Knock Out Your New Year’s Resolution Part 6 at He's Fit

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Knock Out Your New Year’s Resolution Part 6

Posted February 26, 2008 at 04:00 PM by Donnell Peavy

Section: His Fitness, Cardio Training, Strength Training, Alt. Therapies, His Health, Physical Health, Lifestyle Health

boxing gloves This article is part 6 of the series, ”Knock Out Your New Year’s Resolution,” designed to use boxing as your new workout to burn fat and lose weight.

You have learned how to punch, worked combinations and you have learned basic defense. It’s now time to put it all together. You are going to shadowbox, which will be an integral part of your training. There is one last thing to touch on, and that is footwork. It was mentioned before, but not discussed in any detail, so it shall be discussed now. Footwork in boxing is awkward at first, due to the seemingly unnatural movement involved - the foot closest to the direction you want to go moves first, and the feet should NEVER cross or get too close together.

For example, when moving to the left, you push of the ball of the right foot and step with the left. You then slide the right foot into position, ensuring that you neither bring your feet too close together (this compromises your balance) nor keep them too far apart (compromises mobility). When moving forward, push off the rear foot and step forward with your lead. You do not take a regular walking type step and place your opposite foot in front. This effectively switches your lead and changes your fight strategy, also possibly compromising your effectiveness, depending on how well you can box from the opposite lead.

From your boxing stance, begin to move around. Pay close attention to your foot placement, making corrections whenever necessary – you don’t want to build bad habits. From there, add defensive movement – slip, bob and weave in conjunction with your footwork. A moving target is harder to hit, so be sure not to keep your head stationary. Begin to add punches. When you throw your cross, plant your feet, sink your weight, remember to pivot, etc. – this is a power punch, so you do not want to me mobile while you are throwing it. Same thing goes for the cross and uppercut. As a rule of thumb, when you are punching, your directional movement will stop, but immediately resume once your punching is done. Throw the combinations that we went over previously and also make up your own.

Shadowboxing is free fighting against an imaginary opponent. Actually visualize someone in front of you and move and strike accordingly. Keep everything crisp and clean; don’t get lax simply because you really aren’t fighting anyone. Remember, you fight how you train. Watch the clock while shadowboxing – we will be working in three minute rounds. When you get tired, do not just stop; keep moving. Even if you are not punching, keep your head moving, and as always, keep your hands up.

The Workout

Now it’s time to get busy. You are at the light of the end of the tunnel. The exercises presented here should be fairly familiar, and there will be little to no equipment needed, so you can train anytime, any place. Remember that a round consists of three minutes, and there is one minute of rest between each round. Let’s get ready to rumble.

Jumping rope – 3 rounds
Shadowboxing – 5 rounds
Pull ups – 3 sets of 10

Circuit Training – entire circuit is to be performed with no rest. Each exercise shall be performed for 30 seconds. Perform three rounds.
Pushups
Squats
Diamond Pushups
Squat Thrusts
Hindu Pushups
Box jumps (If you don’t have access to something to jump on, simply squat and jump as high as possible)

The above workout can be completed in less than an hour. Complete the circuit three days per week. On days that you are not doing the circuit, you will be performing roadwork – running. You want to work up to running three miles, but don’t overwork yourself; if you can’t go three miles right now, don’t sweat it. Start small and work your way up. In the future I will outline a running program to get you where you need to be. Skill training (shadow boxing) will be done daily. On your running days, you will still shadow box three rounds.

Good luck with the program and congrats in advance for achieving the body that you always wanted. With a little will and determination, you will become a lean, mean fighting machine in no time.

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