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Boxing News Updated 24 hours a day 7 Days a week Top 10 Mistakes in Training Boxers By Moritz Klatten Champ Performance, Hamburg, Germany Boxing may just be the last frontier in strength and conditioning. You could describe what passes for training in this sport by the children’s game Follow the Leader. Whatever the current champions are doing, especially the popular heavyweights, the contenders are sure to copy. The problem with that approach is that some boxing champions are champions not because of their unique training methods but in spite of them. Mike Tyson at his best didn’t lift weights, but he had tremendous muscle mass that gave him devastating punching power. As such, we still see boxers running long distance, exercising in sauna suits, and using Spartan training methods to the point of overtraining. As for nutrition . . . well, many fighters see no problem preparing for their training and bouts by consuming a Snickers bar and a can of Red Bull. It’s impossible for me in one article to clarify all the myths about training boxers, but I can give you an overall perspective based upon my extensive work with professional and amateur boxers. Let’s get started with these 10 common mistakes made in the training of boxers: 1. Overemphasis on easy work. Jumping rope and jogging can certainly be used as a warm-up to prepare a boxer for intense training, but too much of it increases the risk of injury and makes fighters slower. On this first point, a study on American boxers published in 1990 concluded that an association could be made between lower body overuse injuries and the jogging and rope jumping the boxers did to prepare for boxing. On the second point, if you combine too much slow training with fast training, the body will not understand what it is supposed to adapt to, and this can affect speed and power. 2. Focusing on quantity vs. quality. The body can only recover from so much training. Boxing bouts seldom last more than an hour, so workouts (after warm-up) should not take more than an hour if you expect an athlete to perform quality work. Further, workout sessions that are too long can cause a fighter to enter a state of overtraining. 3. Overworking sport specific work. Although the most sport specific activity for boxing is boxing, there are many exercises that are valuable for boxers – but it’s easy to overdo it. One example is hitting large tires with sledge hammers to train the oblique abdominal muscles. These dynamic exercises are hard on the shoulders, so they should not be used too frequently in training. Why should you be concerned about the shoulders? In four research studies that looked at boxing injuries, 313 total upper body injuries were reported. Of this total, 100 of these injuries involved the shoulder, a number second only to injuries to the wrists and hands. 4. Shadow boxing with dumbbells. I see many fighters shadow box with 1-to- 2-kilo dumbbells – even Mayweather does this. This type of exercise ruins fine-movement patterns and places harmful stress on the shoulders and even the lumbar spine. I heard that one of my former boxers started doing this type of exercise and eventually suffered serious shoulder injuries. To strengthen the arms and shoulders for punching, a general exercise such as the incline bench press is a wiser – and safer – choice. 5. Avoiding the weightroom. Many boxers and their coaches still believe weight training will slow you down and make you less powerful. Power is defined as force x distance ÷ by time, and to achieve high levels of power you have to have strength. Mike Tyson was 5-foot-10 and weighed as much as 230 pounds, and most of that mass was muscle. Tyson’s exceptional genetics endowed him with a powerful punch, so he wasn’t compelled to lift weights until his later years, Nevertheless, to develop muscles the fastest and most effective way is weight training. If lifting slowed down athletes, then we wouldn’t see the most powerful track athletes, shot putters, and discus throwers lifting weights. I should add, however, that to stay fresh it’s not wise to lift heavy shortly before competitions, and that when athletes train they always need to lift with the “intent” of moving fast. Even if the weights they are using force them to move slowly, as long as they have the intent of moving quickly, they will activate the fast-twitch muscle fibers that contribute the most to boxing performance. 6. Lack of grip work. The most commonly injured body parts in boxing are the wrists and hands, and this has been confirmed in many research studies. Knowing that these are vulnerable areas, it makes sense that you should find methods to strengthen the forearms and the grip. For this reason, my gym is outfitted with thick-grip barbells and dumbbells that develop a strong grip and add muscle to the forearms. To reduce the stress on the elbows, this equipment must have revolving sleeves. However, be aware that athletes who use thick-grip apparatus can quickly reach a state of overtraining with additional exercises. 7. Too much nonspecific ab work. Ab training is overrated for boxing, and I’ve found that the ab training most boxers perform is never balanced. Performing 1,000 crunches may be hard, but this results in structural imbalances in the abs – what I like to call “short abs.” Further, although many coaches consider core training to be simply ab work, I’ve found that to create balance in the trunk – a muscular corset, if you will – boxers also need to perform exercises for the lower back muscles. You should consider that multijoint exercises such as deadlifts and squats work the “bracing” function of the abs. Also, I found overhead squats are great ab exercises for balancing out the development of these muscles. 8. Imbalanced neck training methods. Neck training in boxing is life insurance. Although boxers and boxing coaches often perform neck training, they usually don’t use a wide variety of exercises. One of the most popular is using a harness attached to the head while the user performs neck extensions. This is fine, but the exercise involves only one plane of motion of the neck – you also need to work the forward and lateral flexion of the neck, horizontal rotation, upward and downward diagonal rotation, and downward diagonal rotation. Further, exercises for the trapezius muscles will help support the neck, and these can be trained with power cleans, shoulder shrugs, and even deadlifts. As a bonus, research shows that training the neck can significantly reduce the risk of concussions – a major concern in the boxing community – and facilitates the growth of all the muscles in the upper extremities. Research in such prestigious journals as Neurosurgery shows that increasing the strength and size of the neck muscles may decrease the frequency and severity of concussions. In fact, one college football team reported 50 percent fewer concussions in just one year after focusing on neck training in their workouts. Because the neck is capable of moving in so many different directions and angles, you need to use a variety of exercises, methods, tempos, and ranges of motion when developing the neck muscles. 9. Insufficient stretching. Boxers, especially heavyweight boxers, are often tight. Such structural imbalances increase the risk of injury and performance. Boxers often are not shown how to stretch, and even then they typically spend only a few minutes a day on mobility work. I have my boxers perform dynamic stretching before a workout as a warm-up; after the workout they do static stretching or a specific type of partner stretching called proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF). 10. Misguided nutrition. Nutrition is unfortunately a neglected part of the training of many boxers. A common belief is that a fighter needs sugar before training or competing – I actually witnessed one boxing coach give his fighter a piece of cake shortly before he stepped into the ring for a bout that determined the intercontinental title at stake! Even though this fighter won the title, he didn’t perform well due to lack of energy. Fighters whom I’ve worked with on their nutrition, including recommending pre-workout brain supplements such as Alpha-GPC, have told me they can really feel the difference that optimal nutrition makes in their performance. Rather than blindly following the training trends of leading boxers, it’s better to look at the requirements of your sport and design your training programs appropriately. To use a popular expression, “Train the way you are going to fight!” #khanivele magadalala.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 13:08:11 +0000

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