Get fighting fit with BBN's fitness guru by Jamie Wadman Jun 10th 2005

Here's all the advice you need on becoming fighting fit, courtesy of BBN's fitness guru, Jamie Wadman... Go into most boxing clubs today and you will the participants go through four things: shadow boxing, bag work, skipping and circuit training. For years this has been the training layout in the typical boxing gym, usually 3-4 rounds of each exercise will be performed with body weight circuit training at the end of the night. A typical circuit can look something like this: press ups, burpees, squat thrusts, star jumps and sit ups. Ten reps per exercise is the typical standard of practice when performing this circuit, at first glance you will see nothing wrong with this layout, after all, it is the way 99% of clubs do it, so it must be right? WRONG! Boxing is a very complex sport needing a scientific approach to training, sure people have been succesSful using this regime for years but they could have been so much better. First thing that can be improved is the circuit training. A typical bout is a two-minute round for four rounds with one minutes rest in between. So where is the logic of performing a set of exercises for ten reps day in day out? Circuits need to mimic actual fights therefore it would be more effective to perform a set of exercises for 30 seconds until three minutes of exercise has been completed. Let's look at an example: Burpees - 30 seconds; Shadow boxing - 30 seconds Repeat That makes up three minutes of intense exercise, and with boxing being 80% anaerobic this type makes more sense, it blows any ten rep exercise out of the water!< After one round has been completed, rest one minute then repeat 3 - 5 times, it is best to exercise one more round then you will be fighting to overload the system, remember, fight night is much more demanding than a few exercises! You can be creative when creating the round drills, you can shuttle runs, skipping, all forms of press ups, the list is endless. Lets look at another example: 10 press ups, 10 pull ups, 10 squat thrusts Repeat for 2 minutes Each round you do can incorporate different exercises, be creative and have fun! Another common mistake Something else I am used to seeing in gyms is shadow boxing in front of mirrors, the mistake here is that in performing in front of a mirror you will have a tendency to keep looking at yourself and lack movement. This can develop bad habits inside the ring, if you are used to constantly looking around at a mirror when shadow boxing than it is likely that you will lack concentration inside the ring. DO NOT MAKE THIS MISTAKE! Perform your shadow boxing routine at an intense pace inside the ring, with no mirrors! Use the space you have and imagine your opponent is standing in front of you, it is much more productive than looking in the mirror! A myth shattered The most popular myth among boxers and trainers alike is that weight training is counter productive, while some seem to think you will lose mobility and become muscle bound, nothing could be further from the truth. Research has shown that a properly designed programme can INCREASE range of motion as well as speed and power. Muscular endurance and strength are both improved through weight training, you should find time for a good weight training routine, you will thank me on fight night! But it is important to remember that you must train in a manner that is specific to boxing (we are not body builders), slow weight training is not the best way to train, as I said earlier, boxing is mostly anaerobic in nature therefore so must our training be. Oxygen is not used to generate muscular power during an explosive (anaerobic) activity. As boxers our muscles perform the majority of our work without oxygen. Our muscles generate oxygen debt that we must pay back between rounds. Looking at this it is clear to see that lifting weights at a faster pace is the most effective way to train, but it is not the only way. Every 4-6 weeks it would be a good idea to change the routine slightly, we can also work on explosive strength to get us ready for fighting entire rounds with explosive speed and power. Plyometrics We must focus on maximizing speed and explosive power, and plyometrics is the way to go if we are going to achieve this objective. Plyometrics consists of bounding, jumping, and hopping exercises, by strengthening the nervous system, plyometrics teaches the body to react quickly and explosively. Plyometric training emphasizes quality not quantity, each exercise should consist of 10-20 repetitions for 1-4 sets. These exercises combine strength and speed to create power essential for the sport of boxing, plyometric training in a boxers routine should be performed two times per week, for example, Mondays and Fridays. Putting it together So far we have looked at round drills, weight training and plyometric training, but when do we perform all these exercises? Well as I have already stated, boxing is a very complex sport and training should be no