Ditch the gadgets
“Technology and tools are useful and powerful when they are your servant and not your master.” — Stephen Covey
So Black Friday has been and gone. I'm betting you've had quite a few emails tempting you to part with your hard-earned cash. That latest 'must-have' nagging away at you like an itch you've got to scratch. It's across the board in every retail sector.
Health and fitness is no different. Today it is an industry and it has a voracious appetite. It feeds on constant consumption. More products. More supplements and shakes. More workouts. I’ve seen this in action in gyms. The constant yearning for something new.
But really, do you need to train in the dark with disco lights? Or in a gas mask that simulates high altitude? What quantitative gains will you get from eating those expensive South American berries?
Most of the workouts in the monthly health and fitness magazines aren't new or innovative. They're tried and tested methods recycled and repackaged. They're available on the internet for free. You only need to look in the right places.
Are supplements better than clean protein, fats and carbs from well-sourced healthy food? Not for me.
I’m all for innovation and progression. But we’re in danger of shovelling a large and precious diamond into the skip with the rough. That diamond is the old-school training methods available to us all for free. Over the years, no sport has relied on these methods more than boxing.
Take a look at some of the finest boxers the world has ever seen. Google these legends: Jack Dempsey, Jack Johnson, Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali. Did they train in a high-altitude simulator or air-conditioned gyms? Did they use hi-tec training equipment? Did they drink protein shakes? No. These elite fighters honed their skills and conditioning with basic, inexpensive resources.
And the results? Output and performance we can only marvel at now. Modern marquee fighters will have a maximum of 3 fights in a year. In the 40s and 50s it was commonplace for top fighters to fight every 6 weeks. How did they manage this superhuman schedule over so many years? The simple answer is this: if they didn’t fight they didn’t earn. No endorsements or TV deals. No cushy media jobs.
Willie Pep, the legendary American featherweight had 241 contests over 3 decades. In January 1947, Pep was almost killed in a plane crash. The only survivor of the accident, he sustained a fractured back and leg. Yet he still went on to have 10 contests that year.
Sugar Ray Robinson: Old school boxing training
That is unthinkable these days. And keep in mind that these contests were 15 rounders, not the 12 of today. What Pep and his peers had was the desire and need to do it. They got the job done with whatever resources they had.
It’s a harsh fact. But in most cases, the best boxers come from the poorest areas. Some of the greatest fighters of the past 50 years have come from abject poverty. Consider Roberto Duran, Manny Pacquiao, Sonny Liston, Mike Tyson and Joe Frazier.
The Cuban boxing programme is world-renowned. Yet they train their boxers in makeshift conditions with little or no equipment.
What I loved most about my old boxing club was its old-school attitude to training. Thinking back to the most challenging workouts in that time — they didn't use any equipment at all. They used locations - like the beach, park and steep hills. These are places we all have access to.
When we used equipment it was the staple gym favourites. Bags, pads, basic weights, tyres, hammers and our own body weight. My old coach Les Welsh is a master conditioner. And he can innovate without expense. One training session I endured used nothing but a couple of wooden skittles he found in a second hand store. It ruined me.
My pal Davey Johnstone is a wonderful pad man. He can break you mentally and physically in three rounds. What does he use? Nothing but his knowledge and any pair of pads you like.
This old-school ethic is important to me. It's a link from those great old fighters of the past to the people I work with now. The lovely people I train need only buy a pair of hand wraps to enjoy boxing. Fill a gym with as much fancy equipment as you like. It's the people who train there that bring the magic. Without them you have nothing.
And the gadgets? Most of them will end up on eBay or cluttering up a cupboard. Do yourself a favour and ditch them. You don't need them. There's something liberating about getting fit and active under your own steam.
Don't believe the hype. All you need is the will to make a start, the commitment to keep it going and the support of the people you train with.
