I have been watching the rise of Joseph Parker with interest, and his training regime (3x a day, 6x a week) sounds almost unbelievable. The body needs recovery time. This video seems to show, that without PED's they're starting to feel it. https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/spo...rning-in-camp-ahead-of-samoa-bout-kevin-barry
Yes that is a huge workload although two a days are common for most combat athletes. For what its worth as an amateur boxer I ran 35-50kms a week (roughly over 3 sessions) and boxed 4 x 1.5hr sessions every week for about 4-5 yrs. I was natural and could maintain this until about age 29. But I'm a chump and I'm sure Parker is a gifted genetic athlete. I'm sure that number probably includes stretching, yoga, flexibility work, swimming or even sports massage work/dry needling/chiro work. Most pro athletes have active rest days as well which could inclulde very very light work (even 5 km walks, just to get the blood moving) but its still programmed in. Knowing first hand how taxing training I am of the belief that most elite athletes are on some form of PED's just to recover. Given the widespread use of PED's the onus is on an athlete to prove they are clean not the other way round. Not judging anyone who uses but its the way elite level sports are played. Tim Bradley has been quoted as running up to 20 kms in a single day. The AIS is the top amateur program here in Australia and our boxers do 3 a days. Its sound like a lot but every day has 1 stretching session, just stretching no boxing and 1 run could even be as light as 5 X 100m sprints. Ping pong was even used for active rest in the night after some hard sparring in the morning. Sparring was heavy but brief usually a max of some 4 x 2 min rounds and sparring was usually only a few days a week and never every day. I know boxers who went through that program and they told me each session of the 3 a days lasted no longer than 45mins -1 hour. The 3 a days were programmed only for a period of 1 month or so in preparation for a tornament.
