Boxers programs

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info on some methods pro-boxers use in their training:

Tyson in his youth didnt use weights at all but his 'bulk' came from being naturally big (200lb at age 15), eating high protein diets (steak, pasta and fruit juices were his ONLY diet up until firing Rooney in 1988).
Well i digress, his regimen in the olden days was this:

5am: get up and go for a 3 mile jog
6am: come back home shower and go back to bed (great workout for those huge legs of his)
10am wake up: eat oatmeal
12pm: do ring work (10 rounds of sparring)
2pm: have another meal (steak and pasta with fruit juice drink)
4pm: more ring work and 60 mins on the exercise bike (again working those legs for endurance and power)
5pm: floor exercises: 2000 sit ups; 500-800 'dips'; 500 press ups and 500 shrugs with a 30kg barbell and 10 mins of neck exercises (working the biceps, triceps, chest, abs and shoulders)
7pm: steak and pasta meal again with fruit juice (orange i think it was).
8pm: another 30 minutes on the exercise bike
9:30 watch TV and then go to bed.

I heard this on an interview with Tyson saying it himself to Ian Darke (Sky commentator). Contrary to belief, Tyson wasnt always in the ring sparring for hours and hours, but he did his roadwork and kept his body in shape, with 10 rounds of sparring a day he virtually eliminated his ring rust and could work on the power punches which came from natural exercices (the press ups etc) and those big powerful legs. It's this discipline that made Tyson so great up until firing Kevin Rooney.
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Kostya Tszyu

Get up: 7am
Roadwork:
How far: First 25 minutes of running up and down hills, then a 30 minute jog on the road.

Breakfast: Cereal, bran and milk

Goes to gym: 2pm
Leaves gym: 4:30-5pm

Dinner: a lot of steamed vegetables, as well as chicken and fish, also eats some red meat, grilled.

Bed: 10pm

WORKOUT: Strength and initial conditioning workout.
(Kostya does this program to build up his strength before he moves on to the conventional boxing training (bag work, speedball, focus pads and sparring).

Warm up:
touch toes and hold for 10 seconds
side to sides for 1 minute
swing arms up and down, alternating for 1 minute
bend knees and touch the floor with fingers

Push ups: 50 on knuckles
pull ups: 10 using a close grip (followed by a 30 second break).
Skipping: 20 minutes
pull ups: 4 x 10 (30 second break after each set).
Dumbells: 4 x 1 minute rounds on alternating dumbell curls (30 second break after each round, then 1 minute break at the end).
Barbells: 4 x 15 barbell curls (30 second break after each set then 1 minute break at the end)

Barbell Disc: 3 x 20 lifts (30 second break after each set). Pull disc up to your chest with both hands and let it fall back to your thighs.

Bench Press: 70 reps at 35kg

Neck twists & rotations: Lie flat on yoru back, lift your head up off the ground and move it up and down then aroudn for 1 minute.

Leg-raises: 1 minute (followed by 30 second break). lie on your back, stretchout yoru legs, lift them off the floor and hold.
Leg-Raises: 4 x 1 minute holds (30 second break after each life). As before, but lift legs all the way.
Sit ups: 3 x 50 on floor (30 scond break after each set).

To finish walk around for 1 minute, then drink, then shower.

BOXING WORKOUT:

Warm up:
As for strength and conditioning workout.

push ups: 50 on knuckles

skipping: 20 minutes

heavybag: 10 minutes
shadow boxing: 3 x 3 minute rounds (30 second break after each round).

Sparring: 6-12 x 3 minute rounds (30 second break after each round). Kostya builds upto 12 rounds with 3 different sparring partners. you can do bag work instead of sparring.

Focus pads: 6 x 3 minute rounds working on combinations (30 second braek after each round).

Shadow boxing: 3 minute round at slow pace (followed by a 30 second break).

Gymnastics: standing on his head in the middle of the ring, balancing and focusing (about 3 minutes), then tumbling around the ring without stoping for approximately 25 revolutions.

Speedball: 3 minutes (then 30 second break).

Tennis ball: Kostay has his own way of fine tuning his hand eye coordination. He uses a band around his head, which has a length of elastic attached to it. Attached to the other end of the elastic is a tennis ball that he punches out with his fists. he aims to get into a steady rythm, keeping the tennis ball and his fists moving until his chosen time is up on the clock.

Skipping: 10 minutes
To finish: rub down, drink and shower.

Kostya trains 6 days a week.
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Cus D'Amato's training methods
NOTE: No copyright infringement intended.

BLOOD SEASON: MIKE TYSON AND THE WORLD OF BOXING by Phil Berger
Pages 70-71

Whatever Atlas did with Tyson, it was by D'Amato's methods. For instance, when D'Amato had been with Jose Torres, he had developed a punching instrument known as the Willie Bag, after Willie Pastrano, from whom Torres would win the light heavyweight title. Willie was made of five mattresses wrapped about a frame. On the exterior of the front mattress was a rough-hewn sketch of a man, with his body demarcated by numbers that served as targets for particular punches. #1 was a left hook to the jaw; #2 a right hook to the jaw; #3 a left uppercut; #4 a right uppercut; #5 a left hook to the body; #6 a right hook to the body; #7 a jab to the head; and #8 a jab to the body.

D'Amato had created Willie to encourage his fighters to punch in rapid combination and had made tape recordings, in his voice, of varying sequences of numbers. When the fighter stepped up to Willie, he would respond to his master's voice by delivering the mandated combination punches.

