Why were many old time boxers so scrawny looking

Brzenk also beat Larratt at another point, though. Granted, I know little about armwrestling and its history, but imagining a person better than Brzenk is hard to imagine given he's now in his 4th decade at the top of the sport and has defeated everyone there is to face, including a 660lb person.

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For those who don't know who Cyplenkov is...he's a huge steroided up freak.

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Cyplenkov:

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To me, man, nothing simulates a distance fight across 12 like running a long ass way, uphill as much as possible.

I know the alternatives are catching on, and as I've aged I use them more and more, but running should never go out of style. Strengthening your legs that way just works, and always has.

I say do everything. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is harder on a man than a full championship distance against a train killer. The stamina drain is unreal. Be strong in every area, do everything you can. Can't hurt, just have a smart sage to guide you towards progress and away from injury.

 

Wise words. :good

I laugh when 'modern training' zealots will say "6 mile runs will do nothing for your stamina, you have to do intervals, and 400m and 800m repetitions "

I always say there's more than one way to skin a cat.
Or, as you say, do a bit of both and your ass is covered.

Also, the proof is in the pudding.
No one can tell me Battling Nelson et al. weren't as fit for purpose and as thoroughly conditioned as their modern counterparts, slugging each other in 45 round fights outdoors under the sun. Exhibit A, case closed.

 

I think that distance running is very good for building up your bodies over all conditioning, especially when one begins training, and some distance runs should still be done throughout the career.

having said that, i do think constant distance running can in fact start to take more of a toll on the body than it should...

having said all that....speed work isn't a new invention. I remember reading a article in some body building mag years ago by Lee Haney about how his strength and conditioning work with Holyfield, in round about ways he talked about how the old times didn't know **** with only doing long runs, and how he has Holy do very slow jogs for a few hundred yards, than sprint for a hundred or so years. Interval training...he threw in some scientific stuff (maybe Lee had help with the article).

Than, a few years ago, I saw this

Championship Fighting/Jack Dempsey

 

Oh yeah, fighters have always done 'interval' work, or wind sprints, hill running etc. Training hard and for fitness is actually quite straight-forward and athletes figured most of it out decades ago, perhaps millennia ago ! Trial and error, common sense and instinct.

I think in 'the information age' and with everything now a body of science, some people anyone who lived 50 years ago couldn't have had a clue about anything.
People might use words like 'plyometrics' and **** now, doesn't mean the method didn't exist a long time before the word was coined and some geeks wrote a book on it.

 

Yeah, its basically just that they added more fancy terms to things...

 

I agree in terms of achievements & longevity. Certainly at least in P4P terms. But what's that huge Russian that beat him and bobsleds now? I know some consider him the best. I'm not familiar enough with the sport to really argue one way or another. I know John has the greatest achievements but never toppled this opponent.

 

Marciano would attest to this. I can't find the footage but he said running uphill is what kept your legs/conditioning in a long and grueling fight.

 

Guys like Fitz, Jeffries and Dempsey used to do what today would be called intervals, or at the very least waht the Finns used to call "fartlek", mixing jogging with sprinting and even walking. Roadwork mixed with hill repeats or stair running (which are essentially interval running) is unbeatable.

As an increasingly feeble ex-jock, hill repeats and roadwork are the last activities that keepsfrom falling entirely into the abyss of old age. One of these days I'm going to have a ****ing heart attack at the top of the stairs I run...

 

I believe John only faced that guy once, and John had hurt his arm earlier that day, so he wasn't 100%, even in his past prime form.

"fartlek" sounds like something that would happen in a bathroom, not a workout.

A lot of the older guys did the stuff they do now (minus the weights) just without the fancy names. As has been mentioned, several mixed in sprinting/walking with their roadwork. It's nothing new and has been used for over 100 years.

 

Weights are useless. Completely useless!

The only training needed is sparring. And some speed bag sessions to increase maximum shoulder and grip strength.

 

At my best, I'd do something similar for about 10 miles in the morning. Then, after my morning workout, I'd do some swimming, and then try to throw a lot of punches in the evening workout.

Do it for 6 weeks, and I never felt tired in a fight. I can attest to the pain and the discipline that takes, though, and as I got older, it's the running that I abandoned, and I replaced it with more "sprints" and swimming and weightlifting.

I got bigger, and my stamina tanked. I do NOT think that is a coincidence.

 

I think George Foreman has bad knees now, as I've seen some videos of him recently that show him sort of hobbling around and moving sort of stiffly. He did a lot of running during his comeback, which at his weight, may not have been the best for his knees. But he did win the title back, so there you go!