Rocky Marciano training regiment

Overtraining is kind of a myth unless your one of the elite. the first time I hit a 2 plate bench (100kg Not that much I know I was young 16-17)I benched 7 days of the week low volume I would just try and increase the reps by a little if i hit 5 I would add weight the next day. I got the idea from a powerlifter named Bob Peoples who lifted every single day in a similar fashion.

So I would take weight X till I could move it 5 times and add 2kg. That would be it for me benching. Overtraining through doing something everyday won't happen without other effects long before it muscle loss, weakness. easy fatigue ect I lifted everyday for weeks its about volume management not so much having actual rest days.

Another is pull ups I would do them daily just adding one more rep to my sets. I would walk through a door way knock out at the start 3 and do maybe 20 sets over the course of the day my max was 6 every week I would add one more rep to some of the sets or all of them I stopped when I was doing sets of about 12 when I got a gym memebership at 16.

Did a similar thing with hill sprints, you get my point I am agreeing with you with my first hand accounts of what some would consider overtraining.

 

Your getting called a smart ass of one of the biggest on the forum.. Irony.

 

Great post.
I actually think those workouts are a great idea.
I often wonder like say you start off doing 10 pull ups with a 5 pound weight and slowly add weight still doing the 10 reps how much weight could you get up to and how big you could or would become.

 

My personal opinion is that it's not hard to overtrain. That though, is entirely dependent on intensity.
A low-intensity exercise like a morning jog for 3 miles can be done every day for years.
A few sets of squats to failure every day can't. Yes, you can do it, but your CNS and endocrine system will take a massive beating and the gains will stop. You will suffer from mental and physical exhaustion.

I don't know if you were doing just bench press or other stuff as well, but full body workouts at maximum intensity should be cut back, in my experience.
I noticed also that people new to training could exercise at maximum intensity for a few months, but after about 6 months, the intensity should be cut back. Often the frequency as well.
I'm talking about training all parts of the body.

I can't talk about powerlifting specifically, but in the world of Strongman, the tendency nowadays is never to shoot for max lifts in the gym. They leave that for competitions.

In Rocky's time, no fighter trained with weights, so it would have been harder for him to overtrain by doing boxing exercises only, as compared with modern fighters.
I still don't buy him doing 16 miles of roardwork unless a good portion of that was walking though.

Talking of roadwork, there is an amusing story of Jon-Jon Molina, as told by Lou Duva.
Duva says to Molina one day: "Run to the first red light (traffic light) and then come back."
Duva then goes about his business while Molina goes for his run.
After about 2 hours, Molina returns.
Duva asks: "Where in the hell were you?"
Molina replies that all the traffic lights were green.

 

We've had multiple threads where a few of us shared contemporary documentation of Rocky's (very normal) training regimens, but old myths never die...

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/contemporary-evaluations-of-rocky-marciano.647401/page-8

 

It can work but you have to manage your volume. You cannot be doing a whole lot of other stuff for your back if you do it like this.
I did it with a 30kg weighted vest I just started at 10 reps added weight weekly till I maxed out my vest went back and could knock out about 50ish pretty easy. Tried adding more weight to the vest through weight plates on top, loaded back-packs ect but the load was so awkward results where inconsistent.

 

Were you gaining any size while you were progressing in weight added?

 

Not really. just stronger.

 

Legends never die

 

But you are not debunking overtraining with benching-if you did low volume then possibly one can train daily (although more likely when either very young, or taking PEDs).
The pull ups-if you were doing 20 sets, that is high volume, although if you stayed below reaching failure for most sets, maybe at that age it was not overtraining-even if you were clean.

But anyone can add volume & intensity, & if you do enough of that, especially with not enough recovery times, you will eventually overtrain.
What one can do varies by experience, nutrition, genetics...And some drugs ad recovery speed.

But if you say take any workout that is supposed to add bulk, usually by doing enough work & intensity so that you are at least somewhat sore for a day or 2, then when recovered blast them again...
Even if one can handle that for a while (although breaks & lessening intensity are at least sometimes needed)...

That being even chronically sore in rotating muscle groups, a healthy adaptation if not taken too far...
Would be overtraining IF you take that dude & have him try & compete & get his best lifts.
For competitions they always back off before to maximize energy & muscles being fully recovered but not so much rest one loses strength.

 

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No training footage of Rocky here, but quite interesting all the same.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Minus the napping and ping pong, I could do Marciano's regimen and hold a full time job.