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The Minimalist Boxer: Maximum Power, Minimize Gym Time

Does this sound familiar? ​
"Lifting is a waste of time"
"I'm always f-in exhausted, drilling, working, meal prep"
"I'm a boxer, any time I've got I'll spend boxing to become the best"
Those were my excuses for not lifting.

Guess what?

Thats why I was always injured. That dull nagging pain after throwing hooks, ankles twisting when I got tired, radiating ache in my neck after sparring.

I was always held back in training. Couldn't perform at my best. Could never train hard enough to fight.

The problem?

Most amateur boxers juggle training with work, family, and life. You're already sore, fatigued and tired from hours of drilling & sparring.

Doing hundreds of crunches, and push ups makes you feel even stiffer
Doing push, pull, legs makes you too sore to train.
Bodybuilder and powerlifter workouts takes hours.

These workouts are not for boxers.
​92.3% of internet advise come from people who've never stepped in the ring before. Doing those workouts will make you stiffer, MORE tired, unable to box and slow down your progress.

Ditch the old-school approach to strength and conditioning.
Long, grueling workouts are counterproductive.
It leads to fatigue, injuries, and neglecting your boxing skills.
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This is why you spend hours grinding in the gym, feel exhausted all the time, and still don't see results in the ring.

It's time for a better way.

A way to build fight-winning power and durability without killing yourself in the gym

A way to actually enjoy your training, stay fresh for your technical work, and still have a life outside of boxing.

Optimizing efficiency doesn't mean sacrificing gains. It means you GET better with LESS time and MORE energy for things that matter most.

My solution? Supersets and tri sets

Supersets are exercises done back to back, or with minimal rest.

Research indicates that supersets nearly halved workout duration compared to traditional sets while still improving strength in multi-joint exercises like leg press and bench press. (Iversen et al., 2024).

Compound supersets produced similar muscle strength and endurance gains as traditional sets, while improving workout efficiency (White, 2011).

The Boxer's Tri-Set System: Build Power, Strength & Mobility in under 1 hour

Tri-sets are 3 exercises grouped together. These exercises are completed in sequence. They are completed with either no rest or up to 90 seconds of rest in between exercises . Think of tri sets like lego pieces. They are the building blocks of your workout sessions

Time is a boxer's most valuable asset. You can't afford to spend hours in the gym doing useless exercises. These are 3 tri-sets you can integrate into your training.

Tri set 1: Joint Armour and Movement Prep

Improve your range of motion, reduce the risk of injury, and prime your body for intense training, allowing you to move fluidly during the fight. Here is an example tri set that can be used for building mobility or robustness to help bulletproof your joints.

Tri set 2: The Complete Boxer

Amplify Your Punch. Develop explosive power, build functional strength, and enhance the mobility you need to slip, weave, pivot, and punch from any angle. This is the tri-set that does it all:

Boxers need to be strong, powerful, and mobile. Being strong but stiff just makes you a big punching bag. This tri-set template can be used for the entire body: upper, core or lower body. It covers all the desired qualities to help a boxer perform. Strength to clinch, grapple and dominate your opponents at in-fighting range. Mobility so you can slip, weave pivot and punch from any angle. Power for hard hitting punches and explosive footwork.

Side note: Do a lower, upper & core tri set - do 2 - 3 sets of each - BAM there you have it, a full body session

Tri set 3: The Minimalist's Way

This is a Super minimalist tri-set I run when I'm super short on time, or feeling extremely fatigued sparring or drills. It gets you the minimum effective dose required for building strength, without totally draining you - so you wont get injured.

Even for trained, experienced powerlifters 3–6 sets of 1–5 reps per week at >80% 1RM spread over 1–3 sessions was the minimum effective dose (Androulakis-Korakakis et al., 2021).

For boxers less seasoned in the gym, this amount of work is MORE than enough strength and robustness that translates into the ring. ANY amount of lifting will go a long way in building a combat ready body.

Summary:

The way workouts are structured can drastically improve your results, with LESS excessive fatigue. You still HAVE to train HARD & with INTENSITY. But it's about putting the right effort, in the right places in the right amounts.

Enjoyed this article? Hit reply and tell me what you found most helpful! Let me know if you have any other questions too!

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Chua Rui Yan | The Boxing PT ​Instagram / Threads / Schedule a 1 - 1 ​ Outsmart - Outbox - Outperform

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