Boxing 101

Train like a boxer, not a bodybuilder. Build strength, power, speed, conditioning, and durability without letting supplemental training take over the skill work that matters most.Boxing 101: Strength & Conditioning is a practical, boxing-first guide to physical preparation for beginner and intermediate boxers, amateur competitors, serious recreational fighters, and coaches. Instead of treating lifting, running, and conditioning as separate goals, Alberto Robles shows you how to organize them around boxing so they support sharper movement, repeat-effort power, better recovery, and more consistent training.Inside, you will learn how to:• Put boxing skill first and recognize when lifting or conditioning is beginning to interfere with technique, timing, footwork, or recovery.• Build useful strength through movement patterns including squats, hinges, pushes, pulls, split-stance work, carries, and trunk control.• Develop lower-body strength through squat, split, hinge, and posterior-chain training without chasing unnecessary fatigue.• Improve upper-body strength and shoulder and upper-back durability for repeated punching and defensive work.• Train trunk strength, bracing, anti-movement control, and rotational force transfer.• Develop rotational power and lower-body explosiveness with medicine-ball work, jumps, and other low-volume power methods.• Use sprinting and acceleration work to develop speed while keeping true speed training separate from fatigue-based conditioning.• Build an aerobic base for recovery between exchanges, rounds, and demanding training sessions.• Add anaerobic and repeat-effort conditioning without overwhelming your boxing schedule.• Use boxing-specific conditioning, roadwork, jump rope, bag intervals, circuits, and shadowboxing with clear training objectives.• Develop practical mobility for the ankles, hips, thoracic spine, and shoulders instead of chasing extreme flexibility.• Organize neck work, mobility, and warm-ups so they prepare the body without creating unnecessary fatigue.• Monitor recovery and fatigue so you know when to push, reduce volume, or move demanding sessions farther apart.• Combine boxing and lifting through sample weekly schedules designed to protect your most important skill sessions.• Follow an eight-week general preparation plan that progresses from movement and strength foundations into power, conditioning, and more boxing-specific work.This book takes a conservative, evidence-informed approach. No program can guarantee knockout power, injury prevention, or a specific performance outcome. Instead, the goal is to give you principles, decision rules, and adaptable templates that help you make smarter choices based on your training load, recovery, and boxing performance.Strength and conditioning should make you a better boxer-not simply a stronger lifter or a more exhausted athlete.Train the body. Protect the skill. Build physical preparation that serves your boxing.