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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Sunday, April 19, 2009
Wrestling for BoxersHow do you train when you want to be in the meanest possible shape? The answer is "Like a wrestler" which is exactly what boxing champ Jim Jeffries used to do in his training camps. There's nothing better for buiding strength of mind AND strength of body. Jeffries' wrestling coach? None other than Farmer Burns.
Labels: Boxing, Boxing Workout, Catch Wrestler, Conditioning Workout, Farmer Burns, Jim Jeffries
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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
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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
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Friday, March 13, 2009
Primo CarneraYou may know that "The Preem" Primo Carnera was the Heavyweight boxing Champion of the world from 1933-1934 but you probably didn't know that he was also a performing strongman as well. He achieved a one-hand snatch of 220 pounds and could clean and jerk over 300 -- pretty good for someone who was 6'6".
Labels: Boxing, Clean and Jerk, Globe Barbell, Italian Strongman, Oldtime Boxers, One hand Snatch, Primo Carnera, Strongman
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Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Basil KorolevBasil Korolev was Russian by birth but left his native land in 1919 at the start of the revolution. He settled in Japan were he was undefeated in Judo and boxing contests and held the heavyweight title in both sports until his retirement in 1936.
Here is Basil at a strength demonstration curling a pair of 80-pound kettlebells with only his little fingers.
Labels: Basil Korolev, Boxing, Curl, Finger Strength, Judo, Kettlebell, Mother Russia, One Finger Lift, Russian Kettlebells, Russian Strongman
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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
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Sunday, January 11, 2009
Jack JohnsonThe first African American heavyweight boxing Champ Jack Johnson certainly earned his title inside the ring and out. When he did finally get his shot he had lost only two of his previous 63 fights going back almost a decade prior. As far as preparation for the ring, Johnson's condition bears the unmistakable mark of physical training and the old photos from the training camps in his era certainly back it up.
He threw the medicine ball performed calisthenics, jumped rope, chopped wood and generally engaged in exactly the kind of physical training he would have needed to in order to compete for(and Win!) the Heavyweight championship of the world.
The tale of the tape from the Johnson/Jeffries fight indicates that Johnson had a 7-7/8 inch wrist, 15-1/4 inch flexed forearm and 17-inch flexed upper arm all at a 210-pound bodyweight.
You may not realize this but Jack Johnson also was a performing strongman after his boxing days were over and one of his favorite feats was the human chain.
Labels: Boxing, Human Link, Jack Johnson, Medicine Ball Training
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Friday, February 01, 2008
Jack Johnson, Throwin' The Medicine Ball AroundMedicine Ball exercises have been part of the training programs of oldtime boxers and wrestlers for well over a century because they provide a great workout and build strength in a way that no other piece of equipment can match.
Here's the famous Heavyweight boxing champ Jack Johnson throwin' a medicine ball around a Chicago courtyard circa 1910, in his training to defend the Heavyweight title against Jim Jeffries.
That's a powerful looking man -- Do you think he's getting a workout for the all-important waist muscles? You sure wouldn't want to be on the business end of one of his punches.
Labels: Boxing, Boxing Workout, Jack Johnson, Medicine Ball Training, Oldtime Boxers, Physical Culture Equipment
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Tuesday, January 15, 2008
James J. Corbett's Indian ClubsIndian Clubs used to be very popular with turn-of-the-century boxers because they will build strong and well-conditioned shoulders.
This pair of indian clubs once belonged to the great Heavyweight Boxing Champion James J. Corbett who used them in his training circa 1895 (he held the championship belt from 1892 to 1897.) You can make out his name written in black ink on the left-most club.
Corbett certainly looks like he trained.
These clubs are 17 inches long which means they weigh around a pound each. They also once were on display in "The Ring" Boxing Museum.
Labels: Boxing, Indian Clubs, James J. Corbett, Shoulder Exercise
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Sunday, November 04, 2007
The Richard K. Fox Heavyweight Strongman Championship Belt Warren Lincoln Travis, wearing his Championship Belt | Richard K. Fox was the publisher of "The Police Gazette" a 19th century magazine which reported on boxing, wrestling and feats of strength that might interest the public. It was Richard K. Fox who introduced the idea of the "Championship Belt" to the United States -- bestowing "The Police Gazette" championship belt to Jake Kilrain (and won shortly afterwards by John L. Sullivan in a greuling 75-round bare knuckle match.) The idea was simple -- whomever wanted the belt had to win it in a challenge match. Richard K. Fox also created a similar belt for the "Heavyweight Strongman Champion" of the world, with the first "title holder" being Louis Cyr whom Fox had managed on several tours of England. |
The Richard K. Fox Heavyweight Strongman Championship Belt now resides at the York Barbell Company Hall of Fame in York, Pennsylvania.
Labels: Boxing, Challenge Weight, Feat, Louis Cyr, The Police Gazette, Warren Lincoln Travis, York Barbell Hall of Fame
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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
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