Thinking about boxing

Hi everyone,
I was thinking about joining the boxing club at my university. It would require two nights of two hour training sessions per week but I am sure I would need to do at least one or two more days of sprints, jump roping, or some other cardio for endurance. I would plan on continuing to lift four days a week hitting all the major muscle groups. My question is if anyone thinks this would be true overtraining. I eat 5-6 meals a day and consume about 3-3500 calories a day. With this nutritional plan and workout regimen would I be able to add any new muscle or would it be to much to even maintain my current muscle? I am sure my cortisol levels would rise and T levels would drop some but I don’t know how drastically. Also, if I increased calories by adding another meal or two a day could that help offset the extra stress from the exercise? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks

I have no real advice on the overtraining thing, however I do have advice on Boxing. If you are going to actually enter boxing matches, then I highly suggest you practice BOXING alot more than 2 times a week. The endurance and Strenght are absolutley necessary, however alot of people just dont relize the SKILL that boxing requires, and if you don’t train at it at least 4 times a week, you are gonna get whooped by someone who trains 6 times a week…It’s a skill, and should be treated as such…If you doubt that just look at all theses Ex-Linemen who start boxing, and then never make it past the lowest ranks of the sport…Think seriously about it, and I wish you the absolute best of luck!

Thanks for the advice, however I think I should have been a little more specific. I am not going to be entering competitive boxing or even sparring matches at first. The two days a week is simply for beginners to learn how to throw punches, move and get acclimated. Before any sparring even occurs much more work is put in and before actually having a match I would be training at least 5 x per week. Hope that clears things up and thanks again for the advice!

You could definately add muscle to your frame by simply adding more protein and specially Carbs. Carbs play a huge role in muscle hypertrophy, eat tons of them with protein, plus add an androgen like mag-10 and you can definately add muscle. Im a boxer myself and train renegade style and I notice I gain maybe a pound or two every 2-3 months, now I eat maintance and don’t go any higher just maintain weight, I always sit around 6%bf so it’s muscle that I add. So if your purpose is to add muscle and can afford to eat like it, the answer is yes you can.

Your not Overtraining because you are doing diffrent exercise allowing to use diffrent muscle groups at a time. You are basiclly Cross-Training which is very benifical and I highly reccomend it. But you’ll know the signs if you feel like your overtraining. Signs such as don’t feel like going to the gym, weights staying the same and not increasing ect… Hope this helps…

Agree with Powerlifter. If you seriously want to take up boxing - you better be training (BOXING) more than 2-days a week. But I see that you’ve clarified your question. You’re taking up boxing for only fitness purposes?

I train with a boxing team 3, sometimes 4-nights a week. From 5 to 7PM. That leaves me 3-days a week to weight train. I don't fear overtraining. Since I eat plenty. Plus I use Surge after boxing and weight training sessions. Ko also has a similar schedule, except he trains in MMA, not boxing. And he's been steadily gaining LBM, too. We both just increased our calories, make sure we're eating plenty of protein and we're fine. Make sure you're getting plenty of protein.

Oh, and I also perform 2 sessions a week of jump rope in addition to my other training. However, I do try to have one day a week where I'm a total sloth.

Thanks for all the information everyone. I really appreciate the help and will take it all into consideration! Happy Holiday training!