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MJ MIND & BODY: How to Be Ali - The MJ boxing workout

How to Be Ali
The boxing workout that transformed Will Smith into the Greatest of All Time In a steamy boxing ring on L.A.'s
west side, Will Smith's trainer is trying to kill him. It's the first week of September 2000, and Darrell Foster, 182 pounds of pure muscle, is raging toward the former Fresh Prince with a series of vicious left hooks. Though Foster has been hired to transform Smith into the greatest boxer of all time, a connecting punch could prove disastrous. But Smith keeps his attacker at bay with quick, powerful jabs. He dances out of danger, recalling the swift moves of a young Cassius Clay, who in 1964 shocked the world by showing that a 218-pound man could move as gracefully as Nureyev yet still dominate the ring and win the World Heavyweight title. Smith mixes in vintage Ali head and shoulder feints, dodges Foster's powerful hook, and follows with a stiff right that knocks his trainer off balance. After two rounds of counterpunching and sidestepping Foster's relentless attack, an exhausted but elated Smith throws his headgear across the canvas. "Now that's what the fuck I'm talking about!" he shouts out. For this was the culmination of four months of learning to train, think, and live like a heavyweight. To prepare for his starring role in Michael Mann's film Ali, which opens December 7, the 33-year-old Philadelphia native had become a hungry fighter. Six times a week, he was up at 6:00 A.M. for as much as five miles of roadwork, then in the gym at 11:30 for three hours of ring work and an afternoon of lifting weights.

Old-School Boxing Gyms


Your health club likely offers a boxing class, but it's more inspiring to study the sweet science in a hot, musty, threadbare gym with a veteran trainer who knows the ropes. Here are four of America's classic gyms. You must cut through a Mexican

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MJ MIND & BODY: How to Be Ali - The MJ boxing workout

tortilla shop to get to Denver's TOUCH EM UP BOXING CLUB, where a handful of pros train, including ex-WBC lightweight champion Stevie Johnston. (720-5304622) GLEASON'S GYM has been a Brooklyn institution since 1937; it's where everyone from LaMotta to Ali has trained for battles at the Garden. (718797-2872) The BROADWAY BOXING GYM in L.A.'s Watts neighborhood is owned by Bill Slayton, former International Boxing Hall of Fame manager of the year. (323-7559016) On the battered entrance to the KRONK GYM, in southwest Detroit, is a sign that reads, "This door has lead [sic] to pain and fame." Kronk's fighters have taken home 27 world championships. (313894-9727) --Carl Hoffman

"We were not getting ready for a movie," says Foster, who made his name as Sugar Ray Leonard's boxing strategist and health-and-conditioning coach and now runs the Pasadena-based fight-consultation-and-fitness company Omega Bodies. "We were preparing Will for a world-title bout. My objective was to teach him how to fight, period. I wanted to instill in him a boxer's instinct." Foster started by teaching Smith the basics, beginning with the jab. "Ali had about six different jabs in his arsenal, and I taught Will all of them," says Foster. "I even showed him how to flick it -- 'snake-lick' is what Ali called it -- which is meant to have less impact, but more sting. It also has a blinding effect." Shadowboxing let Smith practice the punch combinations he'd later unleash upon real opponents. He strengthened his punches on the 130-pound heavy bag, which also helped him develop balance and coordination. And he worked on the smaller speed bag, which, explains Foster, is used for learning to deliver punches from various angles, "regardless of how your opponent is slipping, sliding, bobbing, or weaving." Later in his training, Smith sparred with the boxers who would play his opponents in the film, including former WBO heavyweight champion Michael Bentt and former IBF middleweight and super-middleweight champion James Toney. And the punches they fire at each other in the film are as real as they look. While roadwork and sparring have been a part of boxers' training since bareknucklers squared off in eighteenthcentury London, the third element of Foster's program, strength training, has not. Some trainers won't let their fighters do a single push-up, believing that overdeveloped muscle slows fighters and interferes with the mechanics of punching. Foster disagrees. "The fighter of today is a different animal," he says. "Weight training has to be a large part of his regimen. It's essential not only for power and endurance but also for speed." Smith's tight schedule made it especially important. In just four months, the six-foottwo, 185-pound actor gained 30 pounds of muscle -- and enough power to give one sparring partner a concussion. The same workout that transformed a rapper into a raging heavyweight can work for the less famous among us, too. Even if you don't have a legendary trainer, you'll get serious results with this more accessible version of Smith's regimen (see "The Workouts," below). And, like Smith, you may discover that a boxing regimen has an unexpected fringe benefit. "Now," says Smith, "I know that anyone I walk by, I can pretty much beat their ass."