different, these are all pieces to a larger puzzle that must be put in the right places. The same exercise should not be performed on consecutive days, i.e weight training should not be done on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Let's look at an example week: Monday and Thursday – Plyometrics Tuesday and Friday - Round drills Wednesday and Saturday - Weight training As you can see, the training objectives change throughout the week, in the build up to a fight it is advised that weight training and plyometrics are stopped at least one week prior to competition. It is also important to progress over the course of the season, for instance, if you have six weeks to prepare for a fight, than it makes sense to build up the intensity of your training slowly, sparring should not be done at full pace until the last couple of weeks and round drills should slowly increase leading up to a peak in anaerobic conditioning. Let's look at an example six week programme involving the round drills: Week 1 - 2 rounds Week 2 - 3 rounds Week 3 - 4 rounds Week 4 - 4 rounds Week 5 - 5 rounds Week 6 - Light training prior to fighting Weeks 3 and 4 do not progress, it is important not to overload the body to quickly so it is safe to give yourself time getting used to four intense rounds. This does not include bag drills or shadow boxing. Skill training This is the most important part of the puzzle, without skills, all the fitness in the world wouldn't help you in the ring. Shadow boxing is not used enough, a couple of rounds to warm up is what is usually done in gyms, and at a slow pace. Shadow boxing needs to be done at an intense pace in the ring, it should be done before AND after training in order to get you used to performing under fatigue. An approach similar to the one above can also be used for shadow boxing, building up from two rounds before and after training to five rounds, this can be done all the way up to a couple of days before the fight, but always make sure you get complete rest the day before. Skill training AFTER sparring! After sparring it is common to take your gloves off and head for the showers, this is the wrong thing to do. After sparring you should keep the gloves on and hit the bag, hard! Move left and right constantly throwing punches, it is important that you get used to fighting through fatique and the gym is the perfect place to start. Running Boxers always tell me how they run 4-5 miles every morning and my response to this is - why? What is a nice long distance jog going to do for you in a eight minute fast paced fight? As boxing is 80% anaerobic, training needs to be 80% anaerobic, so running needs to be done HARD! Intervals are not easy, this probably explains why not many boxers do them, an example could look something like this: 20 seconds jogging 20 seconds running 20 seconds sprinting Repeat After doing this two minute run, rest one minute and repeat 3-5 times, this short but intense routine blasts any four mile jog out of the water! What about the other 20%? I have said that boxing is 80% anaerobic but what about the 20% aerobic part of our sport? In a fight, the aerobic part would be when you are circling the ring without throwing punches at a fast pace. We still need to train the aerobic part in order to have a fitness base from which to work, I recommend aerobic running 1-2 times per week with interval running 3-4 times per week. The aerobic portion should not be too long, you could run two miles, time it and aim to better that score next time you run it. You should not devote more time than this to your aerobic training as this would mean you are training your slow twitch muscle fibres as much as your fast twitch muscle fibres. This could be counter productive because this would mean your slow twitch fibres become dominant which in turn would slow you down in the ring. As fighters we need to remain explosive in the ring so the majority of our training needs to be explosive, keep the slow stuff to a minimum! Conclusion By reading this it is clear to see that boxing is more than just a few rounds of skipping, bags etc. We need to run, lift weights, perform plyometrics and undertake the punishing round drills. Many clubs today do not follow such a complex programe, it is the same day in day out week after week with no clear progression. Our training is a complex puzzle and in order to maximize perfomance, coaches need to start taking the time to plan their training cycles, being careful not to introduce overload to often or not often enough. This is harder than it seems but if we are to move the sport forwards with advances in sports science than it is imperative that we take this time to improve our athletes. Train hard, and smart! References Ross Enamait (2004) 3rd edition, The boxer's guide to performance enhancement, pages 40, 41, 45

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Great piece! Jun 13th 2005, 16:09:41 by gary_vyse Really informative article and quite eye opening! Look forward to reading more in the future! Gary