Tysons workout regime pre-1988

[Boondocksaint]

What a thread, from Tyson to Bruce Lee to Ben Johnson

Well might as well my 2 cents...

Mike Tyson was in the truest sense of the word a boxing prodigy. At 13 he was over 200 lbs with sub 10% bodyfat. He could have lifted nothing but pillows for his entire life and he still would be built like a shit brick house. One of the main problems with Mike is that around 88-89 he stopped doing most of the cardio work and started to just rely on his power.

Bruce Lee was born in the US. San Francisco to be exact. In fact his name in Chinese (Lee Jun-Fan means "Invigorate San Francisco", the nurses at the hospital where he was born gave him the name Bruce.

Ben Johnson was indeed framed. The IOC and everyone else knew he was juicing, but so were over 90% of the track and field athletes in Barcelona. Like Rjkd said, he didn't take what he tested positive for though.

Oh yeah, Rickson by armbar.....

bada-bing!!!!!

 

[BoxingFanNoMore]

But Didnt he fail the test/epitest requiremnt though? Or was this not an official requirement at the time?

Because I remember something about his natural testosterone pruduction was something like only 15% of normal levels.


Also, I always wondered if the masking techniques he used might of had something to do with the unmetabolized stanozolol in his urine. Because didnt his doctor prescribe corticosteroids to him, but he also used diuretics too.

 

[nudge119]

barcelona? huh? no one can tell for sure what happened in 1988, though its obvious that the test is bogus. like mentioned before, its impossible for pure stanzonol to be found in urine. not only that, but mr. francis has been very exact about his drugs protocols, they did not even use stanzonol. it since come to light that 6 out of the 8 finalists in seoul tested positive for a banned substance at some point in their career, including carl lewis and linford christie.

my bad - the case in question happened at the 88 games in seoul not 92 in barcelona, the point is though that the sport of track and field has one of the highest percentage of athletes using steroids, probably right behind bodybuilding and powerlifting....

 

[MunchE]

Really interesting stuff, thanks for the post. It's always nice to get insight into how some top athletes train.

I've noticed a common thread that a lot of top athletes in fighting don't do a lot of weight training. I wish we could find out more about Fedor's daily routine!

 

[cockysprinter]

my bad - the case in question happened at the 88 games in seoul not 92 in barcelona, the point is though that the sport of track and field has one of the highest percentage of athletes using steroids, probably right behind bodybuilding and powerlifting....

in the 70s and 80s it did, not today.

also, i think ben wasnt pinned for the stanzonol now that im thinking. at the time they had a test to determine test levels compared to another chemical, and if test was at an abnormally high level it was determined that an athlete was dirty. this was a new test back then, but its common now. this is cuz there no real way to tell if an athlete has been taking GH or real test, but the body produces certain chemicals in a certain ratio, including test.

 

[FIGHT FAN]

Really interesting stuff, thanks for the post. It's always nice to get insight into how some top athletes train.

I've noticed a common thread that a lot of top athletes in fighting don't do a lot of weight training. I wish we could find out more about Fedor's daily routine!

id be intrested in that myself,im wondering where the dude gets all his strength from, they say power comes from your legs especially for takedown/grappling purposes but fedor doesent even have huge legs, especially compared to his upper body. punching power is also intresting because some guys that arent neccesarily all that muscular or powerful looking pack some serious dynamite such as tito trinidad or thomas "hitman" hearns, corey sanders etc..

 

[Henry Swanson]

id be intrested in that myself,im wondering where the dude gets all his strength from, they say power comes from your legs especially for takedown/grappling purposes but fedor doesent even have huge legs, especially compared to his upper body. punching power is also intresting because some guys that arent neccesarily all that muscular or powerful looking pack some serious dynamite such as tito trinidad or thomas "hitman" hearns, corey sanders etc..

That's because strength and power has little to do with muscularity!!

 

[Rjkd12]

in the 70s and 80s it did, not today.

also, i think ben wasnt pinned for the stanzonol now that im thinking. at the time they had a test to determine test levels compared to another chemical, and if test was at an abnormally high level it was determined that an athlete was dirty. this was a new test back then, but its common now. this is cuz there no real way to tell if an athlete has been taking GH or real test, but the body produces certain chemicals in a certain ratio, including test.

I think you are talking about a testosterone/estrogen test. This was popular because, like you said, before they couldn't test for exact amounts, so a ratio was used. That was easily beaten by athletes who would stack testosterone and estrogen to keep the levels similar and just have larger absolute numbers.

Ben did get in trouble for stanzanol, I'm positive. Also, with masking agents that wouldn't have made a difference beacuse back then he didn't mask them, they just stopped taking them prior to the games. He didn't even like winstrol that much and would only take it once a week or something. He didn't take it for like double the clearing time because he didn't want to risk it at all. His coach said for sure he was clean for it. He was taking other things at the time though, but those also should have been out of his system. Seriously, if anybody is interested, get the book, its a great read.

