Windigo - i'm not disagreeing with your points. Anyone who knows anything knows that any athlete is only as strong as their weakest link. I would also like to add that in my second reply, I also stated that chin ups were one of my other, favoured exercises, alongside resistance bands - so you see, i'm not against training biceps for a fighter, but I do suggest that as the biceps are one of the more under utilised muscles in boxing - you limit the time spent training them, in favour of exercises which are going to have the greatest carryover to the ring. I could add isometrics to this as they are another of my favoured exercises. I use a 'pool' of exercises and I pick the one's that are most suited to my/my fighters specific training needs. Specificity is hugely important in all sports. You are a powerlifter, so i'd imagine the bulk of your training revolves around the three lifts, gpp and accessory work. As a fighter, you can only train so many aspects in a given time. We have to look at conditioning, several different strength forms, skill training - there is only so many hours in the day. For a fighter, you are looking for exercises that give you the most 'bang for your buck'. As a coach, I analyse my fighters, and built programmes specific to their needs - if they have a weak link, I will focus more training on that area, with the goal of making an all round athlete. In addition to this, I cannot stress enough the importance of intermuscular coordination - just because you are strong in the gym, doesn't mean that you can throw a punch. With the limited time that my fighters have available, providing there are no apparent weaknesses, I like to stick to more compound exercises on our main strength day, and add in plyometrics, isometrics, bands etc as time allows. If we spent too much time on isolation, I would feel that the time wasn't being used efficiently.
Well actually I'm a power lifter who has started to get vain as he gets older so at the current moment I'm training with an old friend who is an ex Mr. My Home State and I hate it. Oh to go to the gym pull 600lbs 3X3 do some other back work and leave. Ahhhhh the quick intense pain Im use to. But nooooo we've got to work till we ****ing die. I swear to god that ******* designed this program around everything that a powerlifter finds awkward or doesn't do particularly well. If he tells me elbows out one more time I'm going to strangle his weak striationed ass.
You have to think of it like this.. When you look at that part of the arm, you have to see that the tricep and the bicep are working in co-hesion, so that muscle group is only going to be strong as its weakest link. Most people assume that the bicep is more important and that it is doing all the work since it gets huge peaks on top when in-fact, it is more of a helper to the tricep muscle. Push-ups are more of a conditioning exercise in my beliefs. You may get some good gains from it for a while but it doesn't target or isolate any of the muscle groups. To increase mass, I have found no better way than to do targetting exercises with weights. Pretty much, if your going to work out the tricep then you should equally work out the bicep as well. I believe from the compound exercise of hitting a heavy bag, its working out those muscles anyways so a little added benefit couldn't hurt from lifting the weights. Lifting too much and putting a lot of mass on doesn't seem to work well in boxing but like everything else in life, balance is the key. I don't see it as a bad thing to have a little bit more mass to your arms with taking physics into mind.