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MJ MIND & BODY: How to Be Ali - The MJ boxing workout

THE WORKOUTS ROADWORK The boxing workout is the perfect combination of cardiovascular and strength training. Not only does it build stamina and muscle, it's a guaranteed way to burn off stress -- and it teaches skills that could prove invaluable in the subway. Or at an Irish wedding. Here, veteran boxing trainer Darrell Foster, who has transformed actors including Will Smith, Ving Rhames, and Woody Harrelson into serious boxers, presents his regimen for Men's Journal. "Boxers are built on the road," says Foster, so begin every workout day with a morning run, which builds cardiovascular endurance and burns fat. On a flat route, run two to four miles three times a week at a comfortable speed. If you have a heartrate monitor, use it to stay in your aerobic zone; otherwise, maintain a pace at which you can hold a conversation. RING WORK The core of the boxing workout takes place in and around the ring. Do the following exercises after your run on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. First, learn the basic punches, working with a trainer to refine your technique. Boxers refer to punches by numerical systems; Foster uses the following when working with actors. Get in a boxer's stance with your feet shoulder-width apart, your left foot forward, and your knees slightly flexed. (These instructions are for a right-handed boxer; adjust accordingly if you're a lefty.) 1. Left jab: Take a small step forward with your left foot and explode your left fist out from your chin. Rotate your fist so your palm is facing the floor. 2. Straight right: Throw this right-hand punch like a jab, but rotate your right hip to add power. 3. Left hook to head: Turn your hips to the left, plant your rear foot, pivot on your front foot, roll your shoulder, and release the punch, keeping your elbow bent at 90 degrees until contact. 4. Right hook to body: Throw this punch like a hook to the head, but pivot on the ball of your rear foot and land the punch lower. 5. Left hook to body: Throw this punch like the left hook to the head, but land it lower on the body. 6. Right uppercut: Bend your knees and tuck your right elbow into your hip. From this position, thrust with your legs and drive your punch upward. 7. Left uppercut: Like a right uppercut, but tuck your right elbow and punch with your left hand. 8. Right hook to head: Like the left hook to head, but from the other side.

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MJ MIND & BODY: How to Be Ali - The MJ boxing workout

SHADOWBOXING Get in the boxing stance and throw two-, three-, and fourpunch combinations toward an imaginary opponent; find combinations that feel comfortable. Shadowbox for three threeminute rounds, with one-minute rests. Double your speed for the last 30 seconds of the final round. SPEED BAG Start by slowly and rhythmically striking the bag twice with each hand. Hit the bag with the outside of your hand between your wrist and the base of your little finger. Let the bag hit the far side of its platform, then the front side, and when it's halfway back to the far side, strike it again. You don't need to hit too hard or fast. Once you've established a rhythm, alternate hands. Go three rounds. HEAVY BAG Stand at arm's length from the bag in the boxer's stance. Keep your feet moving as if you were avoiding blows, maintain your balance, and attack with a combination of punches. "Treat the bag like you would an opponent," says Foster. "Respond to it. When the bag moves back and forth, work on your jab and straight right. When the bag sways from side to side, work on your hooks." Go for three rounds. JUMP ROPE Skipping rope improves your foot speed, hand speed, and endurance. Jump for three rounds. STRENGTH TRAINING Lifting weights builds muscle mass -- and it's becoming a more widely accepted part of a boxing regimen. For each exercise, complete one set with a comfortable weight, then increase the amount for the next two sets so that you reach muscle fatigue at the end of the last rep. MONDAY - Chest and triceps: For each exercise, do three sets of ten reps each. 1. Bench press. 2. Incline bench press. 3. Shoulder press with dumbbells. 4. Lat raise with dumbbells. 5. Triceps press with barbell. 6. Triceps extension. WEDNESDAY - Back and biceps: For each exercise, do three sets of ten reps each. 1. Lat pull-down. 2. Seated row. 3. Shoulder shrug with dumbbells. 4. Biceps curl with barbell. 5. Lumbar extension. FRIDAY - Legs: For each exercise, do three sets of twelve reps each. 1. Leg press. 2. Inverted leg press (done on a machine). 3. Thigh extension. 4. Hamstring curl. 5. Calf raise. 6. Squat. SATURDAY - Punch training: 1. Do each of the eight punches ten times, holding a ten-pound dumbbell in each hand. 2. Do ten reps of two- and three-punch combinations, again holding a tenpound dumbbell in each hand.
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MJ MIND & BODY: How to Be Ali - The MJ boxing workout

By: Oliver Jones Photographs by: Piotr Sikora Grooming by Jerry Stolwijk for Stockland Martel. Photographed at Gleason's Gym, Brooklyn, New York (November 2001)

Copyright 2001 by Men's Journal LLC WENNER MEDIA: RollingStone.com | Us Online

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