Old-time Training Methods: Bob Fitzsimmons

The Old School · Mar 2, 2011

Posted this on another forum; probably none of it is news to you guys but what they heck:

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"Ruby" Robert Fitzsimmons was a British émigré to New Zealand who worked for many years as a blacksmith before turning to pugilism. He notched a few bouts under the old London Prize Ring rules in the early days of his career, and did in fact learn much of his body-punching style from old bareknuckle greats like Jem Mace[/URL].
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Fitzsimmons was world middleweight champion by 1891; by 1896, world heavyweight champion. When he won the newly created light-heavyweight belt in 1903 he became boxing's first three division title-holder. Although he never weighed more than about 167 lbs (!) throughout his career, Ring Magazine to this day considers him the sport's 8th most powerful puncher of all time.

The training regime described below is from the 1913 book Boxing and How to Train[/url], published by Fox's Police Gazette.

“If I were preparing a man for an important battle,” said Bob Fitzsimmons, “on first taking charge of my man I would give him an emetic, which would cleanse his system from his stomach up, and a physic to cleanse him from the stomach down.

“The next morning after giving the emetic I would have my physic ready and give it to my man as soon as he rose, and I would take care to get him out of bed at sunrise every morning all through his training. Now, of course, there are many physics which could be given, but most of them are in the extreme, and I would recommend all trainers to try the following, which I have found the best in my experience. It is made by mixing four ounces Epsom salts, two ounces of senna and twelve ounces of Spanish licorice. Place the whole in six pints of water and, keeping the cover on, boil until the licorice is dissolved.

Then remove the pot from the fire and place it in water to cool. When cold bottle the mixture up tight. This should be given to your principal as follows : A small wineglassful every morning before dressing, for the first week ; half a wineglassful every morning for the second week ; take the same dose three times the third week, and on the fourth take only one dose on Sunday morning. This medicine will not weaken a man in the least, but will cleanse his system thoroughly.

The next thing I would look out for would be the man’s hands (I am supposing that I am training a man for a fight). Pugilists, as a rule, have considerable trouble with their hands, as they are often liable to get broken badly in a contest, or if a blow is not landed in the way it is intended a bad sprain is often the result. Some trainers use a sort of pickling solution with which they pickle the hands, face and neck, in order that a blow will not cut the skin so readily. If my man had a very tender skin I might use something to toughen and harden his face, but as a rule I don’t think that pickling the face and neck does any good. My own skin is very tender, indeed, but I never tried to toughen my face by pickling, preferring to use pure alcohol, which in a measure answers the same purpose, and is at the same time very refreshing.

To the hands, however, too much attention cannot be paid, and I have found nothing better than corned beef brine. This does not smell very nice, it is true, and should be applied three times a day after eating. I would never allow my man to apply it before eating, as it might affect his stomach, which would be bad. But, although the brine does not smell anywhere near as good as Florida water, it does the business, and that is all that is required.

After the brine is applied and well rubbed in, the following liniment should also be rubbed in. It can be obtained at any first class drug store, and the ingredients are as follows ; Laudanum, three ounces ; spirits of hartshorn, four ounces ; alcohol. one quart ; iodine, two ounces ; eucalyptic, three ounces. These mixed up together with ten cents worth of horseradish and five cents worth of alum, make a liniment which cannot be equalled for strengthening and hardening the bone, and when applied and well rubbed in it has a tendency to make a man feel fresh and strong.
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“I should always start my man on his daily exercise at sunrise. Rising from his bed, he should bathe and carefully brush his teeth, after which I would give him an egg well beaten up in a small quantity of sherry ; this more to stay his stomach and strengthen him until breakfast time than anything else.

“Then I should take him for a short walk, say of about a mile, returning for breakfast, which should be on the table the moment we got back.
“The breakfast for my man would consist of dry toast, boiled or fried eggs (and if the latter all fat should be carefully drained off from them), and weak tea, without milk or sugar, would complete the repast. I would then sit down with him and either read the daily papers to him or allow him to read them himself until 9 a. m., when we should start out on the road for a spin. The reading of the papers would give both of us something to think and talk about while on the road, and thereby relieve the monotony.

For this spin on the road my man shonld wear heavy sweaters or light ones, whichever I thought best to use, heavy if the weather was cool and light if the day was warm. As to the distance, I would change that a little every day, going perhaps ten miles (five miles and five back). But I would take good care not to tire my man out too much with his morning spin, as too much running is as bad as not enough. Most of the running would be done on the homestretch. so that a good perspiration might be gotten up.

Getting back to the training quarters, I would sit my man down in a warm room out of all draughts, so that he would perspire freely, and at this time I should give him his beef tea to drink. Now, there is only one right way to make beef tea for athletes in training, and that is as follows: Two of Mason’s preserve jars should be used, being careful to get them with very tight fitting covers. Then every evening five pounds of round steak should be bought. Cut all the fat off and then cut up the remainder in small bits, say about an inch square. Place half in each jar, never putting in any water, screw the covers on tightly and place one of the jars in a large kettle filled with cold water. This kettle should be placed over a good fire and allowed to boil for five or six hours, Then, when your man comes in in the morning, take the jar and strain the contents through muslin giving him the liquid to drink while it is yet warm. Then put on the second jar, and when your man gets through his work in the afternoon give him that to drink.
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The Old School · Mar 2, 2011

“If the day was warm when we got in from our morning spin I should place my man under a shower bath for about fifteen seconds while he is still warm and perspiring, but if the weather was cold I would just wipe him off dry with a Turkish towel, and then, putting on my hand rubbers, get up a good friction. After this I would rub him thoroughly all over with alcohol, putting plenty of it on and rubbing up and down until the skin began to get dry. Repeating this I would rub until the skin got smooth and perfectly dry all over. After this I would give his body, legs and arms a good dry hand rub, taking care to rub with the run of the muscles and pulling them out like a massage doctor.

