I've also gotten different advice from different trainers on this. This is what I do now.

Too much running and specifically, too much running at a fast pace gives me shin splints and that sets my training way back. I run twice a week, maybe three times if I need to miss a nightime training session. If I run relaxed, I keep my legs healthy. I'm not at present competitive boxer, I'm not currently running to help me make an ideal boxing weight, just to keep my weight reasonable and keep my overall conditioning up so I can spar more rounds and hold my own against the young guys.

Luckily, I live near a very hilly large park that has paved walks and some dirt walking/running paths. This way I can run at a nice even, 9-10 minute mile pace while still getting my heart rate up. Sometimes I'll do this. There is a very big and steap hill, one of the highest points in the city, and after running a mile, I run straight up that to get my heart rate up, then run another mile around the loop and do it again.

I just started this running program about a month ago after avoiding roadwork during the cold New England winter. Even doing 4 miles, twice per week, in the manner I just described, has helped my stamina considerably. In the gym, I have more wind and can work longer and harder.

It probaby doesn't matter what style of running you do, as long as you do some running and during your running, do some kind of intervals, either by pace or by hills. If I was trying to SERIOUSLY cut weight, I would up my runs to 4x per week and probably alternate between intense hill runs and flat low-heartrate fatburn runs. Sometimes I run carrying 1lb weights in each hand.

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I've heard opinions that support this idea.
There is one guy at my gym in particular, who is adamant I should squat.

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+199

I think we're still talking 2 different types of strength and within different ranges of movement. I think both would have their benefits.

As for long runs burning fat - they do that. Once you train long enough to deplete all your glycogen stores you have to burn fat after that - typically I think that time is assumed to be at around the 2 hour mark.

If you do this weekly you can train your body to burn fat more efficiently and that's when it becomes really beneficial to keeping your weight down. In my experience you also need to be careful not to loose too much upper body muscle though and it can be hard to strike a good balance.

Until you train long enough to use up all your glycogen stores you might benefit more from shorter more intense workouts though and over a shorter period they will burn more calories.

I think the cardio and running training you do might be best tailored to your individual needs and also of course depending on what you enjoy doing. I sit a bit above my fight weight (which is bantam so typically a lean division) and have to be slightly underweight when I compete so this kind of training makes that easier for me to do without being too obsessed by my calorie intake.

I just enjoy it too and have met a lot of interesting people through running with them including a lot of my closest friends!

This makes a lot of sense I think. I think it is good that I am no longer just jogging and have replaced it with sprints. Part of my training goal is increasing upper body strength, as well as explosiveness and torso and leg strength. I still do jog but not nearly as much, and like with other workouts I make sure to load up on the supplements right after to not have the workout eat into my upper body due to a lack of fat. Make sense?

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I've taken two weeks off from much running and I feel great. Faster, more stamina, fitter.

Strange.

+16

You don't even have to use weights, see how many full body weight squats you can do in a row (full ones, back straight and going right down). It gets extremely intense, especially the first time when the lactic acid starts kicking in. My aim is to get to 500 in a row, right now im up to about 230 and one of the most dreaded parts of my workouts. You shouldn't rely on one exercise to condition a part of your body, use a variety to gain the most benefit cardio and the legs are no different.

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+97

In this case it has more to do with his God given genes than as an effect of his roadwork. For more examples, just look at tree trunk legged fighters such as Liston or Tua. The strong legs were already there, it just needed to be conditioned for the long haul.

Marciano was one dedicated son of a gun, reinforced by other dedicated son of a guns.

From a biography that on him that I found, he'd get up as early as 3:30 a.m. to do his roadwork, and the distances would get progressively longer as the date of the fight closed in. He was also a big on going for long walks, covering many miles at a time to the point where his friend and confidant Al Columbo would get too tired to keep up with him. While on these walks he also had a habit of squating down to pick up a pebble the tossing it aside which worked his legs further.

Right before he was getting out of boxing his trainer Charlie Goldman saw it coming. He knew that because Rocky was getting tired of going for his long walks that it would only be a matter of time that he would get tired of boxing, and wouldn't you know it.

