Not boxing specific, but good **** nonetheless

I'm a lazy man. Here is the lazy man's complete workout:

First of all, you need to get into the habit of working out all day. Don't be scared; it's the easier alternative to spending an hour in the gym, draining all of your resources in one go. We hate that. So we need to compensate by exercising just as much, or more, than everybody else, except we spread it throughout the day.

This doesn't mean to say you can do one push up, leave it two minutes and then do another one. Sets will still be performed until your muscles ache... It's just the sets that are spaced out. Of course, to be able to exercise right throughout the day, your need for equipment should be very low. Ideally you should require nothing but a pull up bar or its equivalent.

Exercises? Keep it simple. Compound movements. There is a progression line, so you decide where you are and move on from there:

Hanging from pull up bar -> pull ups -> one arm hang -> one arm pull up

Push up -> clap push up -> one arm push up -> handstand push up -> planche push up

Bodyweight squats -> squat jumps -> one legged squat -> one legged squat jumps

Those are the strength builders... You can build mass with these, particularly the harder progressions, you just need to do them properly. It's all about decreasing the leverage against your favour, or, like with the squat jumps - jump higher.

Now you don't want to spend all ****ing day stretching, so keep it to a minimum; the two big ones seem to be touching your toes and doing the splits. Build up to both so you have a nice flexibility going on so you don't cripple yourself falling over.

Apart from that... Spend a few minutes each day shadow boxing, just for peace of mind, or much longer than that if you're a sociopath and violenty inclined. Of course... Skipping or running is a must. Run once a week at least, at a fast pace preferably, just to keep the cobwebs away.

One thing that's important to remember is to mix up those exercises; if you can do a one arm pull up, still do the one arm hangs for as long as you can to build grip and shoulder strength. If bodyweight squats are too easy - keep doing them, but as a cardiovascular and endurance exercise.

Now I'm no qualified sports scientist but this has definitely worked for me. I dreaded the thought of working out for a solid hour, especially in the sticky Summer, but now I just drop and bang out some one armed push ups while I'm waiting for the kettle to boil. Watching Eastenders? Squat jumps. Smoking a joint? Do your stretches... And so on.

Disclaimer: not guaranteed to work!

P.S. - I again have to stress the importance of habit. I do this crap everyday and I never ache, but when I have a count up, it seems I'll typically get through eighty pull ups in one day. That's five hundred and sixty a week, and it works; after a period of non-exercising I could do six pull ups, but four months later I can bang out twenty or more (full ones, from hanging - always from hanging!). Likewise, I could barely perform a one armed push up; now I can do nine or ten.

 

I started stretching those two because personally, I get all my upper body stretching from trying to reach my back in the bath. Other people might feel a bit stiffer and could incorporate some different stretches. I felt like my groin was waiting to be strained and my back needed bending, so I started working on those; everywhere else I feel quite flexible.

I must mention that this isn't the exact workout I follow; dips, leg raises, ski sits and other push up variations all feature on a day-to-day basis. There's some room for experimentation, the most important aspect of this workout being 'little and often.' Exercising as habit.

 

:good

It seems so convenient to me now. I don't spend any money on fitness, at all, and it's like I don't dedicate any time to it, either. Well I do, but I exercise in the gaps where normally I'd be twiddling my thumbs or staring at a wall.

 

Okay, a little update. I've built up a small list consolidating the exercises I perform regularly... I might only perform, say, one armed push ups, once over ten days, but the it's all part of the cross training. Other exercises will be using some of the same muscles so it's all good.

Upper body (pushing) - push ups: regular, one handed, superman, handstand, planche, hands together, hands wide, fingertips, claps, psuedo planche
Dips - regular, leaning forward, leaning back, leg raises from position

Upper body (pulling) - pull ups: inward grip, outward grip, wide grip, one handed wrist grip, one armed, one arm hangs, leg raises from position

Lower body - squats: regular, squat jumps, one legged squats, one legged squat jumps, side-to-side squats, duck walk, hopping everywhere

Static holds: at top & middle of pull up action, at bottom of dips and push ups, also, leaning backwards and forwards on dips, wall sits, one legged wall sits

P.S. - can't do handstand push ups (wrist problem, not from trumpet polishing I swear)

Oh yeah, can't quite do one armed pull ups yet but nearly. Anyway, most important thing; don't neglect the wall sits; how many times have you felt the wobble in your legs in the ring or cycling? These have really helped my endurance.

 

I stretch with a doob regularly!

Now remember... This is a lazy man's workout. No gymnasium, no equipment. Maybe a pull up bar, that's it.

Weights are of course the best muscle builders, allowing you to isolate muscles and tire them with infinite weight - needlessly, I might add. I'm not a big believer in isolated movements, or even compound movements with a maximum weight loaded up. It's just not necessary when there are ample bodyweight exercises which will build your strength, endurance and muscle mass; you just need to know the progressions. Lifting weights may give you an advantage in control over objects, but personally, I would much rather control over myself and the extra agility it brings. Planche push ups, though, and one armed pull ups require hellish strength that I'd assume only 1% of the population have inside them. Real strength builders.

But even the easier exercises are useful, because you turn them into endurance exercises. Regular push ups and squats still have their place; shoulders and legs seem to tire more quickly in boxing than anything else due to the activity placed upon them, and it's the same with many other sports. High repetitions in between sets of harder progressions, or even as a finisher, can do wonders for the kind of long term strength needed for cycling, boxing or skiing.

As human beings, I'd say it's our weakest muscles that are our weakest links; legs seem to be fine on their own without the need for a barbell stacked with weight; high intensity squat jumps seem to provide more than enough sustenance. The upper body may require more work, especially the hands, which is why I prefer to do push ups mostly on my fingertips, and perform a lot of one arm hangs for grip strength.