Anyone given up on traditional aerobic training?

energy systems and muscle types..... Your long slow work is very important for losing weight etc but anerobic exercise is more relevant to an anerobic activity such as boxing- as you've found out.

I'm suprised you weren't injured sooner though, if everything you did was anerobic you'd get problems with DOMS and also put your joints and tendons under severe strain. Very good topic though, i'm going through similar changes at the moment. If you only train aerobically, like I used to then you will fail very quickly and suffer lung burning etc

 

Hi there mate, common sense really make the difference to a training program. I'm going to be fighting again in March based on the improvements that I have made as a result of my own training program.

Boxing trainers are largely backward thinking, taught by people who learned 40 years before them. It takes a clever mind to differenciate between the bull **** and the brilliance of old time trainers.

The way I look at it is, that boxing is an anerobic sport. When your fighting you would generally not be in a position where you would have enough breath to have a conversation... What on earth would be the point in training entirely aerobically??

Training should be divided up entirely, sprint work- technique - MSE - LSD all have a place in a boxing program and the percentile of each is dependent on the practitioner and what they are hoping to achieve. People who do not overload whilst training will not physically improve, they will plateau- that is a FACT. What will improve though, is technique (through muscle memory) and this can give the illusion that improvement in physical performance is been achieved.

Most trainers I have come across have no knowlege or understanding of the human body and its reaction to exercise. They guess, and don't stay up to date with theories.... Your case is brilliant, you stumbled across the correct method of training purely by accident. All its done is add further credence to what i've realised since I began studying.

Thanks a lot....:good

 

That makes no sense at all to me. Every bit of oxygen is needed that's why you won't have any breath left for conversation. It's not one system or the other, it's not like there's a point where you completely switch from one to another. Boxing is not all anaerobic, no way. I'd say it depends on style of both you and your opponent. Standing an infighting would have different energy requirements than moving and outboxing.

 

If a sport makes you operate above your aerobic threshold then its an anerobic activity- conversation is used as a test to see if someone is working anerobically or not... if you are you can't speak- sorry should have made that clearer..... Why doesn't that make sense buddy? Its more anerobic then aerobic, if you are fit enough to fight anerobically then you are fit enough to fight aerobically. Sparring is aerobic- fighting is another thing all together... obviously there will be times where you will lower the pace but i'd say if you want to be a winner you need to have a good anerobic capability. If you want to be a journeyman then aerobic is enough to see you through.

 

This is all very interesting to me. I started training seriously for boxing about 2 years ago, having moved to a new gym 6 months ago, I have my first amateur bout on December 4th, really excited and I'm feeling good.
A few years ago I weighed around 17 stone, I'm 6 foot 1 and 22 years old. Over the last few years I have changed my lifestyle and got down to 11 and a half stone at times. I started boxing again once I had lost most of that weight but I think it was down to the boxing that I kept it off and began running. Just a few miles a few times a week at first to get fit for boxing and to lose more weight weight then once I got better at and after about 6 months, this turned into running around 30 miles a week altgother, usually at the best pace I could but just at one pace mostly, I enjoy it that way!
At the previous 2 gyms I trained regulary at, I was generally the best at running and seemingly being able to work at a good pace in sparring, on the bags/pads and on the circuits. However at this new gym where we have much more fighters and fitter people, I have found that I am way off the pace when it comes to the circuits, particulary press ups and such type and I feel that my arms can go heavy too early when punching. I've given up drinking 4 months ago, eat healthilly and at all the gyms I'd been to recently they said I was fit to fight or could be within a few weeks.
I don't do weights and I have tried doing press ups morning and night at home but it is slow progress. Although personally I feel all I have to do is keep at what I'm doing and in time I should catch up to the fitter lads there, I hope. I could not keep up with last night circuits and I was really out of breath after it, a good sign I think as I don't always achieve that. I try to do all excersizes as well as I can
Running is a different story, I don't even get out of breath unless I sprint really hard which I have been doing the last few months.
I'm wondering Jeff what kind of advice you have for getting fitter anaerobically, if anything different or specific to hammering the bags/pads, circuits and sprints that I have been doing. In these last few weeks before my fight I have been paying particular attention to working at a good pace and in short, fast bursts. Sorry if I've rambled on too much here, any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

Fully agreed with the intensity point.

You can run 5 miles a day but if your lightly jogging it will mean jack **** to you for boxing.

I don't do any roadwork at a slow pace consistently, I add medium to high intensity intervals.. and when fatigued/recovering instead of stopping then I do my jog at a slow pace.. very similar to sparring or fighting, your not going all out all the time but you are still moving.

 

Yes, sprint then jog, lamp post to lamp post or to trees, up hills etc is what I have been doing. I have cut my typical runs down from 7-10 miles to 2-3 miles but much more intense recently.

 

I used to run 4-6 miles a few times a week but have recently been told at my club i have been doing too much. Apparently 2-3 is plenty enough for boxing. Anymore just becomes pointless and is only useful to drop serious weight?

Thoughts on this?

I thought the main point of a long run was mental toughness above all else?

 

I went from doing nothing to just running 2 miles a day and my fighting improved 10 fold...I would say this proves that running helps.

I always kind of thought of it as anaerobic stuff helped your intensity and quickened recovery times while aerobic stuff helped your overall efficiency.

I think aerobics catch so much flak because nobody wants to do them because they find them boring, so people are ready and willing to accept any excuse to dump them.

 

I ran 6km three times a week and it didn't help me with box training. It was too much for me. I just picked up boxing so maybe that's the problem. I started with zero conditioning. I first have to work on my technique and stuff before I do other exercises to improve my stamina. I think running doesn't have much to do with boxing anyway. I'd like to swim in the future. Seems like the best aerobic exercise for me, or high interval training (sprinting).

I agree that people like to make excuses for aerobic exercises. (including myself ).

 

I think that 800m sprints, 1 mile runs, are ideal, rather than 6 milers.
It's about 2-3-4-5-6-7 minutes depending on your level of ability, so its nearer to a round and a bit beyond, but long enough to get some aerobic work in.

 

Usually it works the other way in boxing gyms, trainers won't teach you technique until you have the stamina to actually practice it. That's why your first month there mainly involves a jump-rope, and road work. These two things also weed out the people who can't handle the training.

 

It's sports science, nothing to do with excuses. You train your energy systems appropriately for the sport you're participating in. Boxing, especially amateur boxing is a sprint, not a marathon. As someone else said the only real relevance aerobic exercise has to boxing is to pre-condition/condition your body for more intense activity. Obviously if you start out un-fit any sort of exercise is going to improve whatever you're trying to do.