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Critique my boxing routine
- Thread starter wizeass
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kingslender
New member
I've been doing amateur boxing for the last 2 years, I'm by no means an expert but I have gone through some hard training before fights. First of all, it doesnt matter WHAT your doing in class. Get your ass up first thing in the morning and run. Weights are important, but for boxing, they're not the most imprtant thing, especially if you're trying to make weight. You could get by with one day a week for legs, and one or two days a week for upper body. I'm going to assume you are already hitting the heavy bag and sparring in your class, so I won't even bother to tell you how important that is. Good luck, and let us know how you do. Don't forget the abs!
Hey kingslender,
In classes i first do 5 rounds of skipping, then 2-3 rounds of shadowboxing, then we do excersices which is alot of abs and upper body, mixed in with lower body on some days, then i do speed bag for 2 rounds, then sparring for 3-4 rounds, in sparring i almost always face guys either bigger or faster then me, then I do heavy bag for about 5 rounds.
do you think i am doing enough in class? and what type of running should i go for, sprinting or long distance? and for abs on days im not at the gym(friday, saturday sunday) is this routine alright, 5 sets of 30 crunches, 5 sets of having legs out for 25 seconds each set ( works lower abs)?
In classes i first do 5 rounds of skipping, then 2-3 rounds of shadowboxing, then we do excersices which is alot of abs and upper body, mixed in with lower body on some days, then i do speed bag for 2 rounds, then sparring for 3-4 rounds, in sparring i almost always face guys either bigger or faster then me, then I do heavy bag for about 5 rounds.
do you think i am doing enough in class? and what type of running should i go for, sprinting or long distance? and for abs on days im not at the gym(friday, saturday sunday) is this routine alright, 5 sets of 30 crunches, 5 sets of having legs out for 25 seconds each set ( works lower abs)?
nhbgorilla
New member
sorry bro, just moved and i think that mag got tossed. but it was nothing special really, a bunch of 4 sets of 12 basic stuff, except he did pulley curls across his body to simulate uppercuts, and a couple things I can t quite remember, my bad. its an old muscular development with him on the cover if anyone else has it?
kingslender
New member
Yeah that looks like a decent ab routine, you could also lie on your back with your legs straight and a bit raised, and have a partner drop a heavy medicine ball onto your belly. One thing that I find helps is to hold like a 10 pound dumbell in each hand when you hit the heavy bag. If you have an axe and some logs, another old-school boxing workout is to just chop wood with overhead, or semi-overhead strokes - it can build strength and power without packing on too many pounds, useful if you're trying to make weight.
For running I always did distance running, sometimes with ankle weights. If you're actually in training for a specific fight, and its coming up soon, early to bed and early to rise is a good motto to live by. Do you drink much alcohol?
For running I always did distance running, sometimes with ankle weights. If you're actually in training for a specific fight, and its coming up soon, early to bed and early to rise is a good motto to live by. Do you drink much alcohol?
coolcolj
New member
I'm sure that you remember very vividly one of the most significant scenes in sport movies history, even more so if you happen to be a boxer. The scene I'm talking about is the one where Rocky run through the streets of Philadelphia to hand up arms raised in victory after climbing that monstrous flight of steps!
However great and motivating that scene may be it unfortunately illustrates the myth that most boxers have fallen victim to: To be a good boxer you must do a lot of aerobic work! As a result strength and power training has fallen to the rank of secondary or supplementary training which means that it ends up planned quickly without much though about the desired effects, or even worst: not planned at all! This is such a shame because strength training when properly practiced will do much more for the boxer than any amount of aerobic exercise will ever do!
Sure aerobic exercise will make you more enduring. Good for you because you will be able to get your head pounded for a lot more time!
Unfortunately if aerobic exercise do indeed improve your endurance it also decrease your capacity to exert strength and power which are much more important characteristics to a fighter. After all isn't it better to develop a devastative hitting power that could destroy an opponent in three sharp than to turn you into a guy who could box forever but couldn't hurt a paraplegic grandmother suffering from osteoporosis?
That's why the more important part of a boxer's training should be spent developing his hitting power. This is accomplished by strengthening the muscles involved in throwing mastodont punches but most importantly by making the nervous system more efficient as producing strength.
