Ryan Garcia can barely bench a plate

[hswrestler]

I have serious questions about how much effort he puts into strength conditioning. Benching a plate should be something pretty basic for every serious athlete.

 

[Ezekiel 25:17]

I have serious questions about how much effort he puts into strength conditioning. Benching a plate should be something pretty basic for every serious athlete.

Does it matter that much though?

For one, hes not a heavier weight boxer. Hes probably pushing just a tad under his body weight, which is fine. Two, its probably more benificial for him to do lighter weights at higher repetitions to keep his endurance up.
Three, im willing to bet he can punch harder and more effectively then the juice monkey training him.

 

[WklySportsMemes]

There have been many world champs who claim to have never touched plates & or a bench bar.
Many boxers are against lifting weights for a variety of reasons. Like mobility, flexibility, mass, & speed.
Not saying what's true or not, just that benching is normally not any indication of any boxers' ability or fight conditioning or even fight strength.

There is an opposite school of thought on this too ofcourse.

 

[mozfonky]

I've never been able to bench much but I haven't seen guys who could bench 500 who could punch as hard. It's a wierd sport, like Arthur Mercante said, full of guys with huge muscle who can't punch and skinny guys who can knock you dead.

It's a sport where they go by weights so strength isn't a huge factor. He might get thrown around if he goes into a bar and gets grabbed though. It's just never been the main factor in boxing so it doesn't surprise me, especially if you never work with weights. Joe Frazier could barely military 160 on the sports superstar show and all the other athletes made him look bad, put those guys in a ring with Joe and see how strong they were though.

Edit, here's joe losing to some skinny pole vaulter, later, there would be nfl players lifting 300 and more like it was nothing, again, they would be running from joe in a boxing ring. Also, Joe had a bum elbow from a farming accident so he couldn't lock out his left arm but as can be seen, he couldn't really control the weight either:

 

[Zarathustra611]

Benching a plate= strength.

Clap push ups= power

Only one of those is really useful for a boxer.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

He's an IG model, weighs a buck fifty, and boxers in general aren't big on weight lifting (with free weights). This isn't complicated.

 

[Mr2urbo]

Some boxer and trainers are against heavy lifting, I know Emanuel Steward frowned upon weights, he felt it makes a fighter carry extra weight and stiffens movement, then you have a guy like Beterbiev who can bench press 300 lbs and doesnt slow him down a bit, Shane Mosley in his prime was bench pressing 300 lbs as well, in Garcias case? He’s already got a stiff stance, my guess is he doesnt benefit from heavy lifting.

 

[jm0b]

Benching a plate= strength.

Clap push ups= power

Only one of those is really useful for a boxer.

Erm not true at all. Yno strength is a vital part of power right?

Although the words are commonly misunderstood or misused, or both.

I guarantee if you consistently train bench and get it up towards or exceeding of your bodyweight for reps, at any speed of rep (aka how much "power"), it would have a positive influence on both the amount and quality of clapping pushups you could do.

That's like saying squatting has no bearing on jumping.

 

[purpleheart]

Meanwhile tank benches 200lbs and looks like a walking fridge.

 

[Blazeblack]

Erm not true at all. Yno strength is a vital part of power right?

Although the words are commonly misunderstood or misused, or both.

I guarantee if you consistently train bench and get it up towards or exceeding of your bodyweight for reps, at any speed of rep (aka how much "power"), it would have a positive influence on both the amount and quality of clapping pushups you could do.

That's like saying squatting has no bearing on jumping.

Heavy weight training doesn't necessarily translate to functional strength. Your muscles, tendons and joints need have strength, flexibility and endurance to be useful in a competive sport.

For punching power strength is an obvious boon, but too much stiff, bulky muscle restricts your range of motion.a a Truely devastating puche comes from a combination of effective weight transference, raw strength, speed, timing, explosiveness, and accuracy.

There have been alot of really strong, heavy handed guys that can't stop anyone who isn't a club fighter because they either don't have the speed, timing or accuracy.

 

[jm0b]

Heavy weight training doesn't necessarily translate to functional strength. Your muscles, tendons and joints need have strength, flexibility and endurance to be useful in a competive sport.

For punching power strength is an obvious boon, but too much stiff, bulky muscle restricts your range of motion.a a Truely devastating puche comes from a combination of effective weight transference, raw strength, speed, timing, explosiveness, and accuracy.

There have been alot of really strong, heavy handed guys that can't stop anyone who isn't a club fighter because they either don't have the speed, timing or accuracy.

Strength improves power. You will hit harder and faster by getting stronger.

Of course you don't need or want to be doing power lifter numbers when you're in a cardio based sport, but any athlete neglecting the big 3 compound movements would see improvements in how hard they could hit or how fast they could move after consistent training at them.

It's why the majority of high level boxers do S&C with progressive overload and big compound movements now. As well as a load of specific programmed movements.

Now please don't quote me with genetic freaks who didn't use S&C training and also had a 50% plus KO rating, because obviously there is more to KOs or even punch power than what you can deadlift, or whether you can do 100 clapping pushups in a row while reciting Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven".

Never more.

 

[Tuvatuva]

Some of the hardest punchers in boxing could barely lift. So what he can't bench? You can probably put bench him but he'll still put you to sleep with a left hook.

