If you’ve spent any time watching Chris Hemsworth train over the last few years, you’ll know his workouts rarely look like traditional bodybuilding sessions. Sure, there are heavy lifts, but they’re almost always punctuated by rounds of conditioning movements, including hitting the pads or the heavy bag – something the Thor star recently shared once again as part of his training.

It’s easy to dismiss boxing as something reserved for fighters. In reality, pad work and heavy bag training tick almost every box you’d want from a conditioning session. They elevate your heart rate, develop full-body power, build shoulder, back and core endurance – all without feeling like you’ve spent half an hour staring at a treadmill screen.

Better still, they’re one of the few training methods that genuinely blur the line between cardio and resistance training.

Try any boxing workout for just five minutes and you’ll realise this is no light fitness endeavour. Explosive flurries of punches are followed by brief periods of movement and recovery before the next combination begins. Physiologically, it’s remarkably similar to interval training.

That’s good news if you like the idea of hitting the pads, because interval-based exercise is one of the most effective ways to improve aerobic fitness. Studies have consistently shown that boxing training improves VO₂ max, cardiovascular fitness and overall work capacity in both trained and recreational populations. The constant transitions between high and moderate intensity force your heart and lungs to become more efficient while improving your ability to recover between hard efforts.

No, throwing punches isn’t going to replace your barbell, especially if you’re looking to add considerable muscle to your frame.

But every jab, cross and hook requires your body to produce force, then rapidly slow that force back down again. Your chest, shoulders and triceps accelerate your fists, while your upper back, lats and rotator cuff work just as hard to decelerate them safely. Meanwhile, your glutes, calves and core are constantly generating force from the ground up while resisting unwanted rotation.

Move onto the heavy bag and the demands increase again. Every strike now has to overcome an external load before your body absorbs the reaction force coming back the other way.

The result is a surprisingly potent form of muscular endurance training that accumulates hundreds of forceful contractions throughout a session.

Traditional strength training is brilliant. But much of it happens in straight lines.

Life doesn’t.

Every punch starts at your feet, travels through your hips and torso before finally reaching your fist. That transfer of force trains rotation, anti-rotation, balance, coordination and timing simultaneously.

It’s athleticism in its purest form.

Even if your goal is simply building muscle or getting leaner, learning to move explosively through multiple planes of motion is likely to make you a better all-round athlete.

Because almost every major muscle group contributes to every combination, boxing sessions are metabolically expensive. You’re asking your legs to move, your trunk to brace and rotate, and your upper body to repeatedly accelerate and decelerate your arms – often for multiple three-minute rounds.

The result is a workout that burns plenty of energy while preserving the muscle-building stimulus your body needs.

Yes, you’ll still need to be in that all-important calorie deficit to lose body fat. And yes, keeping a mindful eye on your nutrition remains the biggest lever you can pull. But the energy-balance equation has two sides, and increasing your activity through additional physical pursuits, such as boxing, can be a valuable tool.

Perhaps most importantly, it’s enjoyable.

That’s not as trivial a point as you might think. One of the biggest predictors of long-term fitness success isn’t finding the ‘perfect’ workout – it’s finding one you’ll actually keep showing up for.

So no, you don’t need to be preparing for your first amateur bout, or your next Marvel film, to steal a page from Hemsworth’s playbook. Add a few rounds of pad work or heavy bag intervals to the end of your strength sessions and you’ll challenge your heart, lungs and muscles simultaneously.

You’ll probably have a lot more fun than you would on the treadmill, too.

Just be careful of the comments section if you’re posting your pad work to Instagram… everyone’s an expert.

If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.

Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.

With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.    

As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.   

Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.   

 You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.