Intermediate programming for boxers

[Benny1981]

Hey coach,

Loved starting strength and ordered PP2. My question may be answered in there, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

I searched the forum and also read the article on fencing on your website. The only info on good training for boxers I've found has been what Hatfield did with Holyfield. Pro boxers have 12 week windows or longer for a fight and can plan a training cycle specific to that event.

Boxers in the amateurs tend to have short notice for fights - 2 weeks typical or less sometimes. Most of these trainees program concurrently all year long without a "season."

Questions: How would you program for a trainee with 4 days of relatively taxing skills and conditioning training? Would two days of barbell work accomodate some gains for most trainees?

Skills are of course most important. In the amateurs, an effort is made to match up fighters with similar levels of experience by good trainers. So, often the fight goes to the boxer who trains better.

Background: I lowered my conditioning to once a week temporarily and increased my diet to complete Starting Strength and address strength imbalances from poorly designed training. I am in the higher weight classes where strength is more relevant.

Thanks

[Mark Rippetoe]

Two days would be the most you could do, I'd think. Squat both days, alternate the press and the bench, and alternate deadlifts and cleans, and that's about as complicated as it needs to be.

[Benny1981]

Thanks!

I read PP over the weekend and gleaned a lot of good information. I noticed that you mentioned larger numbers of sets might have an advantage with some specificity toward boxing. I am interpreting this to be 5x5 or more. Is that accurate?

Last question: If one were to discard the volume limitations in the original question, do you feel the push press offers value to boxers as an explosive movement, or is it an illusion of specificity that this would be any better than a program which contained the press only for overhead work?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Well, 5x5 are not really what I'd consider large numbers of sets. And push presses, explosive as they may be, are not as good as presses for building strength. Remember that if you are a strength training novice, you just cannot benefit from more complicated training than your level of training advancement supports. Five sets across and push presses are not novice-level programming. Just get strong now and worry about specialization when it's more appropriate.