Boxing with resistance bands can be useful for your whole skillset!
Many boxers use them to train their punches, but resistance bands can help develop your range and footwork as well.
Keep reading so you can add resistance band training into your boxing workout!
Resistance Band Exercises For Boxers
Here are three exercises you can do with resistance bands to improve your boxing:
- Shadowboxing With Resistance Bands
- Exploding Forward
- Lateral Footwork
We have a different view on resistance bands than most boxers who use them.
Many boxers only use resistance bands to train their arms, but here we hope to show that you don’t only have to do resistance training focused on your arms.
You can also use the resistance band around your waist to train your explosiveness or around your ankles to train your footwork.
Though these exercises shouldn’t replace your main training, they work great if you want to mix up your routine once in a while.
Shadowboxing With Resistance Bands
First, use resistance bands when you shadowbox.
For this, you’ll need bands with handles.
Grip each handle and let the band run around your back to provide tension, then shadowbox as you usually would.
Work on fully extending your arms and bringing them back to your face, no matter if you’re throwing slow or fast punches.
You’ll have to keep your body tight and bring your hands back to your face if you want to move smoothly.
If you have loose elbows every time you throw a punch, you’ll feel no resistance from the band. This will force you to keep your elbows tight against your body.
Once you get used to the tension of single punches, work on your combinations.
Remember that punching is a whole-body movement; just because you’re holding a resistance band doesn’t mean that you should only focus on the arms when throwing a punch.
Exploding Forward
Next, explode forward with the band around your waist.
For this, put a longer resistance band around your waist and a stationary object like a pole.
Leap forward with a power jab and let the band return you to your original position.
It also helps if you have someone holding focus mitts just outside of your range, so you can work on your timing, speed, and precision.
This exercise will teach you to leap into the pocket, land your combo, and get out of range of your opponent’s attack.
Lateral Footwork
Lastly, practice lateral footwork with the band around your legs.
This will help you to focus on the basics of boxing footwork.
We’ve found that this exercise is especially helpful for boxers who tend to cross their feet whenever they move laterally.
With the band around your ankles, take a small step with your lead foot, and the band will force your back foot to follow.
Take a small step back with your rear foot, and the band will force your front foot to follow.
If you let the band go slack, it means your feet are too close together. On the other hand, if the band gives too much resistance, it means your feet are too far apart.
This will fix your boxing stance and force you to take small steps instead of big steps.
Advantages of Using A Resistance Band
The advantages of using resistance bands while training for boxing include:
- Resistance Bands Tone Your Arms and Build Muscular Endurance
- Resistance Bands Give You A Faster First Step
- Resistance Bands Can Fix Your Boxing Stance
While many people only focus on the effect of resistance bands on the arms, they also have benefits for your core and legs too.
Resistance Bands Tone Your Arms and Build Muscular Endurance
First, using resistance bands while boxing will tone arms and build muscular endurance.
The extra resistance will make it harder for you to punch, and will put tension on your forearms, biceps, and shoulders.
After training with resistance bands, you’ll find that your arms have more endurance.
However, to gain this benefit, you’ll have to use proper technique first.
While resistance bands can tone your arm muscles, research shows that training with them doesn’t mean that you will punch harder or faster.
Resistance Bands Give You A Faster First Step
Next, using resistance bands while boxing will help you get a faster first step.
When the band is around the waist, it will test your core strength and force you to explode forward and stay balanced when the band pulls you back.
After training with resistance bands, you’ll be able to leap into the pocket faster to land your combination and back out to dodge your opponent’s counters.
Resistance Bands Can Fix Your Boxing Stance
Lastly, using resistance bands will help fix your boxing stance.
If you trip over your feet in the ring or if you have trouble with lateral movement, training with resistance bands will help you feel more grounded with your footwork.
When you take a step forward, the resistance band will force your back foot to follow, and vice-versa.
If you like to move around the ring, keeping the resistance band around your ankles will keep your lateral movement and pivots light and tight.
Conclusion
Now that you’ve learned about these simple resistance band exercises and their benefits, we hope that you’ll add them into your boxing training.
Using resistance bands while boxing can be beneficial if done properly.
It should be a supplement to your routine and shouldn’t replace your core training.
Most of the time you should be doing shadowboxing without resistance bands. If you always shadowbox with resistance bands, it’ll affect your form negatively.
For an extra challenge, try using a resistance band for your arms while keeping another resistance band around your ankles. This will test your arms and footwork at the same time.
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