So Fitzsimmons gets destroyed 2x by Jeffries yet he has a shot vs Louis and Marciano?

2 years ago, I completely cut out long distance running from my workout agenda, and have done nothing but sprinting/hill/interval training. I have found that my energy levels, and endurance was never higher than it is today. It also improved my performance in boxing, wrestling, and crossfit. I think long distance running is terribly overrated. Ever since I dropped it, I have finally started putting on muscle. It just ate away my muscle.

Evander Holyfield did something similiar to this. He dropped LSD, and picked up interval/hill sprint training. He immediately put on 10-20lb of muscle and never lost a spec of endurance.

 

Never wanted my amateur boxers doing roadwork(unless they were battling weight) and agree that sprinting, hard fast bursts, etc is the way to go. However I think some LSD is needed for championship pro boxing, Holy himself looked to have stamina issues in some fights that you would not expect of a man of his conditioning. But of course there is a trade-off, one can only do so much.

 

Ben,

I know you are a powerlifter. I don't know what you look like, but I will estimate that you have very muscular legs. Am I correct? I am sure you wouldn't be able to deadlift/back squat all that weight with legs the size of the kenyan marathoners. Since your a powerlifter, answer me this. How important is your leg strength/power for what you do?

 

I have ran 7 marathons, some were pretty tough. I also have national 400m medals and personally found the marathon tougher. To run a sub-5 min mile you employ some fast -twitch muscles, it's the putting 26 of 'em to-gether that is mind-blowing to me.

 

Realize that completing a marathon (congrats) and being a world class marathoner are two entirely different things, much like I can play basketball for 48 minutes but would look silly competing against NBA players. There is a huge talent gap between the two achievements.

I am also a big proponent of high intensity interval training and continue to do it at my advanced age, mostly in the form of stair running. And you will find that runners up to the 5000 meters and beyond do the same. It is certainly the basis of training for those stickpeople who compete in the 800 and 1500 which are essentially sprints anymore.... sprints won by guys who weight 140 pounds.

 

Point taken.

Why is it, that typically the top placers at the biggest marathons every year have builds like this

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instead of this

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While interesting, all of this is irrelevant.

We're not asking whether Fitzsimmons could squat more than Marciano, or run for longer distances, or play basketball better. We're asking whether Fitzsimmons Hit. Hard. In. Boxing.

Clearly he did. Everybody he fought said so. He knocked most of his opponents out brutally. So what's the relevance of inspecting his legs to "guess" whether he hit hard or not AFTER we know the answer to the question?

 

I think I brought up the leg size/strength arguement for people who kept bringing up the fact that Fitz measured very similiar to Marciano in upperbody measurements, and questioned how marciano was bigger. So I brought up the point that Marciano's legs appear to be far more bulky, muscular compared to fitz beanpole legs. Then I further elaborated that Leg Strength is a key part of power in sports, including boxing.

 

As you guess I have a fairly muscular build.

Core strength is absolutely critical for ultra runners and without it you will run into problems verry quickly. I have never had any problems in this regard due to my powerlifting background, but most ultr runners I know do a lot of work to build core strength.

Distance runners also do squats, not so much to make their legs strong as to strengthen their joints. If you don't do this then the carialige in your knees becomes inflamed.

 

Fair enough, but Fitz's build is relevant because actually it translates to an advantage: he has longer reach.

Marciano's build, on the other hand, isn't relevant because it only shows that he looks like he has an advantage (power) that he actually doesn't.*




* He probably hits slightly harder than Fitz, but there isn't a huge gulf between the two

 

cross trainer is right, this whole argument is stupid.... But here's the take of someone who's a little more knowledgeable than all of us on the subject..