Swimming in place of Roadwork

[silent assassin]

Swimming is great for enducrance of the muscle thats for sure, however it can also put a fair bit of muscle on you (look at the olympic swimmers) so if you need to make a certain weight it may not help you.

Yeah you're right. For me that's been a bonus since that muscle has made my back a little more resistant to pain from working the heavy bag etc. Good for people with a history of back pain I think.

there's NO substitute for good ol skool roadwork.

I think it depends on the individual. I love running and i don't think swimming works me aerobically the same way. I feel it does improve my aerobic fitness but more in combination with my muscular endurance rather than pure aerobic fitness.

Having said that a guy who used to train in our club who won the Australian light heavyweight title last year did all his non boxing cardio work in the pool.

All his swimming was all out sprinting and he did a lot of burn rounds on the bag which would have added to his fitness. He wasn't just fit enough - the nurse at the pre-national medicals said he had the lowest resting heart rate out of everyone who competed in the nationals across all weight classes - a lot of athletes - many of which ran. He had a lot of self discipline and made a really good workout out of it.

Some days I'd prefer swimming because its less pounding on my shins and knees, and its a nice change from running.

When I hurt my knee and took up swimming I lost weight because despite doing a lot of training I couldn't run at a hard enough intensity or for long enough on an injured knee to train properly. If you are prone to pain from running having swimming as a cross training exercise might still make you fitter.

I have trained with such trainers as Don Turner & Lou Duva among others. Too many fighters to list but include Wlad & Vitali Klitschko, Jeff Harding & his team, & many-many more. These great trainers & top fighters have all (+) & (-) different things in their training regimines. None, including myself have/would ever totally substituted roadwork in a camp (not the camps that I was involved in with any fighters).

Having said that, IMO different things could/would work for different people. I truly beleive that the guy that u talked about is the exception & not the rule. From what u posted it obviously worked for him. But this wouldn't be the case for everyone IMO. I'm also guessing that this guy was/is probably an animal in the gym (boxing training). His hard gym training would/could also have had a huge impact on his fitness for his fight.

If asked my humble opinion I would never advise anyone that has aspirations to, or is actively fighting competitively. I beleive that it would be a mistake.

On a totally unrelated matter I have to CC u. I couldn't look at the three 6's that u had anymore. Have 2 get rid of the devil's mark 4 u.