• Boxing exercises provide a great way to get into and stay in shape.Shadow boxing image by Andrei vishnyakov from Fotolia.com
  
  Boxing is a great sport for both competition and fitness. It focuses on speed, strength, hand-eye coordination, endurance and conditioning. A variety of exercises can help both pro and novice boxers work on their form and technique. Other workouts and exercises focus on getting into great boxing shape.
  
  

Roadwork

• One of the most important exercises a boxer does is called roadwork. Roadwork is usually done early in the morning and consists of running between 5 and 10 miles. The best terrain is varied with hills if possible. Most boxers will tell you that the endurance gained from these early morning runs is the most crucial part of their early boxing training as it provides leg strength, cardiovascular endurance and helps body stamina. Roadwork can also be turned into interval training that involves running at a much faster pace for short bursts (3 to 5 minutes) then jogging between sprints. A decent part of the roadwork should be done with your hands up in a fighting position to gain stamina in the arm muscles.
  
  

Jump rope

• Another traditional boxing exercise is skipping rope. The term skipping is used because when training for boxing its more important to have speed than it is to jump high off the floor. Jumping rope is one of the best cardio workouts you can get, second only to swimming because of how quickly you raise your heart rate and how many different parts of the body are involved. It is best to start with a 3- or 4-minute warmup to get your body loose and your blood pumping then begin to really jump (or skip) quickly. The quicker you turn the rope, the better the exercise. Boxers often will go from side to side with the rope while maintaining their speed just to loosen up their arm muscles. A decent jump rope workout 2-minute cool down.
  
  

Shadow boxing

• Shadow boxing involves throwing combinations of punches and staying on your toes in proper boxing form. It is an exercise that can be done for both form and fitness. The goal of a shadow boxing workout is to throw different combinations of punches (jab, cross, hook, uppercut) while in good form (legs bent, abs tight, hands up, light on your feet) for the length of a round (3 to 5 minutes). This can be done on a heavy bag or without at bag and just imagining a target. As with all exercises, it's important to have a warmup and a cool down and maintain your form.
  
  Some advice about throwing the punch combinations is to never lock your elbow and extend the arm fully. This will cause injuries. Also, when throwing punches, you want to turn into them with your legs and your hips to help deliver power and to get a better workout.