Strength Training for boxing

And look at boxing's state today. Look at the Heavyweight division.
That's why there are so many out-of-shape sucky boxers around, because they don't cater to the fact that to beat your opposition it's all about getting stronger, faster and/or bigger along with more skilled.
That's why you have guys like my Norwegian mate, played football here in Norway, played in the NFL, international level shot putter, benches 280kgs.
He got in the boxing ring with no previous boxing experience and raped everybody. He's 10 and 0 with 8 KO's, 6 by KO in the first round!
http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=215380&cat=boxer

He's currently in jail, throwing his career away for being a dumb ****, though.

Yes, nearly every boxer today trains improperly because they either listen to guys like yourself only talking about what people don't need and that all you need is oldschool boxing training that should've been deemed outdated in the 30's, or they hire "fitness gurus" or people that have gotten a "degree" from some fitness school run by the rotten supplement and fitness industry. They know nothing about performance and athleticism. They know about how to make money, and that's it.
When you "hire a trainer", you've lost. Becoming a really great athlete is about knowing your body and what it responds to.
You learn that by expanding your own knowledge, learning from people that have actually been places and accomplished things and trying out things for yourself.
You don't get anywhere by sitting there in front of your ****ing computer talking about what doesn't work.
Put up or shut up.

 

You sound like a rather brash young man. Are your accomplishments commensurate with your arrogance? Boxrec will tell you what Joe Calzaghe has achieved, and he did it with methods "that should've been deemed outdated in the 30's" .

 

Didn't Joe Louis develop a strong foundation of strength in his teens ,as an ice-block deliver man? :think

A lot of these old-timers performed heavy manual labour from an early age...

 

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I'm not really brash, you just rarely contribute anything in this forum and always negate anything anybody says that are trying to contribute for people to learn new things.
Joe Calzaghe has been boxing since age nine, my mate went pro the same year he started.
His methods have worked for him, no doubt. But he could've been even better if he expanded his training repertoire, he's not exactly a beast in regards to his physique.
If Calzaghe would have tremendous power along with his suberb technique, stamina and boxing knowledge, he would be even more fearsome.

I'm not saying that the old-school method isn't good, I'm just saying that using only that approach is out-dated and will today only work maybe for a few. And even then it won't be nearly enough for them to reach their full potential.
Many have misunderstood what old-school training is about as well, it's not about not engaging in any resistance training like I get the impression from many that "follow" it, that calistenichs like just push-ups and such is "all you need". Many oldtimers engaged in resistance training all day, working hard manual labor for a living.

People in the boxing community often say that punchers are born, not made.
Punchers can indeed be made, and if more people understood that, boxing wouldn't be in such a decline.

 

Agreed, as always.

To clear things up I posted the article to get some opinions on it, that's why I worded it rather carefully, saying "it suggests" instead of "it proves" or similar. It's not my article, and I don't think lifting offers no carry over. What I do still find rather convincing, is that hypertrophy carries over more than neurological adaptations.

True. But not all strength gains are in the muscle itself, some are neurological, some are muscle memory related, coordination plays a part, etc. A bigger muscle creates more power obviously, but for the other gains cross over will be much less.

Very good point, I hadn't even noticed that in the article.

I'm taking specificity a bit further than you are, I don't think something is sports specific just because it uses the same muscles. Boxing is a full body sport, every exercise could be considered somewhat sports specific in that case. But that's a matter of definition.

I can't really blame you to be honest, my tone was a bit annoying.

 

Like I said before to me it's not whether is beneficial, it's whether it's more beneficial than more sports specific resistance training like bag work for example. To me it's comparable to running. You can just plain run, or do it in a more sports specific way, and obviously the latter will have greater cross over gains, but it'll always be suboptimal compared to the real thing.

Having said that I did manual labor since I was 15 years old, so it may not really affect me like it does others. I like a manual labor session occasionally because I don't want to get weaker again, but I notice no effect on my punching power. Boxing is more than punching though, I do notice it when my opponent tries to throw me around the ring.

 

but you seem to ignore the fact that boxers also do it with "new school" methods - such as RJJ, and b-hop
and they did this ALL through their career, not just to fight calzaghe
RJJ also played basketball and used strength and power excercises that r necessary for that sport a lot of which happen to be used in boxing too
could you imagine joe beating roy jones in his prime?
i don't think so
roy jones would have beaten haglar,leonard and robinson in his prime

 

i've done heavy labour too
all it ever did was strengthen my biceps

 

not as good as a cable machine
think about it - do you wear 18 pound gloves in the ring?
can u throw powerful, quick punches while tensing your shoulders to a great degree?

 

gatti isn't exactly a smart boxer is he?
there is a difference between lifting for muscle mass and lifting for srength and power
if you researched it and tried it yourself you would understand

 

lol a gain of twenty pounds is determined by the weight-lifting COUPLED with excess calories (not just the "heavy lifting"). The type of hypertrophy (myofibrillar/sarcoplasmic) gained is based on the individuals training regime and goals. Anyway OrlandoFighter, Your topic is a little bit misleading. You ask for strength training and then you ask for punching power. The training for the two differs. The first is your potential for the latter, which can be solved a million different ways. The more common ones being weight-lifting, strongman training, and male gymnastics. The formula for increased punching power is simple: proper technique + specificity (boxing) + frequency/practice = success. The sport comes first (3-6 days a week). In this case it's boxing. You should be doing various bag-work, mitt-work, sparring, jump-roping, and roadwork. These are the fundamental exercises for boxing. Everything else is an additional tool/option ("core" training, calisthenics, gymnastics, weight-lifting, strongman training, speed training, etc) that you can choose to suit your own needs. Add as many of them as you can; as long as they don't interfere with the boxing basics. The same idea works for other sports (IE: baseball). You would focus on fielding grounders, catching fly balls, hitting balls, etc... as your primary exercises and the additional tools are to be used to increase your ability to perform the the primary exercises.

 

Wouldn't carrying heavy blocks of ice around strengthen your legs,back and midsection? :think

As for sledgehammer or woodchopping type exercises,George Foreman used to do a lot of those. His trainer after the Rumble in the Jungle,Gil Clancy,criticised this form of training.He thought that it made George widen the arc of his punches.

Cable machines are I admit a great training tool for fighters....

I think when people think about fighters who trained using weights immediately the name of Holyfield comes to mind.It seemed to have worked for him.

 

It sure would. Manual labor is a very dynamic way to gain strength, not just bicep strength.

It didn't do him much good when he faced James Toney, a man who probably never touched a weight in his lifetime except for the occasional quarterpounder

It helped him bulk up to heavyweight, that much is certain.

 

I feel perhaps this is being overcomplicated. Let's look at it from the perspective of how do we feel the outcome would be if Roy trained like Joe and Joe trained like Roy?

Genetics play a factor and certainly a training program to achieve max results is another big factor but, the greatest equalizer is and always will be HARD WORK.

Look at Manny Pac for the perfect example of someone who maximized his potential with a varied training program coupled w an intense work ethic. Now, Oscar seems to me like he could have achieved a bit better results in the ring against Pac had he worked intensely but, according to Valero, he did not and concentrated mostly on making weight while banking on past yet rusty skills.