IN my experience many athletes, and especially boxers, tend to adopt a style of training far more suited to that of a bodybuilder than a performance-based athlete. The influence of the bodybuilding boom in the 1970s and the phenomenal marketing efforts of the Weiders, with Arnie leading their charge, undoubtedly made bodybuilding and weight training practically synonymous. Indeed numerous athletes and members of the public saw the phenomenal physiques on guys such as Arnie, Lou Ferrigno, Lee Haney, etc, and took much from their training approaches. Sport is not, however, bodybuilding. Athletes shouldn’t care less about how they look, as long as performance is maximised.
A good physique should simply be a by-product of their sport-specific conditioning. Often, though, because the bodybuilding influence has been so penetrative and persuasive, many athletes simply are unable to distinguish between the two approaches. Hopefully this article will shed some light on this. I recently watched one of the world’s leading boxers performing a chest press exercise on a machine, a very bodybuilding-inspired exercise and piece of kit; an exercise I’m sure many other boxers have also used, in my opinion, erroneously.
I have opted to use that specific exercise to illustrate the various points I wish to make in this article as, to me, that exercise summarizes everything a fighter shouldn’t do in the weights room. It makes sense, then, to dissect that particular exercise, and through that hopefully convey some important messages regarding resistance training for boxers.
Problem No. 1 – They’re sitting down Whilst using this machine the fighter is in a seated position. As such the benefit to pillar strength, transfer of force through the legs and core, balance and the reinforcement of the punching movement pattern is practically zero. In layman’s terms, you fight on your feet, not sitting down. Furthermore, the seated position prevents almost any core rotation, something present to some degree in almost all boxing movements, taking place.
Problem No. 2 – The back is supported In the real world, when you punch or push something, is there a back support or wall behind you to give you that stable foundation off which to generate force? Clearly there isn’t, but on this machine there is. In a real world environment it is your own balance and core stability and strength that provide this foundation. Yes, supporting the back will allow the chest, shoulders, triceps etc to generate far more force and this may be beneficial from an injury prevention perspective. For example I do use free-weight bench press to enhance shoulder joint stability. There may also be some benefits to pure triceps strength, which, depending what type of other training is engaged in, may transfer to greater power in a pure elbow extension movement such as a basic arm jab with little body weight shift. Try, however, a standing chest press using cables and see how much you can shift compared to a bench press; it will be markedly less. Pillar strength and stability are at least as important to athletic performance as pure strength and power isolated at a joint.
Problem No. 3 – The machine has a fixed range of motion Unlike free weights, this machine is fixed into one pattern of motion from which it cannot deviate. Because of this there is no potential for instability to occur, which means that the stabilising muscles around a joint get zero training effect. Whilst the big prime mover muscle groups get hit very hard, these other stabiliser groups, which are basically responsible for holding the whole joint together and controlling movement, are neglected. So the end result is a pretty much the worst case scenario for injury risk; ability to generate massive forces but absolutely no capability to stabilise the joint should even the slightest deviation occur in any other direction than the exact one used on the machine. The unpredictability and instability of free weight and ballistic training is a great advantage in preparing the athlete for the unpredictability and instability of competition.
Problem No. 4 – The movement is being performed with a slow speed of movement This becomes problem only if other more explosive forms of training are not being performed alongside these more strength-based, slower exercises. The piece relating to strength and power hopefully illustrates how the two interact. For building a pure strength foundation this slow pace of movement would be fine; however, given that boxing is a sport which relies upon explosive power, rapid, ballistic type exercises are vital to maximising performance.
Problem No. 5 – It is impossible to fully accelerate the movement This becomes an issue when trying to perform resistance exercises explosively. This can apply to both free weights and machine weights. Clearly on this machine, if you were attempting to develop power you would ideally want to be accelerating as rapidly and forcefully as possible through the entire range of motion. On this machine, as well as under a bar in a bench press, it is impossible to fully accelerate the movement; you have to control it towards the end of the motion to slow its velocity. This is not optimal when attempting to maximise explosive power. Imagine trying to maximally putt a golf shot but then not let it go at the end of the movement. It would make no sense and hinder your expression of power. This is why, in my opinion, other methods, highlighted in other articles in this guide, often have a distinct advantage over machines and free weights in some instances. Hopefully this dissection has illustrated the problems with this type of machine and the slow, isolated bodybuilding approach in general.
To me, the public and the boxing community are far too impressed by an amazing physique. Commentators can often be heard to remark about what fantastic condition a fighter looks to be in, implying that this muscular, toned body validates that boxer’s sport-specific conditioning. The reality is, it does not. Because a muscle is big does not necessarily mean it is strong and it absolutely does not mean it is powerful. Bodybuilders are far from the strongest athletes on the planet, even though their appearance would indicate otherwise. Furthermore, when they are in competition shape, looking their best, they are usually at their weakest. Bodybuilding and sports performance are two entirely different worlds and looks can be deceiving.
This article was taken from a british boxing mag. Hopefully you can learn some important data & put to your own personal good use!
