by Shane Tucker

Created on: June 19, 2009   Last Updated: June 29, 2009

Anyone who has ever watched a boxing match can appreciate the level of conditioning that these athletes possess in order to fight 5, 10, or even 12 rounds at a high intensity. Many people don't realize how much preparation actually goes into getting into "fighting shape" as fighters might say. Hopefully this article can shed some light as to what type of training regimen a boxer must maintain in order to have enough energy to compete at a high level.

As the legendary football coach Vince Lombardi said, "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." What he meant was that when someone reaches the brink of total exhaustion, there is a feeling of helplessness that comes with not being able to make your body do the things you want it to do. This feeling tends to make the athlete timid and afraid of pain, injury, or in the case of boxing, of being knocked unconscious. So what can a boxer do to help ensure that fatigue does not strike in the middle of a big fight? First of all, the fighter must realize that in order to be able to fight at peak intensity in a competition, he must practice that way. The old adage "You play like you practice" is true. If a fighter does not push himself to the point of exhaustion during training, the level of conditioning will not be enough to sustain him through an entire fight. This is not to say that every training session needs to be maximum effort, but the fighter must learn to push himself as far as possible on a somewhat regular basis, especially early on in a training camp.

The first advantage a boxer has is that he will know the exact number and length of rounds the match will be scheduled for. This will let the fighter know if training needs to be geared for 3 one-minute rounds that are seen in many "tough man" fights, or 12 three-minute rounds that are typical of professional championship bouts. The intensity of work will be vastly different for each scenario. A much faster pace would be able to be sustained for a total of three minutes than would be possible for 36 minutes. This would allow the fighter to begin to determine things such as how many punches should be thrown per round.

A common misconception on conditioning for a boxing match is that lots of distance running can be done to prepare for a fight. While it is true that there is some level of aerobic endurance that must be achieved to be an effective fighter, much of the conditioning that a boxer needs is anaerobic endurance. I will not get into specifics of aerobic versus

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