Need Athletic/Weights/Nutrition Advice

My story,
i havnt posted for a while as i have gone from baseball, lifting very regularly to boxing.
i started boxing 5 months ago, at 87kg probably around 15-17%bf.
after training for 2months 3x/week of intense boxing i dropped to 80kg.

i then went into “amateur boxing” (i want to compete) and have been training for 3 months 5-6x/week - 1hr per session. last week i started to run after training (run average pace for 5-6km in half an hour on monday and friday, on wednesday i do HIIT on the bike). i train my abs after each session.

oh and my target weight is 75kg (super middle), and turn 20yo soon.

My diet is good (so i think, please correct me if im wrong).
an average week for diet would be:

m1 - 4 weetbix with lite milk

m2 - 1 serve of chicken or steak, 1 serve of potato salad

m3 - 1 serve of chicken or steak, 1 serve of garden salad

m4 - (Pre training) Protein shake with lite milk

m5 - (post training) Protein shake with lite milk + 1 bananna

m6 - serve of chicken or steak with a serve of salad

m7 - 2 Multi V’s, 2 Vitamin c tabs

i dont know what bf% i am but i am 181cm, 79-80kg, i can see the top 2 abs, and am begining to see the 2nd set. I cant see all of my abs clearly, and they dont ripple/bulge.

My questions are → should i begin to lift (im not new to weights, but have stopped for 5months)??

Why aren’t i getting ripped, what am i doing wrong??

appreciate all and any help!

Your diet is shit.

Should you lift weights? What. The . Fuck?

Come on!

First, yes, lift weights.

Second, those salads are shit. Eat some fucking vegetable not just letucce. Potato ain’t going to help with seeing those abs either. Try brocili, sprouts, green beans. ANYTHING GREEN.

Have some fruit with your cereal. Have some eggs or prtoein shake (eggs are preferred - you already have a lot of shakes).

Cut out some shakes - replace with nuts, yogurt, cheese, etc… Shakes are not to replace food - they are to supplement protein intake.

Meal 7 aint a meal. LOL!

You need to read some more. Your lack of understanding is obvious even to a beginner such as myself.

Enjoy your training,
Spry.

Oh and all that milk is also not really going to show the abs…

Well, the first question to ask is, do you want to be boxing or be ripped?

Your diet is fine if you want to box. Besides, you say your abs have been starting to show. Just keep plugging along and maybe you’ll have those abs you’re looking for.

If not, don’t sweat it; abs don’t make a boxer!

On the weights topic it is up to you, really. You say your boxing training is very intense, so if you want to lift you will want to keep it conservative.

Also, if you think you are strong enough to get to the boxing level you want to be at (which I assume you do since you completely stopped strength training), then there’s no need to risk injury.

If you are training to box you should lift weights but keep in mind if you want to get in the ring and fight your boxing training must be the first priority, running second and weights third. I am getting ready for my first fight in a few months and I lift twice a week. I would like to add a third day but like I said skill training and running take priority. I assume you have a boxing coach/trainer who can take care of the skill side so I won’t comment on that. Running wise I find hill sprints are best. Find a steep hill (or set a treadmill on an incline of 12) and run up as fast as you can for 1 minute and repeat after a short rest till you feel like you are going to die. As far as weights go twice a week will be fine. Pull something, push something and squat or deadlift one day. On the other weight training day chins and cleans.

Also check out www.rossboxing.com

Spry -
so in the mornings, instead of a potato salad/green salad, i should have a serve of steamed broccoli, sprouts, green beans or just anything green?

what sort of fruit should i be adding in the morning, some fruits are high in sugar?

and instead of 2 shakes w/milk, have at least 1 without milk?

thanks for the help!

Daraz - appreciate the advice on weights! but why should i have to choose between ripped and boxing?, alot of boxing is about having a very low bf%? alot of pro and amateur boxers are ripped?

DB297 - hill sprints are a great idea!, didnt even think about them! should i lift after my run (which is after my training?)?? good luck in your fight as well!

also with weights should i consider 2 fullbody workouts?

thanks for the help, keep it coming guys!!

I wouldn’t recomend training then running and then lifting. By the time you start to lift if you worked hard in the gym and ran hard you shouldn’t be able to move. I do my boxing traning at lunch Mon, Tues, Thrs, Fri (depending on how i feel. maybe every other Friday I train)and Sat. I run sprints/hills in the morning on Wednesday Friday and Sunday. I do my strength traning Tuesday nights and Saturday but always have a few hours between boxing and weights.

