It comes and goes in waves: you get in really good boxing shape and stick there for a while, then you suddenly remember that you have to parent, your job heads toward overtime, you get behind in the universe, and one day you are in the ring wishing you had one of those oxygen canisters and a little plastic tube to blow it into your nose so you could finish this round without passing out.
Hello, that’s me.
And last week I was working on the heavy bag and my trainer strolled by with her arms folded, evaluating. I immediately sucked in my gut and racheted up my punch count. Bam! Bam bam bam! Dance to the side. Three killer combos in a row, fast. Hope she quits watching soon, cause I need to suck for air. My jabs were dropping down to oh, about waist level. If only my opponents would lay on the floor, maybe I could stomp on them; it would be easier.
She said nothing of course; she didn’t need to. I confessed on my own, later: “Ahem, my cardio’s down a bit.” As if she were my priest and could give me penance. She knows boxing is its own penance. You get in the ring with low cardio and you aren’t going to go very far. Your opponent’s gonna chew you up and spit you out and you’ll just be grateful it’s over with.
She gave me that half-smile of hers and shook her head. “It may be boring, but you just gotta get in here and do the same thing, over and over again. It’s how you get back.”
She’s completely right. You can come up with all the new diet plans and cardio exercises (run, elliptical, skate, row, etc.) in the world, but in the end, it’s about boxing. Round after round of it.
So today I got back in the gym during my lunch hour and spent some time working the hell out of the basics. Since my cardio is low, I set the round timer on 2 minute rounds with 30 second recovery. And here’s what I did, and plan to do again for the next several boxing workouts, pushing up my numbers and moving eventually to 3 minute rounds.
- 2 rounds jump rope; sprint the last 30 seconds of each round
- 1 round stretching
- 2 rounds shadowboxing
- 5 rounds on heavy bag; speed punches the last 30 seconds of each round
- 2 rounds on the speed bag
- 1 round shadowboxing for cool down
- 10 minutes on the spin bike to finish
Grab a shower and get back to work!
Photo by Wootang01
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