Who was the first notable boxer to take up weight training?

@slash Yes, true, a very beneficial routine. I’ll add that, as a versatile piece of training apparatus, the medicine really has stood the test of time.

 

Randolph Turpin lifted weights.

 

I imagine most boxers did pull ups (which is actually a really heavy lift Tbh) and push ups. I think most body builders really can't even do pull ups since they weigh so much.

 

You mean resistance training? If so, since the beginning of boxing, but weights as in barbells and dumbbells, it’s still stigmatised in boxing today, but one of the first properly was probably Holyfield.

 

Yankee Sullivan used dumbbells, never mind John L Sullivan.

 

Henry Cooper's 'how to' boxing book showed weight training. If my recollection is correct he talked about lots of reps with low to moderate weight.

 

I’m not sure but it stuck around for a long time in some people’s minds, James Toney said weightlifting slowing you down is “Bull S***” and he was lifting weights daily even in his 160lbs days… Miller probably tried keeping JT off the bench but it ain’t hard to do it in private there are gyms everywhere.I remember when they asked if Tyson lifted back in the 80s and they’d basically answered “Not with us but he might” Ken Norton is a closet lifter, that should be obvious to anyone who has actually spent some time in a gym… but people want to believe all he did was run and do sit ups lol he actively sort out bodybuilders after his career and Ken asked the trainer who took over from Futch (I forgot his name) what he thought of lifting… back then actors lied about working out and said they’d done manual labour or were “born this way” because of the vain stigma attributed to weightlifting.

 

I think that Tyson and Morrison and Holyfield all lifted and lifted heavy. I also think that all 3 of them neglected their cardio and a fundamental fact of training for violence is that you train for endurance; if you get tired you get hurt. In my opinion that is where you will get to the root of why boxing trainers kind of looked down on weight training. You can do a lot of things with weight training to give yourself a perfect, eye catching physique- look at Tommy Morrison- and not be in fighting shape. In my opinion the idea was that it takes away time from other aspects of training that are more important when it comes to being in fighting shape.

 

Without fully understanding it, it’s easy to see why they’d think it’d push you out of your weight class back in the olden days… I think that’s where it started, I think it finished with what you said and it’s true Holyfield looks like he’d be able to work like Dorsey but he took breaks all the time in the ring, Tyson too Morrison had no “wind” the heavyweights with real conditioning come in every shape Jimmy Young could go 15 and he was no Adonis…but so could Ken Norton looking like an entertainer is important IMO and weight lifting has a bunch of benefits but never at the cost of condition.

 

It is pretty simple. If you want to be good at boxing, you do boxing things; that should be the focus of your training. Weight lifting, running sprints, whatever else is popular and trending does not make you better at boxing. They can enhance your ability to box well if you have done the other work beforehand; if they distract you from learning how to fight, they become a liability.
A very big part of stamina is being loose- if you fight tense you cannot run enough to overcome that. One of the objections trainers have had for years to weight training is that it makes you tight, and that is why you see a lot of resistance bands and body weight exercise in boxing gyms. A guy named John Jaquish is a good source for how resistance bands build muscle faster and are easier on the joints than lifting weights.

 

Toney just lifted and sparred that can basically be the formula for all fighters… flawless really if you control your weight and your technique is right, JCC sparred and ran, then like you’ve said he just sparred - Larry Holmes sparred, then spared and finally ran slowly to keep the weight off lol. Boxing makes you better at boxing… it’s not complicated ay?

 

I agree with this grey. I think in boxing - and even just in daily life for any person - the most important thing to learn is how to release tension. The problem is that people go into S&C before being good at this which increases their overall tension held in the body. Combine that with inactivity periods or just general lack of mindfulness and I can see why old timers didn't recommend it. Training fads love emphasising increase in body tension and work - relaxing and developing body mind connection isn't fashionable.

I think the best I've seen at balancing proper strength training with boxing is Beterbiev. It's notable with him though that his training seems to emphasise mostly on actual nervous adaption, typical of eastern bloc training, than on any muscular hypertrophy 'no pain no gain' that Americans love.

 

The specific boxing exercises are definitely the most important for a boxer. Other kinds of training (road work, lifting weights etc) play a part, but I think that part often gets exagerrated.