Back in Action.

Hello there ladies and gents;
Back in training again.
In the coming weeks I'll be implementing a new training regime that I hope will have me nice and ripped again and fighting fight for next season!

So once again I appeal to you guys for input. I'm always open to new ideas and techniques as it keps my body guessing.

I'll be training 5 days or so and I'll be in both the boxing and regular gym so all ideas are appreciated.

One more time;
I'm 20,
I've dropped from 75kg to 71, walking around at 74kg.
I'm 6'1" and I'm always fit, so lay on the exercise!

Hey mate i'm in the same boat as you, just getting back to the gym tommorow. Want to see how much we can improve in a month or some time frame? I need to get some motivation back and this could be a way, as right now i am struggling.

I understand the lack of motivation, it's a horrible feeling for me actually.
But perhaps if you find a realistic goal, for me it's some international sparring or even fights during the summer

I did have motivation; a fight. But i had my cousins wedding on the night it was scheduled, so now i have to wait for an exhibition later in the year or the novices next year. So many hours of training wasted because i was 5 hours away from the location of the fight :( I will get over it, I guess i have something to prove now.

That has got to be frustrating man!
Do you mind me asking where you fight and at what weight?

One thing I found that helped was keeping a log.
If you log all you do it mounds up, gives you a sense of achievement and makes you want to do even more.

WA Australia, 69 kg will be my fight weight but right now im about 72kg.

Thats a good idea i need to set myself boundaries again. Thanks mate!

Also for your new regime do your handstand pushups and watch your back muscles rip apart, when you get good do them on bricks so you get a bigger range of motion and you will notice the difference quickly.

I box under 71kg in Ireland:)

How do you do handstand pushups:confused:
You don't balance do you? Get someone to hold you?

Ohh sweet i think your about 2 inches taller than me, so we'd be about the same build im guessing. I think i'll start a log on here again and post some pics of me now and in a month, i want to be close to fight weight so if bouts are coming up thats something i don't have to worry about.

Do a handstand up against a wall, the first few times just do this for 30 seconds, so you know you can stay balanced and your arms won't buckle. But i'm guessing that wont be the problem, the balancing will. Then just lower yourself while trying to stay upright, then push back up to the handstand position.

Handstand Pushups

Thats has pictures and probably explains it a lot better than i just have.

Cool man, that would mean we could learn effective training techniques from each other pretty easily:)

That sounds like a great, challenging excercise!
I'd like that a lot too as I don't do any weights on my back as such because it's risky. One arm rows I suppose, and I do hyper extensions with a weighted ball for the lower back. Thats a great idea!

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hyper extensions with a weighted ball for the lower back

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How do you do these? I really need to strengthen the lower back as i found its pretty hard to target other than doing the extension bridge.

Hyper extensions are like reverse situps I guess. You lie face downward on a special rack. The rear of the ankles or knees under a bar and your thighs on a platform. This means your legs are perfectly straight and your body from the waist up can bend to a 90 degree angle downward without hitting the floor. You can then flex the rear muscles in you lower back to perform a reverse sit up type motion.
Excellent excercise!

Deadlifts can be good, but like I said, I personally never do anything with weights on my back, it's just a phobia I guess!

Perhaps you could try those reverse sit ups on the ground.

I've seen them done with and without legs. You lie on your stomach. Hands behind the heaad and flex the lower back muscles, causing your legs and head to jerk up. About ten reps and a few sets is ok.

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Originally Posted by hitmandonny

Hello there ladies and gents;
Back in training again.
In the coming weeks I'll be implementing a new training regime that I hope will have me nice and ripped again and fighting fight for next season!

So once again I appeal to you guys for input. I'm always open to new ideas and techniques as it keps my body guessing.

I'll be training 5 days or so and I'll be in both the boxing and regular gym so all ideas are appreciated.

One more time;
I'm 20,
I've dropped from 75kg to 71, walking around at 74kg.
I'm 6'1" and I'm always fit, so lay on the exercise!

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Good to see that sickness has finally left you. I'm over here in Texas, but I've done some pushups and shadowboxing, so maybe I won't lose too much of my strenght while I'm away from home.

What do you mean you don't do weights for your back because you're scared of injury hitmandonny? I do them to help my back.

Lat pull downs, seated rows with proper technique and chin ups all have got to be pretty safe right?

I'd say it's more dangerous to just box and keep doing chest stuff without balancing that with back strengthening exercises.

You'll end up with bad posture, bent foreward a lot and you know how many injuries I blame on bad posture!

Well I saw a guy pop discs before when dead lifting and it scared the bejesus outta me!

But If you could post a nice back routine I'd surely try it on your reccomendation.

Donny - in preperation for my fights I have been following a book called "Infinite Intensity" by Ross Enamit. I add this strength and conditioning training programme to my pads, sparring, bagwork, and running.

I have seen gains in strength, power, physical shape and muscle cut (definition). Due to weight restrictions at welterweight and having to remain within the weight class, I would highly recommend this progrsamme, as ive put on no weight but feel stronger, fitter and sharper.