As you know most weight trainees that are relatively advanced have pretty big arms, bodybuilders even more so. But that hardly make them explosive punchers, in fact as a group they probably have weaker punches than your sister! This is probably the reason why boxing coaches (and coaches in many other sports as well) decided a while back that weight lifting was counterproductive to sport performance because it makes you big and slow. Hence the "muscle-bound" myth was born.
This myth is in fact a half-truth. See, bodybuilder for the most part acquire their muscle by doing large volume of work with relatively light weights (relative to their strength potential). This type of training lead to an increase in non-functional hypertrophy or in other words an increase in muscle mass that doesn't contribute to powerful muscle contractions. This is because the muscles get better via an increase in the sarcoplasmic content of the muscle cells, not of the elements those contracts. Furthermore this increase in non-functional volume can impair the contraction of the elements of the muscle that contracts which make you slower and less powerful.
On the other hand you could look at Olympic weightlifters and shot-putters who exhibit possibly the most powerful human machines ever built and who built them by training with weights! I think that most boxers should envy the leg and shoulder strength of Olympic lifters who can jerk a 440lbs + barbell overhead in less than 1 second! And I think that they should envy the torso and arms strength of shot-putters even more for they can throw a 16lbs metal ball over a distance of over 70"! I mean, imagine having that kind of power in your arms and torso... can you simply begin to feel the kind of punches you could throw! Surely in less than 2 months they would start calling you "The Tank" or "The Bomber"!
Now, how come the shot-putters and Olympic weightlifters (powerlifters could be included in here too) are so powerful while the average trainee/bodybuilder isn't even if some might be pretty strong? The answer if functional hypertrophy and nervous system potentiation. Remember that when I talked about non-functional hypertrophy I said that this type of gain in size isn't related to an increase in the size/strength of the elements of the muscle that contracts. Well functional hypertrophy is the opposite. Functional hypertrophy is an increase in muscle/muscle fiber size via an increase in size/strength of the elements of the muscle that contracts. Thus, this type of improvement lead to a greater force potential and an enhanced capacity to be powerful! Now, to stimulate this type of adaptation you have to train under a heavy load, preferably in the 85-95% range, even going up to 100% sometimes.
The second phenomenon I referred to is nervous system potentiation. This simply means "making the nervous system better at recruiting muscle fibers and at making them work together". Simply imagine that your nervous system is a light switch and it's connections while your muscle fibers are the light bulbs connected to the light switch. Once the nervous system sends the activation signal (called innervation) - in our example when the switch is turned on - the electrical impulse will travel to the muscle fibers (light bulbs) via the connections. Once the "message" reaches the muscle fibers (light bulbs) they are activated.
Now, by making your nervous system more efficient you can decrease the time it takes to activate each muscle fiber (the "message" is sent faster). If a muscle fiber is activated faster you will be quicker! Remember when they said that Mohamed Ali had a jab faster than a man's normal reaction time? That's what we are talking about here! Mohamed had an incredibly efficient nervous system, which allowed him to transmit the "firing" message extremely fast, and as a result his jab was lightning fast. Some peoples are blessed with efficient CNS, others simply have to develop it.
By making your nervous system more efficient you also improve your capacity to synchronize the action of your muscle fibers. Thus you will have more muscle fibers "working for you" as you throw a punch. I can illustrate this phenomenon by a simply tug-o-war contest. Obviously having more men pulling on your side will mean that you will have a greater pulling force! Thus having more muscle fibers working during your punch the more punching power you'll have!
Nervous system potentiation is accomplished by lifting/throwing light/moderate resistance with as much speed and acceleration as possible. It is also accomplished by lifting loads in the 90-100% range.
A good boxer knows that, if strong arms and shoulders are important in punching power, good torso strength is truly where all that devastating power comes from. Punching with your arms alone will not hurt your baby sister if you tried! But put your torso and legs into it and watch her fly away!!! (Note from Chris: DO NOT try this at home!). For that reason "core" workouts are included in the program presented. This program focuses on developing rotary strength in the internal and external obliques. Strong obliques lead to great punching power. And as an added bonus, the obliques work as trunk stabilizers which means that they will help you absorb the shock from the punches you receive.
