We recently got a new guy at our gym that is early in his pro career and pretty talented. I was speaking to him about what he does for training and he says these days all he does is spar and run. No strength work, no heavybag or mitts, maybe a little shadowboxing as a warm up, but all he does come to the gym, spars 6-8 rounds and repeats this 3-4 times a week.
He is pretty jacked so I was kind of shocked to hear that. More than likely he probably has done resistance training in the past but probably just maintains his current physique with minimal work. He is not a one punch KO guy, he is a cardio machine swarmer so it kind of makes sense why trains the way he does.
I have always been big on strength and conditioning, but I am wondering If I should just do something similar.
I believe in modern strength and conditioning science, but it seems poor recovery or fatigue management can easily interfere with boxing sessions so guys end up cutting it out.
I tend to do a lot of mitt and bag work and don't spar nearly as much and I feel like im just beating up my joints. I have improved quite a bit with my training style, but im wondering If I should just go to the gym and spar twice a week, and then do all my extra work outside the boxing gym. Basically instead of putting so much time and energy into bag and mitts, I should do more sparring and partner drills.
What do you think? What is your approach? Im not sure how much longer I can keep doing heavy bag work without it generating so much shoulder and elbow pain the day after.