Strength training of some Old School Fighters

Dempsey in the last pic looking at the hair-do.

 

Is that the great Benny Leonard doing some gardening?

 

The problem with a lot of old time photos is that they may just be opportunities for fighters to appear in some sort of publication, or photo-ops.

Check out Dempsey's shoes in that last one. I bet he wished someone had before having his picture taken.

 

Yes

 

Leonard ,Dempsey ,and Johnson are easy,I think that is Johnny KIlbane tree climbing.

 

Old time fighters have always used strength training methods but have generaly avoided using weights.

Rocky Marciano used the "dynamic tension" system of stretches developed by Charles Atlas.

Archie Moore used resistance exercises such as chin ups.

 

Peter Wilson the then Premier boxing writer in the UK reported that when he visted Marciano at his camp he had a small rubber ball on a piece of elastic ,hung over his bed ,and at night he woud time it and connect with soft punches.Archie Moore did indeed do chin ups, countless reps of them to build up his arms,as you can see if you look at pics of his biceps,he also used to shadow box with a steam flat iron in each hand.Wood chopping was a favourite of the old timers,Tunney in particular spent , several months hewing down trees to strengthen his hands and wrists, prepping for Dempsey

 

Ray Robinson used to carry two little solid rubber balls and when walking along he would squeeze them in his hands.AJ Leibling,that great sports writer, remarked that Robinson didn't have a particulalrly thick neck to absorb punches ,but at the back of it was a pronounced pad of muscle,the result of countless floor exercises.

 

Nothing makes you stronger than manual labor. Great pics.

 

I've always liked how the old school fighters trained. Very visceral.

Those are some nice ass pics. :good

 

These look awful lot like weights to me:

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I like Johnson in that last one by the way, i imagine him coming home to play with his little daughter who is about to be kidnapped, with a cheap looking bad guy saying "you gotta cooperate, right?", Johnson replying "Wrong" and killing the guy point blank range....

 

I particularly like how Leonards' hair is not messed up.

 

Of course it's well known that both Max Baer and Joe Frazier hoisted heavy slabs of meat in a slaughterhouse, while Earnie Shavers grew up on a farm lifting heavy bales of hay. Roberto Duran climbed coconut trees as a street urchin. This is the kind of strength developing activity which requires engaging the whole body in the process of gripping, jerking and lifting, hence conditioning the use of leverage, an integration not involved in muscle isolation exercises.

Joe and Marvis Frazier disagree on the value of weight training for boxers, Marvis being a strong advocate for it. Once upon a time, I would have emphatically agreed with him that this novel concept could give a boxer a tremendous edge over the majority who eschewed weights. But today, I'm much more in agreement with Smoke, as leverage for punching power and endurance is far more valuable in boxing than physical strength.

If Smoke had combined the tactics he used in the Foreman rematch with the peaking ability he demonstrated against Bob Foster, he may well have been able to take out Big George late. Ron Stander was also much stronger than Joe physically, almost exclusively advancing on Smoke, but Joe's handspeed, punching power and underrated mobility systematically dismantled Big Ron's attempt to muscle the Champ into submission. (Watching Frazier/Stander, it's easy to recognize why most expected Joe to handle Foreman in much the same way. But George of course was much taller and with longer arms than Stander, to say nothing about his punching power.)