— The complete guide
How to use Boxerium
Boxerium is a boxing round timer with spoken combo callouts and rhythm training tools most boxing apps don't have. It works for serious technical training, for shadow boxing at home, and as a BoxFit tool when you just want to keep moving on the bag without thinking. Here's what every feature does, why it's there, and how to actually use it.
01 / Getting started
Two taps from app open to round one.
Open Boxerium and you're one tap from training:
- Quick Start (Classic). Set rounds × round length × rest × metronome and go. No setup, no fluff. Perfect for shadow boxing, heavy bag, or roadwork. The defaults match standard boxing — 12 × 3:00 with 60 seconds rest, which is amateur championship format. Adjust the four numbers and press play.
- Custom Workouts. Build a session round-by-round in the Workout Builder, save it, favourite it, share it. Different rounds can have different combos, work times, rest times, and combo intervals. Save the ones you run regularly and they appear at the top of your Workouts tab for one-tap start.
02 / Running timer
Built for at-a-glance reading from the bag.
Big numbers. No clutter. The circular progress ring depletes smoothly so you always know how much round is left, even at a glance mid-shadowbox. Full-screen phase colours change with what you're doing — green during WORK, coral during REST — so you feel the rhythm of the session even peripherally.
"Round 3 / 12" is front and centre. Round dots track progress along the bottom. The current combo callout is displayed as a pill below the time, so if you missed the audio you can glance up and catch it.
Pause, resume, and skip controls live large at the bottom — easy to hit with sweaty hands or gloved knuckles. The screen stays on automatically; the app overrides iOS auto-lock so the timer never disappears mid-round.
03 / Combo callouts
Combos called out loud, on the beat, every round different.
Every round can hold as many combos as you want. Boxerium speaks them out loud at the combo interval you set per round — every 5, 8, 12 seconds, whatever pace you want to drill at.
By default, the app picks combos at random within a round, weighted by how often you want each one called, with a guarantee that no combo gets called three times in a row. That randomization is what keeps you sharp — you can't memorize the order and zone out. You have to listen, decode, and throw.
The numbering system. Most coaches call combos by number: 1 = jab, 2 = cross, 3 = lead hook, 4 = rear hook, 5 = lead uppercut, 6 = rear uppercut. Boxerium speaks them either way — type "1-2-3" and it says "one two three", or type "jab cross hook" and it speaks the words. Flip "Number callouts" in Settings to switch globally. If you train with a coach who calls numbers, training with numbers in the app wires your reflexes the same way.
04 / Techniques & movement
More than punches.
Boxerium's built-in techniques cover the full vocabulary of boxing — not just the strikes. When you build a combo, you tap from a list that includes:
- Punches — jab, cross, hook, uppercut (lead and rear)
- Modifiers — head, body (for targeting)
- Evades — slip, roll, duck, pull back, step back
- Movement — step, circle, switch stance
Or — with Custom Callouts turned on in Settings — type any combo text you want. Useful for Muay Thai (teep, roundhouse, elbow, knee), for unusual defensive sequences, or for foreign-language drilling.
Why this matters: flat-footed bag work plateaus fast. Adding step, circle, or switch-stance calls to your combos forces you to integrate footwork with punching. Adding evades — drop a "slip" between two combos and you've trained the attack → defend → counter pattern real boxing rewards. Most timer apps only know punches. Boxerium knows the whole sport.
05 / Advanced Tools
Where Boxerium goes from timer to coach.
Flip on Advanced tools in Settings and the Workout Builder unlocks three drilling features built around how boxing actually trains: rhythm, sequence, and emphasis. These are the tools that turn the app from a metronome with callouts into something you can build a training programme around.
Beat-mapped rhythm training.
Every combo in Advanced mode has a small beat editor — a grid of 1/8-second slots across the combo's interval window. Tap slots to place claps. When the combo is called during a workout, Boxerium speaks the combo and then claps on the exact beats you placed.
Why this matters more than it sounds. Punches aren't just what you throw — they're when. A jab-cross thrown on the same beat ("dum-dum") is a completely different punch from a jab-cross with a beat between them ("dum… dum"). That pause is where you read a reaction, sell a feint, or set up the cross with full weight transfer. Pros throw combinations in specific cadences to break an opponent's timing — and most timer apps can't drill that. Boxerium can.
Practical examples:
- Tight 1-2: place two claps directly next to each other. Snap jab into snap cross, no setup. Useful for trading at range.
- Loaded 1-2: place the first clap, leave a gap, place the second. You jab to gauge distance, then drop your weight and crack the cross with maximum power. Different feeling, different muscle engagement, different opponent reaction.
- Setup + finish: place two tight claps, leave a delay, place a third clap. A jab-cross combination followed by a hook off a rhythm break — the kind of combination that catches opponents who've read the first two punches and dropped their guard early.
You're not just drilling the punches. You're drilling the music of the punches — and that's the thing that separates intermediate from advanced boxing.