Thats great Diesel, I'll certainly go get this book!

I'm pretty young, but this year I'm gonna be thrown in with the big guns, so I'll need lots of strength training!

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Originally Posted by hitmandonny

Well I saw a guy pop discs before when dead lifting and it scared the bejesus outta me!

But If you could post a nice back routine I'd surely try it on your reccomendation.

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I don't blame you for avoiding deadlifts and barb bell squats. I also avoid seated rows. Everytime I've hurt my lower back, on of those has been the culprit. If nothing else, I would work in pullups and chinups into your conditioning, if you don't already. That should be enough to balance out the pushups and other chest work. Lat pulls wouldn't hurt, with light weight. I can't see why you would need to deadlift or squat with something more than dumbells.

I never ever squat, nor will I!
I like to mainatin my footspeed and squatting has never helped. any say it aids explosive attack, but I prefer to move smoothly, I get that just fine from jogging and strengthen the legs with cycling.

I do use pullups and chinups recently, they're ok, I only rate them moderately.

Calf raisers are one of my favourite exercises, you will notice a lot of difference very quickly with them, especially in foot speed. I used to do them all the time for basketball, increase explosiveness of your footwork greatly.

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Originally Posted by Salty

Calf raisers are one of my favourite exercises, you will notice a lot of difference very quickly with them, especially in foot speed. I used to do them all the time for basketball, increase explosiveness of your footwork greatly.

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Standing on a block with one foot, toes only, a dumbell in one hand raising up the body? Is that the one?

You don't have to hold dumbells, i prefer not to. But the key is to first stretch the calf out, then explode up with them, hold for a second then repeat. Instead of adding weight i just used to do more each week and do one footed reps as well.

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Originally Posted by Salty

You don't have to hold dumbells, i prefer not to. But the key is to first stretch the calf out, then explode up with them, hold for a second then repeat. Instead of adding weight i just used to do more each week and do one footed reps as well.

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I may try use those again as I haven't used them in quite a while.
My footwork is actually good, but it could do with more snap.

Yeah you can always improve in anything, when you stop is when you get beaten.

True enough.

I'm also going to work on my handspeed.
I'm actually pretty good for my weight, but I want to be exceptional.

Usually I just Shadow box nice and slow, then accelerate on the bag, but have you got any ideas for me?

Scraps (i think) elastic rope trick made my hands faster, my sparring partners noticed it first. Get some elastic rope (15mm if you can) i just double up some 8mm as i couldn't find any thicker. They sell it at boating/hardware stores and is pretty cheap. Get a couple meters of it. Then tie it at one end to a post or something similar at eye level, make sure its secure though as you don't want it to hit you in the eye, so look on the net for some good knots. Then tie a loop on the other end so that you have something that you can hold in your hand. Then get in your stance at a distance where the rope is tensioned enough for you and start jabbing. It pulls your jab out quicker making your muscles work quicker as a result. I know sprinters do similar things like this to improve acceleration and top speed so it does work. I hope that helps you mate

That sounds like a good idea.
My mate us4es the sam concept on his legs all the time for Thai boxing.

Sorry for the late reply I haven't been on the net for a few days! Ok if i had to recommend two exercises for your back these would be it - bodyweight lat pull downs and another dumbell exercise.

Chin ups - Depending on how strong you are you could use the counterweight machine but something tells me you'd adjust without it pretty quickly. It's hard to injure yourself doing them because you just fail and drop if it gets too hard really. If it gets too easy you can use a weight belt but to be honest I'm just aiming to get my reps up to a strong 20 before I worry about that.

My way of looking at it is if you use your chest muscles for boxing you will do a lot of reps so i'd like to be able to do the same with my back. Despite not doing low reps and high weight my back has increased in size fairly dramatically with my training anyway.

Dumbell exercise - OK I have to warn you - one of the guys in the gym was told to do this by his physio but didn't because he says it looks very gay. It probably does but it's pretty good for your back.

Get a mat and go onto your hands and knees. With a very light dumbell in one hand, back fairly straight, bodyweight kept in the centre raise it up from the floor/mat out to the side so it's about equal height with your back and lower again slowly. I have to stress here it's LOW WEIGHT. If you use a heavy weight you will not isolate the muscles right in the centre of your back you need to. You will use other muscles instead.

So that's with the dumbell moving laterally up but you can also do it with the dumbell moving diagonally up from lower under about your belly button out to the same place. I'd recommend doing both - for each side of course.

When i say low weight I mean ridiculously low weight. I use an 8 or ten pound dumbell despite being able to do chin ups with my full bodyweight reasonably well. Using the wrong muscles to shift heavier weight is the same mistake people make when they do the seated row incorrectly - they don't target the right muscles.

If you'd rather use the seated row you can still do it with lowish weight and it's safest then to use one of the supported seated row machines with the pad in front of your chest - but I prefer dumbells even if they do look gay! ;)