Is "Roadwork" in boxing overrated?

check this guy out.. discovered him years ago
rossboxing.com
rosstraining.com

good articles on this topic..

boxing is mostly an Anerobic sport.

 

time and time again you prove your complete ignorance of the sport of boxing .... jesus christ , you should be on a Twighlight forum or something

 

Traditional "slow and steady" Road work may be but interval road work isn't. If a guy progressively sprints for 15 rounds AND does his skill training he should be good.

 

I've actually read that Williams credited his high volume punching due to running six miles a day.

 

I'm sure he believes that, n. Different strokes for different folks.

 

Roadwork is great but you need that upperbody conditioning in boxing and you will not great that from running. When you see those guys that have there arms lowered in the 12th round but the legs look fine maybe they should have spend more time hitting pads then focusing on 9 miles daily runs.

 

Clearly you've made a study of this, MJ. If you had a boxer with a resting heart beat of 35, like Bjorn Borg, how would you condition him?

 

calzaghe did a ton of roadwork and more so than anyother fighter in his generation, his stamina was tremendous.

 

If I had an athlete like that, WOW.


Before anyone jumps on me about it, dont mistake me for a boxing coach. Im not a professional boxer. What I can do is train athletes for their specific athletic performance.


Anyways

Before I actually started training him, I'd run a multitude of tests on the guy. I'd need to find out his VO2 Max, his maximal working heart rate, his mean working aerobic heart rate, his mean working anaerobic heart rate.

I'd likely have him do some simple upper body strength strength tests. Pushups, pullups, quite basic

I'd want to some agility performance drills as well.

the point is to establish a baseline. I want to see the guys athletic propensities


Someone like Bjorn, their endurance is likely going to be quite phenomenal. If he was to take up boxing, stamina probably wouldnt ever be an issue.

An effective program will maintain the athletes strength while bringing up their weaknesses.


So if we assume he has great stamina in the ring, then our program for endurance isnt going to be anything more complicated than 30-45 minute wind sprints over hills. We can do 4 weeks of time runs, 4 weeks of interval runs, 4 weeks of purely distance. Vary it up but otherwise it wont be an area of concern. If he wants to run 4 miles a day because he feels it helps, Ive no problem with it. Running is a very mental activity in that regard.

Lets say speed and power are things he wants to work on.

I'd have him spar rounds with focus mitts while wearing a weight vest or tension band resistance vest. 1 and 2 pounds weights on the wrists and ankles.

Punching drills as well on the pads with the weights. Simple 1-2s, fast as he can, as long as he can, as hard as he can.


I might have him do overhead rope swings with heavy ships rope or chains. Rope Slams as well, for total body power. These are done with lengths of very heavy ships ropes. Excellent for developing grip and forearm strength, as well as total body power

Common for a lot of fighters when they first start training is there arms simply become fatigued.

A simple exercise system that build endurance for this is doing mega sets on a cable machine with light weight. A cable machine might have 10-14 different positions is can be adjusted to.

Starting with position 1, they will do simple straight punch drills with cables in hand, 20 punches per arm. This is done with light weight.

They will then go through every position, no rest if possible. Once they get to the top, they start again all the way back down.

Very tiring on the arms, but excellent for building their endurance and strengthening the connective tissues. Id only have them do that once a week most likely, it is very taxing on the joints

I'll stop there. I could name hundreds of different exercises and drills that I might have someone do.


Hopefully that gives you an idea. It depends entirely on an athlete, their sport, and what area they need to develop.

 

Roadwork is critical to boxing training, therefore it can't really possibly be "overrated", though certainly some coaches can be a little one-note in emphasizing it at the expense of other areas.

I will say this: swimming is a vastly underrated component of boxing training.

Athletes who do roadwork and swim = athletes with superior conditioning. That's true in general but especially in boxing.

 

Many thanks, M. VERY CLEAR 'n comprehensive. Think a young boxer would be in good hands workin' with you.

 

Thank you John. The actual boxing I'll leave to a qualified coach. Performance conditioning is strictly what I do. :thumbsup

 

I remember running in St. Louis and people throwing beer cans at me. Running in bad parts of cities can be trying, but it conditions you.

 

I find this interesting. I don't like jogging and I know it can damage you later in life. I walk and walk fast and a lot. On walking fast up really steep inclines my HR reaches 180-190 which is 95%+ of my MHR, I can maintain this usually for as long as I need to. A jogger may struggle with my exercise, and I would struggle against a jogger. But, your not running around the ring constant. Surely dancing around a room throwing punches quickly for four minutes then a rest would be better than running a marthon or half marathon every day?

 

How improving your endurance could be overrated? :tired