4 Reasons Boxers Need Blogs

Lack of focus and motivation are two killers of any good workout or training plan. Most people will drift from workout to workout without much thought of why they are doing what that magazine has told them to do.  There is an even better chance that you are not documenting everything you can about your training.

Blogs, like the ones found at Thoughts.com (the subject of this review), are quick and easy ways to keep your training on track. Places like Thoughts.com are online blogging communities that bring together a whole bunch of blogs written by other people. Hopefully, I'll convince you that starting a blog or other type of journal to document your training is a good thing.

Thoughts.com - Blogging Community

Blogs are basically journals - a place that you can write a short post and publish it for the world to see (or not depending on the privacy you assign to it, which is a feature present at Thoughts.com) The posts are generally organized chronologically by date and can cover a wide variety of subjects.

Some people's blogs stick to a central theme (like the How to Box Boxing Blog) while others are a mish mash of anything and everything.  Thoughts.com does give you the ability to organize your posts by category which makes your blog more like a website or resource - and a whole lot more useful in the long run.

Places like Thoughts.com, Myspace, Blogger, and Livejournal bring thousands of people's blogs together into one place and give them the tools to write. Some blogs such as Myspace and Livejournal offer a lot of customization and design capability - allowing you to add widgets of all sorts to your blog.  Things like MP3's, whacky backgrounds, animations, scrolling marquees and so on.  Basically anything and everything making your blog an unreadable mess.

Thoughts.com differs from what has become standard and the only customization I could find was the background color which ensures everything remains readable. I'm telling you right now, don't complain about the lack of customization capabilities.  This is a good thing.

Like Thoughts.com, here at How to Box, you also have the option of keeping a blog (accessible via your profile page) to monitor your progress, keep yourself motivated, and inspire others.  This used with the progress reports feature allows you to keep a complete history of your training - and more importantly the results you have achieved.

Now you're probably asking yourself why bother blogging about your training?  Well, if you're a competitive athlete or aspire to be the best in your sport, here are the...

Top 4 reasons you should be blogging:

1. To Ensure Your Training Plan is Progressive.  Your body is going to adapt to any workout you do over time.  The only way to keep increasing your level of conditioning is to force your body to exert effort. If you don't track what you did last workout, how do you know for certain that you have increased the intensity for this workout.  This is especially true for strength training.  You need to track how many reps and how much weight you use from workout to workout and from week to week.  You always want to push a little harder and try to beat what you did the previous workout.  It is also a necessity for tracking your nutrition and calorie intake - especially if you are trying to achieve a certain weight.
    
2. It's a Source of Motivation.  Writing things down and tracking your progress gives you something to look back on.  Take a look at the progress reports on How to Box.  If you started boxing and had a gut hanging to the floor and then 3 months later had a six pack and could see that transformation, it is not only inspiring to you - but to others as well.  Why do you think The Biggest Loser is such a hit on TV?  Basically you are watching their diet and exercise blog - documented over 12 weeks or whatever it is.
    
3. It's a Source of Release.  It's a spot you can get the thoughts out of your head - the negative thoughts and the positive thoughts so that you can concentrate and reaffirm every day what it is you are doing.  It keeps you focused and on track to reach your goals.
    
4. To Promote Yourself.  Athletes require publicity to attract trainers, managers, promoters, and fans.  Keeping a blog up to date attracts people who like what you read and how you train.  You develop a following, and a solid base of fans from which you can draw support.  If you're a boxer and have any dreams of making a lot of money from the sport - you have to come up with a character and publicize that character.  If you own a boxing gym or a boxing trainer, there really is no better way to attract new members and to keep the ones you have on track.  Offering up great advice advances your status as an expert in your field and generally makes your gym or services more popular.

Thoughts.com, like your blog on How to Box, is a minimalist type of blogging platform and in a crowd of blogging sites trying to push the latest design widget on you, it is refreshing.  It hasn't changed a whole lot from the first blogging platforms that came out - kind of like retro arcade games like Pacman - the functionality doesn't go out of style.  It is basically a page of words that you can actually read and focus on the message the writer is trying to get across.

I do have to issue one warning though.  Blogging and browsing through sites like Thoughts.com WILL take up a lot of your time.  For the benefit you receive in the long run, especially how it keeps you focused on your boxing training, I consider the writing time well spent.  How much time you waste browsing the wierd stories and lives people are living is a whole other story.

Oh, and these tools are free by the way, so there really is no reason not to start your blog today.

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