How to Box II….Getting Into the Right Condition

Now that you have learned the basic equipments involved, we can move on to the next phase of things…the actual boxing right? Wrong! In the sport of boxing, fighting, combat, etc, conditioning comes first. Boxing is one of the very few contact sports the human boxing wasn’t naturally designed to do—this said, athletes must put their bodies in shape to take the necessary punishment. Unlike other team sports, where you might have someone else to depend on, boxers don’t have that same luxury. Boxers solely have themselves to depend on—therefore, must condition their bodies to the point where they feel it’s strong enough to do battle. Also, if a fighters not in “tip-top” physical condition in the ring, it’ll show: if you take two evenly matched fighters in skills and experience, the boxer with the best physical and mental conditions will most likely prevail. Also, a boxer spends most of his time training and conditioning, if you’re not the type of person that like to train and condition, then this isn’t the sport for you. As you begin to develop strength, speed, power, coordination, and stamina to box, you will also begin to strengthen your mind—which is what the art of combat is all about.

Developing A Routine:

If you’re not able to join a gym, you can begin your conditioning at home, you’ll need to start with at least a half hour of basic calisthenics every day. When first starting out, it’s okay to be tired—that’s the whole idea, but stay focus and continue working, even though it might be a bit painful.

The Actual Routine:

1. Perform 100 jumping jacks, then 100 sit ups. Initially, you’ll find that you should be able to easily do 40 to 50 of each.

2. Do 10 push-ups, then stand and run in place for one minute—this is very important as this increases the heart rate. Do 10 more push ups, stand, and run in place. Repeat until you reach the actual 50.

4. Do the bicycle. Lie flat on your back, with your hands under your hips, raising your buttocks off the floor, legs up, rotating them like you are riding a bicycle.

5. With your hands on your hips, drop onto your heels and squat. Stand and squat again, repeating up to 100 times.

6. Raise your arms on each side of your head, fingers almost touching the ears, and palms out. Stretch back until your arms quiver, and hold for the ten count (repeat ten times.)

3. For a leg-raise exercise, lie flat on your back and raise your legs about ten inches off the floor. You’ll want to hold the position, spread your legs apart, then bring them together again. With legs completely parallel to floor, pound on your stomach with your fist, this is very important for building up stomach muscles.

7. Jump rope for at least four rounds. In professional boxing, a round is three minutes in length. But when first starting out its best to skip in one minute round intervals. The great thing about skipping rope is that it improves both rhythm and timing. Some of the best skipping routines to take notes from would be Floyd Mayweather Jr., an American professional boxing champion and Lucian Bute a Romanian professional boxing champion who fights out of Montreal Canada.

8. Weight lifting shouldn’t be included in your conditioning program. Fact is, bulging muscles tends to slow down a boxer’s reflexes. It’s best to use small hand weights or wear wrist and ankle weights for strengthening purposes.

9. If you join a boxing gym that has wall pulleys, you can really warm up with these: pulleys help you strengthen your shoulders, back, and arm muscles.

10. Last but not least, doing your roadwork. If you don’t have no time to do anything else, you must make time to run—aka, doing your roadwork. What you don’t want to do is jog the whole distance, boxing is a sport of stamina; therefore, most fighters use this time to do wind sprints to build up their wind, strengthen the lungs and heart, as well as the very important leg muscles.

Many other athletes—i.e., football players, weight lifters, karate experts, wrestlers, believe that their strength alone is enough to overpower boxers. But they will not last long with a boxer if they haven’t developed the kind of stamina needed to keep their arms swinging. The best fighter to watch in this situation is current p4p king Manny Pacquaio, a Philippino fighter trained by the great Freddy Roach, whom I think has one of the best training regimes since Muhammad Ali.