

Boxing is a form of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) that can improve your cardio fitness, upper body strength, and core stability.

Those high-intensity workouts train the body to produce and use energy efficiently. Research shows that HIIT workouts, like boxing, burn many calories while exercising.

And even after you're done working out, you continue to burn calories. Also known as post-exercise oxygen consumption, your body works to return to your resting conditions after exercising. And as your body replaces energy and repairs muscle proteins damaged during exercise, it burns calories.

In one study published in 2015 in BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation, nineteen individuals with abdominal obesity found boxing training more effective for losing weight and improving cardiovascular health than an equivalent dose of brisk walking.

There are also benefits involving balance. Boxing requires coordination and quick reflexes and offers a balance challenge as you duck and roll. Research has found that virtual or in-person boxing training methods can improve the balance and cognitive functions of people who previously had strokes.

Who Should Avoid Boxing

Boxing can place significant stress on your joints and muscles. So, it may be helpful to speak with a healthcare provider if you have specific injuries, particularly to your back, shoulders, or wrists before beginning a boxing regimen.

The 20-Minute At-Home Boxing Workout

Laviñia Garcia's workout consists of five rounds, including the warm-up round. Each round includes three minutes of work, followed by one minute of active recovery. Active recovery means you continue moving your body to keep your heart rate elevated and prepare for the next round of work.

Here's what you need to know about how to maintain proper form and movement before starting the workout:

• Get started with your feet hip-width apart.
• Square up into a boxer's stance.
• Step your dominant foot back a step. Right-handed people will step their right foot back, and left-handed people will step their left foot back.
• Shift your weight back and forth between your legs, staying on the balls of your feet, which helps you move throughout the workout quickly and easily.
• For your upper body, bring your arms up so your elbows are tucked near your rib cage while your hands are balled into fists at either side of your face. Your dominant hand will be your "back hand," while your non-dominant hand will be your "front hand." The routine involves front-hand and back-hand punches, so it's important to remember your front and back hand as you move through the workout.

Six Basic Punches

Before you start working through the boxing moves, Laviñia Garcia demonstrated six basic punch techniques. Keep your knees bent and stay on the balls of your feet as you move throughout the following punches.

Jab

• Your front hand will come forward into a straight punch, with your knuckles facing the ceiling and your thumb facing slightly downward.
• Your backhand will remain in starting position, with your elbow tucked to your ribcage and your fist near your chin.
• Reset by returning your front hand to starting position.

Cross Jab

• Like the jab, the cross jab involves extending your backhand in front of your face.
• This time, twist your body to bring your backhand forward, pivoting your body.
• Reset by returning your backhand to starting position.

Front Hook

• Bring your front arm around in a hook-like shape.
• Pivot your front foot as you turn your hips inward and cross your arm over.
• Bring your front arm back to reset when your elbow aligns with your shoulder.

Back Hook

• Pivot your back foot as you make the same hook-like shape with your back arm.
• Turn your back hip inward as you flow through the motion
• Once your elbow aligns with your shoulder, bring your arm back in to reset.

Front Uppercut

• Bring your arm in a similar, hook-like position. However, drop your front arm and bring it back up towards you rather than around in front of you.
• Keep your palm facing your torso.

Back Uppercut

• Bring your back arm down and around with the same stance as the front uppercut.
• This time, pivot your back foot and twist your hips forward as you send your back arm to the front of the room.

Round 1: Warm-Up

• Start with a warm-up, beginning with basic jumping jacks. Then, switch into cross-jacks, crossing your arms on top of each other in front of your body as your legs cross beneath you.
• Next, move into fast high-knees before switching into butt-kickers, alternating each foot as you kick your heel to your butt.
• After the short cardio burst, move into a squat segment, ending with a squat-jump burst for 15 seconds.
• Finish the warm-up with a few more jumping jacks and high knees before cooling down with a boxer bounce from side to side.
  

Round 2: Test Out Your Punches

• Run through each of the six punches, starting with the front and cross jab. Keep your elbows close to your body through each move and speed up after each reset.
• After running through a couple of front and cross jabs, Laviñia Garcia included a front hook and reset after each set of punches.
• Add on a back hook, and repeat the four movements twice for practice.
• Once you've mastered that combination, switch out your hooks for uppercuts.
• Continue with a front and cross jab, then move into a front and back uppercut.
• Give that combination a few runs before moving forward.
• Put all six movements together and run through the series a few times.
• The final result should be in the following order: Front jab, cross jab, front hook, back hook, front uppercut, and back uppercut.

Active recovery: For the second round, your active recovery will be one minute long, alternating between four standard squats and four pop squats. For the pop squat, alternate touching the floor with each hand while in a squat. Jump to a stand between each movement.

Round 3: Duck Combinations

For the third round, you'll focus on duck combinations. Here's how to complete those moves:

• Start in your boxer's stance.
• From there, punch out a front and cross jab, then bend your knees and lower your torso slightly forward into a duck.
• Repeat that series a few times before moving on.
• For the following duck combination, you'll use a cross jab-front hook-cross jab pattern before returning to your starting position.
• Once you've nailed that move, put the two back-to-back. So, you'll perform the following pattern: Front jab-cross jab-duck, cross jab-front hook-cross jab, reset.
• Practice the following combination: Front upper cut-back upper cut-front hook.
• Once you have that series down, add onto your initial series so that you have the following pattern: Front jab-cross jab-duck, front upper cut-back upper cut-front hook.

Active recovery: Do two push-ups, followed by six mountain climbers. Try to complete as many as you can for one minute.

Round 4: Show What You Know

You've been practicing jabs throughout the entire workout. Now, show off what you've learned.

• Start by punching out three front jabs in a row, then resetting.
• Move on to alternating between front and cross jabs, doing two of each before resetting.
• Next, combine the two jab sequences you've just practiced so that your series looks like the following pattern: Front jab-cross jab-front jab-cross jab, front jab-front-jab-front-jab.
• Continue to add to that sequence by starting again with a front and cross jab, then adding a front hook followed by a final cross jab before resetting.
• Add a front and back hook at the end of that sequence.

Active recovery: Do jumping jacks for one full minute.

Round 5: The Final Round

• For the first 30 seconds of the final round, alternate between front and cross jabs, followed by front and back uppercuts.
• For the next 30 seconds, add in high knees as you run through that movement, punching out your jabs and uppercuts as you alternate, raising each knee as high as possible.
• For your final 30 seconds, rotate through two front and cross jabs before dropping down to a push-up position and pushing up twice.
• Rotate through that series twice.  
• Lastly, don't forget to congratulate yourself for completing the workout.

A Quick Review

Laviñia Garcia created this 20-minute at-home workout to give you five rounds of the best of boxing.

Boxing is a high-intensity workout that can improve your cardio fitness, build strength in your upper body, improve your core stability, and help with balance. You don't need a boxing gym for all those benefits.