I stated that aerobic conditioning is overdone by boxers. However that's not a warrant to because out of shape! You still need to be able to sustain a high level of performance during the 3 minutes of a round and then be able to recover fully for the next one. This calls for anaerobic endurance (the term anaerobic resistance would be better but I didn't invent the terms!) as well as the capacity to recover from an oxygen dept. For that reason Specific Sport Conditioning (SSC) days are included in the program. These will help you burn bodyfat much faster than any amount of aerobic work and develop the type of conditioning that you need during a boxing match, not during a marathon!
The program is divided into 2 phases (it's a 6 weeks program). Ideally you would repeat the program 2 times before an important fight.
The first phase lasts 4 weeks and it emphasizes the development of your strength, power and conditioning. The frequency, volume and intensity are relatively high. This could be termed a "Physical accumulation". During that 4 weeks period boxing practices are kept to the minimum necessary to retain fighting skills (2-3 times per week for the average fighter). Both to avoid overexerting yourself and to enable as much of your body 's energy as possible to be spent on gaining strength and power.
The second phase is shorter in duration, it lasts 2 weeks and it's the "Peaking" phase. During that phase, strength training is reduced and the emphasis is on attaining top muscular and neuromuscular shape for the fight. Inversely to the strength-training portion, the boxing specific (boxing practices) portion is increased up to 4-5 sessions a week to allow the boxer to fine-tune his boxing skills and to assimilate his gained physical capacities.
You might find this useful - read the link for the full thing including a program
http://www.ironmag.com/ct_training_for_boxing.html
However great and motivating that scene may be it unfortunately illustrates the myth that most boxers have fallen victim to: To be a good boxer you must do a lot of aerobic work! As a result strength and power training has fallen to the rank of secondary or supplementary training which means that it ends up planned quickly without much though about the desired effects, or even worst: not planned at all! This is such a shame because strength training when properly practiced will do much more for the boxer than any amount of aerobic exercise will ever do!
Sure aerobic exercise will make you more enduring. Good for you because you will be able to get your head pounded for a lot more time!
Unfortunately if aerobic exercise do indeed improve your endurance it also decrease your capacity to exert strength and power which are much more important characteristics to a fighter. After all isn't it better to develop a devastative hitting power that could destroy an opponent in three sharp than to turn you into a guy who could box forever but couldn't hurt a paraplegic grandmother suffering from osteoporosis?
That's why the more important part of a boxer's training should be spent developing his hitting power. This is accomplished by strengthening the muscles involved in throwing mastodont punches but most importantly by making the nervous system more efficient as producing strength.
As you know most weight trainees that are relatively advanced have pretty big arms, bodybuilders even more so. But that hardly make them explosive punchers, in fact as a group they probably have weaker punches than your sister! This is probably the reason why boxing coaches (and coaches in many other sports as well) decided a while back that weight lifting was counterproductive to sport performance because it makes you big and slow. Hence the "muscle-bound" myth was born.
This myth is in fact a half-truth. See, bodybuilder for the most part acquire their muscle by doing large volume of work with relatively light weights (relative to their strength potential). This type of training lead to an increase in non-functional hypertrophy or in other words an increase in muscle mass that doesn't contribute to powerful muscle contractions. This is because the muscles get better via an increase in the sarcoplasmic content of the muscle cells, not of the elements those contracts. Furthermore this increase in non-functional volume can impair the contraction of the elements of the muscle that contracts which make you slower and less powerful.
On the other hand you could look at Olympic weightlifters and shot-putters who exhibit possibly the most powerful human machines ever built and who built them by training with weights! I think that most boxers should envy the leg and shoulder strength of Olympic lifters who can jerk a 440lbs + barbell overhead in less than 1 second! And I think that they should envy the torso and arms strength of shot-putters even more for they can throw a 16lbs metal ball over a distance of over 70"! I mean, imagine having that kind of power in your arms and torso... can you simply begin to feel the kind of punches you could throw! Surely in less than 2 months they would start calling you "The Tank" or "The Bomber"!
Now, how come the shot-putters and Olympic weightlifters (powerlifters could be included in here too) are so powerful while the average trainee/bodybuilder isn't even if some might be pretty strong? The answer if functional hypertrophy and nervous system potentiation. Remember that when I talked about non-functional hypertrophy I said that this type of gain in size isn't related to an increase in the size/strength of the elements of the muscle that contracts. Well functional hypertrophy is the opposite. Functional hypertrophy is an increase in muscle/muscle fiber size via an increase in size/strength of the elements of the muscle that contracts. Thus, this type of improvement lead to a greater force potential and an enhanced capacity to be powerful! Now, to stimulate this type of adaptation you have to train under a heavy load, preferably in the 85-95% range, even going up to 100% sometimes.
