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.
Typically a fighters training camp will run 4-6 weeks of brutally intense training. If a fighter shows up in camp in pretty bad shape the training means to get him in great shape can often leave him over trained just barely surviving the training camp. 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 line of action is check weight if the fighter is still heavy. 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 best solution is to monitor the fighters readiness before training intensely. 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. It is ridiculous for fighters to show up to the fight fatigued by barely surviving their training camp. Implementing recovery methods will ensure 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.
By gaging the training intensity of the fighter you allow the fighter to recover better and not peak to early for the fight. It is far better to rest for a day or two and decrease the intensity of the training then to peak 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?
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