 

[Belaya Smert]

Bench press isn’t the end all be all of strength or athletic measurement. Having said that 135 is an acceptable bench if you are 13 years old.

 

[hswrestler]

Some of the hardest punchers in boxing could barely lift. So what he can't bench? You can probably put bench him but he'll still put you to sleep with a left hook.

Strength improves power, I'm not saying I will beat him, but he will improve his power if he had an actual bench routine.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

Strength improves power, I'm not saying I will beat him, but he will improve his power if he had an actual bench routine.

There are better ways to increase power. For example, by improving your actual punching technique. A bench routine isn't necessary. Ryan already has legit one-shot power. He's previously demonstrated it on multiple occasions with his left hook. There's really no need to try and fix something that isn't broken.

 

[Tuvatuva]

Strength improves power, I'm not saying I will beat him, but he will improve his power if he had an actual bench routine.

I don't think you understand punching mechanics if you think benching improves punching power. They are totally different movements. Benching is pushing. If you're pushing while punching, you're punching wrong and you won't get much power.

If any strength exercise improves power, it would be from more dynamic, explosive movements like the clean & jerk, box jumps, throwing medicine balls, etc. Movements that actually involve power. Compound movements that could possibly help would actually be squats and pulling exercises, since you're supposed to drive with your feet, hips, and rotate your upper body using your core while keeping your arm loose like a whip. Benching would have the least carry over.

I don't think there's any studies and data that clearly show that strength exercises improve punching power. Take a bunch of boxers, don't let them change anything in their routine except for adding a bench routine, and my money is that there will be almost no difference in their punching power before the experiment. Some might benefit from the extra strength while it may actually be detrimental for some since it takes energy and time away from other things they can practice.

If you look at available data from hardest punchers in history and boxers who lift weights (especially the bench), I doubt you'll see any correlation. AJ was powerlifting at some point and it didn't seem to help him. Many monstrous punchers didn't lift. I don't know anyone personally who hits hard because they bench a lot. This is anecdotal but the biggest bencher in my old boxing gym was an amateur who was in the 170s and benched quite a bit (I remember seeing him doing +200lbs for reps right after he was done with his boxing routine) but even when we sparred hard, he didn't punch nearly as hard as the pro who competed at 140 and 140er barely ever touched weights. The 170lb guy never really hurt me in sparring but the 140lb (probably walked around 155) guy dropped me regularly.

And even if benching helped, power isn't what Garcia should be working on. There's a plethora of other things he should be working on during the time he can be benching. He didn't lose to Tank because he didn't have enough power.

 

[Captain Insano]

Yea let's get him hanging out with AJ stat!

 

[MotorCityCobra]

Yeah he is surprisingly weak. And obviously if he was bigger and stronger he would hit harder but a large part of adaptation to weight lifting takes form in larger muscles / becoming heavier.

I've seen it in golf (industry I work in) guys go from benching 95 lbs(as true newcomers to weightlifting to 200+ lbs over their first year of training, squat from 135 to 300 etc and their swing speed goes up maybe 5% even though their applied strength doubled.

I feel like in boxing it is more for durability than anything. And whatever the guy said earlier about pushups is true. I was as thin as Garcia and always struggled to do legitimate pullups or pushups even even though I could dunk a basketball and was relatively strong (athletically) after just a few months of lifting weights I could do 10 pull ups and 40-60 pushups but I also put about 20 lbs on my frame.

I'm sure if he lifted weights he would get strong quickly, but he may add too much size and be too big for weight in boxing where he is most effective. The ides that weightlifting makes you stiff and u flexible is very far from the truth.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

The bench press is much more common in MMA S&C routines than it is in boxing. Yet, you would never know it if it really increased punching power significantly. The average boxer hits a lot harder than the average MMA fighter. Why? As I said earlier, it has to do with sound punching technique. I've noticed that with the majority of MMA fighters they have a kink somewhere along the kinetic chain. Even if they can generate a ton of power by the time it reaches the end of the chain, being their fist, much of that power has been lost. They can't efficiently deliver it the way a boxer can. Ryan would be far better served working on his boxing fundamentals specifically his defense. Leave the bench pressing to the competitive body builders, power lifters, and strongmen.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

The bench press is much more common in MMA S&C routines than it is in boxing. Yet, you would never know it if it really increased punching power significantly. The average boxer hits a lot harder than the average MMA fighter. Why? As I said earlier, it has to do with sound punching technique. I've noticed that with the majority of MMA fighters they have a kink somewhere along the kinetic chain. Even if they can generate a ton of power by the time it reaches the end of the chain, being their fist, much of that power has been lost. They can't efficiently deliver it the way a boxer can. Ryan would be far better served working on his boxing fundamentals specifically his defense. Leave the bench pressing to the competitive body builders, power lifters, and strongmen.

I agree intuitively with that. I feel like grappling strength / weightlifting strength is detrimental to the loseness you need in your upper body to punch well.

They say weightlifting is not detrimental to mobility even if these guys look stiff AF. Obviously it s true as they guys are extremely mobile and flexible and explosive. But they are all that while loaded with hundreds of kilos that they need to move.

I doubt that weightlifters can be good punchers because they don t have that loseness in the shoulders and torso.