Thread: The Boxer's jog.

As a sport boxing is seen as highly difficult due to the varying demand on areobic and anaerobic fitness.

I've often heard people refer to their roadwork as a "boxer's jog." This term has been taken to mean a three or four mile run at a slow run or jogging pace. When done frequently it has it's obvious benefits and I myself am a practicioner of this style of running. I benefit greatly from an exactly four mile "block" with various hills, gradients and surfaces to test myself on.

I find that running at this pace does allow me to maintain a satisfactory level of aerobic fitness and it also instills a snese of ones limitations. By that I mean, having ran the "block" numerous times I know exactly how fast I can do it and how much to exert myself.
This translates in the ring as I learn to pace myself, exert myself when I need to andcalculate exactly how much I have in the tank.

This "technique" if you like, has been tried and tested. It builds stamina and in my opinion determination. But what unique spoins do you guys put on your runs? Or do you use any new school technique instead.

For me, I finish my run with a sprint taking as long strides as I possibly can. An 80 metre sprint at the finish of the run means I'm pushing myself each day getting faster and faster.

As per one of my other posts regarding my knees hurting usually after my normal 5 mile run, I had someone come and follow me during my run to see what I might be doing wrong. Their reply, "WTF...yer practically sprinting it the whole way. Slow down!" Not only were my knees hurting, but sometimes I was so totally gassed I just couldn't finish and woul drop like 1 block from home.

The other night I slowed my pace, and not only did it feel better on my legs, I felt so good I kept on going and did another lap and still had more to give it felt. lol

I suppose I need to find the right speed for myself, somewhere in the middle. Now off to run.

Originally Posted by hitmandonny

This "technique" if you like, has been tried and tested. It builds stamina and in my opinion determination. But what unique spoins do you guys put on your runs? Or do you use any new school technique instead.

I love my tabata intervals, pure running intensity. But I do love my long run along the foreshore at sunrise or sunset. Gives me time to just switch off my brain and enjoy myself.

I remeber someone explaining to me what tabata's were and I said "Oh I do, do some of those, but I call them something else!"

yeah probably me haha, 20 second max effort with 10 seconds complete rest, complete 7-8 times consecutively.

or HIIT.

I know one boxer who does walks and sprint workouts, no slow jogs.

I know a lot of people are against any long slow work but I like to fit one in a week or fortnight because it makes it easy for me to stick to my weight class without starving myself. I also find it's really good stress relief - my meditation I guess.

Apart for that I like to mix it up. I have short intervals like 200m with a break recovery to mimic those really hard short efforts. More of an anaerobic effort. I'll do the equivalent with short, hard fast butterfly sprints in the pool too.

I have longer intervals like 600m and 400m which I do as fast as I can to say mimic one hard steady effort kind of round. I might have a slow jog recovery for this which I think also teaches me that I can recover while still working - maybe as if I've just gone all out but now I'm tired and just moving enough to keep out of trouble and counter.

I have recovery runs which I find help just to keep my legs feeling 'light' and enable me to make better use of the interval sessions. I do find it makes a difference perhaps just because it clears the lactic acid out of those specific running muscles more efficiently than another exercise would.

My club also runs a track in really soft sand near the beach we call the snake pit. It has sand hills and takes about 3 mins to run around. We will do 3 or 4 timed laps.

The trainer's theory is that the variation with hills - the hard uphill efforts and easier downhills mimics the variation you might get within a round depending on how much you and your opponent push each other at different times and whether or not your trying to land big heavy punches or fast snappy counter jabs.

Hey Sharla, thanks for that, there are some fantastic ideas in there!
Running on sand is hard as hell and I would suspect it helps with explosivness as your feet struggle to get traction and you constantly push to keep going.

Personally i've never really been able to work out the benefit Boxer's gain from 4 mile jogs. It's purely an aerobic workout whereas Boxing is more of an anaerobic sport. I would have thought interval running would have the most benefit.

Even for weight loss (to make weight for a fight) it would still make more sense (to me) to do intervals seen as though short intense forms of cardio are the best for fat loss while wanting to maintain muscle tissue.

Can anybody enlighten me? There must be benefits that i'm missing.

Originally Posted by ono

Personally i've never really been able to work out the benefit Boxer's gain from 4 mile jogs. It's purely an aerobic workout whereas Boxing is more of an anaerobic sport. I would have thought interval running would have the most benefit.

Even for weight loss (to make weight for a fight) it would still make more sense (to me) to do intervals seen as though short intense forms of cardio are the best for fat loss while wanting to maintain muscle tissue.

Can anybody enlighten me? There must be benefits that i'm missing.