If your schedule allows and if you are serious about fighting working out twice a day will be a huge help. If you can’t I would say always box first and then if you are going 5-6x a week alternate lifting and running after you box. If you run and lift hard it shouldn’t take you more than 20 minutes. Your lifting should always be a full body routine, when you box you need all the muscles in your body so train that way

Any fruit is good. With all that milk you can’t be afraid of a little sugar from some fruit, my friend.

Yes, on the green vegetables.

I’d replace the first shake (pre workout) with some real food.

Yeah, get that milk the hell out of there. I love milk, and it’s great for gaining weight, but it WILL put weight on you. If you’re not in mass mode, the milk will do you more harm than good, and you should never include it when dieting. I think I dropped a couple pounds in a couple weeks just by cutting out milk.

Yeah I agree with spry cut the milk. Eat some fruit(berries, apples, grapefruit, pineapple, etc…), green veggies and salads with tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, yellow summer squash etc…if you’re going to be training twice a day you will need recovery drinks post-training. After you have downed those,about one hour later have a lean protein and a starchy carb such as sweet potato, oats, ezekiel bread, brown rice if no other options.

When you’re not training have mostly healthy fats and a little saturated from eggs, lean beef, coconut oil and obviously your protein. Reading Don’t Diet/Massive Eating by John Berardi will further your knowledge greatly on the concepts I presented here. Good luck with your venture.

Ha! My level just changed to 2 and now you listen to me?

:slight_smile:

hahaha nah what you said was on point. i used to be fat and drank a lot of milk (this was before i was told i had low hdl) then i lost weight (still drinking milk) then realized that milk makes me wanna eat massive amounts of food probably due to the fact that it releases massive amounts of insulin when ingested. so needless to say i only drink calorie countdown milk and on rare occasions

[quote]el3ctro wrote:

Daraz - appreciate the advice on weights! but why should i have to choose between ripped and boxing?, alot of boxing is about having a very low bf%? alot of pro and amateur boxers are ripped?
[/quote]

I meant don’t do things in order to get ripped, it doesn’t do anything to your boxing. If you lift weights to get lean it will make you much less of a boxer than if you lift to get strong.

And a lot of pro and amateur boxers have low bf because of the intense conditioning work needed to stand for X rounds! And they do the conditioning work with the purpose of being able to stand for those rounds NOT to get some beauty points, it only really is a (good) side effect.

If you want my opinion, how you eat right now is more than fine anyway. Remember, you are not a bodybuilder going on stage… whether you eat potato salad or a cucumber will not decide the outcome of your next showdown :wink:

If you give yourself another 6 months of boxing training it will not matter anyway, you WILL have that six pack you want. You said it yourself: your abdominals have started showing more!

ok, so lets say my new program changed a little.

mon - boxing then weights

Weights - chest, abs, bis’ tri’s

Bench press, incline flys, pushups, bi curls, hammer curls, tri ext, skull crushers, ab routine

3 - 4 sets, 15-20 reps for each

Tues - boxing then 6-10km run

Wed - boxing then weights

weights - shoulders, back, lats

military press, lat raises (front + side), seated row, lat pull down (close), chinups (wide), Romanian deadlift.

3 - 4 sets, 15-20 reps for each

Thurs - Boxing then HIIT (on bike)

Fri - boxing then weights
Full body weights (legs + upperbody)

Sat - boxing then 6-10km run

and diet:

m1 - 4 weetbix with lite milk + 1 bananna

m2 - 1 serve of chicken or steak, 1 serve of steamed green vegetables

m3 - 1 serve of chicken or steak, 1 serve of steamed green vegetables

m4 - (Pre training) handfull of cashews

m5 - (post training) Protein shake with water + 1 bananna + ice cubes

m6 - serve of chicken or steak with a steamed green vegetables + 1 serve of either pasta, potato, sweet potato (yam).

m7 - 2 Multi V’s, 2 Vitamin c tabs, 1 fish oil tab

how does that look guys?

Sounds great on the diet. Mix in some almonds and walnuts with the cashews as well would be good for vitamin E and omega 3s.

Otherwise good diet.

I’ll leave the training up to yourself - I am not a boxer.

Spry.