Out of the Comfort Zone... Thursday, April 26

Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results so to NOT BE insane you must do something different. You have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, try something new, switch things up. Here are some of my tips for training out of your comfort zone when it comes to boxing.

My tips for boxing...

1. Train with a weighted vest or sauna suit on.

2. Warm-up with a few rounds of non-stop agility ladder footwork.

3. Learn some new footwork steps for the agility ladder.

4. Add narrow and sumo squat jumps to your agility ladder footwork.

5. Use the agility ladder to do side-walking planks.

6. Add gym sprint laps to your warm-up.

7. Learn how to hit the speed bag or learn a new advanced hitting techniques.

8. Counting how many times you hit it in 30 seconds and then have that as a goal to beat.

9. Try a speed bag strength exercise where you punch the speed bag as hard as you can and then count how many times it hits the backboard. Whatever the number is, punch the bag 10 times with each arm and aim to get that number of backboard hits with every punch. Then try to up how many times it hits the backboard and repeat till the round ends.

10. Learn how to hit the double end bag. Start with simple straight jabs and then work up to combos. 

11. Use small hand weights when shadow boxing.

12. Tie a hand wrap to 2 poles and do weaving exercises. 

13. Once you have the basic weaving down, try adding a simple jab and then build up to throwing combos.

14. Try skipping with ankle or wrist weights on.

15. Try out new styles of skipping, like knee highs and double jumps.

16. Try to skip for 2 straight minutes. If you fumble, your 2 minutes start again.

17. Whatever exercise you’re doing, make sure you don’t stop till the round bell rings -- do the full round. If you fumble or cut it short, give yourself “make-up exercises”, like 10 push-ups during the rest time.

18. Perform active rests, like hold a plank or do squats in between rounds.

19. If you’re Orthadox, try to box South Paw or vise versa.

20. Try boxing with a heavier ounce glove.