Training

Carl never cuts corners in his training and leaves nothing to chance. His last 3 fights have all gone the distance and he has managed to outlast both his opponents due to gruelling training camps where he puts himself through hell.

His success can be attributed to the following:

Killer sprints and runs

Six to eight weeks before a fight Carl will run 5 days a week. His runs are fast paced, ranging from 3 miles in 18 minutes to seven miles in 45 minutes which coincides with the duration of an average fight. Carl also does flat out sprinting of 100 metres, 80 metres, 60 metres and hill sprints. Here is some great footage of Carl doing this in Nottingham as part of his preparation for his fight with Andre Dirrell:

The second video below shows Carl again performing thse sprints at his County Mayo training camp before he fought Jean-Pascal in November 2008. Carl avoids running marathon distances even though he believes he can do so instead opting for explosive lung bursting work more akin to sprinters training.

Gruelling Gym Sessions

Carl will follow up this session with my trainer Robert McCracken down the gym -- sparring, pads, shadow-boxing, and then circuits, press-ups, sit-ups, etc. and I do that for about two-and-a-half hours. The September Men's Fitness Magazine has an excellent training artcle on page 99 detailing what a session will consists of.

Carl's sessions are quite old school and avoid a lot of weight lifting as he is of the opinion that it can you slow you down and result in you adding too much bulk thus pushing him over the super middleweight limit.

Carl instead focuses on excercises that do not bulk him up.

"I do classic moves such as press ups, crunches and dips - as many as 300 in a session because volume equals strength. I include variations so my body never gets used to the workouts and keeps getting stronger."

Here is some footage from the week before the Dirrell fight showing Froch Carl going through the circuits he mentions in the Men's Fitness Article from September.

Serious Sparring

As with the other parts of his training regimen, Carl is a consummate professional. He looks for fighters who mimcs his opponents styles. For the Taylor fight, Froch sparred with Jean Pascal (now WBC Light Heavyweight champion) as part of his preparation. By going in with someone as strong as that for sparring shows how seriously Carl takes his preparation.

Weights (Occasionally)

Carl limits his weight training sessions to occasoinal bar lifting work.

"I don’t need to do that many weights but every now and then I do the bar, with 25-30 kilos on either side, which amounts to roughly probably my body weight. I lift this up above my head, then drop it and lift it up again. I do four sets of 15, or four sets of 20. I don't overdo it, because you’ve got to be careful with the impact of these exercises on your lower back."

Sports Psychology

Whilst Carl studied Sports Psychology at Loughborough Uni he does not dwell on it too much. Carl instead gains confidence from perfect preparation and leaving nothing to chance. Carl's preparation is meticulous with ALL training runs, rounds sparred and sparring sessions logged in a training diary. Carl can then look back knowing he has left nothing too chance. Here is what he has to say on it:

"I believe that all the preparation is done before you get to the fight, as long as you you’ve prepared and put in the hard work then you’ve got nothing to worry about. If you cheat in the gym then you’re going to scared and get nervous, then you might start having to read your books."

Another thing about Carl's training is its focus. He trains for 6-8 weeks with just his immediate training team not speaking to his model girlfriend Rachael or his family.

Diet 

Carl walks around at about 12st 5 pounds (173 pounds) between fights and does not put on weight easily. He is naturally lean. Carl cites the Polish gene from hisgrandparents as a possible reason for this. Carl is able to eat Currys, Pizza and Chinese between fights.

When Carl is in training camp he is known to eat well and in addition to being up at 6 for runs he does eat well. This is taken from a great article from leftlion.co.uk about his eating habits in the lead up to a fight::

 "I’ll have a big bowl of porridge and banana and honey. No caffeine at all, I’m on mint tea. That’s Monday to Friday for six weeks and I come back home for the weekends. "

More Carl froch training information

Men's Fitness Article from September 2009

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