Weight Lifting and Boxing - Good or Bad??

[EzzardFan]

John Peterson: "Back then [in the old days] the Push-Up was a mainstay for boxers. Why? Because relaxed shoulders are critical to the fluid transmission of power from the hip to the fist. Anyone that has ever put on a pair of boxing gloves and climbed into the ring knows that holding your guard and punching for a few rounds can greatly exhaust the shoulders. This causes problems because a fatigued muscle is a tight muscle. Punches literally deteriorate into pushes when the deltoid muscles of the shoulder become tired."

For those of you who are unaware, John Peterson is a fitness guru that was brought up in the physical culture movement. He's never lifted weights. On his 57th birthday he performed 57 consecutive full range pull ups without resting.

He's also the guy that taught me how to heal the torn rotator cuffs, and elbow tendonitis that I had developed as a result of 18 years of weight training. If it wasn't for John I'd be one of those fat, over the hill, busted up ex-athletes, boring everyone with his stories of past glory. Instead I'm still getting in the ring 3x every week.

[Phenomkidd]

OK Einstein/Shakespeare, go look up the definition of both "create" and "cause" on Google, then come back here, regurgitate them, and explain why our language contains both these words if, as you have implied, they mean exactly the same thing.

I always take it as a complement when some troll calls me a ******; it means that they are intimidated by my intellect. Well anyone's intellect...




Most of the populations diet consists of things like meat, vegetables, fruit, pulses, and dairy.

The things you have listed are chemicals, which can be synthesised from those foodstuffs. The human body works best when it's extracting all the THOUSANDS of nutrients it uses directly from the food as opposed to ingesting the synthetic lab made versions. Science has only identified a small number of vitamins, whose actions it understands. A tomato alone contains over 40,000 compounds that scientists suspect might be vitamins.

Currently it's possible to obtain synthetic OTC replacements for all the alleged essential items in our food, carbs, protein, minerals, vitamins, nutrients, and even enzymes can all be produced in their *COUGH* purest form, in a lab somewhere. Try living on those things for a while, like the hero of some 1950s sci-fi, and see how healthy you are after a 2 months.

Alright omniscient being for your own ego here it is

Create -
1. to cause to come into being, as something unique that would not naturally evolve or that is not made by ordinary processes.
2. to evolve from one's own thought or imagination, as a work of art or an invention.
3. Theater. to perform (a role) for the first time or in the first production of a play.
4. to make by investing with new rank or by designating; constitute; appoint: to create a peer.
5. to be the cause or occasion of; give rise to: The announcement created confusion.
6. to cause to happen; bring about; arrange, as by intention or design: to create a revolution; to create an opportunity to ask for a raise.

Oh wow to cause/make, its in create's definition...

Cause (verb) -
9. to be the cause of; bring about.

With the definition that you have used of create is VERY similar, almost synonymous. Are you happy, you're the troll. If you take it as compliment then I'm proud of you, usually it hurts to know the truth.

Protein is not made synthetically, I will however say that I'm not super knowledgeable in the area of general supplement manufacturing, so its safe to assume there are synthetics, but I also know some are derived from natural sources.

Anyways I did what you asked and in doing so proved you wrong, but I'm sure you'll try to change it and come at me again.

[cristoferjety]

Restorative yoga

You know when you feel exhausted all the time and keep on having low grade infections or chronic pain that no amount of therapy will shift?

[Freelancer]

Well TS if you're gonna go for weight lifting, the simple concept of gravity starts applying a bit more. Meaning that when lifting anything from medium to heavy dumbells muscles in your body will tense up and your vertebrae in your back will get closer together.

Without proper streching before and after the workout it CAN affect your movement and speed on a long run. But if you want to go for it the best thing I can suggest is to get a pull up bar. Not exactly for pull ups but for the stretching after lifting. (though pull ups are a great exercise). Simple process really, if you had gravity working against you as you were lifting, grap the pull up bar and just let yourself hang there for a good while to let go of that tension that accumulated.

It works for me, I started to lift weights about 4 months ago and it didn't really affect my speed. However it's a good thing not to push it.

[Righthandbanger]

I dont touch weights. Calisthenics and cardio for me....

you know that doing bodyweight exercises are basically still using weights right? the clue is in the word bodyweight

The only difference is they are a hell of alot less effective than lifting weight above your bodyweight.

[Righthandbanger]

I'm not dis*****g your story, but a lot would depend on how effectively you trained in each discipline. I'm 39 and have been training for 20 years, most of them with weights, and only the last 2 years without. I'd consider myself expert in both.

The problem is, you could have been lifting for 20 years but id you're doing it wrong those 20 years count for nothing. please explain your weight program.

A lot of my friends whom I used to lift with have subsequently been retired due to wear and tear injuries that were a direct result of weight training. The looked in good shape before, now they look like ****. I myself suffered a whole catalogue of injury over the years: the parts injured included elbows, knees, tendons, back, shoulder, and rotator cuffs (ouch). Ironically I was in the process of developing a book on "weight training for mixed martial arts" when my elbows both crapped out with tendonitis. That was the final straw...

Bad technique is accountable for most weight lifting related injuries. and anyways, all sport will **** you up eventually. Many hard hitters end up with shoulder/hand problems from putting so much force through them.

oh and your rotator cuff only gets damaged in weightlifting if your deltoids can't handle the strain. obviously you were trying too much weight too soon or had improper technique.

