What Is Strength & Conditioning? | Boxing Training

Strength and conditioning training, at its core, is primarily focused on exercises that work to build and enhance an individual’s mobility, stability, endurance, power, speed, agility, and athletic performance, with the goal of improving the quality of your health. The terms strength and conditioning are used to describe fitness philosophies that can be applied to a variety of workout types, such as HIIT, yoga, weight lifting, and more.

In this article, we will discuss the differences between strength and conditioning, why this training is especially beneficial for boxers, how to add strength and conditioning training to your workout routine, and finally how you can access a full collection of specific strength and conditioning workouts through the FightCamp App.

What Are The Differences Between Strength and Conditioning?

Although usually used together to define a type of training, “strength and conditioning” encompasses two different methodologies. Many people assume that strength training is always heavyweight-based training and that conditioning has to be cardio-based. But there's more.

Strength Training

Strength-based training is used to develop or maintain an individual’s maximal strength. Simply put, strength training is the body’s ability to exert force and is typically any type of training that:

• Develops or maintains strength

• Increases power output

  • Power = force x distance / time (explosiveness)

Conditioning Training

Conditioning training is strength training for the heart and cardiovascular system with the goal of improving an individual’s work capacity. Conditioning training usually involves higher reps and less resistance, and it can include protocols like HIIT that have been proven to increase strength. Examples are:

• Boxing or kickboxing workouts

• LISS (low intensity steady state) cardio (e.g. running, swimming, etc.)

• HIIT (high-intensity interval training)

Why You Should Add Strength and Conditioning Training To Your Routine

Whether you're a professional boxer or a boxing training enthusiast, adding a well-designed strength and conditioning program to your workout routine has many benefits which will improve your life and your athletic performance. Here are some key reasons why you should add strength and conditioning training to your fitness routine.

Better Overall Health

Numerous studies have shown that implementing a fitness routine with strength and conditioning can improve cardiovascular health, improve body composition, stabilize blood sugars, and help lower the risk of other co-morbidities. Strength and conditioning training is a great way to start with a general fitness regimen that can promote better overall health.

Prevent Injury

One of the key principles of a proper strength and conditioning program is to prevent and reduce the risk of injury. By analyzing movement patterns and identifying irregularities, muscle imbalances, and muscle weaknesses, we can focus on strengthening these areas and teach the body better proprioception, or the body’s ability to sense movement, location, and action. Through proper strength and conditioning exercises we can improve coordination and balance, as well as help reduce the likelihood of falls and slips.

Improve Mental Health

Adding in strength and conditioning routines not only has great benefits for physical well-being, but also the mental health of an individual. These exercises increase serotonin levels and help boost confidence levels as the individual sees progress and results.

Increase Flexibility and Mobility (Posture)

Similar to injury prevention, because proper strength and conditioning protocols focus on improving muscle weaknesses and movement, individuals see increased flexibility, mobility, and better postural habits after adding in strength and conditioning to their workouts.

Adding Strength & Conditioning To Your Training

One of the best things that you can do for your fitness routine is to incorporate principles that have both aspects of strength training and conditioning training. HIIT workouts are a great place to start. Strength and conditioning training will take your fighting game to the next level and make you a better boxer and athlete.

Ready to add strength and conditioning to your training? At FightCamp, we’ve launched a strength and conditioning specific collection on our App, making it that much easier for you to incorporate them into your boxing routine. Download the FREE FightCamp App and train with real fighters from the comfort of your own home. Get access to hundreds of boxing, kickboxing, strength, conditioning, recovery, and stretching workouts that will push you mentally and physically.