Thanks dude.
Not yet. I have Doug Hepburn’s “Strongman” though. It’s Doug Hepburn’s biography.
You’ll like it. Pretty much everything in the Ironmind library is solid.
I appreciate this response. Just to clarify: I have no issue with anything you’re doing with your life, and even if I did, it doesn’t matter what i think. I’m simply trying to advise you that in my experience (because I’m silly and i make lots of mistakes), spending any appreciable time thinking about future goals (like boxing) is silly. Focus on the goals you have now and commit to them. Hit your goal squat numbers, graduate college, achieve whatever it is you’re looking to do in the other 2 areas of your life, and forget about boxing for now. Boxing ain’t going anywhere.
You talk a lot about the people you admire, so I’ll share one of my own with you. You may or may not have heard of a guy called Bruce Dickinson who has a list of achievements so long, I’m pretty much guaranteed to miss some:
- International fencer
- Vocalist of one of the most successful bands of all time (and successful (ish) solo artist)
- Full time commercial air line pilot
- Best selling author
- Film producer
- TV/radio presenter
- Beer brewer
- Owner and operator of a multi million pound aviation company
- Cancer survivor
He’s pretty awesome, in other words. One of the reasons he’s been able to achieve all of these things is that he commits to a small number of things at any one time and focuses on those things, not the next thing or the last thing.
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I have the Bulgarians DVD and the Szymon Kolecki DVD from them. It’s inspiring to watch them train.
The Bulgarian weightlifters had a cheap gym. lol. They didn’t even have a bench. But look at what they accomplished…
Your advice is duly noted. Thanks.
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Monday, November 9, 2020…
Squat PR. 3 sets of 3 reps with 355 pounds. Did a fourth set of 365 in which I failed at the third rep, which surprised me because the first two reps of it felt easy as heck.
Light clean-pulls…
Light overhead presses…
Lat pulldowns for 5 sets, aiming for 8 reps each set but failing a few times…
Seated cable rows for 5 sets, aiming for 8 reps each set but failing a few times…
That’s it.
Yo Vision1, I haven’t addressed you yet. I will now. So anyway…
As for the cardio being good for my work capacity for heavy sets, I don’t think it works like that, dude. At the peak of my cardio fitness when I was still kicking butt on the stairmaster, I get gassed at 5 sets of 8 reps on clean-pulls. It’s just a different kind of conditioning, I think. Something about energy systems… But yeah, I get gassed at that rep range even though I was at my best with my aerobic fitness.
It absolutely and unequivocally does.
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Aside from my own experience, I also heard from people that some marathon runners can’t last much on pad work when they box.
So… How can you debate against that? lol. Like I said, at the peak of my aerobic fitness, I was gassing out at 5 sets of 8 on clean-pulls.
Your peak was maybe not very high.
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I don’t mean any offense but I don’t think you have enough experience to say what has or has not worked for yourself.
Even at your peak aerobic fitness, I would guess you were still significantly out of shape based on your current body weight and training regime.
A marathon runner would recover between sets of squats much faster than someone who is completely out of shape. Pad work requires a significant amount of muscle endurance in your shoulders, something a marathon runner would not possess.
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I have no need to: I am not the one struggling to meet my goals.
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But everyone struggles to meet their goals, to be fair. Everyone STRUGGLES.
LOL.
Fair enough.
The only gauge I have is that at my peak, I was significantly better conditioned than when I started. But yeah, fair enough.
Untrue. This self-delusion will hold you back from achieving your goals.
You need to empty your cup my dude.
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I don’t think you got my point. My point was that everyone experiences struggle in the process of reaching their goals, because hard work is necessary. I didn’t mean people won’t achieve their goals. I just meant that reaching goals involve some degree of discomfort.
I can’t comprehend how it’s possible not to “struggle” when reaching for a goal. Hard work is necessary, and hard work is part of the “struggle”.
I know.
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I can’t speak to boxing, but I’ve done a few years of Muay Thai and I don’t think heavy squats with high reps are a very appropriate preparation for this kind of thing. By all means squat now while the boxing gym is closed, but I just think an hour into your first lesson you’ll be seriously reconsidering what you want to do - either building your squat up or taking boxing seriously, because you won’t be able to do both. You may be strong and fit coming into it, but if you’ve never done a combat sport before I guarantee you’ll be humbled in your first session, and probably for the first few weeks/months until you adapt to it. I’ve seen a lot of strong, confident looking guys come to their first class and they’re gassed 15 minutes into the warm up, before the technique training even starts.
I don’t want to discourage you, I just think you should first try a session and then narrow down your focus to what exactly you want to do. There may be genetic freaks at elite levels who have everything - excellent physiques, strength, endurance, timing and speed, but they’re the exception, not the rule. Most of the competitive MT fighters that I know are built like stick insects, run 5-10km a day and drill technique/spar for hours. They don’t know or give a shit about their squat 1RM.
Hi Iron. Thanks for posting here…
Believe me when I tell you are not the first person to tell me all this stuff. I’ve been warned several times about it in other places, and was deeply encouraged to approach boxing with a beginner’s mind instead of being “one of those guys” who think they’re awesome because of muscles.
I’m expecting to suck. Of that I am prepared. What I’m truly scared of is the pain of getting hit when my first hard sparring session happens. I boxed when I was in first year high school 16 years ago. I got hit hard in the face for the first time in my life. It was terrifying. And now… I’m gonna be dealing with people who have been training for years. It’s even scarier…