Boxing classes with someone to teach you, point out your mistakes, give you a good routine is worth MUCH more than getting the equipment yourself at home.
I'd say it's 5x more productive/better for you, speaking from personal experience in a very similar situation.
Things you CAN do at home is to get a skipping rope (heavier the better), a good pair of running shoes, and get to it. Run for 10-15 minutes at a pace you can keep that up at, do stretches, skip for 2.5 minutes, shadowbox (basically move and try and perfect your punches, not at a fast pace necessarily, you build that up over time), do the same, skip and then shadowbox again. After that you would do bag/pad work, go a couple of rounds on the focus pads, then do some defensive blocks, or something similar.
If you want to be a good BOXER, then go to a boxing class. If you just want to get fitter, stronger, with "textbook" (basic) knowledge of boxing moves, then I would reccomend you get a few extra pieces of equipment. These would be, HAND WRAPS, very important, BAG GLOVES, also important, both needed for bag work, and a "heavy bag". How heavy/tall are you? Depending on that, choose a good weight/size. The good ones have an inch of foam to protect your hands. You could try and get one of the fancy water filled bags, much easier on your hands, don't know what other differences they have though.
The answer to anything in boxing is PATIENCE and PERSERVERANCE, always have this in mind when you think you're not getting anywhere.
PM me sometime if you want any more info, specifics or anything, I was probably a bit vague in the post. I train at a boxing gym in a "class" for about 5 hours a week, and do weights another day suitable for boxing.
Also, you could check out the "east side boxing forum", do a google search for it, it's a great forum, lots of knowledgable people there, good for a read sometime or for asking specific boxing questions once you get into it.
Hope this helps mate
See you in the ring (
).
:woo: