aerobic / anaerobic?

[Sugarj]

there is no"anaerobic system"

aerobic and anaerobic are distinctions we make between the types of activity in human excercise

they are lines in the sand.

obviously boxing involves some anaerobic qualities. clinches would be one of them. but when you box you conserve. you dont clinch as hard as you can until you need a rest.
you clinch moderately if you can, and prolong the activity.


i never said bodybuilding is the only means of achieving anaerobic activity

i meant to infer that it was less like purely aerobic activities (running long distances, swimming, etc) than boxing is

which it is. if you dont get that you gotta get to the boxing gym and then the weight room.


lets have a look at the definitions:

aerobic activities:
prolonged levels of moderate activity

anaerobic activities :
the word literally means without oxygen
the activities are designed to tire you out quickly and require rest.

that's not boxing.

your muscles are conditioned not to fatigue in boxing.

bodybuilding // anaerobic muscles (i'm mentioning bodybuilding because it is a purely anaerobic activity and works well for the discussion.) are designed to fatigue and work to a maximum
then rest
and then go back at it

anaerobic

boxing at the very top (12 rounds, 15 and longer in the past) is an aerobic activity.
it's punctuated with furious amounts activity at times, but the boxer must continue without rest until the end of the three minutes, prolonging the activity, decreasing the level of intensity
and thus making it an aerobic activity



i understand your points, certainly, but you arent addressing the question of whether or not boxing is an aerobic activity


the duration of a boxing match is all you need to see

36 mins of activity
that is aerobic.



now... if somebody pulls a mike jones and goes all out for 1:30 seconds and gasses out then you have an anaerobic activity.

but the intention with a 12 round boxing match isnt to do that
it's to conserve energy, and create a level of activity that your conditioning can sustain.

I shouldn't really have used the word 'system' to refer to anaerobic activity. 'Anaerobic conditioning' would have been a better phrase.

Your above quote seems to show more understanding of the distinctions, but something that we haven't touched on yet are fast twitch muscle fibres. The legs of a sprinter are full of them (built with anaerobic conditioning), the legs of a distance runner are conditioned aerobically and have rather less fast twitch muscle fibres. In basic terms, the sprinter is quicker over short distance.

Now I'd agree that 36 mins of exercise would normally be an aerobic activity. A competent 10K distance run for example. But in a boxing match the pace can go from next to zero aerobic activity ( I doubt David Haye and Audley Harrison even got to the point of aerobic activity in rounds one and two for example ) to a furious explosion of fast punches, such as that which TKO'd Harrison in round 3.........which would have been an anaerobic burst from Haye.

Just because Haye wasn't reaching failure point does not mean that his burst was not anaerobic. You can bet that David Haye's upper body is full of fast twitch muscle fibres......which are evidenced in his hand speed and explosive power.

These will have been developed with high intensity anaerobic training, a vital part of a boxer's conditioning program.

But we certainly agree on many points. If I was training specifically on a 12 round boxing match, I'd be focusing a hell of a lot on roadwork!

[New England]

I shouldn't really have used the word 'system' to refer to anaerobic activity. 'Anaerobic conditioning' would have been a better phrase.

Your above quote seems to show more understanding of the distinctions, but something that we haven't touched on yet are fast twitch muscle fibres. The legs of a sprinter are full of them (built with anaerobic conditioning), the legs of a distance runner are conditioned aerobically and have rather less fast twitch muscle fibres. In basic terms, the sprinter is quicker over short distance.

Now I'd agree that 36 mins of exercise would normally be an aerobic activity. A competent 10K distance run for example. But in a boxing match the pace can go from next to zero aerobic activity ( I doubt David Haye and Audley Harrison even got to the point of aerobic activity in rounds one and two for example ) to a furious explosion of fast punches, such as that which TKO'd Harrison in round 3.........which would have been an anaerobic burst from Haye.

Just because Haye wasn't reaching failure point does not mean that his burst was not anaerobic. You can bet that David Haye's upper body is full of fast twitch muscle fibres......which are evidenced in his hand speed and explosive power.

These will have been developed with high intensity anaerobic training, a vital part of a boxer's conditioning program.

But we certainly agree on many points. If I was training specifically on a 12 round boxing match, I'd be focusing a hell of a lot on roadwork!

you make some fair points, certainly

you are actually born with your muscle fibers. they dont increase in ratio of one to the other (those that twitch fast and tire fast and build eaiser and those that twitch slowly and tire more slowly and dont grow)

that's in part why punchers are born and not made. you cant change the size of your bones or ratio of fast twitching // slow twitching fibers in your muscles

haye is a good example of why you dont want a boxer with bigger bulkier muscles with an inclination toward growing (fast twitch muscles, which were in his case built up with weight lifting)

he throws very few punches. he's forced to fight that way.

if he kept them up he'd hit a wall

pascal is a good example as well. he opens up more than haye and gasses out after about four rounds.



if we take the two extremes (a bodybuilder and a runner) you'll find a boxer to be closer to the runner than the bodybuilder

and his nutrition and training regimen will be more similar and aim to condition him more like a runner than a bodybuilder


heavyweights are a bit different. especially today when most of the guys in the top ten are literally fat. but the rule still applies.

[Sugarj]

You still have this 'bodybuilder' thing going on though.

Forget the bodybuilder bashing out a 30 second set of reps with weights and compare that to a boxer doing 30 second hill sprint reps, or 30 second combination punching drills......they are just as anaerobic and are used by most professional boxers.

If I was to stand up right now and throw fast combinations of punches for 30 seconds, the combination would be largely an anaerobic activity.

If I was to stand up and dance for three minutes this would be largely aerobic activity.

If I was to stand up and dance for one and a half minutes and then throw a 30 second burst of fast punches, that would be largely an anaerobic activity despite the mild aerobic dancing. A better conditioned aerobic athlete might not feel any less tired after this burst of punches.

Or for a bodybuilding example, running to the gym and quickly bashing out a set of bench press whilst still being out of breath would not make the bench press any less an anaerobic activity.

The ideal professional boxer's physique fits quite well in between the distance runner and anaerobic athlete. Thats why Floyd Mayweather doesn't have a similar body shape to a distance runner like Mo Farah for example, but isn't as extremely muscular as a 100m sprinter like Usain Bolt. If anything, Floyd's proportion's are closer to the anaerobic athlete's!

A boxer's training really is a mixture of both forms of exercise. I'd honestly train for both types of activity.

[New England]

You still have this 'bodybuilder' thing going on though.

Forget the bodybuilder bashing out a 30 second set of reps with weights and compare that to a boxer doing 30 second hill sprint reps, or 30 second combination punching drills......they are just as anaerobic and are used by most professional boxers.

If I was to stand up right now and throw fast combinations of punches for 30 seconds, the combination would be largely an anaerobic activity.

If I was to stand up and dance for three minutes this would be largely aerobic activity.

If I was to stand up and dance for one and a half minutes and then throw a 30 second burst of fast punches, that would be largely an anaerobic activity despite the mild aerobic dancing. A better conditioned aerobic athlete might not feel any less tired after this burst of punches.

Or for a bodybuilding example, running to the gym and quickly bashing out a set of bench press whilst still being out of breath would not make the bench press any less an anaerobic activity.

The ideal professional boxer's physique fits quite well in between the distance runner and anaerobic athlete. Thats why Floyd Mayweather doesn't have a similar body shape to a distance runner like Mo Farah for example, but isn't as extremely muscular as a 100m sprinter like Usain Bolt. If anything, Floyd's proportion's are closer to the anaerobic athlete's!

A boxer's training really is a mixture of both forms of exercise. I'd honestly train for both types of activity.

i'm bringing bodybuilding into the discussion as a rhetorical device

i'm only bringing it up for the sake of the discussion. and when i'm talking about it i'm only referring to the practice of adding weight to the low reps and building size.


i'm polarizing the two types of phsyical activity by bringing in the two extremes
the distance runner
and the bodybuilder

and a boxer's training//nutrition (his conditioning) is more simmilar to the distance runner than the bodybuilder
so is his body.

he uses both types of muscles (fast and slow twitching,) but he uses them aerobically (for a long duration at a moderate//sustainable pace and without rest.)

[Danny Gunz]

Heres another decent article about it from Rossboxing.com

http://www.rossboxing.com/thegym/thegym21.htm

[IronBoxer]

TS, this topic has already been done but I'll answer your question anyway.

First lets define what aerobic and anaerobic mean?

What is aerobic?

Aerobic means "with oxygen"

Any form of exercise where you are breathing heavily but can still have a conversation is aerobic exercise. Example include roadwork, walking or any other form of activity that does not place alot of stress on the cardiovascular system.

Aerobic exercises stimulates blood flow throughout the body, oxygenates the body and speeds the elimination of toxins from your body.

What is anaerobic?

Anaerobic means "without oxygen"

Any form of exercise where you are breathing so hard you can barely talk is anaerobic. This includes wind or hill sprints, throwing combinations at a fast pace for short duration or anything that makes the heart work near the VO2 max.

The benefits are, generally, a tremendous stimulation of your entire system, in effect, you are putting the survival of every cell in your body at risk because the lack of oxygen.

This is very helpful in "reprogranming the body" and allowing the body to increase its elimination of toxins and stop any cellular activity that was abnormal.

Boxing requires both forms of conditioning. It is 75% anaerobic and 25% aerobic. A solid aerobic base must first be built if you are starting out. This makes recovery easier in between rounds and paves the way for more intense exercises. This is why roadwork is very important, without it you're only selling yourself short. The anaerobic system facilitates a boxer's ability to train at high intensity levels for short bursts and provided he has a good aerobic base, for longer.

Furthermore both are ideal for fat loss.

[josh-hill]

thanks guys. the reason i ask is because i came across a guy called joel jamieson. he is a top ufc fighter trainer and has some very revolutionary and god ideas about conditioning. i wanted to see what kind of changes i would need to make to his methods to make it boxing specific instead of MMA specific.

[IronBoxer]

thanks guys. the reason i ask is because i came across a guy called joel jamieson. he is a top ufc fighter trainer and has some very revolutionary and god ideas about conditioning. i wanted to see what kind of changes i would need to make to his methods to make it boxing specific instead of MMA specific.

For boxing training check out rossboxing.com