Anyways on the other end of the leg spectrum you have guys that are light in the ass. Guys like Bob Foster, Tommy Hearns, and even way-back oldtimer Bob Fitzsimmons all had legs like spiders, but conditioned legs are conditioned legs and that's what matters.

I remember Grey/Joe saying in reply to when the subject of leg conditioning came about that your legs just need to strong enough to keep you from falling. Grey often referred to windsprints an idea that's been around for a long time way before tabata intervals, or HIIT was proposed. Simply it was alternating between a walk, sprint and jog, the varieties are endless, and the idea has been around for ages. Why if I'm not mistaken, I remember reading in Bob Fitsimmons would alternate between sprinting and walking between evenly spaced electricity poles, and that was 100 years ago.

I have nothing against the steady jog, it's a good way to burn fat, but I'm more in favor of types of running to trigger the right adaptions in the muscles and the way that body works. Props to Scrap on that one.

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Oh I guess I should mention that my Aunt taught me to " go through the gears" alternating my pace although I never hit a sprint apart from the finish.

Great points in that post thanks Chris!

I should also add a couple of examples where legs in bad shape have had a devestating effect on fighters.

One that comes to mind is Tommy Hearns against Marvin Haglar. By Manny's account, Tommy's legs weren't there to begin with, what he blamed on a few guys massaging Tommy's legs before the fight. I don't know what did him in, but having noodles for legs didn't help him that night.

One bad legs in the making was Mike Tyson. His training shifted to the wost as his overall strategy began to fall apart. His muscles got bigger, but his legs got wider, he was beginning to lean and he was getting hit a lot more.

P.S. I haven't including sprinting in my workout, but I always love going flat out on the last stretch of my run. It leaves me feeling as cool as a narcisistic greek god on acid, while also leaving my mind so numb that dialing a phone number afterwards feels like calculus.

Not a smart move to treat a run like a race, but I'd be lieing if I said it's not fun.

I hear ya on the sprint Chris.

And also on Tyson.
After his comeback he neglected his running, which was actually the source of his power and took to weight lifting. Silly, costly mistake.

+64

In the footage of the young Mike that's around, he does a lot of leg strengthening during his shadow boxing, it was integral to his style that he'd dip or rotate low to avoid a punch on the way in and springing up with a hrad counter.

I used to do weighted squats in the gym when I used to play rugby, but I belive my legs are much stronger and more coordinated now since moving to a more running based training with intense shadowboxing. IMO doing reps of 10 (or whatever) heavy squats will get you conditioned for just that, 10 heavy shoves at a time. If your movement around a ring and slipping and punching involves a lot of knee bends, then the repetitions you require are in the 100's!!

When I started boxing, I skipped predominatly using the calves to bounce over the rope, and my footwork would be the same. Eventually I figured out that there was no coordination between my footwork and punching. I remedied this by initiating the bounce from my thighs (bending the knees) and eventually felt in more control of my body through the hips and torso. While actually boxing I don't dip my knees much obviously, but I find exxaggerating the motion during a few rounds of shadowboxing and skipping have increased the strength in my legs.

+16

I like this Bomp - i'll have to try it! Thanks for sharing

+16

Roberto Duran would also jumprope in a squatting position.

+25

Going right down is crucial IMO. In my dumb weights days I'd just jump in to an excercise without really appreciating what the specific goals were. I did weighted squats for months before realising I wasn't going down low enough due to tight harmstringd and quads, this was obviously making the situation even worse.

Sharla: Be careful when trying new excercises, look out for extra pressure on joints and that. When I exxaggerate the knee bend during skipping I dos so flat footed, with most of the weight over the sole of my foot (also during any squat) I find this takes away strain on the knees, though I believe opinions vary on this and it may differ from person to person, I'm no expert on biomechanics but I have a fair idea from trial and error() what works for me.

Chris: I've quite recently watched training videos of Duran, and it's only now I've started to realise what a true technician he really was rather than just a Neanderthal bruiser. Skipping squats is one of my short term goals, they're far more difficult to do than they look, I can manage to do them without the rope at the moment.

Thanks Bomp I'll keep that in mind