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[Hanist5]

Hello everybody,

Im new to this board so I guess this is my first question.
I used to box about 4 years ago when I was still in High school. I stuck with it for about a year 1/2 and then quit. I've decided to start again but I cant find any gyms in my new area ( Lowell MA, Im originally from the bay area). If anyone knows any gyms in my area or where I could find out, please reply.

P.S

What do yall think about weight lifting and boxing at the same time.

[Tom Yum]

Boxing and lifting weights

It depends on your purpose for lifting weights and boxing goals. Do you want to improve your maximum strength and power for boxing purposes? If so, I would think that lifting can supplement those attributes, but are no way a substitute for correct boxing fundamentals and technique, which is where power is developed.

From what I've seen most of the strength/power training is done during the offseason and pre-season and consists of excercises designed to improve muscles fast twitch fibers and strengthen tendons. Such excercises would be lifted from 4-7 reps for tendon work (explosive strength) and 8-12 for fast twitch fibers (muscular strength).

As pre-season ends, heavy lifting gets phased out with circuit training which is light weights up to 30 reps with little or no break between sets; plyometrics - explosive bodyweight exercises and cardio. Sparring also becomes more regular.

If your boxing for fitness, self-defense and fun, try not to lift more than you box.

[Mateo]

West End Gym
900 Lawrence Ave
Lowell, MA
01852
# 978-937-0184
That's according to this link:

http://www.boxinghelp.com/massachusetts.html

In regards to integrating weight lifting into a boxing routine, I think it can be extremely productive as long as you condense your time with the weights.You don't want to spend all your time in the weight room.It will be better spent in the ring or working on your skills training.Twice per week on non-consecutive days is a good schedule for the weights.You should focus on basic multi-joint exercises like squats, presses, deadlifts, and power cleans.You want to get the most bang for your buck so don't worry about isolation exercises like leg extensions, peck deck flyes or arm curls.Weights are best suited for strength development, so you should focus most of the time on moderate to heavy weights, a low rep range, and adequate rest intervals.The old five sets of five reps system works really well for strength development.

[Hanist5]

Thanks for the replies fellas. I should be going down to the gym by the end of the week mateo, thanks.
As far as weight training goes, my objective with it is to increase my physical size as well as my punching power ( im a relatively small guy at 5'6 140 ). I think I have some knowledge of proper technique, or at least enough to have some snap in my punches. When I trained back in high school, we never had any weight lifting in any of our routines. Now that I want to get back into boxing, I want to enhance my abilities with weight lifting. Tomyum, are there any muscles I should avoid working out too much? Which are the ones I should focues on? Also, Since boxing workouts ( sparring, speed & heavy bag, mitts ) are very cardio-oriented, will they stop me from getting bigger ?

Thanx

[Hanist5]

The question was geared towards you too Mateo. Sorry I didnt mention your name in the post. No disrespect intended.

[Tom Yum]

Muscles to work out for boxing/kickboxing -

Legs - for push off while punching and extension for kicking
I would strengthen all of the legs major muscle groups with excercises that get all of these areas, especially squats, toe raises.

Hips - explosive rotation for power follow through and weight transfer- Deadlift, Cybex machine - "wood chopper" excercises that get the hips

Abs - For trunk rotation and to take hard body shots - i would strengthen all the major ab muscle groups with calisthenics and medicine ball work.

Upper body - For fast snapping of punches - i would do excercises that strengthen several muscle groups at a time, bench press, military press, pull downs, bar dips etc.

[Mateo]

No problem, Hanist.Those are two very intelligent questions you pose.I'm no expert, but in regards to which muscle groups you should avoid working too much are the pushing muscles of the upper body, ie-chest, shoulders, and triceps.My reasoning is that these muscles are heavily recruited when punching the bags, focus mitts, during shadow boxing and sparring.Rotator cuff injuries can occur with too much overuse.I'm not saying to disregard bench presses and other exercises that work the pushing muscles, but it would be a smart move too cut the volume and intensity way back.Too offset this, you should put a fair amount of emphasis on the pulling muscles of the upper body, ie-the lats and biceps.Pull-ups and rowing are good exercises that work the lats and biceps.Another good area to keep strong for boxers are the trapezius and neck.This helps in ijury prevention and minimizes the shock absorbed when taking punches to the head.
You said you want to increase your physical size.One good way to do this is to stimulate the largest muscle groups in the body, which are those of the legs and the back(that's two good reasons to work the back muscles).By increasing the muscle mass of the legs and back, your body should take a nice jump in weight.The old time weightlifters use to follow specialization routines for the legs and the back when they wanted to put weight on fast.
In regards to boxing workouts and gaining size, boxing is a more anaerobic sport than an aerobic sport.True, too much cardio-based training can hamper your size and strength gains.Anaerobic type work, like interval training and weights both focus on the fast-twitch muscle fibers which contribute to gains in size and strength.So boxing training shouldn't eat into your muscle building, as long as you are recovering properly and playing attention to your diet.

[Hanist5]

So far, I have split my schedule like this.

MON-Wed-Fri : lifting Chest, shoulders and triceps ; Back and Triceps ( alot of lat excercises ) ; Legs . I tend to do Abs almost every day.

Tues - Thurs - Sun : Heavy bag and speed bag, shadow boxing, focus mitts, practice defensive skills, jump rope or 1 hour of basketball ( I love basketball ) . Hopefully when I join the gym I can incorporate sparring too.

My main objective with lifting is to get stronger and hit harder. If I could do that with boxing alone I would. As far as diet is concerned ive been really weak in that regard. I usually eat three big meals a day and I dont particularly watch what I eat. Even my old trainer never taught us any diet plans.

[Mateo]

A couple of things I see that may complicate things for you:
you are working your chest, shoulders and tris 3 days per week and you're doing bag and other activities that involve punching 3 other days of the week.That's a lot of work for the shoulder girdle.Be cautious here.One thing you could do to minimize this is to cut back on your weight work, or at least try something like the old heavy-light-medium day system for your lifting.
In regards to working the abs every day, remember that the abs are a muscle group just like the shoulders, thighs,etc.They should be trained the same as you would every other muscle group.
For diet, you may want to try to eat a bit more, and make sure your diet is relatively clean.Try to eat a minimum of four meals per day.Hard training athletes need a lot of healthy nutrients.Also, don't forget your vitamins,minerals and water.

[Hanist5]

Thanks for the advice man.

I actually work on my chest and tris only once a week ( Monday ). Ive given all the corresponding muscle group thier own day. I will defintely start the heavy light medium routine though. Abs I work everyday because I really dont see or feel any improvements without working them alot.

[Mateo]

My misunderstanding, Hanist.I thought you were working all your muscle groups three times per week.The heavy-light-medium day routine is a good one.Good luck with your training.