The primary benefit although most don't realise it, is that it strengthens the legs and allows the fighter to sustain more punishment without the egs buckling.

Hav eyou ever watched a fighte where the fighter was reported not to do much roadwork and if he gest knocke dout it's usually because he lost his legs and got caught.

I'll try think of a few examples.

Originally Posted by ono

Personally i've never really been able to work out the benefit Boxer's gain from 4 mile jogs. It's purely an aerobic workout whereas Boxing is more of an anaerobic sport. I would have thought interval running would have the most benefit.

Even for weight loss (to make weight for a fight) it would still make more sense (to me) to do intervals seen as though short intense forms of cardio are the best for fat loss while wanting to maintain muscle tissue.

Can anybody enlighten me? There must be benefits that i'm missing.

Personally I do it because I enjoy running simple as that, while intervals are simply a training exercise. Other people play video games, eat, write, where as I run, not the worst hobby to have in the world.

Originally Posted by hitmandonny

Originally Posted by ono

Personally i've never really been able to work out the benefit Boxer's gain from 4 mile jogs. It's purely an aerobic workout whereas Boxing is more of an anaerobic sport. I would have thought interval running would have the most benefit.

Even for weight loss (to make weight for a fight) it would still make more sense (to me) to do intervals seen as though short intense forms of cardio are the best for fat loss while wanting to maintain muscle tissue.

Can anybody enlighten me? There must be benefits that i'm missing.

The primary benefit although most don't realise it, is that it strengthens the legs and allows the fighter to sustain more punishment without the egs buckling.

Hav eyou ever watched a fighte where the fighter was reported not to do much roadwork and if he gest knocke dout it's usually because he lost his legs and got caught.

I'll try think of a few examples.

Was about to post this. I agree that leg strength is vital. One old school example is Marciano who did ridicilous road work and was never unsteady on his legs.

Originally Posted by Bomp

Originally Posted by hitmandonny

Originally Posted by ono

Personally i've never really been able to work out the benefit Boxer's gain from 4 mile jogs. It's purely an aerobic workout whereas Boxing is more of an anaerobic sport. I would have thought interval running would have the most benefit.

Even for weight loss (to make weight for a fight) it would still make more sense (to me) to do intervals seen as though short intense forms of cardio are the best for fat loss while wanting to maintain muscle tissue.

Can anybody enlighten me? There must be benefits that i'm missing.

The primary benefit although most don't realise it, is that it strengthens the legs and allows the fighter to sustain more punishment without the egs buckling.

Hav eyou ever watched a fighte where the fighter was reported not to do much roadwork and if he gest knocke dout it's usually because he lost his legs and got caught.

I'll try think of a few examples.

Was about to post this. I agree that leg strength is vital. One old school example is Marciano who did ridicilous road work and was never unsteady on his legs.

Great point Bomp.

Take a close look at Marciano's physique.
He would have been a middleweight if it were not for his legs!!!

I've had dogs all my live and have always taken them on my road work with me. I used to get so bored doing road work until I started taking the dog with me. When I first started boxing I had a Jack Russell cross breed and man I swear he was the hardest coach I ever had. That dog just never wanted to stay still for a second I'd run a mile at over standard pace then rest for a minute (the dog would hassle me so I'd have to throw a stick for him) then the same again for a further 3 miles with he minute in between. At the end we'd have maybe a 100 metre straight sprint to the stream at which point the dog was in there to cool off.

I started running with the dog I have now a german shepherd she's good but she's no Jack Russell

Anyway a mile at above standard pace with a minutes rest repeated for 4 miles and then a sprint finish was always my road work. My style was always based on speed and movement and one thing I never have suffered from is feeling weak in the legs at any point in a fight.

Originally Posted by hitmandonny

Originally Posted by ono

Personally i've never really been able to work out the benefit Boxer's gain from 4 mile jogs. It's purely an aerobic workout whereas Boxing is more of an anaerobic sport. I would have thought interval running would have the most benefit.

Even for weight loss (to make weight for a fight) it would still make more sense (to me) to do intervals seen as though short intense forms of cardio are the best for fat loss while wanting to maintain muscle tissue.

Can anybody enlighten me? There must be benefits that i'm missing.

The primary benefit although most don't realise it, is that it strengthens the legs and allows the fighter to sustain more punishment without the egs buckling.

Hav eyou ever watched a fighte where the fighter was reported not to do much roadwork and if he gest knocke dout it's usually because he lost his legs and got caught.

I'll try think of a few examples.

Yeh i get ya. Heard it a few times.

In theory could weight-lifting (squats, deadlifts etc...) play just as important a role, or at least be used to compliment road work?