Weight training for muscle mass - good or bad for boxing?

[mayweatherspace]

So I have watched videos of Jon Jones training (MMA fighter) and he lifted some damn impressive weights. 500lb squats, 500 lb deadlifts, 315 lb bench press for 10 reps etc.

Also, he has a pretty muscular physique (but chicken legs) but a lot of it is probably due to performance enhancing drugs.

My question is, would lifting heavy - mainly powerlifting and some bodybuilding, and gaining muscle be a good way to improve your fighting?

Mike Tyson lifted pretty heavy, and im sure many pro fighters, boxers and MMA lift heavy as a way to improve their punching power.

What do you guys think?

[abracada]

So I have watched videos of Jon Jones training (MMA fighter) and he lifted some damn impressive weights. 500lb squats, 500 lb deadlifts, 315 lb bench press for 10 reps etc.

Also, he has a pretty muscular physique (but chicken legs) but a lot of it is probably due to performance enhancing drugs.

My question is, would lifting heavy - mainly powerlifting and some bodybuilding, and gaining muscle be a good way to improve your fighting?

Mike Tyson lifted pretty heavy, and im sure many pro fighters, boxers and MMA lift heavy as a way to improve their punching power.

What do you guys think?

Good, but there is a difference between weights and bodybuilding

[GelfSara]

I would think it would be obvious that all other things being equal, a stronger athlete is a better athlete. This is essentially why weight divisions exist in boxing in the first place.

Obviously there are numerous caveats that one should be aware of, including of course that in sports such as boxing, tennis, golf, etc. that require great skill, strength training should not detract from focus on perfecting sport-specific skills. Additionally, when it is necessary to keep bodyweight down to stay in a weight class, one should know which muscle groups to prioritize in order to get the most "**** for the buck" out of one's strength training program. For example, training one's neck is more important than training one's lats.

[ShoulderRoll]

Weight train if you like. But it isn't necessary for boxing.

[OctoberRed]

Weight train if you like. But it isn't necessary for boxing.

^^^^^^^^^^^

[kara]

Weight training at the same time as boxing training is a no no for me. Makes my arms too stiff.

[tcbender]

Weight training at the same time as boxing training is a no no for me. Makes my arms too stiff.

Yeah I don't do any arm specific workouts (no curls, or tricep press, etc), definitely makes the arms too big and heavy and stiff.

If you are going to lift aim for 3-6 explosive reps of compound exercises. I usually superset those with a body weight explosive exercise of the same compound body group. ie bench press 3-6 reps then immediately do body weight dips or explosive pushups, push press into neutral grip pull up, lat pull down into widegrip pull up for upper body examples. barbell Squat into box jump, barbell lunge into single leg step up jumps, etc.


I also do a lot of plyo medicine ball work, which I think is a good alternative to weights to build explosivity and power.

[ShoulderRoll]

I love medicine ball work.

[them_apples]

So I have watched videos of Jon Jones training (MMA fighter) and he lifted some damn impressive weights. 500lb squats, 500 lb deadlifts, 315 lb bench press for 10 reps etc.

Also, he has a pretty muscular physique (but chicken legs) but a lot of it is probably due to performance enhancing drugs.

My question is, would lifting heavy - mainly powerlifting and some bodybuilding, and gaining muscle be a good way to improve your fighting?

Mike Tyson lifted pretty heavy, and im sure many pro fighters, boxers and MMA lift heavy as a way to improve their punching power.

What do you guys think?

well genetics play a huge role.

Not everyone is on the same playing field and you have to use what advantages you have in your favor.

Tyson lifted weights yes, and remained pretty fast - but some good points should be made, Tyson was muscular to begin with and even faster before he started lifting heavy in his later years. Also, Tyson being a gifted athlete as is, weights aren't going to suddenly make him slow as trash over night. He is also the guy that would have been 270 lbs of muscle if he wanted too, and in this case yes he would have been slow as mud and gassed out. The same point should be made though, there are a lot of "blown up" fighters walking around - almost everyone at HW, and a lot of them at Welterweight because it is a money division and everyone wants to fight there. You don't know it because there is no Xray Machine, but you can tell by the way they move around the ring.


Thomas Hearns did a lot of calisthenics and developed a ripped physique - it is similar to a lot of high rep weights. Now he was naturally tall and thin so hardening his body and strengthening himself probably benefited him by compensating for his only natural weakness (strength) since he was 6 ft 2 147 lbs going up against stockier fellows who inside in theory should out muscle him. In addition to this though, Hearns still was a pretty "tight" fighter for his era when you compare him to Leonard, Duran and Hagler - who had Muhammad Ali esqu limber muscles. The "tighter" fighters can explode pretty well but they always telegraph their punches even with good technique, because of all the muscle fibers activating. A perfect example of this is Canelo missing 90 percent of his punches against Mayweather while on tape he seems pretty fast. The reason: he telegraphs everything like a windup toy (well in comparison to Mayweather).

Tension is a give away.

Also, no puncher was every created from strength training, I have seen fighters perform better with PED's but never actually from a strict weight lifting routine. Both Norton and Holyfield looked far worse as heavy muscled fighters, Norton almost creeped into Journeyman level but sported a nice body. At 206 he was beating Ali.

[OctoberRed]

Also, no puncher was every created from strength training, I have seen fighters perform better with PED's but never actually from a strict weight lifting routine. Both Norton and Holyfield looked far worse as heavy muscled fighters, Norton almost creeped into Journeyman level but sported a nice body. At 206 he was beating Ali.

Joshua disagrees