The start of 2016 has seen somewhat of a trend for boxers adding body mass and moving up weight categories. The more notable examples start with Amir Khan stepping up to 155 lbs fight Canelo Alvarez, David Haye making his comeback one stone heavier and Carl Frampton considering a move up to featherweight to face Leo Santa Cruz.
Does adding muscle slows you down?
In traditional boxing training philosophies, adding muscle mass to a boxer will slow them down – in which strength and conditioning coaches have argued against during it’s rise in popularity.
Depending on the training method selected, both boxing coaches and S&C coaches are correct.
Boxers are at risk of slowing down if they move up weight categories by putting muscle bulk on like a bodybuilder. However, gains in muscle and speed can go hand in hand if an effective strength and conditioning program is put in place.
This article series will explain 3 different training methods to help gain muscle and speed.
Lets look at how NOT to do it.
How not to do it
If you are an athlete in any sport, your training has to have positive transfers to competition.
This means that a boxer cannot train like a bodybuilder to put on muscle. They still require a functional approach to improve movement, speed and co-ordination.
Traditional methods to increase muscle hypertrophy often consist of high rep ranges and training large volumes. This type of training is likely to stimulate slow twitch muscle fibres and activate motor units at lower thresholds.
This could negatively affect the speed of muscle contractions, and when you couple that with an increase in body mass, resulting in a much slower athlete.
Click below for Step 1
Three ways to gain muscle and speed: Step 1
Step 1: Keep Speed in the Program
Make sure you keep some sort of strength-speed/speed exercises in the program to maintain/increase speed. This might slow down hypertrophy, making the gains in mass slower but you will be faster so it’s a good trade-off.
Ballistic exercises (loaded jumps, kettlebell swing) and plyometric exercises are great to involve. However, Olympic lifting should be preferred when bulking due to the mechanical tension and eccentric demand (in the catch). Go for slightly higher volumes, 5 reps x 4-6 sets.
This is very dependent on technique, so check out the video below.
Also, keep in punch specific exercises such as the landmine punch throw to maintain speed and co-ordination during a punching action.
Click below for Step 2
Step 2: Cluster Training
Cluster training is where a set is broken up into multiple blocks, allowing the athlete to have recovery periods in between reps.
Example: 4 reps, rest 20 seconds, 4 reps = 1 set
This allows an athlete to lift higher weight loads for more repetitions; this can give you great improvements in size and strength. Furthermore, high-threshold motor units and fast twitch fibres will be activated more than when traditional hypertrophy training due to higher forces exerted (increased weight).
When have we used this?
We used Cluster training to help light-middleweight prospect Sam Sheedy on his way to an impressive first round TKO. We focused on getting Sam as strong as possible so he can perform at higher intensities.
Sam has improved massively in such a short amount of time, improving his lower body force production by 7%, adding to the 29% improvement made in the previous last camp.
We wanted to get Sam as strong as he can, as quick as possible! However, this didn’t mean that we just load up the bar and get him lifting, we needed a structured, progressive program to help him achieve this without becoming too fatigued or even injured.
On key exercises such as Back Squat and Romanian Deadlift, we used Cluster Training sets.
Click below for step three
Step Three: Occlusion Training
Occlusion Training is where you wrap around a device to apply pressure towards the proximal (top) of a muscle in order to restrict blood flow to the muscles, for instance wrapping therabands around the top of the thigh whilst performing a single leg leg press.
Various studies have found that the restriction of blood flow reduces the amount of oxygen delivered to the working muscle, this fatigues the slow-twitch muscle fibres, therefore, more fast-twitch fibers are activated despite a low external weight load.
Impact: The fast twitch muscle fibres are activated to increase functional mass favourable for fast contractions – needed for explosive actions such as a punch.
Where have we used this before?
We used Occlusion training to help amateur boxer Callum Beardow gain 2 kg of muscle mass during rehabilitation training following shoulder surgery.
Due to time spent off training due to recovery from the surgery, Callum has seen a rapid decrease in muscle mass. Standing at a modest 5”10, Callum’s muscular build is vital for him competing at 81 kg. Therefore, our main objective was for him to regain this skeletal muscle mass as quickly as possible.
Considering the amount of soreness and strain on tendons that may occur from weight training, Callum was restricted in how much external load in the initial stages of rehab. Therefore, we opted to prescribe Occlusion Training as this is a great way to increase functional mass without exposing an athlete to heavy weight training.
The biggest improvement was 8% increase in arm muscle mass, this was important to protect his shoulders when returning to training.
