There are few sports where the way a team or athlete wins is almost as important as the result itself. Boxing is one of them.
Look at a fighter’s record and it will tell you their total number of wins, losses and – in rare cases – draws. But accompanying these figures is a bonus detail: how many of their victories came about via knockout.
This eventuality is a result of myriad factors falling perfectly into place: skill, speed, timing, power, execution, aggression, and more. An athlete’s physicality is also key to consider, and Matchroom boxing’s head of performance Dan Lawrence says this factor can be developed through carefully structured strength and conditioning protocols.
“An exercise is a means to drive a physiological adaptation,” he tells me. “To target power, we need exercises that maximise power output and rate of force development.”
These are his three favourites for developing explosive punching power.
Medicine ball punch release
Sets: 2 Reps: 3-5 each side
Note: “Focus on speed, intent and power – this is not conditioning so do not induce fatigue,” Lawrence advises.
– Stand roughly six feet away from a wall then stand side on to the wall holding a medicine ball in both hands at chest height.
– Load the back hip, furthest from the wall, and dip your knee. From here, explosively rotate your torso and extend the arm furthest from the wall to push the medicine ball as powerfully as you can towards the wall.
– Reset and repeat.
Benefits of the medicine ball punch release
While strength and conditioning goes far beyond simply adding load to movements you would do within the target sport, this exercise offers impressive transferability to boxing.
“It mimics the rotational power needed for punches and gives a boxer a deeper understanding of the key components involved in throwing a shot – most notably the transfer of energy from foot to fist through the kinetic chain,” Lawrence says. “This involves a coordinated sequence of both joint movement and muscle activation.”
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He adds: “Starting from the floor with your feet pushing off the ground, you transfer force through the hips and use the core as a transfer centre before expressing this force through the arm and then the fist. This efficient energy transfer is crucial for generating explosive power in a punch.”
Lawrence also says it is imperative to include a small bend of the knee before throwing the medicine ball, as this utilises a process called the stretch shortening cycle (SSC) where a muscle is lengthened then quickly shortened.
“Think of this as a spring-like mechanism where the muscle lengthens under tension, storing elastic energy just like a spring,” he explains. “Then, the muscle shortens rapidly, releasing the stored elastic energy and producing a powerful contraction.
Trap bar jump (or substitute loaded jump)
Sets: 2-3 Reps: 3-5
Note: “The key focus is jumping with maximal intent on each repetition, then absorbing force and killing your landing,” says Lawrence. “There should be no sloppy reps; reset on each repetition and go all in with each jump. Research suggests that loading trap bar jumps with 30 to 40 per cent of an athlete’s one-rep max trap bar deadlift is optimal for developing strength-speed [the ability to move a moderately-heavy load as quickly as possible].”
– Stand inside the frame of a loaded trap bar or hex bar.
– Hinge down to grab the handles of the trap bar so your palms are facing inward, and your arms are extended in line with the middle of your feet.
– Keeping your chest up, shoulders back and core tight, drive through your midfoot to stand up explosively, jumping as high as you can at the top of the rep with your knees and hips extended – your legs and torso should form a straight line.
– Absorb the impact of the landing with your legs, then control the weight back down to the starting position and repeat.
– You can also complete this exercise with dumbbells, holding a weight in each hand.
Benefits of loaded jumps
Trap bar jumps develop both vertical and total-body power generation through triple extension – the simultaneous extension of the ankle, knee, and hip joints. This is a position often seen in boxers when throwing a powerful punch.
“This dynamic exercise improves force production, rate of force development and explosive power – all crucial for effective punching and overall boxing performance,” says Lawrence. “By enhancing a boxer’s rate of force development [how quickly they can generate force] it gives them the ability to generate force quickly, which is vital for delivering powerful punches.”
Lawrence also points to research linking an athlete’s performance in the trap bar jump to other metrics which correlate favourably to boxing ability, such as vertical jump height and acceleration.
“This indicates a positive transfer of training,” he says, “taking results from the gym and using them to improve in-ring performance, where it matters.”
Lawrence prefers this exercise to a loaded jump with a barbell on the back because he has found it encourages improved ‘kinetics and kinematics’, or movement quality. This allowed his athletes to execute the move with greater intent, and thus power, driving improved physiological adaptations.
Trap bar deadlift
Sets: 3-4 Reps: 3-5
Note: Lawrence prescribes using a weight that is 85 per cent or more of your one-rep max trap bar deadlift.
– Stand inside the frame of a loaded trap bar or hex bar.
– Hinge down to grab the handles of the trap bar so your palms are facing inward, and your arms are extended in line with the middle of your feet.
– Keeping your chest up, shoulders back and core tight, drive through your midfoot to stand up straight. Due to the heavier weight, this should not be as fast as the trap bar jump.
– Reverse this motion to control the weight back down to the starting position, then repeat.
Benefits of the trap bar deadlift
In exercise, there are many who believe strength is the foundation of everything. After all, you cannot perform a movement your body is not strong enough to physically tolerate.
For this reason, Lawrence finds it is important to establish a good baseline level of strength in his athletes, and there are few better exercises for achieving this than a heavy trap bar deadlift.
“Though strength conditioning and physical preparation is now a firm fixture in combat sports, lots of boxers have a relatively low training age,” he says. “This means their exposure to properly structured strength and conditioning is relatively low.
He adds: “Therefore, solely carrying out [explosive] exercises to target the right side of the force-velocity curve [a graph demonstrating the inverse relationship between force required and velocity generated in muscular contractions] would likely be better served with a foundation of basic strength.”
Maximal strength is the greatest amount of force your muscles can reduce. Developing this via low-rep, high-load compound exercises is a key component when ‘building the complete athlete’.
“The strength and power developed through the trap bar deadlift directly translates to improved punching power,” Lawrence says. “By building a strong foundation in the lower body and core, boxers can generate more force with each punch.
“I’ve found the trap bar allows for greater loads to be lifted, and this increased load can lead to greater maximal strength development and also contribute to an improved rate of force development, which is critical for punch power.”
This may sound obvious, but lifting heavy weights also teaches your body, brain and central nervous system how to do just that: lift heavy weights and generate large amounts of force.
“It increases the recruitment of motor units, particularly fast-twitch fibres, and improves the rate at which these fibres are activated, resulting in greater punch force and speed,” explains Lawrence.
Another benefit of the trap bar deadlift is that it places athletes in a favourable position.
“The trap bar is deemed a safer variation of the deadlift than a conventional deadlift with a lower technical component to coach,” Lawrence says. “The raised handles on a trap bar enable a more-upright stance, making it easier to maintain a neutral spine and keeping the scapula retracted. It also reduces spinal loading due to the trap bar enabling the boxer to position the weight closer to their centre of gravity.
He adds: “The typical boxer’s posture means they tend to present with a forward head and rounded shoulder position, so building posterior shoulder strength and stability is key. With the trap bar allowing for scapular retraction, this could be seen as a benefit.”
However, Lawrence says, one drawback of the move is it offers less posterior chain development than a conventional deadlift – a factor which can be the basis for powerlifting purists pushing people towards this more traditional lift. But given its many benefits, it’s still his top pick for boxers.
“I also use it when we target both strength-speed [moving moderate weights as fast as possible] with a trap bar triple extension, and speed-strength [moving at very high speed against the greatest load you can maintain this with] with a trap bar jump, so coaching the trap bar deadlift brings familiarity to the athlete for when we start surfing the force-velocity curve with other exercises.”
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