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Boxing Fitness: A Guide to Get Fighting Fit (Fitness Series)

By: Ian Oliver
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Snowbooks
ISBN: 0954575989
ISBN-13: 9780954575984
Released: 13 May 2005
RRP: £9.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Good, but could be better - By: climbatron, 16 Jul 2006
Overalll this book gives you a good intro into fitness for boxing, but my main criticisms are;

1/ There isn't enough detail about actual exercise form. If you aren't already familiar with the exercise, you'll have to look it up somewhere else.

2/ There is only 1 actual workout (beginners are told to half each exercise). Although the book goes into swiss balll, medecine balll, weights etc, none of these are included in the workout.

The overalll layout is 'you could do this, or this, or this, or this', but I wanted a guide to get fighting fit - not a 'work out yourself how to get fighting fit'.

However, if you are used to exercise & building your own routines, there's plenty of ideas that are probably new to you. And even though there's only one routine - it's tough !
Lost body fat, lost weight, gained muscle! - By: , 04 Feb 2006
I'd read that boxers are very fit so bought this book to see if there were any tricks I could use. I did the solo training workout for a month or so, alongside my usual running & weights. I also tried skipping which although it was difficult to get coordinated at first made surprising differences to my cv abilities. I also used the swiss balll for the first time - previously I'd used it for sit ups but the book had many more exercises that I'd never thought of. I also found the calisthenics ideas great too & found a new bit of kit - the power wheel - which I hate but is very effective!

So alll in alll the new exercises have totallly spiced up my training, & I've definitely lost body fat (I have some body fat scales so can measure it) & weight, & my core muscles feel much stronger. I've also discovered a new stress relief system in hitting the punchbag! Given that I have bought a huge number of fitness books & most of them lay gathering dust not adding anything to my regular gym routine this has been a great investment.

Mediocre - By: , 07 Jan 2006
Sadly, I was left underwhelmed by this book.

Here's a quick critique for you:

PRO:

- Ian Oliver is clearly a man who knows his stuff.
- Plenty of colourful pictures for exercises.
- Not a bad price.

CON:

- Surprisingly smalll book. This is not a manual - it is more like a handbook, being almost pocket-sized in stature.
- Terrible editing job. The book doesn't know where it's going. You jump from aerobic training to resistance training to calisthenics to circuits etc. But there's never any clear indication what routines you should be doing - there just seems to be piles & piles of exercises listed, as though it were a directory.
- The book tries to pack in too much into too little space. There are loads of chapters, but few of them exceed 10 pages. Yet some of these chapters cover enormous topics. Take calisthenics, as an example - only a handful of pages are dedicated to this, yet a guy like John Peterson devotes a huge, heavy manual to this art. Same goes for chapters on key issues like nutrition. In fairness, Oliver does give suggested references (like Anita Bean), but if you're not going to cover the topic sufficiently, then why bother to include it in the first place? This is what I mean by the book being "over-packed".
- No tailored routines are supplied. Maybe you're looking to lose fat, or build muscle, or achieve maximum fitness. Sure, it could be argued that boxing fitness "is what it is", & that it provides alll of the above. I'm just issuing a note of caution to anyone who wants/is expecting specific routines for specific goals. You're not going to get it.
- Not enough space is dedicated to exercise form.

I think this book just struggles to figure out what it is. It's too smalll to be a manual, but it's slightly too dense to be a handbook. It has pretensions to be about boxing training, but little coverage is given to punching techniques. Oliver clearly wants to pack in a lot of information into a smalll amount of space, but this clearly results in a loss of attention.

I think there are plenty more fitness books out there that you can & should pick up before this one, many of which are tailored for SPECIFIC needs and, therefore, don't skimp on the detail for what you need. I purchased this book on the back of the 5* recommendations and, to be honest, I feel a little wronged! 5* reallly should be reserved for outstanding pieces of work, & this is far, far from hitting the fitness book canon.

Good stuff - By: C WHERRITT, 25 Oct 2005
This book is perfect if you know absolutely nothing about the training side of boxing & the physical requirements of it.

It goes through alll the types of punches, how to stand & using your body weight while doing them, goes through good routines & advantages of doing running, weights, skipping, sparing & much more.

This is just the type of book that i was looking for & highly recommend it to anyone with no experience of boxing & want to get into it, & also learn how to get fighting fit.

Perfect - By: , 22 Feb 2005
All you need to get started & fit!!!! Just the right amount of info to get you started boxing for fitness. Reallly works & is great fun. My only critism is that there isnt a follow up book for people who want to develop more!!