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View Full Version : Iron Mike Tyson's Training Regime (in the 1980's)



brutallypowerful
04-21-2005, 01:21 PM
Up until he fired Kevin Rooney in 1988, his ONLY diet was steak, pasta and fruit juice. How's that for discipline?

Daily Regime (7 days a week):
5am: get up and go for a 3 mile jog
6am: come back home shower and go back to bed (great workout for those huge legs of his)
10am wake up: eat oatmeal
12pm: do ring work (10 rounds of sparring)
2pm: have another meal (steak and pasta with fruit juice drink)
3pm: more ring work and 60 mins on the exercise bike (again working those huge legs for endurance)
5pm: 2000 sit-ups; 500-800 dips; 500 press-ups; 500 shrugs with a 30kg barbell and 10 mins of neck exercises
7pm: steak and pasta meal again with fruit juice (orange i think it was)
8pm: another 30 minutes on the exercise bike
then watch TV and then go to bed.

(Before jogging in the morning he did a lot of stretching followed by 10 jumps onto boxes and 10 bursts of sprints, then he went jogging. At 12pm he sparred. At 3pm he did focus mitt work or heavy bag work inside the ring. He warmed up for all ring work with light exercises such as skipping or shadow boxing or speed ball. At 5pm Tyson did 10 quick circuits, each circuit consisting of: 200 sit-ups, then 25-40 dips, then 50 press-ups, then 25-40 dips, then 50 shrugs, followed by 10 mins of neck work on the floor. What an animal! Tyson said that the shrugs "built his shoulders up" to help unleash punches with his short arms whilst at the same time building endurance in the neck. It should be noted though that Tyson couldn't do any more than 50 sit-ups a day and 50 press-ups a day when he was 13, but gradually increasing the reps each week got him to a higher level over many years, so that he was doing 2000 sit-ups inside 2 hours every day by the time he was 20.)

Mike told Ian Durke (Sky commentator) his above workout regime when he visited England to watch a Frank Bruno fight in March 1987. Durke told Mike that Bruno trained like a bodybuilder and asked Mike about this, but Mike said that floor exercises and natural exercises work better. Mike explained that his punch-power comes from nothing more than heavy bag work "works your strength through the hips" he said, despite doing shrugs with a barbell he said that lifting weights has about as much resemblance to punching as "cheesecake" (contradicting himself though due to doing shrugs). But his mentor Cus D'Amato realised that, due to Tyson's style, he needed punch-power (not that he didn't have it naturally anyway). So Cus got Mike very heavy bags to hit for a 13 yr old, and Cus gradually increased the weight of the bags Tyson used over time so that by the age of 18-19 Tyson was banging bags that no other man could budge! Also, Cus used to order Tyson to go jog 3 miles with 50lbs on his back because he didn't want Mike growing any taller (because it didn't suit his style)!


Check out these awesome 'young' Tyson videoclips:
http://www.sudo.hs.kr/~sun/Mike_Tyson-2.wmv (right click and 'save target as')
http://vod01.damoim.net/data/2004/1225/13923795_1103985635.wmv (right click and 'save target as')

Rob Thomas
04-21-2005, 01:34 PM
I love Tyson - one of my all time favourites. He used to provoke so much excitement before his fights - I used to look forward to them for months before hand!

brutallypowerful
04-21-2005, 01:35 PM
PS
Just added some videoclips too, look above

brutallypowerful
04-21-2005, 01:38 PM
I love Tyson - one of my all time favourites. He used to provoke so much excitement before his fights - I used to look forward to them for months before hand!
It really is a shame that he lost discipline, Jimmy Jacobs dying in 1988 was the beginning of the end, then Don King and Desiree Washington messed his head up.

But there will never be another Tyson, he has the quickest ever knockout in amateur history (6 seconds or something stupid) at the junior olympics in 1981, then he became the youngest ever heavyweight champion of the world (20 years old, 1986). Legend, but fell short of his potential!

Justin Hurley
04-21-2005, 01:42 PM
It is a shame.

He took heavyweight boxing to the top. Apart from Muhammed Ali, I don't think anyone has provoked so much interest in the sport.

brutallypowerful
04-21-2005, 01:50 PM
Mike Tyson, in his prime, was so sharp and dominant that I don't know if anybody would of handled him!?

bufftechnician
04-21-2005, 03:49 PM
Tyson built that physique without weights? wow!

brutallypowerful
04-21-2005, 03:57 PM
Tyson built that physique without weights? wow!
Not really, he was 200lbs 'solid' at 14 years old and had abnormally high testosterone levels. So muscle developed on his body rather easily, and a lot of muscle must of been there naturally.

brutallypowerful
04-23-2005, 09:19 AM
[quote=robt]Desiree Washington messed his head up.
Sorry I meant Robin Givens not Desiree Washington, but anyway their both bitches.

brutallypowerful
04-24-2005, 10:41 AM
Kevin Rooney on Tyson - http://www.tysontalk.com/article44.html