Boxing/ MT and Mass

Okay guy, I’m in a bit of a predicament. In the past 4 months I’ve bulked up from 175 to 210 (with a slightly higher bf% of course) and enjoyed some great gains in both strength and size in the places I needed them most (bicep stretch marks kick ass.) However, I’ve wanted to go back to training Boxing and Muay Thai (I left to wrestle in my senior year of HS.)

My mission since starting to lift weights at 150 lbs. was to get some serious mass on me. I didn’t exactly want bodybuilder-esque size, and still don’t. Nothing against bodybuilders, I have great respect for them, but at 6’1 and 155, I just wanted to not be a twig.

Nowadays I’m not so skinny (to most people) and, with my newfound mass, figure that boxing and MT would be a bit more fun now. I had a great fucking time training with some AWESOME coaches and still regret my decision to wrestle (how did my friend convince me?)

Anyways, I still want to gain some mass, but mostly for aesthetic reasons: mostly shoulders, biceps, upper chest, and a little quad and neck size. Otherwise I’m pretty happy with my look. I prefer not to think in terms of poundage but aesthetically assess the whole body.

I’ll go ahead and ask my question now: Do you guys think I can pull it off? How successful have you guys been in gaining weight while training Boxing/MT/BJJ/MMA?

I’ve been through some hard wrestling and boxing workouts but wasn’t trying to gain weight then, so I don’t have too much experience there. I figure on practicing 3-4 times a week, but no matter how many times a week I practice, I’m gonna gas so hard…I’ll keep a trash can on hand though…should be fun :slight_smile:

[quote]alownage wrote:
Anyways, I still want to gain some mass, but mostly for aesthetic reasons: mostly shoulders, biceps, upper chest, and a little quad and neck size. [/quote]

you need to train your entire body or you will suffer imbalances in your back strength vs chest strength, which will affect your MMA or w/e.

If you’re trying to gain this size NOT for performance reasons then its a little easier on your exercise selection.

I’d still reccomend the usual suspects. but if you’re not that serious about boxing and thaiboxing then you wouldn’t mind not doing that like 5-6 days week i’m guessing :-p

Really your weightroom habits have to be pretty good in order to get you from 155 to 210, so basically continue doing what works for you but start back into it really slowly as you adjust to the workload of boxing and muay thai.

I’d say start at lifting twice a week, bump it up to three, then you can move to your body part split (if thats what you prefer) as your work capacity improves. obviously change shit up every now and then there’s plenty of programs on T-Nation that i’m sure you’re aware of. Since this isn’t exactly for performance enhancement you don’t have to be as picky choosy to balance fatigue/performance.

The most important thing is going to be your diet. You eat up a shitload of calories doing combat sports so you’re going to need to be on a ridiculous surplus of calories if you mean to gain some real size.

Advantage being you won’t gain much fat with all the extra energy work (boxing/thai) especially if it’s fairly healthy food (and you have a propensity to be small anyway).

You know to get a surplus on the days that you lift, but on the days that you’re boxing you might want to get another 500-800 calories above what you’re normally getting on a lifting day…

Best of luck and have fun with it, you won’t regret the wrestling, it’ll come in handy just watch.

-XN

[quote]Xen Nova wrote:
If you’re trying to gain this size NOT for performance reasons then its a little easier on your exercise selection.

I’d still reccomend the usual suspects. but if you’re not that serious about boxing and thaiboxing then you wouldn’t mind not doing that like 5-6 days week i’m guessing :-p

Really your weightroom habits have to be pretty good in order to get you from 155 to 210, so basically continue doing what works for you but start back into it really slowly as you adjust to the workload of boxing and muay thai.

I’d say start at lifting twice a week, bump it up to three, then you can move to your body part split (if thats what you prefer) as your work capacity improves. obviously change shit up every now and then there’s plenty of programs on T-Nation that i’m sure you’re aware of. Since this isn’t exactly for performance enhancement you don’t have to be as picky choosy to balance fatigue/performance.

The most important thing is going to be your diet. You eat up a shitload of calories doing combat sports so you’re going to need to be on a ridiculous surplus of calories if you mean to gain some real size.

Advantage being you won’t gain much fat with all the extra energy work (boxing/thai) especially if it’s fairly healthy food (and you have a propensity to be small anyway).

You know to get a surplus on the days that you lift, but on the days that you’re boxing you might want to get another 500-800 calories above what you’re normally getting on a lifting day…

Best of luck and have fun with it, you won’t regret the wrestling, it’ll come in handy just watch.

-XN[/quote]

Awesome response. Thanks man.

Based on the thread title, I thought you were going to be looking for a boxing or thai boxing gym in Massachusetts. In which case I was going to recommend Sityodtong in boston.

But to answer your question, when I was last seriously involved in boxing and thai boxing the only weight I lost was body fat. Yeah my strength gains slowed, but did not stop, and my abs looked incredible after about 8 weeks of training.

[quote]Rah-Knee wrote:
In which case I was going to recommend Sityodtong in boston.

[/quote]

Do you train there?
my friend doug is the s&c guy for kenny florian, i believe they did some training at that gym.

I might be out that way in march i was planning on visiting the gym.

[quote]Rah-Knee wrote:
Based on the thread title, I thought you were going to be looking for a boxing or thai boxing gym in Massachusetts. In which case I was going to recommend Sityodtong in boston.

But to answer your question, when I was last seriously involved in boxing and thai boxing the only weight I lost was body fat. Yeah my strength gains slowed, but did not stop, and my abs looked incredible after about 8 weeks of training.[/quote]

Awesome. That’s actually really reassuring.

No, I don’t live in Massachussetts, but I will be moving out to Maryland next fall (Silver Spring, outside of Baltimore.) There’s only one club that’s really any good in my area (Peoria Athletic Club) and there’s some good coaches there. A couple pro boxers and kickboxers train there as well and it was always cool to see them train. I really don’t have any idea of clubs to train at once I’m out in Maryland but I’m sure there’s a few in Baltimore worth checking out.

In my experience, it was hard to hold on to bodyweight, let alone gain, during intense kickboxing training. Then again, I wasn’t focusing on caloric intake either. I would usually do a very brief, 2 day compound workout such as dips and deads on day 1 and squats, clean and press and chinups on day 2. I always felt stronger than my opponents in the ring and I’m certain the weights helped with that. Good luck and remember to shovel in the food!

Eat at every avalible time. If you go to school, eat during your boring classes, in addition to all the standard feeting times. Make perpetual feeding your way of life and your almost guaranteed to gain mass.

I never trained there myself but they have a great reputation among almost everyone I know that has been involved in thai boxing for very long.