Shared clap timing (a related toggle in Settings) takes any rhythm you set on "jab jab" and copies it to every other "jab jab" combo across your workouts. Define the rhythm once, drill it consistently across every round.
Ordered combo loops for drilling specific flows.
By default, each round picks combos at random within your list. That's perfect for unpredictable, sparring-style training.
But sometimes you want to drill a specific flow — a pattern repeated until it lives in your body. Flip Sequence mode on for any round and instead of random, Boxerium cycles your combos in the exact order you list them, then loops.
A simple build-up sequence:
jab → jab-cross → jab-cross-hook → jab-cross-hook-uppercut
The app calls them in that order, on the beat, every round. After a session like this, that build-up is locked into muscle memory.
Repeat combos to weight reps however you like:
jab → jab-cross → jab → jab-cross-hook → jab → jab-cross-hook-uppercut
The jab gets reset between every combination — closer to how a real round actually flows, with the jab as the constant reference point.
Or interleave defence:
jab-cross → slip → jab-cross-hook → roll → jab-cross-hook-uppercut
Now you're drilling the full attack-defend-counter rhythm, in a fixed order, until the response becomes automatic.
The Builder lets you reorder the sequence at any time — drag the rows around, with drag-to-edge auto-scroll when the sequence runs long. This is the closest thing in a timer to a coach saying "alright, here's what we're working on tonight."
Drill setup punches more than power shots.
In random mode, every combo has a weight slider. A jab at weight 3 versus a cross-hook-uppercut at weight 1 means the jab gets called roughly three times as often.
Use it to:
- Weight your jab high during technique sessions — the jab is 80% of real boxing and most amateurs underdrill it.
- Weight defensive combinations high when you're trying to fix a habit of throwing without slipping the return.
- Weight power shots low so they feel earned — every cross-hook-uppercut is a moment of intensity, not background noise.
The Builder shows the live percentage as you adjust the sliders, so you can dial in the mix without doing math in your head.
06 / Sounds & voices
Every audio element is customisable.
Boxerium's audio is built around the assumption that you might be training with music, training outside, or training in a noisy gym — and the callouts have to cut through.
- Round bell — nine presets from a classic Boxing Ring to a Gong, Klaxon, or literal Air Horn. Pick what cuts through your environment.
- Ten-second warning — spoken "ten seconds," wood block triplet, kick drum, triple beep, or referee whistle.
- Metronome tick — eleven options from a soft click to a snare or gunshot. Useful when you need a sharper pulse on the heavy bag than the bell carries.
- Voice — a curated set of natural-sounding English voices. The default is a UK voice that sounds like a corner trainer. Try "Daniel" for a clipped, almost military cadence — good for serious drilling.
- Per-sound volumes — five independent sliders in Settings (bell, warning, voice, metronome, beat clap). Mix the levels so callouts cut through and the metronome sits in the background.
Audio routes properly through Bluetooth speakers — important when you're training in a garage gym and don't want to crank phone speakers.
07 / Countdown & warning
Small details that make training real.
Pre-workout countdown. A configurable "GET READY" timer (0–20 seconds) runs before round 1, ticking each second. Set it to 5 for a quick start, 10 if you want to glove up or set down your phone after pressing play.
Ten-second warning. Ten seconds before each round ends, Boxerium plays your chosen warning sound. This is standard at every boxing gym in the world — and it matters. The last ten seconds of a round is where rounds are won. Judges remember the final flurry; opponents tire and drop their hands. Training with the same warning means your body learns to recognise the cue and respond. By the time you're in a real round, the finishing burst is automatic.
09 / Sample sessions
Three workouts to copy.
Morning shadow box
Two warm-up rounds (footwork only, no combos), two technique rounds (3-4 specific combos drilled slow), two work rounds (full combo list at pace). No metronome. The voice callouts keep you moving and prevent the drift-into-bored-arm-flailing that happens when you shadow box without structure. Good before work or as a recovery day.
Sequence mode rhythm session
The signature Boxerium workout. Each round has a different 4-combo sequence with claps placed on the rhythm pattern you want to drill. Round 1-2: 1-2-1, 1-2-3, 1-2-3-2, 1-2-3-2-1 with tight cadence claps. Round 3-4: same combos but with loaded second-punch claps (delayed beats). Round 5-6: defensive interleave — punch, slip, counter, slip. Round 7-8: free combos but Sequence mode off, full speed. This is the workout that proves what the app is for.
BoxFit cardio
Short rounds, short rest, fast callouts, simple combos (jab, jab cross, jab cross hook). Random order, basic weighting, no Advanced tools needed. The point is to keep moving and burn calories — the tight intervals do that. Pair with music; callouts route through the same Bluetooth speaker.
10 / FAQ
More questions?
Got more questions? See the Boxerium FAQ ↗.
Free on iPhone.
Round timer · Combo callouts · Rhythm drilling.
No account. No subscription. Just box.