For Tyson, there was also the sand-filled "slip" bag, a teardrop-shaped black bag about the size of a fist that would swing from a length of rope as the fighter stood directly in its path. To avoid being hit, Tyson was taught to move his head from side to side and dip down, the prescriptive maneuvers for avoiding actual punches. Through his work on Willie and the slip bag, and through sparring, Tyson was acquiring the means to activate his power without its backfiring on him.

Las Vegas, Nevada. 7 March 1987

As for Tyson: unlike Dempsey, Marciano, and Frazier, those famously aggressive fighters to whom he is often compared, Tyson is not a reckless boxer; he is not willing, as so many boxer-fighters are, to take four or five punches in order to throw a punch of his own. His training is defensive and cautious --hence the peek-a-boo stance, a Cus D'Amato signature: for is not boxing primarily the art of self-defense? of hitting your man, and scoring points, without being hit in return? For two years, which must have been very long years, D'Amato trained Tyson to bob, weave, slip punches from sparring partners without throwing a single punch in response -- a conditioning that has made Tyson an anomaly in the ring. His reputation is for power, speed, and aggression, but his defensive skills are as remarkable, if less dramatic.

boxers cardio work example:

As I have said before, I feel that 3 miles is an ideal distance for an amateur boxer. Please do not time this distance as there will be certain variables that will determine how fast you run. (i.e. the adjustment to the stresses of working out, the heat, your diet, stress etc.) I think a much better guage is your standing heart rate. I work to a heart rate of between 165 and 175 ideally. There are times it will go up or down from there, but I will speed up or slow down accordingly to aim for 170 beats per minute. I guage my heart rate using a heart rate monitor. You can purchase one at most local health clubs and I think they are a fantastic investment.

I recommend you do your cardio first thing in the morning. And when I say first thing, I mean before everything. Those who live in a big city would be well advised to wake up early and get out and run before rush hour smog pollutes the air. This way you are sucking the cleanest air possible. Also, your body is fresh from a nights rest, and cardiovascular excercise is one of the best ways to envigorate the mind and body into waking up and being alert and full of energy for the rest of your day. I will post a "boxers diet" that will tie into this program and will be essential for success durring its course.

Mon, Weds, Fri: wake up at approximately 4 AM. (you have to make sacrifices for your success in boxing. This is one of them. You need to get 7-8 hours of sleep. So going to bed at 8 or 9 might not be realisic for some. I think 4 AM is a good time to run, but there is not a big difference between 4 and 5.

Running first thing in the morning is particularly good because it will help burn off excess body fat more rapidly than later in the day. Your glycogen stores are burned throughout the night time. This means when you wake up, you'll be tapping into your usable fat stores for energy. This is excellent. However, before you run, you need to drink some water (about 12 fluid oz.) I think you should avoid drinking fluid durring a work out because it can cause cramping and a distraction to you fumbling with a water bottle. Gatorade and such products I would especially avoid if you are trying to lose weight. These drinks will give you energy spikes but you'll start burning the carbohydrates in them for energy and not your body fat.

The ideal places to run are golf courses, open space parks etc. They are usually measured for distance and they are grassy. The grass will slow you down but who cares? That's added resistance and its easier on your joints. If you don't live in a place with lots of open space or golf courses. (most boxers don't) than pavement works just as well.

Be sure you warm up and cool down and strech in your work outs. I have a great spot to run that is a mile an a half each way. I get to a certain point the first way and I sprint out the last 10-15 yards. I stretch out real quick and I run back sprinting the last 10-15 at the finish.
Once you stretch out, go home and jump some rope for about 15-20 mintues at some point durring the day. Have a clock near by so you can watch. At the end of every 3:00 mintue period jump with your knees high for the last 30 seconds. This is conditioning your body to respond to flurrying at the end of a round to steal close ones. Obviously judges remember the end of rounds more so than the beginnings because its the last thing they saw...


Tues, Thurs:
Select 3 pieces of cardio equiptment. I think the treadmill, precor, and a jump rope are my favs but you can also use a rowing machine, recumbant or upright bike, cross trainer, stair master, basically anything that gets your heart rate up and makes you work. Break your work out up into 3 20 minute cycles.

SAT: A sprint day. This is a chance to get faster and more explosive. Take a marker, and place it about 10-15 yards apart. Then place 2 more outside of those and then 2 more outside of those.

Sprint from the first cone or marker to the second and right back. You should alternate starting legs.

Make sure you stay warm and stretch well before you sprint. Wearing wind breakers will only help you. It will also possibly prevent you from pulling a hamstring. You are not used to sprinting most likely so take it easy at first. It will also help give you a little wind resistance. After you sprint from one marker to the next, sprint the one outside of that, so on and so forth. Finally end up sprinting from the farthest point to the next farthest. This will wear you out, but it'll make you an animal. For a pro boxer you'll want to run close to 6 miles, an amateur will run 3 at a faster clip.

I read something about the great Rocky marciano used to build punching stamina. he would get into a swimming pool and just through endless punches!
he was well known for his endless endurance and K.O power.

[Sean Martin]

Something very important that everyone has neglected to mention is before you do the first exercise of the day it is vital to get something in your stomach. Even if it is a piece of whole-wheat toast. If you stomach doesn’t have something in it before you start working out your body will refuse to burn calories properly. Also your body won’t produce the proper energy.

A good energy bar would help you burn calories and increase your stamina.