Boxing and Kickboxing drills make for a fantastic workout while learning the technical foundations of ring and/or street fighting. It’s great for attributes development such as body mechanics, speed, explosive mobility, coordination, agility, perception, accuracy, mental focus and proper breathing for power generation. There is also the great calorie burn of such a workout and the development of lean muscle mass.
Consider the physiques of such legends as Bruce Lee and Muhammad Ali and there is no question.

Clients learn the important difference between skills and abilities. Your abilities are what drive your skills. For example, your strikes (skill) can be trained to be faster (speed ability). The other exercise pages of this web site focus more on abilities while this page focuses more on the development of certain skills. The two are very much intertwined and different exercises will have different degrees of each. Many of the exercises demonstrated in the “Maximum Power” page have more skills development associated with them than those demonstrated in the “Strength & Stability” page and the “Yoga & Flexibility” page. It’s just a matter of what your goals are, what you may be interested in, and what you are physically capable of at the time of training.

You also get great stabilizer function here, since every punch you throw will have body mechanics (hip torque and trunk rotation) behind it, which causes you to shift your body weight into the strikes increasing your punching power by at least 25%. This is what good training of the all important twist pattern can provide. Good balance is also required to throw powerful strikes and I am a stickler when it comes to the basics of keeping that sternum raised, those hands up in front of the chin and constantly in motion, those legs loose but stable and the mind relaxed. The self-defense applications are obvious. Benefits from your functional strength training program will really become apparent when you are being technically trained to perform boxing or kickboxing maneuvers. It can all really come together with this kind of activity.

If however, the fighter training is going to be performed in conjunction with a strength routine on the same day, then it should be performed prior to the strength workout. This is because strength training will cause muscle and neural fatigue, which will greatly hinder your performance and results from an explosive/combative-type workout. However, something more energizing such as Yoga, Tai Chi, or another meditative mind-body session, will work just fine before boxing or kickboxing, because of its energizing and relaxation qualities. With the mind more relaxed the body can respond better. Alertness can be sharpened and the postural training from Yoga can guarantee that. To learn more about posture read “The Importance of Posture” article on this site.

I’ve used boxing and kickboxing drills with clients who showed up to sessions stressed out usually from work or business. It allows them to channel that energy in a healthy manner instead of locking it up inside, which can have all kinds of negative health effects both emotionally and physically. It is a type of training that is available to clients should they choose it at any point during our time together.