Boxing
training program
Carry knockout power into the championship rounds — explosive hips, tireless shoulders and a chin-protecting neck.
Your first month is free, with nothing to pay today. Then A$24.99/month, cancel any time. On the App Store and Google Play.
Train Smart’s boxing program is a complete weekly strength and conditioning plan periodised around your camp or competition block rather than a month of the year. It trains punching power, round-after-round engine and shoulder endurance, fits around your technical training, prescribes a weight in kilos for every working set, and retests you every four weeks on Max push-ups and Standing vertical jump, plus the conditioning benchmark your running plan is built around.
Why this program exists
Roadwork and the bag are not a strength program, and lifting like a bodybuilder makes you slow and heavy for no return in the ring.
Power that survives into the championship rounds is the whole brief: explosive hips, shoulders that do not fold in round eight, a rotational core, and a neck trained to take what lands. The conditioning is built in rounds, not kilometres, and the testing battery measures the round you stop holding output — not how far you can jog.
A default boxing week
This is the sport’s own template — the starting point before it is fitted to your days, your equipment and your season. Team nights and game day are protected; everything else moves to the days you are free.
What boxing is won with
These are the qualities the program is built to develop, in priority order. They come from the sport, not from a generic template.
- Punching power
- Round-after-round engine
- Shoulder endurance
- Rotational core power
- Neck + jaw durability
| Session | Type | Duration | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Punch Power + Legs | Gym | 55–65 min | Explosive hips + knockout power |
| Round Conditioning | Conditioning | 35–45 min | Repeat 3-minute efforts |
| Boxing / Sparring | Skills | — | Ring work |
| Pull, Trunk + Neck | Gym | 45–55 min | Shoulder endurance + chin protection |
| Aerobic Roadwork | Conditioning | 35–50 min | Recover between rounds + sessions |
The season changes the program
Combat sports have no calendar season, so the app periodises around your camp instead of around a month of the year.
- Pre-season
- Fight camp — set volume ×1.2. Build the engine and the strength base.
- In-season
- Competing — set volume ×0.7, prescribed weights hold. Maintain, don’t drain.
- Off-season
- Between camps — baseline volume. Rebuild general strength and fix the niggles.
- Block structure
- Four-week blocks: three weeks accumulating, one week deload. The block’s character changes across the year rather than repeating.
- Game day
- Protected. The day before gets a 20-minute explosive primer with no running, no heavy legs and no prehab block bolted on.
The boxing testing battery
Five numbers, re-run every four weeks. Chosen to match what boxing programs actually measure — and the results re-price your training weights and reset your conditioning paces.
| Test | Measures | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| 2km time trial | The aerobic benchmark your program is built around. | mm:ss |
| Max push-ups | Pressing endurance and trunk control with no kit required. | reps |
| Weighted chin-up 3RM | Pulling strength once bodyweight has stopped being a challenge. | kg added |
| Standing vertical jump | Lower-body power in its purest form, and the cheapest fatigue check you own. | cm |
| Back squat 1RM | The base of every lower-body quality you have. | kg |
What is actually in a boxing program
Every movement below appears in the sessions above, with the coaching cues the app shows you, the sets and reps it is prescribed at, and ranked alternatives if you cannot do it. The weight is calculated from your own last top set.
| Movement | Appears in | Why it is there | Trains |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chest-Supported Row | Pull, Trunk + Neck | Upper-back strength to balance thousands of punches — posture for the guard | Back · Biceps |
| Incline DB Press | Pull, Trunk + Neck | Upper strength for shielding the ball | Chest · Triceps |
| Plate Neck Iso Hold (4-way) | Pull, Trunk + Neck | A stronger neck reduces the head acceleration behind contact injuries, and an isometric hold is how it is safely loaded | Neck |
| Weighted Dip | Pull, Trunk + Neck | Heavy pressing that loads the triceps and lower chest together | Chest · Triceps |
| Weighted Pull-Up | Pull, Trunk + Neck | Wrestle + grip strength | Back · Biceps |
| Wrist Extensor Eccentric — end-range hold | Pull, Trunk + Neck | The wrist and forearm loaded eccentrically — the only thing shown to fix a stubborn tennis elbow, and the joint every hand-plant and stick sport punishes | Forearms |
| Depth Jump | Punch Power + Legs | Reactive spring off the floor — the bounce of a fighter on the balls of the feet. The pros’ most-served jump | Quads · Glutes · Calves |
| Front Squat | Punch Power + Legs | Quad and trunk strength in the upright posture sport actually loads | Quads · Glutes |
| Landmine Press | Punch Power + Legs | Pressing power on the punching line | Shoulders |
| Loaded 90/90 — hold each side | Punch Power + Legs | Internal and external hip rotation held at end range — the range that runs out first in cutting sports | Glutes |
| Loaded Thoracic Rotation Hold | Punch Power + Legs | Rotation range from the mid-back rather than the low back — the difference between a shoulder that turns and a lumbar spine that pays for it | Back |
| MB Rotational Slam | Punch Power + Legs | The hip rotation behind a heavy cross + hook | Abs / Core · Glutes · Shoulders |
| Neck Harness Eccentric Lower | Punch Power + Legs | Eccentric neck strength, which is what actually resists the head being moved for you — the collision-code version of a Nordic | Neck |
| Rear-Foot-Elevated Shuffle | Punch Power + Legs | Quick feet in a split stance — wakes up the footwork before the jumps | Quads · Glutes |
| Trap Bar Deadlift | Punch Power + Legs | Foundational power output | Hamstrings · Glutes · Back |
| Trap Bar Jump | Punch Power + Legs | A loaded jump — peak power output with no barbell skill to learn first | Quads · Glutes · Calves |
Staying available
The prehab block is matched to the region of the session it sits in and to the tissue this sport actually punishes — not a generic mobility flow bolted to the front.
Prehab only works if it happens, and the reason it usually does not is that it has nothing to do with the session it is attached to. Rotating a pool by session number puts shoulder work before a squat day and Copenhagen planks before a bench press. Technically covered; nobody does it.
In Train Smart each movement is classified by the region it protects and matched to the session, and the pool rotates across the week so you cover all of it rather than doing the same three moves three times.
More on prehab that people actually do →
What the free month covers, and what comes after
The first month is one complete four-week block — three building weeks and a deload. The first retest comes after that block, and it is the first time the program measures what your training did.
- Week 1
- Testing session on the boxing battery. Your starting weights and paces come from it.
- Weeks 1–3
- The first block builds. Hit your reps and the weight goes up on its own.
- Week 4
- Deload — the week the previous three become fitness.
- Week 5
- Retest. The results re-price your weights and reset your conditioning paces.
- Weeks 5–8
- Block two changes shape, priced from the top sets you just did and the numbers you just tested.
Boxing training questions
What does the Train Smart boxing program include?
When is boxing pre-season?
Can I follow this program if I only train twice a week?
What tests does the boxing program use?
Do I need a full gym?
Get your boxing program
Pick boxing, answer eight questions, and your week is built — around your team nights, your game and the days you can actually train.
Your first month is free, with nothing to pay today. Then A$24.99/month, cancel any time. On the App Store and Google Play.
- Install itFree to download on iPhone and Android.
- Tell it how you playYour sport, your season, the nights you train and the kit you have. No account needed.
- See your week, then start freeYour program is built before you pay anything. Start the free month to unlock it, and cancel any time in your store settings.