Heavy Bag or Lift Weights

[GutShot]

i prefer to mix weight training with any sport, it is beneficial to your progress and performance.

Hitting the heavy bag alone will build strength and some core power through the movements you are performing.
If you weight train and focus on the core movements such as squats,deadlifts, bent barbell rows, barbell curls, military press etc, your strength and core strength will come along leaps and bounds.

People say that this and that boxer has never touched a weight, some might be true in their statements and you can tell by their physique. But... those who come in the ring with shoulders like globes and lats like barn doors and hit like a freight train, you know they are weight lifting in addition to their boxing.

[Poom]

Nice post Mr.B , i think ill be shifting around my weight training a bit.

[means2184]

...does anyone know if what i said earlier is just an old-school myth that if your are gonna weight train w/ boxing you should only train your "push muscles"
in your arms ....cause like whne u punch your use your triceps & some back & shoulder muscles & torso

anyway some of those really old trainers thought u should also sleep on a board for a bed too though lol .....but to me it felt like it made sense w/ th elifting....Maybe youll just have quick hands either way?,but after highschool i almost stopped doing curls all together

[canuck kid]

should have said flat benchpress is overrated cause it tend to work your shoulders and triceps more, that's why i think it's overrated for a chest exercise. Dips are the best overall, imo.

[Mr.B]

...does anyone know if what i said earlier is just an old-school myth that if your are gonna weight train w/ boxing you should only train your "push muscles"

I don't know whether or not it's a "myth" but I would say it's generally not a good idea. For starters, balance is important. Having strong triceps, pecs and shoulders and a weak back and biceps isn't the worst thing in the world, but I think in most sports balance is more important than most people realize. But more importantly, the biceps are used in hook and uppercut punches and the back is used in the "return" of every punch you throw. The stronger your back and biceps are, the faster you will draw your hands back to guard and the less likely you are to get tired in a hard fight and get sloppy with pulling your hands back to a guard position.

[means2184]

alot of those boxers like joe louis nd dempsey had skinny arms if u look in the at old pics of them its cause they lifted w/ just the push muscles probably ...i sorta keep my biceps though even though i dont curl but i need to start again cause a little couldnt hurt at all

[spagy]

all muscles pull not push

[alex w]

^^ what are you chatting about

[spagy]

as i said all muscles pull not push

[Mr.B]

as i said all muscles pull not push

Of course from a technical or biomechanical standpoint, all muscles "pull" because they can only exert force/power by contracting, not expanding. But training the "push" muscles instead of the "pull" muscles is talking about training the muscles used to push things away from the body instead of pull things towards the body. For example, the Chest and triceps are push muscles as are the calves and quadriceps. The "pull" muscles are muscles like the upper back and biceps or the hamstrings.

[CRO-Luka]

i agree with what alex said about heavy bag training, it indeed is a great way to improve your strength. and also, it will build up your muscles, it will get you ripped.

when you read about stuff like power punches and power rounds, that's exactly what it is. power punching on the heavy bag will really increase your punching power.

[spagy]

really the muscle u should train if using weights is your core and side muscles your obliques. because these are the muscles that give u the turning movement when u throw a punch

[RozzySean]

I read Joe Frazier's book on boxing training. He is very old school and doesn't recommend lifting. His son Marvis, who is also a trainer now, supports lifting weights. My old coach also supported weightlifting as a suppliment. Currently, I lift once per week, but limit my lifting to benching (flat and incline with bar or dumb), deadlifts with rows (a great compound exercise), dips, and chinups/pullups. Palms-in chinups work the biceps, too, so that's all I do for biceps.

[danne__]

i think if you can do both without overtraining it is better ... But There is different training methods were you do explosive movments for stenght and slow movments for hypertrophy "not sure if its spelld like that" . Any ways=Explosive/HEAvy Weight/low rep = strenght ;:> . Most boxer dont bother lifting weights But i bet most of the heavy weighters lift .

[GutShot]

...does anyone know if what i said earlier is just an old-school myth that if your are gonna weight train w/ boxing you should only train your "push muscles"

I don't know whether or not it's a "myth" but I would say it's generally not a good idea. For starters, balance is important. Having strong triceps, pecs and shoulders and a weak back and biceps isn't the worst thing in the world, but I think in most sports balance is more important than most people realize.

big bump...

many people train their abs do death without sparing a thought for their lower back (erector) muscles... result, you have an undue strain on your spine as the abs are stronger than the erector muscles. The abs are pulling you down, your erector muscles are trying to keep you up straight.

Its the same with ANY muscle group, you have to find balance otherwise your body's mechanical outlay is shot to pieces, if you have a strong tricep, you need to balance it with a strong bicep.

I prefer to work all muscle groups as they are important to my boxing training. Not just the ones you "think" are helpful.
I'd like to see studies before people jump on bandwagons that working only the "push" muscles is the way to go, thats biomechanically flawed.

my two cents