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"My writing is nothing," Ernest Hemingway once opined. "My boxing is everything." He duked it out with a hostile literary critic in his editor's office in New York, and took swings at such literary institutions as John Dos Passos and Ezra Pound. This boxing program will infuse your workout with a little of that pugnacious spirit.

1) Shadowbox with weighted gloves.

Start with smooth, controlled punches-six to the imaginary body, six to the phantom head, and repeat for 30secs. Later you can add other punches and combinations to the program. For now, keep those gloves up and feet dancing. Extend the punch out, then pull it back to guard your face and chin. Bob and weave to avoid vicious (if fictitious) counterpunches.

2) Jump rope for 30 seconds

Start with both feet together and your elbows bent in tight, and stay close to the ground. And this ain't no playground. Go 85 percent of max for a half a minute- or until you puke. When you work up to 60 seconds you're only a third of the way through the round.

3) Do pushups- nice and smooth- for 30 seconds.

Keep your body straight from your shoulders to your ankles, and lower yourself until your upper arms are lower than your elbows.

4) Roll Over for abdominal crunches.

Keep your feet on the floor, hands behind your head, and shoulders lifted off the ground, then lower and repeat. For the second set, the upper body remains flat while you raise your knees toward the ceiling, lower, and repeat- a small but powerful movement

5) Get on your feet again for weight work.

Starting with five-pound weights, do fullrange-of-motion biceps curls, all the way down, all the way up, for 30seconds; next, combine the two for 30 seconds raising the weights from the bottom of the curl position to your shoulders, then above your head. Keep at it for four minutes. (The next day, work your legs instead, lunging to the left, then right, then squatting for 30 seconds, with weights in your hands.) Number 5 can be ignore every third day if desired.

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6) You're almost halfway home.

Repeat the circuit from 1 to 5.

7) Increase weight gradually and interval lengths by five seconds.

Every week until you start seeing the results you're after (that jerk at the bar, flat on his back). For conditioning, exercise in short bursts of speed- sprints and hill work, for instance, not marathon training. Don't go picking a fight unless your skills meet your conditioning. Boxing, as it turns out, is a lot like golf: Without outside observation, you tend to master your mistakes. At some point, you should visit a boxing gym or consult a trainer. Plus, there is genuine pleasure and release in hitting a heavy bag alongside another boxer. Go ahead. Take a whack at it all

Source: The Men's Health Magazine issue April 2008