Wow, strength training really is a contentious issue amongst the boxing world, and sadly is shows how far behind the times some of you are.
I would like to clear up a few points about strength training. Firstly, we are not talking about bodybuilding. Bodybuilders train to isolate muscle parts and their training is solely built around gaining as much muscle as possible.
Now strength training for athletes is completely different, when adding strength training to a sporting program, compound exercises should be used. Compound exercises are multi joint exercises that train more than one muscle group. In the case of the training Amir was doing on TV last Saturday, apart from the kettlebell exercises that have caused quite a stir amongst some of you, the other main exercise he was performing was the bar bell squat. The squat is the best all round strength lift bar none, although the legs are the prime mover, when performing the barbell squat, you are working practically the whole body. That is why any competitive athlete, be it a boxer or marathon runner could benefit from performing squats. You should also find expert advice on the correct training methods for your chosen sport, other wise, as a lot of you have said, lifting weights will be detrimental to you sporting ability.
As an aside, one of you mentioned Calzaghe never lifting weights. I feel confident enough in my methods to say if Joe had performed specific hand and wrist training exercises in the earlier years of his career, he would not have suffered the hand problems he has. In fact having spoken to a number of boxers over the years, the one baffling thing I have found is that none of them did any work to strengthen their hands or wrists. Guys these are their tools of their trade and none of them are working to protect them.
Getting on to kettlebells, the best thing about using them as part of a strength and conditioning program is that they train the body functionally. By this I mean when using a kettlebell, you can replicate the specific movements the body goes through during your chosen sporting activity. And another plus for using kettlebells is that you can complete workouts very quickly, leaving more time to concentrate of the specific skills of you sport. In fact, I would openly extend an invitation to any one of you guys to come and try my kettlebell circuit routine that would take you around 3 minutes to complete once you have learnt the correct techniques. That is the same amount of time a round lasts, so I am bringing a spot specific element in to your training, and if you can complete 6 rounds of this with one minuets rest between sets I will give you the workout free, other wise I charge £30 per hour.
Lastly it may interest you to read the article on the link bellow from the United Kingdom Kettlebell Association web site from when we presented to the Northern England ABA.
http://www.ukka.org/ABA.htm
