Rocky, Million Dollar Baby, Cinderella Man, Ali, and Diggstown (which surprisingly is my favorite boxing film) all have at least one thing in common: the prerequisite training montage. I’m sure Marky Mark’s upcoming portrayal of Irish Micky Ward in ”The Fighter” will be sure to follow suit as well.

And with shows like HBO’s 24/7 and Spike’s Primetime/Countdown series there’s no doubt that people are enamored by their favorite star’s training rituals, well, that and the story behind it all.

To me there’s nothing more interesting than to go behind the scenes and see how an elite athlete fine-tune’s their craft.

Now I don’t know about ”elite athlete” or anything, but that was my attempt at a segue into my own training montage/regimen/rituals.

I’ll go over what it is that I do during the week to prepare for my future first pro bout. Before I do that though I’ll give you a little more background info on how I got to this point.

Laying the Foundation

In truth, I feel like the foundation is already there. If anybody without an amateur background has spent more time developing their skills for no reason I’d be surprised.

I started training myself initially in boxing when I was 22 and eventually moved into a lot of MMA and grappling.

My hope was always to compete, but I didn’t know when, or how, or even if I’d be comfortable when that opportunity arose. So that’s why I say I was training for no reason—because there really wasn’t one. There was no specific goal other than to get better.

When Krishna (my new boxing coach) got his first look at me I think he thought that what he was seeing was natural talent. Which is a logical assumption based on the information he had.

I’ve never fought and no coach developed me.

But it took a shit ton of work to look like I had ”natural talent”. I sucked for a long time before I figured things out.

The same goes for my physique. I ”look” like an athlete, but that’s not because I was an athlete to begin with. I’m sure many a friend of mine could tell you that.

It’s come from years of strength & conditioning and proper nutrition.

My foundation has been built with nothing more than a work ethic. The only thing that comes naturally to me is coordination. Perhaps I’m discounting that more than I should, but I still think a majority of my improvement has come simply from determination.

I won’t stop working at something until I get it right.

”Amateurs practice til they get it right. Professionals practice til they can’t do it wrong.”
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Now I’m working on the second part.

The Training Regimen

I would love to be able to train for a living. Just fight, that’s it. But I can’t right now. Financially it’s just not possible.

It’s not the perfect environment to improve under. It is what it is though, and I have to deal with that. I imagine many a fighter has dealt with the same circumstances so I’m not going to bitch about it.

As of right now I’m only getting to head down to train with my coaches once a week. We all have financial and temporal restraints that keep us from doing more. But it’s a start and I’m thankful for that.

Since I’m only with them briefly I have my own training regimen throughout the rest of the week.

It’s not like I’m not used to this already and have no direction. I’ve gone coachless for years and done alright for myself.

So what do I do?

First of all I do get to work a little bit with our students. Every Monday, Wednesday, & Saturday I attend my own classes to help teach and train.

We’ve steadily had about 5 to 10 guys showing up for my partner and I’s MMA classes in the past 2 years. But since it’s MMA, a lot of the focus is on grappling—that, and I’m helping teach it so I don’t get a whole lot of work on my boxing.

Just the same…it’s better than nothing.

About six weeks ago I started back with my resistance training every afternoon Mon-Fri, and my strength/endurance has shot up tremendously. To be honest with you though it’s really tailored more for ”beach muscle” as opposed to functional muscle. Nevertheless, it’s helped. When I have a specific date for my fight I’ll transition to a more sport-specific routine.

The diet started right along with the the resistance training. And I would say that this is the part that most people fuck up. The casual exercisers all the way up to the professional level athletes. You’d be surprised at some of the crazy misconceptions I hear about nutrition. They range from mild ignorance to the downright delusional.

Mostly it’s just because nobody’s ever told them how to do it correctly.

Spending a lot a years bodybuilding (once again for no reason…other than vanity) I’ve learned there is a definitive science to fueling your body.

You get to the point where you’re no longer eating for taste—you’re eating for performance.

In the last week since starting on the road to my first professional fight I’ve added back in the cardiovascular training and the skill work.

Perhaps the two most important parts.

For the time being I’m just doing intervals for the cardio. Taxing the body hard by sprinting on the field or on the stationary bike for set periods of time followed by rest…rinse and repeat.

I’ll add in the more tedious longer runs…or road work as they call it when I know a specific date for the fight.

As for the skill work—it’s going to change everyday depending on what I think I need work on.

Some days I’m going to spend time on the heavy bag (or in the laboratory as I like to call it), and other days I’ll spend my time working on the focus mitts. My friend Shannon helps me out with that—despite only doing it for a short time she’s the best mitt holder I’ve ever had.

Hopefully as I progress I’ll be spending more and more time with my coachs and getting a lot of quality sparring in.

That’s about it. I’ll keep you updated when I change something or add in anything new.

Let me know if any of you want a more detailed post about nutrition, S & C workouts, or boxing drills.

I’m off to Charlotte for my second training session with my new coaches. I’ll post about that tomorrow.