“By this time dinner would be ready and my man would get a good meal of roast beef or mutton, or perhaps beefsteak with dry toast, some calvesfoot jelly, very little vegetables of some sort, peas preferred, winding up with some fruit for dessert, as I would not allow him puddings or pies. I would give him a little ice cream with every meal, but would take care that he got no liquor, beer or ale, as I don’t think those things are any good for a man in training, only serving to make his thirst worse in the long run.

If he wanted a drink a little weak tea would be good, or, if he could drink it, a cup of hot water. In order to keep the fever from his stomach I would steep a pound of slippery elm bark in hot water, and when he was thirsty give him a little of that. My man could have a broiled chicken about three times a week, and I would try to make him eat a saucer of stewed California prunes every night for his supper. I should consider that milk made as hot as possible without boiling would be good for him to drink after coming in from a spin or at any other time when he felt tired. I would not allow him in female society during the last four weeks of his training, and I would neither allow him to smoke nor chew tobacco, and would not allow others to smoke in the apartments in which my man was sitting or sleeping. These latter would injure his wind and that is one of the worst things which could happen to him.

“But I left off with the work at dinner time and am digressing. After resting a short while to digest his dinner, I would set my man to work swinging clubs, using dumbbells and perhaps skipping the rope, as this latter exercise is very good for strengthening the legs and has a tendency to make a man quick, both with his feet and hands. After this he should punch the ball and spar with me for at least an hour, when he would be given his second drink of beef tea and then rest until supper time. The supper should be light, consisting, perhaps of dry bread or toast, weak tea, cold beef or mutton and stewed prunes and an apple or orange. I would do my best to find a cook who knew his or her business, and all of the food should be made to look as inviting as possible, without putting too much salt, pepper, spices, grease or butter on it.

“As for bed time, my man should retire at eight o’clock sharp, so as to give him plenty of time for sleep. His bedroom should be well aired and situated on the sunny side of the house, where the first ray of the sun would strike in the morning.”
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Fitzsimmons's home-made linament recipe is particularly interesting, I think, being described by amateur boxing historian Kirk Lawson as a kind of occidental Dit Da Jow[/url].

The emphasis on nutrition and rubdowns and the like is not at all uncommon, as we will see from looking at some other fighters later.

After resting a short while to digest his dinner, I would set my man to work swinging clubs
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In case anyone is wondering, this is probably a reference either to the common practice at the time of getting fighters to beat tyres with weighted bats for strength and conditioning (currently back in fashion, although using sledgehammers), or more likely to exercises with Indian clubs[/url].

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Meast · Mar 2, 2011

Bump.

This is great

Swarmer · Mar 2, 2011

Swinging a sledge to hit tires is my favorite way to train for strength, if you do it right you can train a lot of muscle groups as well. Good stuff

boxersk · Mar 7, 2012

Great post, its a very interesting read, kinda shows what things were like back then, in nutrition that is

Vic-JofreBRASIL · Mar 8, 2012

wow...this is great stuff ! thanks for sharing :good:

Seamus · Mar 8, 2012

Gay as a basket of birds... enemas, rubdowns, beef juices, linaments, reading the paper to your charge...

ugh.

Nice diet, by the way. Pretty much a total avoidance of fruit, vegetables and fiber containing nourishment...

Flea Man · Mar 8, 2012

What did he have for his tea? Had a piece of fruit with his supper.

Great thread though, thanks :good

thejokerswild · Mar 9, 2012

classic gem of an article,

Vysotsky · Mar 9, 2012

He talks about applying pure alcohol to the face to "toughen" the skin which doesn't make sense to me as alcohol dries out your skin. Now fighters use vasoline, cocobutter, etc to moisturize the skin which increases it's elasticity making skin less likely to rip, cut. His methods seem to be counter productive for the stated purpose, no?

Danmann · Mar 10, 2012

I can't stop laughing--enema, then more enemas - - -Oh God!

Mendoza · Mar 10, 2012

Vysotsky said: ↑

He talks about applying pure alcohol to the face to "toughen" the skin which doesn't make sense to me as alcohol dries out your skin. Now fighters use vasoline, cocobutter, etc to moisturize the skin which increases it's elasticity making skin less likely to rip, cut. His methods seem to be counter productive for the stated purpose, no?
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I'm not sure if the old school fighters used vasoline, or enswell. In fact I never saw it on a film pre 1930. You can dry out and harden you skin though, and this can help prevent cuts. Back in Fitz's day, the gloves were made of horse hair and rather light. The gloves would get scuffed or tear at times, which made cuts even more prevalent.

BareKnuckleBox · Mar 10, 2012

I've been using some of his methods for years, because
I obviously love to bare knuckle box.
Thanks for this post though learned some new things I'm going to try.

Mike South · Jun 30, 2016

Swarmer said: ↑

Swinging a sledge to hit tires is my favorite way to train for strength, if you do it right you can train a lot of muscle groups as well. Good stuff
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He's referring to the indian clubs which are like weighted bowling pins.

Mike South · Jun 30, 2016

Danmann said: ↑

I can't stop laughing--enema, then more enemas - - -Oh God!
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An emetic is not an enema. It is a medicine that makes you vomit. Similar intent, but different mechanism.

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