Intro
First
of all, anyone interested in Boxing, Thai Boxing or any other combat sport needs
to get this book! Its fantastic. There is something in it for everybody that wants
to improve their performance in any striking based discipline! True, its not completely
beneficial to grapplers, but there is still plenty of stuff in there to keep you
going J
The book is broken up into
14 chapters, which start from reasoning behind the book to the mental aspects
of boxing! The entire book is laid out in an easy to read fashion, without any
complex jargon that you would associate with books aimed at sports enhancement
and program design. The entire book is in layman’s terms!
As
mentioned earlier, the first chapter is basically an explanation of the why’s
behind the methods talked about in the book, for example, an explanation on how
a boxer needs Fast Twitch Muscle fibers and needs to train them accordingly as
well as a full explanation on Aerobic vs. Anaerobic conditioning. Ross also explains
a number of training principles that are mentioned throughout the book. These
principles are:
- Specificity
- Overload
- Progression
- Adaptation
- Use/Disuse
All
of these principles are clearly explained on why they are important in a boxers
(or any combat athletes) training regimen! The next chapter is a bit of a motivational
chapter, in short Ross basically says in this chapter that you will only get out
of the training what you put in! After this, Ross moves on to Stretching and Warm
ups. Here he talks about general warm ups and specific warm ups (e.g. shadow boxing
before a bag work or sparring session) and gives an explanation of the different
types of stretching (Ballistic, Static and Dynamic) and the advantages of each.
He also gives a number of stretching exercises for the upper and lower body.
Now
Ross moves on to the running regimen of a boxer, this is where the book gets good
J as Ross dispels the myth that your typical long distance runs are not the
optimal way to get in shape for 6, 12 or how ever many rounds you might be fighting
for! Ross gives a very detailed explanation here on Interval training sessions,
how to guage and measure your Heart Rate (RHR and MHR). This is littered with
examples of interval running routines that you could start on right away J
. Ross also details the benefits of sprinting, hill runs and other forms of running
that a boxer can use.
Other topics included
are why LSD (no, not the drug J ) running is a no-no for boxers and Ross also
talks about surfaces to run on (tracks, grass etc.) whether to eat before a morning
run and winding down a running program on the build up to a fight. It is a very
detailed section and extremely well written!
Now
Ross moves onto Strength training for boxing and once again dispels a myth that
Weights are no good as they make a boxer slow! He also dispels a number of other
myths that are the reason boxers are told to steer clear of weights! Ross also
gives a "definition of strength", where he talks about the different
components of strength. These are, Limit, Starting, Explosive and Anaerobic. He
gives a good explanation on whet these different components actually are, and
how to train with weights to optimize each component! Ross then talks about "Mesocycles"
and how to build a strength routine specific to your individual needs!
He
also illustrates a boat load of Exercises (both weighted and non weighted) to
incorporate into your routine! After which, Ross moves onto Plyometrics and Medicine
Ball training. Here he explains why plyos and medicine ball training are important
to a boxer, Preparation for Plyometrics, Training the right way (essentially telling
that Plyos should always be done in the 10-20 rep range and only for 2-3 sets)
and when to conduct plyometrics! Ross finishes this section with another boat
load of exercises J .
Ross moves
on to Abs, Neck and Hands in the next section, which disappointed me a little
because I was looking forward to a big talk on the right way to train abs for
boxing, but it was just a pep talk on ab training being important. I was hoping
to get a detailed explanation on how to build abdominal strength to increase explosiveness
and power. The bonus though, is that Ross talks about the neck and hands, which
are seldom discussed in other books.
Ross
now moves onto Conditioning, and talks about various methods to improve your conditioning
through Sport Specific training drills! Ross details Minute Drills in this section,
and to anyone who hasn’t done them, try them, they are a lot harder than
you think! An example routine would be as follows:
- 30
seconds Burpees
- 30 seconds Shadow
Boxing with handweights
Repeat
this two or three times and that is one round! Perform 3-6 rounds! Ross also discusses
Skipping, and sport specific methods like footwork drills, bag work etc.
The
next chapter, titled "Boxing is a skill sport" is a bit of an instructional
on how to box! Ross gives a brief explanation on stance, footwork and how to perform
the different punches. Don’t look for a detailed explanation on how to box
here, its mopre of instruction to ensure that you have correct technique when
working the heavy bag, shadow boxing etc. Its more of an injury prevention thing
than anything else! Maybe Ross will come out with some instructional material
in the future, but this is not the purpose of this book!
Ross
now moves onto Swiss ball training and basically lists the benefits of this tool
to boxers, as it develops attributes that are difficult to develop with other
training equipment, such as balance, coordination etc.
Ross
now covers nutrition. Though this is an excellent chapter, with no fluff and just
no nonsense advice I am certain that it is the same chapter as in the Underground
guide to Fitness that Ross wrote after this book. It would have been nice to have
seen some unique material on nutrition in this book, but it is still an excellent
chapter, nonetheless!
Now Ross gives
a very detailed explanation on how to put all of the training advice together,
and structure your own training regimen! He talks about everything in the previous
chapters and how to incorporate them into a regimen. Ross generally talks about
Periodization and Mesocycles where you focus on certain things at certain points.
This is the only way to fit everything from the book in J
Ross
also highlights a 12 week cycle that you can follow or use as an example, as well
as talking about different mesocycles and giving plenty of example mesocycles.
Ross finishes off with mental training for boxing. This talks about the usuall
stuff, such as self belief, goal setting, visualization and other mental topics.
All good material!
Summary
An
excellent read! This book is probably the best of its kind! Im pretty sure that
if Carlsberg wrote books on Boxing improvement, it would resemble this book a
lot J
Yours,
Beev
