Punchy is a boxing-based cardio workout with a one-word job description and a fifty-fifty split personality. Straight punches and overhead punches - that's the entire vocabulary, arranged in five alternating waves for 70 punches per set. No footwork drills, no floor work, no equipment. Just hands, in volume, until your shoulders understand why the workout got its name.

The circuit runs without rest between exercises, and the alternating structure is the engine. Blocks of 10 straight punches trade off with blocks of 4 overhead punches, five times through - and the switch matters more than it looks. Straight punches drive horizontally with rotation from the hips; overhead punches send the arms vertically against gravity, hitting the deltoids from a completely different angle. Alternating the two means neither pattern gets a rest while the other works, and the shoulders accumulate fatigue from two directions at once. That accumulation is the actual training effect: speed work builds through fatigue-based overload, so the punches don't need to be thrown fast - they need to keep coming while tired. Faster hands arrive later, on their own schedule, as the adaptation.

Punch from a staggered stance with knees soft and hips doing half the work - a punch thrown from the arm alone is a suggestion, not a statement. Extend fully without locking the elbow and snap every hand back to guard. On overhead punches, drive straight up with the core braced so the lower back doesn't arch. Keep the non-punching hand at your chin the entire set, because habits are built in training and audited everywhere else.

Seventy punches a set and one word on the poster. Some workouts explain themselves - this one just lands.

Make it Harder: Double every overhead punch block to 8 reps.

Make it Easier: Cut each punch block in half and keep the pace relaxed - the volume, not the speed, does the work.