In The Spotlight

40000 minutes to build an empire

Submitted by admin on Sat, 2007-03-24 11:37.
More In:

The How to Box 12 week boxing program has had phases 1 and 2 online for quite some time now, but I have not managed to get phases 3 and 4 up.  I sincerely apologize for that and don't want to make excuses but here is what I'm up against.  First, phases 1 and 2 were generated by a third party program which allowed me to use animated pictures and premade exercise writeups to build the workouts with.  I was able to add some customization to it to describe the boxing drills, but even with them, the pictures are not the greatest for demonstrating the technique required for the exercise -- especially when it came to the boxing drills, and the pre-made writeups take something away from the quality I want to achieve. In short, I'm not happy with what I'm providing you especially when I know it can be better

So, rather than continue down that road, I started a search for a better solution.  Besides the quality problems, they were charging me $45 a month for those pictures.  That coupled with my hosting fees which are $70 a month at the moment push my expenses for this site well over $115 a month.  That's a good chunk of change my family does without.  I can't complain though, more than one generous reader has donated to keep this site going, and I'm very appreciative of it. 

So, the better solution doesn't exist as far as I can tell, so I'm building my own.  As you may have noticed, a number of exercises, complete with video demonstrations have started showing up on the site.  I like this much better - everything is in house and I can customize as required -- unfortunately it takes about 10 minutes plus filming time to get these up on the site, so it is a slow process.

I have an initial goal of 2000 exercises.  I have them all mapped out, just a matter of filming, writing, and inputting them.  Assuming filming with editing takes 5 minutes per exercise - I am looking at 15 min per video.  Add in the inevitable fudge factor and 20 minutes per video is reasonable.  Obviously this equates to 40000 minutes of work = 667 hours = 28 full 24 hour days.

Once those exercises are in the system, trainers and gym owners, and even you, can mix and match them to put together into workouts, and put the workouts together to form training plans.  How to Box's 12 week program is heading in this direction and I can assure you that it will be far superior to the current system, which while it works, is kind of cumbersome.

All I need is 40000 minutes of uninterrupted work.  Damn the day job.  At any rate, How to Box is only 40000 minutes from emerging as an empire in the boxing and fitness scene. I sincerely hope it is going to help you achieve your goals.

1 Comments
More In:

admin's picture

Something else

I forgot to mention. If there is anything you as a supporter would like to see in the workout, then let me know. Right now, the How to Box 12 week program is being redesigned (and finished off...) so that it is extremely user friendly. Basically, it is 84 days of instruction. Every single one of the those days has what you need to fit in on that day including both your workouts AND what you need to eat. A complete training program cannot ignore the nutrition side of the house.

Initially you will have to come up with a couple of figures, to determine the portion sizes of the meals. All of that will be included in the setup instructions which will take you through this step by step. I have found that most people looking here want someone to tell them EXACTLY what to do and when to do it. I can't plan your day out for you exactly, but when it comes to getting you in shape and developing your boxing skills, I can tell you what you need to do in a day.

In addition to that, the workouts are printable so you can log your progress and a new feature here on the site lets you upload progress reports to view in your profile. I'm not a big fan of having to enter every exercise, the weight used, the number of reps, etc... into the computer every day in order to graph your progress. It is hard enough as it is to stick to a program let alone add an hour to enter the data. Instead these progress reports are done weekly, monthly, whatever you decide and consist of whatever measurements you want to provide. Most importantly, it allows you to upload a picture. A picture is worth a thousand words and is the best record of your progress. You can see what is working and what isn't.

I'm not saying a log book is useless, because it is absolutely essential. In fact, as I said the workouts are printable and you will need to track what weights you are using/how many reps/times and so on so you can improve the next time you attempt that exercise or routine. You always have to move forward. As they are printable, you can put together a log book AND if you're really lucky, I'm going to have log books available. (my mother happens to be a publisher so we're looking at actually printing some programs -- of course there will be a charge for these books, but because I know the printer, it will be the best price possible:))

In the end my goal is to have a training plan for you that you can come here for the next 84 days and on any given day you can see what you need to do, what you need for groceries to eat the meals you need to eat, and how long to rest. In short, I am giving you a very detailed plan to achieve a higher level of fitness. All you will have to do is follow what it says. Ideally it will take you 84 days, but that number may be longer if you end up missing days and what not. At any rate, it is being designed to be easy...

So is there anything else you need? There should be absolutely no reason why you can't get in shape and learn how to box with something like this. Right? Remember, just like now, I will not be explicity charging anything for this. All I ask is that you consider this.

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
— Muhammed Ali

Recent Readers

Quick Stats

Total Boxers: 6771
Total Boxing Gyms and Trainers: 243