Weightlifting and Boxing

There is a mantra in the boxing world that says one should not carry out any weightlifting using weights if training to be a boxer. The mantra is that all weightlifting should be completed through calisthenic exercises utilising a persons own body weight, but is this correct?

The rationale behind this is that weightlifting will increase your muscle mass making you bulky which will cause you to become slow and less flexible in the ring while calisthenics will keep the flexibility and add some strength without slowing you down.

It is important to mention that Calisthnics is a great way to improve muscle endurance while increase a persons strength but it has its limits, namely you cannot lift more than you weigh.

I personally believe that many boxing trainers automatically think of bodybuilding style weightlifting when telling budding boxers not to weight train. Bodybuilding style lifting is all about building bulky muscle so yes they are correct in this regard but I feel they have never understood or they have overlooked two other types of weight training, strength training and power training.

Strength training

For strength training you need to lift the 5x5 workout which will improve overall strength without building huge bulky muscles.

This involves lifting 5 sets of 5 reps on the heaviest weight you can lift for 5 sets and reps using any compound movement (movement where you use more than one joint such as the deadlift, benchpress or squat).

Power training

For power training you need to carry out explosive reps, other wise known as speed training. What you need to do is lift a weight you can comfortably carry out 8 reps but instead of lifting them normally you will push the weight out as quick as possible making it an explosive move....great for improving your speed.

An example is when I carry this out for the bench press using the smith machine I push so hard that the weight jumps out of my hands at the top and lands back in my hands before bringing the weight back down (this is a purposeful act but dont do this unless you comfortable to do so).

Summary

With strength training and powertraining you will improve your strength and power/ speed which will aid your boxing. Its important to use this as an aid to your boxing training and not let it take over any of your boxing regimes.

Changing Exercises Regularly

Many people who visit the gym have a workout plan they use week in and week out which is great but is also a hindrance to their potential to increase strength and mass.

Changing exercises regularly is one way to enough you dont hit a plateau and continue to see your strength and muscle mass increase month on month. The reason that changing exercises regularly is important can be broken down in to multiple benefits as shown below.

Shock and awe

Your muscles over time will get used to the movements of the exercises you are using in your workouts, this means that the improvments in strength and muscle mass will reduce, or even plateau.

By changing exercises regularly you are shocking your muscles as they do not get time to become comfortable with the movement of one exercise before you are then changing it to another.

This change keeps strength and muscle mass improvments at the optimum level as your muscles continue to work hard to lift different exercises they are not accustomed to lifting on a regular basis.

Different angles of attack

Another great reason for changing exercises regularly is to try all angles of movement through various exercises to build your muscles. It seems simple yet alot of people dont try all exercises for each muscle group to ensure that each muscle gets a complete workout from each angle of attack.

An example is the back, you can use the lat pulldown, seated rows, barbell rows, single arm dumbbell rows, supine rows, single arm pulldowns....each of this has the benefit of using different angles of attack on your back muscles.

Mental Stimulation

Another great reason to keep changing exercises is to keep your mental stimulation of wanting to workout.

It can be quite monotonous to carry out the same exercsies in the same routine lifting the same amount of weight week in and week out. By changing the exercises and the placement of them in your routine it will also keep your mind stimulated as you try new things.

Summary

You should try changing one or more of your exercises in all workout routines every 8 to 12 weeks to ensure you get the most out of your training. My personal preference is to keep a base compound lift as my main lift in my training (this never changes) then place other exercises around this, it is these other exercises that I change regularly.

An example of this would be that for chest I always use the standard barbell bench press but change other exercises in the routine every 2 or 3 months to keep the strength gains on my chest on an incline.

Time Training Per Workout Session

The poll on the time taken to train per workout session has finished and the results are interesting.

In total we received 36 results for this time training per workout session poll, 3 more than the previous one which is great. Im hoping the number of results will increase more over the next few polls, anyway I digress lets get back to the results of this poll.

The Results:


How long do you train per workout?

One person did say they trained for between 0 to 15 minutes, I do hope this was a result born from boredom or a joke! The majority of people train for 60 to 90 minutes, this is shown through the 14 results that equate to 38.89% of all results.

Those that train for 45 to 60 minutes came a close second at 30.56% with 11 results. 6 people said they train for 30 to 45 minutes at 16.67% of the results and 4 people advised they train for 90 minutes or more resulting in 11.11% of the total.

No one advised that they trained between 15 to 30 minutes and I mentioned earlier that 1 person said they train for 15 minutes or less.

The majority of people said they train for 60 to 90 minutes and this result is also the median in workout times but the average time people train was 45 to 60 minutes. Both of these results are a good outcome because Strength training tends to be in the 45 to 60 minute category while bodybuilding sits more in the 60 minutes to 90 minutes category.