Fredie Roach: “Training at high altitude is pointless”

GGG looked very tired in rounds 11 and 12.

Canelo actually looked stronger in those two rounds.

Maybe Roach ia onto something.

 

I thought I smelled sour milk. Stinky old man is stinky.

 

It's not true at all, West African runners are always amazing sprinters because of the conditions and genetics, the almost sea level altitude, East African runners are always amazing at endurance because they live in higher altitude and train there so their bodies are used to working with less oxygen, at high altitude there is a reduction in oxygen levels so the athletes body gets adjusted and works more efficiently with what oxygen is avaiable

 

Latest stuff I’ve read suggests that training in conditions that are closest to the conditions an athlete will compete under is best.

For the Olympics in Atlanta, for instance, the Japanese and British swim teams had half their squad train at altitude (the accepted wisdom at the time) and half train in high humidity — similar to conditions at the Olympic site. The humidity-trained swimmers did better than their counterparts AND better than their previous performances.

There’s been a lot more written about this, and given that the fight is in Las Vegas then a mountain/elevated training regimen makes sense. But I’ve also read a lot that says the margins on this kind of thing aren’t huge.

I will go with Manny Steward in that it’s more mental — do what makes your fighter comfortable, because guys taken out of their comfort zone tend to also get taken out of their confidence zone. On all the nutrition craze of his day, he settled on, “A guy needs to eat what he’s used to eating and what he likes (portioned to make weight, of course) — if he likes McDonald’s and that’s what he’s always eating in training, don’t force him into a different diet that his body is going to have to adjust to and that he might not like.”

Of course you can change diet gradually over time to something healthier, but don’t just impose something new for a camp that might throw a guy off.

And I’ve been reading about nutrition/training methods and such (not just boxing) for decades and it changes every generation, the ‘new’ ideas are always the ‘right’ ideas and ‘the way they used to do it was all wrong.’ And a lot of it turns 180 degrees from common training wisdom of just a few years before. One small-sample study without complete controls for everything else and a lot of people want to jump on the new bandwagon.

For instance, in Sugar Ray Robinson’s day, athletes (boxers, football players, etc.) ate steak leading up to competition. Some generations later, that was bad and carbo-loading was the craze. Now, me, I think SRR turned out OK. Imagine if he’d have eaten pancakes and spaghetti instead, think how good he might have become.

 

This study suggests that effects of training at altitude vary from athlete to athlete and that some experience negative results:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3903142/

 

According to this study, the best approach is to LIVE at high altitude but to TRAIN at sea level. Live on the mountain, come down daily to train, go back to the mountain:

https://www.sportsci.org/traintech/altitude/wgh.html

 

Canelo skipped high altitude training this time. I assume it was because he thought it did not help him with his stamina issues in the first fight.

 

I was going to make a very similar comment! I guess great minds think alike! LOL

 

My guess is that if you live in high altitude all your life then it may be beneficial but if you just train there for weeks / a month before a fight, then perhaps it does not change a whole lot to your body. Our body may not change in matter of weeks in this particular case.
That's my wild guess.

 

Because this thread made me curious, I ran across another study on training at altitude vs. sea level. It found that altitude training increased muscular strength and endurance BUT unclear changes (as in no measurable significant changes) in aerobic exercise capacity (ability to train longer), anaerobic power or ... and get this ... actual competition performance.

Hmmm.

Basically, we can see some benefits to training at altitude in a scientific study, but we cannot say that those benefits actually make an athlete better at what they do. It is the leap from the first to the second that people overlook.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5721177/

 

Isn't that like saying there's no point in training in the day time if the fight is at night.

 

Lol what.

 

Not really. Read the studies I linked above (all have short summaries).

If you were going to fight in a literal sauna, would you think it’s better to train in a sauna or in a freezer?

 

Training at Big Bear is to get away from civilization more than high/low altitude, it’s to be able to focus on the fight/training without distractions.

 

Listening to Freddy is pointless.