Starting my boxing journey- advice needed!

[swbd13]

Hi,

I've been a fan of boxing for a long time but never really considered taking it up myself. However in the past couple of years I've lost fitness due to a lack of sporting activity and now I'm hoping to start some boxing training (initialy just for fitness) at my University boxing club in the new year so was hoping to get a bit of advice from guys like yourselves who are in the know about the ins and outs of what I have facing me.

First off, i haven't done any serious exercise in a long time. A bit of cardio every now and then but nothing work writing home about. For this reason I realise going straight into a boxing gym would be foolish and so I've recently started running every morning to try and get at least some fitness back before wasting the time of anyone good enough to give me some training when I finally get to try out boxing.

Will a 45-60 min run every morning along with more sensible eating be enough? should I incorporate some regular strength work too?
I've heard that work on a pull up bar is preferable to weights as i'm not interested in bulking up, just improving tone and strength.
Is this true?
Another thing is that my wrists aren't too strong(don't know why, the rest of my upper body has always been fine!) so are there any exercises I can be doing to strengthen the muscles in this area before I go throwing punches at a heavy bag?

Also, I'm coming up on 24 so have no delusions about this being the beginning of a great career- it's just hopefully going to be a fun way to get back in shape and in the process gain some skills of the sport I have for so long admired.

What sort of goals should I be setting myself with an average of 2 boxing sessions a week over 6 months? I don't want to go in thinking I could soon be sparring regularly if that's simply not the case as I will probably get discouraged if I go in with this attitude and soon realise I'm a long way off it.
I hope this will be a long term endeavour so realistic goals which I can achieve are key to maintaining commitment.


Any help here would be greatly appreciated. I've read alot of the other threads on here and there seems to be a wealth of knowledge on this forum so if any of that could be passed my way it would be great.

Thanks!

[Ted Spoon]

When you wake up get yourself on the road. Start of slow, get the heart beating and the sweat seeping.

2-3 miles is a nice distance and then do some basic floor work with push-ups and crunchies. Go easy, wait for the following day of stiffness and repeat with improved vigour.

Pull-up bars are great for isolating muscle groups in the arm.

It's no so much wrist strength but technique when you sock a punch bag. If you're power-line is true then you will not incur injuries.

Take it slow, do things correctly and you're on the promise land.

What University Boxing Club is this?

[swbd13]

Thanks TS!

It's UCD. In Dublin, Ireland. I hear they welcome people like myself who are interested in learning the basics and using the sport for fitness without any necessity to step into the ring before you're ready. Exactly what I'm looking for really.

Thanks again for the advice, hopefully it all works out and I can make a good go of this.

[Del Coqui]

Once you do the conditioning part, this thread should help to get you started.

http://www.boxingscene.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=318739

[Landon S]

When your running do it fast and push yourself, always feel some lactic acid in your legs, if you run hard enough you shouldnt be able to do it for 45-60 minutes. Our bouts are much shorter than that and much more intense so you need to go hard and fast not long and easy because thats the nature of the sport.

As for your wrists you could just do some wrist curls and extensions with dumbells. Knuckle pushups and fingertip pushups are good too.

Pullups are great, doing a ladder like: 10 pullups, rest 30 seconds, 9 pullups, rest, 8 pullups rest, etc is great and you can do the same for pushups but starting higher. Do high rep sets of squats and lunges to build some endurance and strength in your legs. You should be good to go if you do all that for a couple months, you'll enter the ring without having to worry much about fitness.

[OaktownGhost]

Start running, and working on your cardio. Remember to do sprints, and also work on building up your strength a little bit. I don't have much time to write, but pm if you want; i'm also starting again, and getting back into shape, so that I can fight.