By Wilson Pitts
In the old days the perfect cross training for boxers was considered to be sawing wood and splitting wood with an ax. There was wisdom in how they cross-trained fighters in the past. Boxers were put to work clearing land and building fences when they were not training. General construction work such as lifting, digging, sawing, hammering was done by fighters laying off from boxing training because it kept them in shape. Outdoor work kept them in shape while not doing the repetitive movements of boxing training. It kept their weight down during off periods but didn’t over train their arms and shoulders.
Now a days? No fighter wants to work at all, and almost none of them have done hard work, physical labor, before they begin over training in the gym. They do not have that foundation built by doing daily hard work outdoors. During World War II Rocky Marciano served as a combat engineer. “We were the Army’s ditch diggers.” Rocky declared in an interview in Sport Magazine. This was his conditioning base when he turned pro after getting out of the Army.
Charlie Goldman once trained Marciano for a fight for six months. Three months of heavy lifting, farm work and walking. Rocky Marciano wanted to walk/run five miles out and five miles back after EVERY MEAL! Then they did three months of regular boxing camp. Goldman did not have him lift at the same time he boxed, he didn’t punch anything for the first 3 months while he lifted stones and split wood. In the famous book Training for Boxing by Nat Fleisher there is a picture of Marciano down in a pit throwing 40lbs stones up out of it. That work provided a deep training base for the boxing training which was much more aerobic, consisting of running and punching but no lifting. This creates deep reserves to fall back on during the hard training to come. Rocky never seemed to get tired in fights that was because he trained hard but did not leave it in the gym.
Goldman had strict discipline in camp, Rocky only spoke to his wife and reporters through a chain link fence, lights out at 9pm, no food between meals or after dinner. Charlie Goldman said that the only trouble he ever had with Rocky in camp was that he wanted to do too much roadwork. He had to reign him in to prevent him from over training.
Now fighters go to camp for only a few weeks and they routinely lift and then go the gym and try to spar when they can hardly use their arms right. The type of strength training that a boxer needs is not the same as bodybuilding at all. The legs and core of a fighter have to be trained to perfection. The desired result is a lightness and quickness on his feet.
Pop Foster was an old school trainer who managed and trained welterweight champion Jimmy McLarnin through his entire career, from age 16 fighting in five weight divisions. In boxing training he had McLarnin train speed of hands and feet, and there was an emphasis on not over doing it. Though he was criticized for his methods in the New York press of the time, Pop brought McLarnin in on weight and in peak condition time after time.
Foster had McLarnin row a boat and pull fishing nets during planned lay offs from boxing training. He used to have McLarnin fast on juice for a week after big fights and take off six months at a time after several fights in a row. This was to prevent him from muscling up from too much repetitive training. Too many of the same workouts would have caused him to go up in weight and lose his snap. Foster had him row a boat and run and not do any boxing at all when they would go back to Vancouver during the summers.