The second phenomenon I referred to is nervous system potentiation. This simply means "making the nervous system better at recruiting muscle fibers and at making them work together". Simply imagine that your nervous system is a light switch and it's connections while your muscle fibers are the light bulbs connected to the light switch. Once the nervous system sends the activation signal (called innervation) - in our example when the switch is turned on - the electrical impulse will travel to the muscle fibers (light bulbs) via the connections. Once the "message" reaches the muscle fibers (light bulbs) they are activated.
Now, by making your nervous system more efficient you can decrease the time it takes to activate each muscle fiber (the "message" is sent faster). If a muscle fiber is activated faster you will be quicker! Remember when they said that Mohamed Ali had a jab faster than a man's normal reaction time? That's what we are talking about here! Mohamed had an incredibly efficient nervous system, which allowed him to transmit the "firing" message extremely fast, and as a result his jab was lightning fast. Some peoples are blessed with efficient CNS, others simply have to develop it.
By making your nervous system more efficient you also improve your capacity to synchronize the action of your muscle fibers. Thus you will have more muscle fibers "working for you" as you throw a punch. I can illustrate this phenomenon by a simply tug-o-war contest. Obviously having more men pulling on your side will mean that you will have a greater pulling force! Thus having more muscle fibers working during your punch the more punching power you'll have!
Nervous system potentiation is accomplished by lifting/throwing light/moderate resistance with as much speed and acceleration as possible. It is also accomplished by lifting loads in the 90-100% range.
A good boxer knows that, if strong arms and shoulders are important in punching power, good torso strength is truly where all that devastating power comes from. Punching with your arms alone will not hurt your baby sister if you tried! But put your torso and legs into it and watch her fly away!!! (Note from Chris: DO NOT try this at home!). For that reason "core" workouts are included in the program presented. This program focuses on developing rotary strength in the internal and external obliques. Strong obliques lead to great punching power. And as an added bonus, the obliques work as trunk stabilizers which means that they will help you absorb the shock from the punches you receive.
I stated that aerobic conditioning is overdone by boxers. However that's not a warrant to because out of shape! You still need to be able to sustain a high level of performance during the 3 minutes of a round and then be able to recover fully for the next one. This calls for anaerobic endurance (the term anaerobic resistance would be better but I didn't invent the terms!) as well as the capacity to recover from an oxygen dept. For that reason Specific Sport Conditioning (SSC) days are included in the program. These will help you burn bodyfat much faster than any amount of aerobic work and develop the type of conditioning that you need during a boxing match, not during a marathon!
The program is divided into 2 phases (it's a 6 weeks program). Ideally you would repeat the program 2 times before an important fight.
The first phase lasts 4 weeks and it emphasizes the development of your strength, power and conditioning. The frequency, volume and intensity are relatively high. This could be termed a "Physical accumulation". During that 4 weeks period boxing practices are kept to the minimum necessary to retain fighting skills (2-3 times per week for the average fighter). Both to avoid overexerting yourself and to enable as much of your body 's energy as possible to be spent on gaining strength and power.
The second phase is shorter in duration, it lasts 2 weeks and it's the "Peaking" phase. During that phase, strength training is reduced and the emphasis is on attaining top muscular and neuromuscular shape for the fight. Inversely to the strength-training portion, the boxing specific (boxing practices) portion is increased up to 4-5 sessions a week to allow the boxer to fine-tune his boxing skills and to assimilate his gained physical capacities.
You might find this useful - read the link for the full thing including a program
http://www.ironmag.com/ct_training_for_boxing.html
Last edited:
kingslender
New member
ColJ you are clearly well-informed. However, I do disagree with the idea that strength training is more important than aerobic work. Both are important, but I would say that in most cases cardio / aerobic work is more important. It all depends, however, on what type of fighter you are looking to become, and on what your current strengths and weaknesses are. You say that it is worthless to be able to last forever if you can't knock anyone out, this is I suppose partially true; however, it is useless to have incredible power if someone can just dance around you for a few minutes and wear you out. Also, consider that in amateur boxing, the idea is not to pummel your opponent to the ground, but more so to win with form and technique (consider golden gloves).
