Saturday, January 16, 2010
Aaron Molyneaux HewlettAaron Molyneaux Hewlett was the first African American on the Harvard University staff and the director and curator of the Harvard Gymnasium from 1859 to 1871. He also taught gymnastics, boxing and the use of heavy dumbbells.
He is pictured here with the tools of his craft: boxing gloves, Indian Clubs, Dumbbells, medicine balls and a wooden wand. It should also be known that this picture represents the very first time a medicine ball was photographed in the US (taken around 1860). As a side note, in 1900, his son, E.M. Hewlett, became the first black lawyer to win a case before the Supreme Court of the United States (Carter vs. Texas).
Labels: Aaron Molyneaux Hewlett, Boxing Training, Gymnastics, Harvard University, Medicine Balls, Physical Culture Equipment, Physical Culture Pioneer
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Friday, July 10, 2009
Jersey Joe Walcott: Jumping RopeIf you're going to be strong, you should be in shape too... and a great way to get in shape is jumping rope, something many of the old boxers understood quite well. Here's a classic shot, taken on June 17th, 1948, of the legendary boxer Jersey Joe Walcott. At the time he was in training in Grenloch, New Jersey for his then upcoming re-match against the Heavyweight Champion Joe Louis.
Labels: Boxing, Boxing Training, Boxing Workout, Conditioning, Conditioning Workout, Jersey Joe Walcott, Joe Louis, Jumping Rope
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Thursday, June 11, 2009
Rocky Marciano in training (photo credit LIFE Magazine)"...Of all boxers it seems to have been Rocky Marciano who trained with the most monastic devotion; his training methods have become legendary. Marciano was willing to seclude himself from the world, including his wife and family, for as long as three months before a fight.
Apart from the grueling physical ordeal of this period and the obsessive preoccupation with diet and weight and muscle tone, Marciano concentrated on one thing; the upcoming fight.
Every minute of his life was defined in terms of the opening second of the fight. In his training camp the opponent’s name was never mentioned in Marciano’s hearing, nor was boxing as a subject discussed. In the final month Marciano would not write a letter since a letter related to the outside world. During the last ten days before a fight he would see no mail, take no telephone calls, meet no new acquaintances.
During the week before the fight he would not shake hands. Or go for a rid in a car, however brief. No new foods! No dreaming of the morning after the fight! For all that was not the fight had to be excluded from consciousness.
When Marciano worked out with a punching bag he saw his opponent before him, when he jogged he saw his opponent close beside him, no doubt when he slept he 'saw' his opponent constantly—as the cloistered monk or nun chooses by an act of fanatical will to 'see' only God. "Madness?-or merely discipline?- this absolute subordination of the self. In any case, for Marciano, it worked."
Joyce Carol Oates
"On Boxing"
Labels: Boxing, Boxing Training, Boxing Workout, Conditioning Workout, Rocky Marciano, Stamina
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All Contents, Including Images and Text, Copyright © 2010 by John Wood and Thunderdome Media Inc., Not to be reproduced without permission, All Rights Reserved
Monday, March 16, 2009
Jim Jeffries If there's one thing that most strength athletes need more of, it is conditioning work. This was well understood by the legendary boxing champion Jim Jeffries. Check out the training schedule that he undertook in 1899 in order to face Bob Fitzsimmons for the Heavyweight Championship of the world:
"For this fight Jeffries ran some 14 miles in the morning, alternating between a jog and a 100-yard sprint, without stopping to walk or rest and finishing the run within two hours. In the afternoon, he played three games of handball, punched the bag for 20 or 25 minutes straight, and skipped rope 1,500 to 2,500 times.Jeffries knocked out Fitzsimmons in the 11th round, and in the 8th round in their remach which occured three years later. Interestingly, Jeffries' wrestling coach during his training camps was none other than Farmer Burns - we'll have more on that subject later on.
He would then box from 12 to 16 rounds, and 'wrestle around' or toss an 18-pound medicine ball."
Labels: Bob Fitzsimmons, Boxing, Boxing Training, Boxing Workout, Conditioning, Heavy Weight, Jim Jeffries, Medicine Ball Training, Oldtime Boxers, Road Work
www.oldtimestrongman.com
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Saturday, March 14, 2009
"The Tipton Slasher" Benny Yanger"The Tipton Slasher" Benny Yanger gets in a workout with the wall pulley at an oldtime Chicago gym circa 1906. Note the small dumbbell which has been added to the weight stack. Like most boxers of that era, Benny was also fond of throwing the medicine ball around to build upper body strength and stamina. Over his career, the New York lightweight was 51-9.
Labels: Benny Yanger, Boxing, Boxing Training, Classic Gym, Medicine Ball Training, Oldtime Boxers, Upper Body Exercise, Wall Pulleys
www.oldtimestrongman.com
All Contents, Including Images and Text, Copyright © 2010 by John Wood and Thunderdome Media Inc., Not to be reproduced without permission, All Rights Reserved
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Neck Training With Sonny ListonThe great boxer Sonny Liston used to strengthen his neck by doing a headstand on a table and working his body back and forth then left and right, in order to hit all four "sides" of the neck.
I can say from experience that this a very effective movement.
This picture was taken in 1962 while Liston was in training to face Floyd Patterson for the Heavyweight Championship of the World. In the fight, Liston knocked out Patterson in the first round and then did so again in the rematch the next year. - He was a bad man.
Labels: Bodyweight Exercise, Bodyweight Training, Boxing, Boxing Training, Floyd Patterson, Neck Strength, Neck Training, Sonny Liston
www.oldtimestrongman.com
All Contents, Including Images and Text, Copyright © 2010 by John Wood and Thunderdome Media Inc., Not to be reproduced without permission, All Rights Reserved
Friday, January 16, 2009
Wall PulleysWall Pulleys were one of the first commercially available pieces of training equipment and were a common sight in gyms in the later 19th and early 20th century. Pugilists used to use them for building punching power as well as developing upper body endurance.
Here the great Light-heavyweight boxer from Philadelphia Tommy Loughran gets in a quick workout while his trainer Jack Brady looks on. These two shots are especially rare as they are two different shots taken at the same moment from two different cameras. They were taken in 1929.
Labels: Antique Equipment, Boxing Training, Oldtime Boxers, Tommy Loughran, Wall Pulleys
www.oldtimestrongman.com
All Contents, Including Images and Text, Copyright © 2010 by John Wood and Thunderdome Media Inc., Not to be reproduced without permission, All Rights Reserved
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