McKenzie Clinton - Boxing fitness: safe and fun workouts to get you in top condition

Dreams are made of wishes, and wishes do come true. This book represents a dream that has become a reality for me.

Boxing has always been my passion even as a child, running through the fields of Jamaica in bare feet. I want to thank my dad for encouraging me; he made it all possible. As did all the other people who supported me, throughout my career and ever since.

Those BBC commentaries by Harry Carpenter still linger in my mind. If Harry rated you, then you knew you were good. His voice was the perfect expression of the excitement, the enthusiasm that I myself felt for the sport of boxing. I still do.

Boxing training changed my life. If my words of fitness can change yours, then this book is everything I wanted it to be.

Yours in boxing fitness,

Clinton McKenzie

British & European Champion 197989

Olympic quarter-finalist 1976

I was delighted to be asked to endorse this book, in which Clinton McKenzie a much-loved British champion in his day brings boxing fitness into the light and makes it accessible for everyone to enjoy.

Boxing has been my life, as it has Clintons, and its a special kind of world. A fighter needs physical prowess, but other qualities come into play too both in the gym and in the ring. Things like strategic thinking, self-control and an ability to adapt.

But perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from boxing is something that we in the business call heart. This is the will to go the distance; the determination to stand up and be counted.

In these pages, Clinton shows us that you dont have to get hit to have heart. Youre in safe hands with him, and through your boxing fitness training you will constantly challenge yourself, overcome your physical and mental limitations, and become stronger in every way.

Sir Henry Cooper OBE, KSG

British, Commonwealth and European Heavyweight Champion

If youve picked up this book, and are interested in finding out what boxing fitness can do for you, then youre already well on the way to putting on a pair of gloves and enjoying a great new kind of workout.

>> what is boxing fitness?

First and foremost, boxing fitness is really good fun. You get to make like a boxer and lets face it, who hasnt imagined themselves storming up the steps like Rocky, whacking the heavy bag in Million Dollar Baby, or polishing up the old one-two? With the techniques and training programmes described in these pages, you can do it all ... and you can do it without hitting anyone or getting hit back.

With boxing fitness you will follow almost all the elements involved in a boxers traditional training regime. Youll learn how to shadow box, skip, hit the heavy bag, work the speed ball and practise your punching combinations a routine that develops a unique blend of heart-lung stamina, strength, speed, co-ordination, balance and flexibility.

This training routine places the boxer who is at the top of their game firmly among the fittest athletes in the world. It follows, then, that by training in a similar way, you will quickly see results.

Depending on what you want from your boxing fitness workout, you will lose weight, tone up, get stronger, increase your stamina and improve your performance in other sports and activities. And, perhaps best of all, you will get to bust your stress and channel your frustrations in a safe, non-combative environment. (Remember the driver who cut you up on your way to work this morning? Go on get it all out with your best left hook!)

>> safety first

What you wont do in the type of training described here is have any glove-to-body contact. This, of course, is the point of the sport of boxing: hitting someone else harder, and more often, than they hit you. It is not the point of boxing fitness. By removing the element of bodily contact, boxing fitness also removes the element of risk so that when you train, only the benefits of the workout remain.

These benefits are entirely achievable by you, no matter what your age, gender, or level of fitness or ability. And because boxing fitness is fun, and really does work, your achievements will motivate you to continue to exercise, to improve and to progress.

>> is boxing fitness the same as boxercise?

The sport of boxing has experienced a dramatic resurgence in popularity over the last few years (see for a very brief history). This has contributed to the rise of some explosive new workout trends which incorporate boxing moves and techniques into their sessions boxercise, boxfit and body combat among them.

Train anywhere with boxing fitness

Although such developments seem very recent, boxercise and other combat-type training routines have been around since the early 1990s, so that today there is a huge choice of activities available. Usually these are run as group classes, set to music and taught by aerobics and fitness instructors out of leisure centres and health clubs. As their names suggest, theyre not a soft option and can really help kick-start your fitness. But boxing fitness as described in these pages is quite a different kind of workout.

So what makes boxing fitness stand out from the rest?

We meet our boxing instructor in the park after our joint shift, once a week. Training together is fun, and its also more affordable since we can split the cost between us. Mostly we punch the focus pads, because all three of us love an energetic workout. And the session works well with three people, since we can alternate cardio boxing with core exercises and some basic resistance training so none of us has to wait around with nothing to do. At the moment, were working on our Ibiza bikini bodies!