Give a real gift to your clients this Christmas. The gift of exercise. To quote a very un-PC trainer that I follow, ‘To be able to exercise on a regular basis is a gift. Use it.” – Kane Sumabat
Presents Under The Tree
Type: Cardio, Challenge
Time: 45 minutes
Equipment: Presents, Boxing Gloves, Focus Pads
Pre-Workout Set Up
Gather 30 envelopes. On 10 of them write ‘A’, on another 10 write ‘I’ and in the rest write ‘B’. These mark your advanced, intermediate and beginner presents respectively.
On some paper write or print out the exercises/drills below (or 10 others of your choosing). Cut them out and then place one exercise/drill in each envelope.

Warm Up
Instruct clients how to punch properly. Then go through some shadow boxing drills. I did uppercuts, jab cross squat thrust and jab cross jab cross shadow shove.
Main Drill
During your workout set up, select three trees to be your Christmas Trees. Under each place some boxing gloves, pads and a set of envelopes. One tree will have envelopes with advanced exercises in them, one will be intermediate and the other will have the beginner ones.
Clients will start by getting in pairs.
In their own time, clients should run to their fitness level tree and grab an envelope. Inside the envelope will be a drill/exercise. The group should complete it and return the envelope to under the tree. Note: both team members need to complete what is in the envelope. 60 punches means 60 punches each person.
I numbered my envelopes so that clients could keep track of which one’s they had completed.
My group took around 30 minutes to complete all envelopes under their tree. A couple of beginners and intermedidies finished early so I had them choose one or two envelopes from the advanced and intermediate trees while the other groups finished.
Drill/Exercise | Beginner | Intermediate | Advanced |
High Punches | 60 each | 80 each | 100 each |
10 Pushups + 50 Uppercuts | Once each | Twice each | Three times each |
Run around the block | Once | Once | Once |
Band Rows (partner holding) | 40 each | 55 each | 70 each |
Seated Vertical Punches | 60 each | 80 each | 100 each |
Uppercuts | 70 each | 100 each | 130 each |
Run The Snake | Turn around at first bend | Turn around at second bend | Turn around at bottom |
Split Squats | 20 each leg | 35 each leg | 50 each leg |
Jab, Cross, Squat Thrust | 12 times each | 18 times each | 24 times each |
J, C, J, C, Push | 8 times each | 10 times each | 12 times each |
Exercise descriptions
- Run around the block: A run around the park approximately 500m long.
- Seated Vertical Punches: The boxer sits on the ground with the pad holder standing behind them. The boxer punches straight up into the focus pads.
- Run The Snake: The Snake is a very steep winding path in our park. It’s probably 100m long total but is quite tough. You could use multiple hill runs in place of this.
- J, C, J, C, Push: This means jab, cross, jab, cross, push your partner back. To push the pad holder back, boxers should place both hands on their partners focus pads and shove them back in one big push. The pad holder will resist but still move backwards. The boxer then steps forwards and repeats.
- Squat Thrust: Click link for video.
- High Punches: Jabs and crosses above the head height of the boxer.
Alternative: Don’t have boxing gloves? No worries, just use normal exercises and running drills.
Cooldown
Stretches
That’s all for the Christmas workouts. However, we will still be running new workouts over the holidays so stay tuned.
###
Original Image: kevin dooley
Kyle Wood created Bootcamp Ideas in 2010 when he was hunting around on the internet for workout ideas. He ran a successful bootcamp in Victoria, Australia and spends his spare time managing this site, adventuring (or lazying) with his wife and find new ways to make bootcamps even better.
This is great. I took this and did it a bit different. I just put all of it on a whiteboard in order. I had one person hold mitts, other punching. I set a timer for 12 minutes. Had them just go down the list as for 12 minutes. Then switch. Mitt holder and puncher both do exercises. It was great!
Awesome Sean! Great modification.