Some of those injuries were chronic problems that slowly degenerated over several years. I've since healed them by switching to calisthenic, isometric, kinetic tension, and gymnastics. In the past two years I have never incurred any injury, other than as a result of boxing. If I could have the last 20 years again then I'd never have picked up a weight.

I highlighted those words because guess what? you're still doing weights.

..and just FYI top male gymnasts all do weights of some description.

[Stevie_WONDER..]

doing pushups or bodyweights dosent make you a weightlifer neither does picking up boxing gloves or hitting the heavybag make you a boxer.

[EzzardFan]

The problem is, you could have been lifting for 20 years but id you're doing it wrong those 20 years count for nothing. please explain your weight program.

You may care to review that statement after you've spent 20 years lifting weights. As for my program - what am I supposed to shoot a workout video - get a grip!

Bad technique is accountable for most weight lifting related injuries.

Bad technique is accountable for for most acute weight lifting related injuries.

and anyways, all sport will **** you up eventually. Many hard hitters end up with shoulder/hand problems from putting so much force through them.

Correct, lifting weights is accountable for most chronic weight lifting injuries.

oh and your rotator cuff only gets damaged in weightlifting if your deltoids can't handle the strain. obviously you were trying too much weight too soon or had improper technique.

It's the opposite way round. Do your homework otherwise you risk blowing your rotator cuffs.

you know that doing bodyweight exercises are basically still using weights right? the clue is in the word bodyweight

&

I highlighted those words because guess what? you're still doing weights.

I don't disagree that my body has a mass.

Doing weights is generally defined as grasping a weight with your hands and moving it to and from your body. Bodyweight exercise doesn't involve this. Take the pushup vs the bench press for example. In the bench press you grasp a heavy weight with your hands, lower it down to your chest, then raise it up again. A pushup involves lowering the body onto your hands then raising it back up again. While this may appear superficially similar, it is in fact the perfect opposite.

The only difference is they are a hell of alot less effective than lifting weight above your bodyweight.

So what you are saying is that the heavier the weight the more effective it is? If so then perhaps you should try isometrics, where you effectively attempt to lift the whole planet. Interestingly scientific studies have long proven that isometrics are the single best way to build strength, and produce an average strength increase of 2% per week, which is vastly superior to lifting weights. Unfortunately they don't do much for speed and power (perhaps even counter productive) and speed and power is what we need for boxing.

..and just FYI top male gymnasts all do weights of some description.

All of them? Really? Are you sure about that?

[#1Assassin]

i wouldnt recommend it.

boxing is about speed and skills, lifting weights will do nothing but hurt your speed and agility. u do get stronger but it doesnt really help your punching power, in a 4 round fight strenght isnt very important. if u was a pro going 12 rounders u would need it so u wouldnt break down at the end of fights, but in a 4 rounder its basicly pointless.

there are more important things to focus on than strenght, and even if u desperately want to get stronger there are better ways than lifting weights. bodyweight exercises will be do the trick and u wont risk gettin too bulk and have to fight bigger guys or getting slower.

ppl will tell u u dont get slower from lifting but u do, it does holds back your progress in the speed department.

[Righthandbanger]

You may care to review that statement after you've spent 20 years lifting weights. As for my program - what am I supposed to shoot a workout video - get a grip!

no. you are supposed to post a list of all the **** you do in a typical workout. Proper programming trumps everything else.

Bad technique is accountable for for most acute weight lifting related injuries.

Bad lifting is accountable for most weightlifting injuries period.

Correct, lifting weights is accountable for most chronic weight lifting injuries.

correct? I didn't say that. I said if you can hit hard you are likely to develop some chronic injury

It's the opposite way round. Do your homework otherwise you risk blowing your rotator cuffs.

so strong deltoids means you ruin your rotator cuffs? WRONG. The rotator cuff is not meant to take strain at all, if you use improper technique or more weight than you can handle some of the load will be on your rotator cuffs instead of your deltoids.

Doing weights is generally defined as grasping a weight with your hands and moving it to and from your body. Bodyweight exercise doesn't involve this. Take the pushup vs the bench press for example. In the bench press you grasp a heavy weight with your hands, lower it down to your chest, then raise it up again. A pushup involves lowering the body onto your hands then raising it back up again. While this may appear superficially similar, it is in fact the perfect opposite.

your definition fails to include anything other than freeweights. Bodyweight, weight machines and plyometrics such as medicine ball throws are all using weights.

So what you are saying is that the heavier the weight the more effective it is? If so then perhaps you should try isometrics, where you effectively attempt to lift the whole planet. Interestingly scientific studies have long proven that isometrics are the single best way to build strength, and produce an average strength increase of 2% per week, which is vastly superior to lifting weights. Unfortunately they don't do much for speed and power (perhaps even counter productive) and speed and power is what we need for boxing.

1)the heavier the weight, the more strength you will build.

2)present evidence or STFU

..to all of you who think weights slow you down/make you stiff etc etc. You are idiots. I Know I can't change your minds, some people really are too ****** and beyond help.

But read these books 'Science and Practice of Strength Training' - Zatiorsky & Kraemer
'Practical Programming for Strength Training' - Mark Rippetoe

also, check out http://www.Rossboxing.com - He advocates weights for boxers.

almost ALL professional fighters use weights.. I have provided a **** ton of material for you to look at here, if you still want to say weights are bad for boxing then at the very ****in least present some evidence that isn't your opinion. *experience only counts if you post your ****ing program