Yesterday my boxer, Oliver, called me up and asked if the strength training he was doing was good for the accomplishment of his goals, primarily cutting weight, relaxing more and getting looser. This immediately reminded me of my old Irish boxing coaches who would take one look at the shoulders of a strong beginner and accusingly sneer, “Are you on weights!” as if we were firing heroin in the gym.
The concern of the coach about weights are:
1. This could lead to putting on muscle and moving up in weight class.
2. Weights and exercises like pushups, encourage pushing extension motions instead of snappy, whippy action. “Pushing punches” is a boxing taboo, and something that strength athletes have a hard time overcoming.
3. Many weightlifters tend to have permanently contracted trap muscles, which draws the shoulder up and decreases mechanical punching continuity.
4. Larger muscle requires easily depleted sugar, not abundant fatty acid. Muscle guys always gas quicker then bone racks or guys that tend toward getting fat.
5. Overworking and rounding of the shoulders is a danger among boxers, which may result in rotator cuff issues and weakened rear deltoids and upper back muscles.
My solution was to tell Oliver to drop pushups and dips and concentrate on pulling motions that will expand his rib cage and to double his shadowboxing rounds at home. His home supplemental strength training is:
1. Chin ups, not pull ups
2. Pullovers [do not do the exercise wheel, as I have known it to cause hernias and it is a very tense exercise.] Load dumbbells and do prone pullovers with your hands together under the stack of plates on one end of the dumbbell.
3. Since Oliver is a “bob and weave” specialist he is doing deep squats without weight, slowly and along the full range of motion.
The Punishing Art
