Boxing Training Warm Up – Emilio Correa
The warm up for boxing training, as with any training, is absolutely vital.
Even before a session of shadow boxing, a fighter needs to have increased the heart rate, blood flow and muscle temperature. A good warm up before training results in reduced muscle stiffness, critical for boxers who are training two or three times a day.
Warming up before training also reduces the risk of injury in the early stages of your work out and puts you in the right frame of mind to achieve the best possible results for your efforts.
The real beauty of a warm up before training is that it can add more than the benefits described above. Incorporating boxing training drills into the warm up (or for that matter at any point in the session) also offers dramatic improvements in suppleness, co-ordination and balance.
I am always looking for ways to develop useful boxing-specific drills to use in the gym, and I happened to have found a video that I’m sure you’ll find useful.
Check out Cuban Middleweight star and Olympic Silver Medalist Emilio Correa going through his warm down – yep, you read right, this is actually a warm down.
However, it can be used just as well as a warm up.
Some really cool boxing training drills here. What stands out to me most though is that the principle of pushing from one foot to the other is fully evident throughout the session. This principle of explosive movement from one foot to another is key in boxing, the difference between top class fighters and the rest!
Check out Mr Correa’s warm down, it’s just very, very cool!
If you want to check out some footwork basics, go to the Boxing Skills – Footwork page.
Any thoughts on the Cuban warm down/footwork drills? Let me know by posting below.
Cheers
Fran
by 
Beautiful, relaxed, fluid movement. And those spicy dance steps were the icing on the cake.
Poetry in motion Jacob.
Hello Fran,I have to thank you for digging this clip up.I came across it some time ago on You Tube and thought what an excellent routine it was but of course forgot who and where it was straightaway and never found my way back to it.We do a lot of footwork training working up and down a line that we have on the floor.We like to get the boys moving forward,backwards,left and right,pivoting each way off the center line, etc.It certainly doesn’t suit alot of today’s kids but that was the way we were taught to do it and I think it is a sound way to get the hang of smoothly tranfering weight from one foot to the other as they need to do when moving in different directions.I really enjoy the site Fran,you are doing a great job.Good luck.
Regards
Terry
You’re right Terry, and I think that the kind of drills that you use are used extensively across the boxing world. In fact, I was pointed to a short clip of Chinese amateurs training, and they were doing exactly what you are. And let’s face it, the Chinese are producing some outstanding amateurs.
Thanks Terry, appreciate you taking the time to comment.
Fran,
I like just about anything the Cubans do when it comes to amateur boxing. In short, I think it was great but I believe that it was a ‘cool down’ not a “warm-up” as you describe it. You can see Emillo taking off his handwraps as he goes through his routine. When he finishes he bumps an onlooker goodbye and leaves the gym! Having said that, I think it would work fine as either a warm-up or a cool down routine. I’m definitely going to use for my boxers.
Kind Regards
Hawkeye
Hawkeye indeed!
I hadn’t really taken notice of the hand wraps so you are spot on, this is being used as a ‘cool down’ as you know it, or a ‘warm down’ on this side of the pond. But I agree, great for either really.
Thanks Ric, well spotted.