Ditch the gym. The key to fitness is boxing

A well-trained boxer is the most thoroughly conditioned human in the sporting world: there is no other sport that demands such a sustained level of ruthless physicality from its participants. If I had to offer one bit of health advice for the Western world, should it ask me, it would be to learn boxing. And when I say boxing, I do mean actual boxing – not ‘cardio kickboxing’, nor any other trendy meld of neutered combat and boring aerobics.

As an on-and-off student of the martial arts since the age of nine, I trained in boxing for several years in my early twenties. Sick of machines and dumbbells, I sought an actual sport, not merely a set of movements, as a path to fitness. Most exercise is boring: that’s why people spend a fortune on gyms they don’t use. If there is a key to getting in shape, it consists of finding a way to work out that doesn’t feel as if you’re going to work.