David Haye's routine

It does give you more time to train boxing specific work, not just the time it takes to train but also recovery time. There's a limited amount of time you can train, doing weights makes that even more limited.

 

If you have reasonable recovery rates it should take nothing away from your skills training, and would most likely add something to it. As a professional with boxing as your fulltime occupation you can easily find 90 minutes at some point for an extra session, most other sports do multiple sessions a day anyway.

 

In an average week - sleeping and working 5 days a week, 8 hours a day a person will have around 72 hours free time. You're telling me a boxer can't find one or two of those hours per week to do a strength training workout? Come on.

 

I'm talking more about recovery time actually. I can't find a place for it, as I'm too busy boxing. The moment I'm recovered I'll box again, I see no room to trade it for lifting.

 

The problem is that the most important "skills training" isn't just training skills but is also very physically taxing. Sparring for instance, but also pad work and to a degree bag work. If I were a pro I certainly would not be able to do it more than once a week. It's not about training time but recovery time.

I'm not saying weights are bad but the whole "it doesn't take time away from boxing" is bull****. It does. Whether you are willing to sacrifice that time is a different question, to which my personal answer is no because I do not find it worth that time.

 

Everyone is so scared of overtraining, it's ridiculous. The human body is capable of a lot more than people give it credit for. Have you seen the training MMA fighters put themselves through on a daily basis? Muay thai, boxing, BBJ, weight training, conditioning and more all in the same time any boxer trains yet they are the same or some even better conditioned than some boxers.

 

Scared of what now? :huh

There is a finite amount of training you can do before overtraining. Lifting weights decreases the amount left for other things. It's basic logic really.

 

It will take something away as much as introducing anything else new to a training week will, and then after a couple weeks your body will adapt provided you are getting enough nutrients and sleep, and that's it. I know "skills training" is very taxing, that was never in dispute.
My point is that the fabled "strength training" is really, really, really the LEAST taxing of all aspects a boxer might train and I am speaking from personal experience. If we are talking very high volume, tons of bodybuilding stuff as well, and incredible DOMS the following days, then it would be an issue, but a proper strength program introduced, after a few weeks of adapting, will do nothing but add to a boxer's physical attributes.

 

I agree with you Mr. Small and I understand the weight training that you are referring to when you use the word "proper." I think that "proper" is a very vague concept as it pertains to most on here(I mean that as no insult to anyone). People get very overindulged in terms such as CNS burnout, sport specific training, and so forth.

 

Spot on observation.

Nobody will overtrain if they do two of the following for 30 mins each two to three times per week: Snatch, clean, jerk, squat, deadlift, pullup, overhead press, bench press. And after a few weeks of soreness the day after (maybe, probably not in an active individual) they will feel stronger and reap the benefits. That's what I meant by proper. The basics, with reasonable volume and weight, good technique, less regularly than your priority training.

That's it.

 

This.

 

Boxing is one of the few sports that has really stayed in the dark ages and myths are abundant. I'm sure track and field sports, tennis, football, rugby all went through the same at some point, but the results from a decent strength program are clear as day, strength is CERTAINLY one of the lowest priorities for a boxer, but extra strength and scope to increase their power are helpful to anyone at any point in the ring, and usually out. There are examples of guys who were powerful and strong without touching a weight, but not everyone is like that.
And its crazy how many people will really argue it to the bitter end that "NO! WEIGHTS ARE BAD!" which is why I keep coming back to this sort of threads and try and lay the facts out for people to at least give it a go before dishing out whatever nonsense they have been told or heard someone once said.
Bottom line, all professional athletes have a strength program, all top professional boxers have a strength program. Some are sub-optimal, some are very effective. Noone has to use one, but its the same as noone has to run 3 minute hard runs to prepare, they should only run 5 miles in army boots at 4am.

AT THE VERY LEAST, strength training will help preventing injuries, surely this is something every single athlete in the world can benefit from?

 

I'm not saying "weights" (bit of a diverse term) are bad so spare me the dark ages crap

What I said is that there's limited time, especially concerning recovery, so doing weights comes at a cost, you'll have to leave out something else unless you're undertraining. This is a plain fact and true for every bit of training you do. I constantly read that you can just add weights at no cost, that's all that bugged me.

 

It's because the results of a proper strength program in boxing aren't as clear as most other sports.

Track and field athletes can clearly see if they've shaved 0.5 of a second of their 400m time, or added a few centimetres to their vertical leap. Football and rugby players undergo constant fitness tests to make sure their performance isn't slipping.

There is no such precision in boxing.

There is too much emphasis on how a boxer feels, we've all had a bad day or a bad week in sparring, or a day when we've just felt 'off' hitting the pads. There are no objective performance tests for boxers (at least none in common use), and that's why so uch of it is based on what the old timers did. It worked for my coach so it'll work for you, or it worked for some champion 30 years ago, so it must be the best way to become a champion.

 

Let's have a they're in the dark ages and we're scientists circle jerk