The Boxer's jog.

[Sharla]

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.

[donnydarkoIRL]

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.

[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.

[donnydarkoIRL]

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.

[Bomp]

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.

[donnydarkoIRL]

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!!!

[Shamrock]

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.

[Chris Nagel]

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!!!

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.

[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?

[RozzySean]

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.

[donnydarkoIRL]

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?

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

[Sharla]

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!

[Salty]

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.

[Bomp]

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.

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.

[Salty]

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.