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Copyright © 2009
Rob Pilger
Recovery, yes recovery, is very misunderstood by some boxing trainers. It is sometimes thought of as a novelty or even pampering of a fighter. Taking a day off or easing up in training can seem like an act of weakness to the go hard or go home foolish trainers. If they only knew what they were doing to their fighters bodies. When you prepare a boxer for a fight you are supposed to make them better then ever, not the other way around.
Most training camps run for 4-6 weeks of intense training. If the fighter shows up to camp in bad shape, he can just end up surviving the camp and gain no significant benefits. This is do to the high and hard amount of training he will partake in to get his weight down to get in shape. So the fighter starves, runs all these miles and works the bag for many rounds yet no recovery is usually planned. The next thought is jump on the scale and check the weight, if the fighter is over weight. Even if a fighter isn't that bad out of shape, they are still being told that the other fighter is training even harder so they burn themselves even more by picking it back up.
The obvious solution is to monitor the fighters training readiness when applying intense bouts of training. If the fighter comes to training wore out, why beat a tired horse even more. It's not weakness the fighter is showing, it's the fighters body telling the trainer something. The trainer needs to pay close attention to his boxer and at the same time implement recovery modalities after the training to ensure proper training readiness/freshness. The fighter will then show up to the next training session rejuvanated and ready to train hard. You are then building the fighter up and not breaking them down.
Again, Why beat a tired horse? I'll repeat this again too, naive boxing trainers look at over training as not training hard enough. This has got to stop. We know what happens with this scenario. If the team would monitor training readiness and use recovery techniques such as massage and proper post workout nutrition, they would obviously be building the fighting beast they seek to have ready at fight night. In training we are only as good as we recover. If we don't recover we don't progress. Fighters mustn't make it to the fight by just surviving the training camp. Factoring in recovery ensures this won't happen.
Here are some recovery methods that can be successfully applied to the fighters training: massage, foam rolling, contrast showers, sauna, sufficient sleep, whirl pool, and post workout nutrition. Mineral and epson salt baths work well too. Nutrition on a whole determines how well a fighter can train and recover. If the fighter is bloody starving himself to make weight, that's the fight itself and it'll cost the fighter the fight.
Monitoring training intensity is key to recovery also and allows the fighter not to peak too early for the fight. It's better to take a day off or ease up in training a bit than to have peaked two weeks or so before the fight! The fighters who have to take off all the pounds and come to camp out of shape can peak 3 weeks before a fight! This is the reason they can look so flat during the fight. Look deeper and the truth comes out.
I hope this article has shed some light on why applying recovery techniques and modalities in boxing training can determine the success or apparent early downfall of the fighter. The new motto of enlightened, experienced trainers is "Less Is More". Based on their fighters performances who follow this new slogan, who can disagree?
Grab a 21 day trial membership to http://www.boxingperformance.com/ while it still lats. Rob Pilger is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Level II USA Boxing Coach. and creator of the http://www.theultimateboxingworkout.com/fighters.html
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