Tuna swims way into boxers' diets

The Daily Telegram

Last Updated: Wednesday, June 25th, 2003 09:13:34 AM

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Happiness for the boxers at Horton’s Gym comes in all shapes and sizes.

It can be the perfection of a 1-2 combination, it can be pounding out 100 wall push-ups and 30 regular push-ups.

For Tony West, Mike Simenson and myself as we prepare for our June 28 hometown fights at the Solon Springs Slugfest 2, happiness is a bag of tuna.

Nutrition is one of the more important parts of the day-to-day grind for a boxer, especially considering the intensity of the workouts.

If you are going to knock out thousands of punches, hundreds of sit-ups and push-ups, several sprints and lunges in the span of an hour, you don’t want your gas tank to be empty.

And you don’t want it filled with low-octane gasoline either.

Which is why I really look forward to a bag of tuna these days. I won’t lie, I really didn’t like the stinky, smelly fish that made my breath smell somewhere between unbearable and impossible — but now I enjoy the taste and actually miss eating it after my workouts when it is unattainable.

It doesn’t always have to be tuna in a bag for all the boxers, it’s just that the fast-paced fish dinner fits best in my boxer-newspaper writer lifestyle. The key is finding what works best for you personally, and that doesn’t mean chocolate cake and twinkies.

“My thing about nutrition is that a boxer needs to be a lean as they possibly can be,” said Chuck Horton, owner and trainer at Horton’s Gym. “There are many schools of thought, but I’m big into meats, salads and fruits, and a very minimum amount of bread if any at all. Also, if you are going to have dessert, it has to be low in carbohydrates.”

We’re not talking about going crazy with the Atkins diet and just annihilating chicken wings and beef patties all day long, but simply paying attention to what you eat and being smart about it.

And tuna in a bag, despite the breath it may cause, is smart.

“It’s the sweetest fish ever,” West laughed. “I never thought I’d be saying that, but I have become absolutely cautious about my diet. There’s no way I’d be able to make it (as a boxer) eating poorly.”

With the demands inside the ring and during the workouts being so great, a lot of how you prepare yourself outside the ring is critical. Even if that means eating tuna out of a bag.

“I want to raise the bar and I know good nutrition is part of getting there, it’s part of completing the workout,” West said. “When you don’t have to worry about being healthy you’re able to worry about other things that are important.”

Like your opponent trying to knock you out. But hopefully he hasn’t heard about the joy of tuna in a bag yet.

Joe Wicklund is a sports writer for The Daily Telegram and boxes out of Horton’s Gym. He can be reached by telephone at (715) 394-4421 (ext. 138), or by e-mail at joe.wicklund~mx3.com