 

[a statistic]

What a thread, from Tyson to Bruce Lee to Ben Johnson

He could have lifted nothing but pillows for his entire life and he still would be built like a shit brick house. QUOTE]


i think you mean, "brick shithouse," but good post regardless.

 

[911=GovntOp]

Steve Lott says that Cus told Rooney just before he died: "all the works been done, just keep him busy". Lott says that Cus spent five years working closely with Mike at developing technique more than anything before backing off and watching over Rooney with him in 1985. So Cus learned him the D'Amato style to a tee by 1984, and ordered Rooney to just keep him busy just before he died (after a year looking over Rooney to make sure they were a secure team and on the right path).

Here's how Lott describes how Mike trained in his prime:
"Mike would run early, perhaps 4 AM or 5 AM. Then head to the gym at noon. This would be the same routine whether the fight was in Las Vegas or Atlantic City. Kevin would modify the amount of sparring depending on the days remaining before the event. If I remember correctly the most he ever sparred in any session was 10 rounds. The one thing that Kevin and Mike did in training that I rarely see is the ferocity of the sparring. Each round of sparring was expected to be a real fight.

And the sparring partners were superb. Among them were Jesse Ferguson, Oliver McCall, and Mike Williams. We taped much of the sparring for review later on in the day and looking at this sparring now many of these rounds were better than 95% of the heavyweight championship fights in the past 15 years.

At night Mike would relax or sometimes head to the health club to ride a stationary bike for an hour or so."



Kevin Rooney quote on sparring:
"About two or three days before the fight I would have him do 15 or 16 rounds with two or three different sparring partners just so that he knew he could definately go the full 12 rounds. I'm old-school, I believe in hard work."

Kevin Rooney quote on shadowboxing:
"Cus had a problem when fighters only approached shadowboxing as a warming-up exercise, which was literally all of 'em! What they do is - they simply go through the motions, f*** around doing f*** all, stab at the air, before moving onto the so-called real workout on the bags. But once you are in the ring, you will be confronted by different opponents who will use different styles and techniques. If you've already seen this guy, played these situations out and predicted your reactions as you shadowboxed, that puts you one step and one punch ahead of your opponent. Think in terms of combination punching - it's how big, heavy guys like Floyd Patterson and Mike Tyson got their hands moving quick as f*** and their combinations flowing like f*** - without the resistance of a bag or the impact of hitting an opponent to affect your punches, it's shadowboxing that is the time to concentrate on the importance of throwing more than one shot at a time. Taking this approach will create a good habit of punching in combinations. It will also help you to become more fluid in your delivery and create better balance between your footwork and hand activity. Do not throw a meaningless punch, without an opponent to fend off or a bag to react to, you have the time and clear thinking to concentrate on the punches you throw. Throwing a lazy jab or a slapping right hand out doesn't help you in the ring, so do not do it in training."

Kevin Rooney on weight-training:
"Mike never touched weights when he was with me, he didn't need them. If he was on the weights then he'd of been much slower than he was, you don't have faster hands than Muhammad Ali when your on the weights."

Kevin Rooney quote on heavybag:
"Mike's punching power was developed through hitting heavier bags over time, we had him on a 350lb bag just before hewas about to turn pro in the fall of 84' but he injured his hand after a few weeks so we didn't use that again."

Kevin Rooney quote on food:
"He lived off steak and chicken, it was damn expensive to keep him fed. Mike's favourite food was Captain Crunch and I used to let him eat it by the box load to fill him up."

 

[SinCollector]

I find this all interesting in a trivia/sports fan kind of way but does this strike anybody else as a perfect example of why the rules of the forum say not to ask about the training of a specific fighter?

Just on the in-case . . . that someone is thinking this is good training advice:

YOU'RE NOT MIKE TYSON!!! MIKE TYSON ISN'T EVEN MIKE TYSON ANYMORE!!! DO NOT TRY TO TRAIN LIKE THIS!

-Sin

 

[bacon]

It's hard to read this old thread....what with all the dust and all...

 

[Devil's_Advocate]

Seems like Tyson became great despite having crappy lifting program...just like many other athletes....which IMO just shows the impact of genetics...

interesting thread

 

[MDR-V6]

Not sure if he really did or not, but this sounds like Winstrol (stanozolol). Winstrol makes you strong as hell but without really volumizing your muscles.

Wolverine
///

Winstrol doesn't really make you 'strong as hell' compared to other steroids. Winny is more of a cutting, physique steroid that does have the major benefit of enhanced recovery, but not to the extent of something like a trenbolone, or even gnarlier, halotestin. Halo is big in combat sports, and is excellent for increasing strength gains without gaining weight. Its used primarily by weight-class restricted athletes, so its possible, though Tyson didn't have issues with cutting weight I believe.

Anyway, probably not winstrol we're talking about here if you're referring to big strength gains.