3 Glute-Strengthening Exercises For Boxing

When it comes to boxing, there are a number of important muscles in the body that are used during workouts. Some of the biggest, yet lesser-known, muscles to develop in order to increase your boxing strength are the glutes.

What Are The Glutes?

The glutes are a set of three (3) muscles: the gluteus minimus, the gluteus medius, and the gluteus maximus. When referring to the glutes collectively, one is referring to all three of these muscles.

The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in your body. It keeps the base of your body straight and helps your posture in line. Your glute muscles extend from your pelvis to the femur and are responsible for keeping your base strong.

Many boxers have common questions such as:

• Which muscles does boxing build?

• Does boxing build glutes?

• How do boxers use their glutes?

• How do boxers build their glutes?

Your glutes are some of the strongest and most important muscles in your body. Learning how this muscle group is used in your boxing workouts, as well as how to build them up, will help you become a powerful boxer.

Why Should You Train Your Glute Muscles?

As a boxer, training your glute muscles is important to your overall strength. Much of the power you generate with your strikes come from your base and requires powerful glutes.

Muscles in your legs help power the rotation that occurs when you throw a punch. Your glute muscles are not only the biggest muscles in your body, but they are the largest muscles in your hip. They are responsible for generating the power for your strike through torque motion, making them important muscle groups to train.

Anybody can train their glutes, but the key thing to remember is that the glutes are not just one muscle, but three. Properly training this muscle group is about targeting the entire region with strengthening exercises. Building your glute strength for boxing can help you take your training to the next level, and can be done with some of the exercises below.

Exercise #1: Squat Jumps

• Stand with your feet spread shoulder-width apart

• Slowly lower yourself into a squat, making sure your knees don’t extend past your toes

• From the bottom of your squat, while on the balls of your feet, explode upward in a jump

• Reach your arms above your head when you jump to reach maximum extension

• Repeat

For an added challenge and boxing workout, shift into your boxing stance and throw a simple jab - cross punch combo before dropping into another squat. If you’re not used to training with squats, start slow with a normal squat and move into the jump only when you are comfortable.

Exercise #2: Glute Bridge

How do boxers build their glutes? The glute bridge. MMA fighters swear by this exercise since it engages the entire gluteal region.

• Start by laying on the ground face up with your knees bent at a 90-degree angle and your feet flat on the floor

• Keep your arms flat on the ground by sides with your palms down

• Lift your hips off the ground until your shoulders, hips, and knees make a straight line

• Hold the position for a few seconds before releasing and slowly dropping your hips back down to the ground

• Repeat

With this exercise, it’s important to focus on engaging your glutes by squeezing them as you lift. Ensure that you aren’t pressing into the ground with your arms, as you want your glute muscles to power the rising motion.

To avoid pressing into the ground, rotate your arms so that your palms are facing the sky.

Exercise #3: Side Plank Lifts

• Prop yourself up on your left arm forearm

• Keep your left leg firmly on the ground with your knee bent at roughly a 45-degree angle

• Put your right leg directly on top of your left in the same position

• For added balance in this exercise, place your right arm on your right hip

• Engage your hips and glutes and lift your body off the ground just until your left thigh lifts up, but be sure to keep your calf and left foot on the ground

• Simultaneously, while keeping your left and right feet touching, lift your right knee up toward the ceiling by engaging the glute muscles

• Lower your body and repeat

• Switch sides and follow the same exercise

Be sure to engage your glute muscles the entire time when doing these exercises. It can be tempting to use your thighs or arms for the lifting motion, but properly training your glutes means you have to use them. To help bring more power to your strikes and strengthen your glutes, add these movements to your FightCamp workouts by completing 5 to 10 repetitions of each exercise per day.

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