Workouts from Boxing's Greatest Champs: Get in Shape with Muhammad Ali, Fernando Vargas, Roy Jones Jr., and Other Legends

I've always been curious and fascinated about how different boxers train. It's amazing that fighters toil, sacrifice and train for months for a few minutes of action.This book gives you a glimpse of how fighters basically eat, live and prepare prior to the showdown in the ring. Granted, no one fighter will follow the same template as another, and a boxer's needs will change from fight to fight. However, Roadwork, jumping rope, bag work and excercises have been a constant in the boxing regimen for decades.Some, such as Ali shunned weights and others used weights. However, Roy Jones for a fact did reluctantly lift before fighting Ruiz in order to bulk up, however the rest of the time he uses calisthenics as a part of his routine.I have to give the author credit for his effort that went into the book and the caliber of fighters he interviewed for the material. His passion about the sport is evident on each page.A great book both for reading and reference purposes.

This is a really good book- especially for those whom need to be led in terms of what to do.. The exercises listed are very cool from the various superstar fighters and you can easily do at least a version of it and feel it.. No way you can lose by following this and obviously do not eat a ton of carbs and sugar.. Post workout should be when you take in the most carbs.. You can easily do a workout program by mixing and matching the various fighters' workouts..

Firstly on the back cover of the book it says 'want to bulk up by adding muscle? try the workout of a heavyweight like Ali'. But when you read Ali's workout it says 'Ali did not use weights'. Aside from some ab exercises there is no reference to any kind of resistance movements at all. So how someone could 'bulk up' using Ali's work out is beyond me. False advertising anyone?Overall I was very disappointed with this book. It lacks detail and is very repetitive as the boxers workouts are all quite similar. The interviews with the boxers are very simple and brief, asking the same questions to each boxer and often with one word answers. The author goes into far more detail about his own life and training which frankly I could care less about. He also talks in depth about some sparring session he had in Nyc with some fat guy. Again going into far more detail than he does with any of the boxers. If he wanted it to be about himself he should not of named the book what he did. His own workout by the way is nothing new or interesting. The book is poorly written but it does have a few decent pictures.

Bought this for my husband for Valentine's Day. Arrived in time too! He was like Thanks, until I said did you look at it? He thought it was a book about boxing matches Mr. Ali had. He read the title again and was like "whoa, I didn't realize what this was about". He will adapt some of the fitness routines to his workout at the gym.

This is pretty much exactly what you think it is: a bunch of workout routines used by boxing champs. I have to qualify my 5 star rating. I have always been really curious about what exactly the elite do to stay in shape. How many sit up, etc do they need to achieve the results they get? So for me this book is very interesting. However if you are not interested in such things you may want to pass on this one. It is great for what it is, but I can imagine that very few people would find it as interesting as I do.

For any boxer or boxing coach looking for some useful nuggets on training, this is like a recipe book that you can grab samples from anytime you want to try a new dish. Matching up the style of the boxers with what they do to prepare themselves to box was very helpful to me. I am always finding nuggets of information and new things to do.This book is an invaluable part of any boxer's or boxing coach's library.

The title of the books said it all, Gary Todd starts out telling his story on how he got into boxing & went around & interviewed boxers from all over the world on how they train, eat, what they do everyday/week, an interesting read.

This is not a bad book. The problem is that every champ's training routine is pretty much the same. One of the major flaws is that it does not detail any type of strength training routine. Any decent book on boxing training will pretty much tell you what is here. It's all pretty much the same: roadwork, hitting the bag, sparring, etc. No champion level secrets are revealed whatsover.

In hindsight it's easy to say you don't need to buy this book. However, it is interesting on your first day of purchase. The book tends to be very repetitve and there is nothing in there that an active boxer wouldn't know already. On the flip side it's hard to be too critical because the auther has taken the time to research what each of the champions do in they're training routines, it's just a shame for the book that all the routines are very similar and not much different to any active boxer's current routine. I bought books 1&2 together when either one would have done. After browsing through it on the first day of purhase, I find it hard to say that I'l need to look at it again.

You have to really hunt for these workouts online, so I was pleased to stumble across this book. It was put together from real life experiences and first hand contact with the boxers which gives it a genuine feel. The diets and supplements are also mentioned. These are old school fighters with old school methods, which I think a lot of boxers even now will still relate to ie more than than the modern conditioning methods deployed by fighters like Amir Khan. Well worth a read.

Loved this book, picked up some great training tips

Best book I have read re boxers training (and I have a fair few!). Cleared up alot of questions I had re format of workouts, typical diet and free weight v's bodyweight exercise useage (I would never had believed that certain boxers had not used weights looking at thier builds until I got this book). My only problem was in some interviews and workouts I would have liked alittle bit more detail. And as mentioned in an earlier review more info re authors experience interviewing the champs would have been cool. In all a really good book with loadsa information and really good tips and examples of how to make your own program and good for motivation.

I have read alot of different books on this subject and can say with all honesty that this is the best one so far. Why would you want to follow the training methods of somebody who has skill in writing but has not proven anything in the ring (or corner), when you can do what has worked for great fighters like Ali, Roy Jones, Vargas, Buchanan and many others.studying this book also helps you to see patterns in relation to the style of the fighters. For example fighters who rely on speed like Ali, Jones Jr and others never use any weights in their workouts. They also focus on the exercises that develop speed. on the other hand power punchers like Kostya Tszyu and Ricky Hatton spend alot of time using weights as well as other conditioning exercises. Fighters losing weight like Vargas tend to combine different elements in to their workouts.The book also has brief interviews which give some insight into the lifestyle, diet and routine of prizefighters. It isn't the life of O' Riley, thats for sure.This book is essential reading for anybody that competes at any level in the sport of boxing. For people who use boxing workouts to promote physical fitness, it would also be a great source of information. Finally, the book is written in simple english so anybody can benefit. I usually like complex writing styles but not when I am training!This book is also an ideal gift for any boxaholic that you know. They will be thankful and they'll remember you whenever they workout. If they are a true boxaholic, that could be up to 6 times a week!