Clearly, both strength and stamina are important. The only reason I suggested that he limit weight training is that he wants to lose 15-20 pounds. Therefore, he must find a way to shed some weight without losing power (or without losing too much). If one desires to become a pure knockout puncher (i.e. Hasim Rahman, if you follow pro boxing), then it is obviously more important to work on strength and punching technique. If one wants to become a fighter who outlasts his opponent (Mayweather and Erik Morale come to mind), then stamina should be the goal. Most fighters will have neither the pure punching power to knock everyone out, nor have the stamina to outlast everyone. So it's important to build both power and endurance.
Clearly, both strength and stamina are important. The only reason I suggested that he limit weight training is that he wants to lose 15-20 pounds. Therefore, he must find a way to shed some weight without losing power (or without losing too much). If one desires to become a pure knockout puncher (i.e. Hasim Rahman, if you follow pro boxing), then it is obviously more important to work on strength and punching technique. If one wants to become a fighter who outlasts his opponent (Mayweather and Erik Morale come to mind), then stamina should be the goal. Most fighters will have neither the pure punching power to knock everyone out, nor have the stamina to outlast everyone. So it's important to build both power and endurance.
coolcolj
New member
You don't need aerobic conditioning for boxing, what you need is anaerobic strength endurance.
This will build it - from the article - and the usual boxing ring and bag work. Helps slice the fat off too
1. Jump rope HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)
a. two minute slow jumping
b. 30 seconds rest
c. two minute fast jumping
d. 30 seconds rest
e. three minutes fast jumping
f. 45 seconds rest
g. three minutes fast jumping
h. 30 seconds rest
i. four minutes fast jumping
j. 45 seconds rest
k. four minutes fast jumping
l. 30 seconds rest
m. four minutes fast jumping
2. Anaerobic resistance drill
a. Four point stance run (grab) 60 seconds top speed
b. Bodyweight squat jump for height 20 reps
c. Power push ups 20 reps
d. Four point stance run (grab) 60 seconds top speed
Repeat the drill 2-3 times with 5 minutes of rest in-between
This will build it - from the article - and the usual boxing ring and bag work. Helps slice the fat off too
1. Jump rope HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)
a. two minute slow jumping
b. 30 seconds rest
c. two minute fast jumping
d. 30 seconds rest
e. three minutes fast jumping
f. 45 seconds rest
g. three minutes fast jumping
h. 30 seconds rest
i. four minutes fast jumping
j. 45 seconds rest
k. four minutes fast jumping
l. 30 seconds rest
m. four minutes fast jumping
2. Anaerobic resistance drill
a. Four point stance run (grab) 60 seconds top speed
b. Bodyweight squat jump for height 20 reps
c. Power push ups 20 reps
d. Four point stance run (grab) 60 seconds top speed
Repeat the drill 2-3 times with 5 minutes of rest in-between
Hey Coolcolj, and everybody else
I wanna thank all of yuo for your help. But I have some sad news. I have made a diet I have been getting very close to my weight. But as of last night they are thinking of pulling me out of the fight because I cannot dodge punches. I have very slow reflexes, I have been training soo damn hard for this fight. Can anyone give me advice on how to be able to dodge punches? I also have this problem that whenever i duck to go and hit to the body I tend to either look to the side or down, its a natural reflex, but I need to stop it, any advice on how to stop that I was thinking that if I practise on that while shadowboxing it would help.
Ps. I really thank all of you for contributing to this thread it has helped quite a bit.
I wanna thank all of yuo for your help. But I have some sad news. I have made a diet I have been getting very close to my weight. But as of last night they are thinking of pulling me out of the fight because I cannot dodge punches. I have very slow reflexes, I have been training soo damn hard for this fight. Can anyone give me advice on how to be able to dodge punches? I also have this problem that whenever i duck to go and hit to the body I tend to either look to the side or down, its a natural reflex, but I need to stop it, any advice on how to stop that I was thinking that if I practise on that while shadowboxing it would help.
Ps. I really thank all of you for contributing to this thread it has helped quite a bit.
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