When did boxers start using weights?

[SlySlickSmooth]

I hear all the time back in the days boxers never lifted weights. If so, how come there were still as many/if not more strong punchers back in the day than now?

Was there a certain time frame when weights were introduced?

I remember Fraizer in a competition for lifting weights, his form was ****, but due to his strength won the competition.

Did Tyson lift weights on his come up? It seems all the old school training/trainers would never go to weights.

[NVSemin]

it is a good question!!

I heard, but can provide no prof, that Tyson did not do weight when he worked with Kevin Rooney, he started afterwards

I would argue that weights became popular during the rise of bodybuilding around Swarchenegger's time. I can imagine some kids in boxing gyms wanted to look like him. One generation of fighters like this is enough to start the tradition.

I think weights sometimes are necessary. For instance, weight lifiting is the only way for a guy like Holyfield to get into Heavyweight division.

[RVABoxer]

I'd say power is based off technique more than anything, just cause youre big doesnt mean you're gonna have a hard punch but of course it is relative to size as well, so maybe boxers back in the day had better technique when they punched. As for when boxers started using weights im not really sure. My coach always told me to stay away from heavy weight exercises because it tightens your muscles making it more difficult to throw effective punches. But I have heard some weight exercises can help with power such as deadlifts and squats and other "power exercises"

[Dostojevski]

I thought Bruno was the first famous example

[Barry Halls]

I don't think you can look like Tyson and NOT lift weight. That would be extremely freaky.

[Ray Corso]

As long as I can remember, they just weren't shaped like a barbell or straight bar. Old school fighters used axes and sledge hammers and cement blocks going back to the early 1900s! Cable networks were always on the walls of the old time gyms, with a variety of dumbells on a rack!
Most trainers didn't like them if the fighters genetics made it easy to build muscle peaks. They didn't want larger muscles to draw more oxygen and then fill with blood than limit a fighters mobilities!

ex; Ali's build compared to Nortons!
.......Ali had a tapered look and in shape appeared smooth the muscle had length and didn't build to a peak. Kenny in great shape had that bodybuilder look and when he started boxing he had some problems with muscle fatique.
Ray.

[#1Assassin]

I don't think you can look like Tyson and NOT lift weight. That would be extremely freaky.

you know very little about exercising then. there are loads of ways to get built without touching weights.

tyson is a poor example though since he indeed had freaky genetics. this is a kid that was under 6 feet tall, weighing around 200lbs most of which was pure muscle at the age of 12 without even working out!

but it is true he hardly touched weiths when he was with rooney. he did one exercise with weights, shrugs to work his neck. thats it.

[toshmurph]

Gene Tunney as far as I know was the first boxer to lift weights. He was very scientific and forward thinking. The guy was also a borderline genius, who gave lectures on law and counted guys like George Bernard Shaw as his friends.

Jack Dempsey although not lifting weights, used early forms of resistance training as a method of building explosive power

[Barry Halls]

you know very little about exercising then. there are loads of ways to get built without touching weights.

And how do you propose you build a lean 200lbs physique at Tysons height without weightlifting?

It just naturally grew on him? Like he's some kind of cyborg?
No, that's just ridiculous.

He certainly did not build it by bouncing around a medicine ball.

He may have built a fair share squatting with a trainer on his back, but that wouldn't explain his developed tri, bi and back area.
And this is by all purposes "lifting weights".

He could have done weighted dips and chinups, but that's weightlifting. Even if it's not on a barbell it's still weightlifting.

Basically if you add weights onto your exercise it's "lifting weight". It doesn't have to be hammer curls with a dumbell.
How did he build his gigantic trapz? Probably by shrugging something that's not his own bodyweight?

So please explain it in a way that wouldn't get laughed at by a fifth grade biology teacher.

[Juof]

Timothy bradley loves the weights his power is nothing