Mike Tyson Workout, the Training Routine of the Baddest Man to Ever Live

Throughout the lifespan of human history, many have claimed to be the baddest on the planet. However, that title belongs only to one person who is globally recognized for it, and that is Mike Tyson. He may not have been as graceful or as political as Ali, he may not be undefeated like Mayweather, but he was the most ferocious and feared fighter that we ever had the pleasure of witnessing.

Mike was a physical specimen and a lot of people just chalk it up to “genetics.” I, however, find it hard to attribute genetics as the key reason for success, to someone who worked out 8 to 10 hours a day 6 days a week and then added mental training to that, making it a total of 10 to 12 hours a day dedicated to his craft. He spent 50 to 60 hours a week training, that’s more than most people spend in an office. That doesn't sound like genetics at all.  The truth is, genetics are only responsible for making you a heavyweight, the rest is up to the fighter. There were thousands of genetically gifted heavyweights who aren’t Mike and that had everything to do with his training.

So let’s get down to the nitty-gritty and discuss what we could gather from books, articles, videos, and interviews, as to what was Mike’s training regimen.

Mike changed his training often but what everyone wants to know is what was his training in his prime.

In summary, this is what Mike Tyson’s typical workout looked like in a day:

• Woke up at 4 am – 3 to 5-mile jog
• Breakfast
• Sparring 10 to 12  rounds
• Calisthenics (push ups, dips, sit-ups and shrugs and 10 minutes of neck work )
• Lunch break
• Six rounds of sparring, bag work, slip bag, jump rope, pad work and speed bag.
• More calisthenics
• Shadow boxing focused on technique, often just one.
• More calisthenics
• Dinner
• Exercise Bike for cool down
• Study fights or training footage

Cumulative reps for calisthenics was 2000 sit-ups, 500 pushups, 500 dips, 500 shrugs and about 30 minutes of neck bridges daily. These were broken up into multiple sets throughout the day. Meaning he didn’t do them all in one go but instead broke them up in between other workouts.

That’s an overall summary but it goes much deeper than that, as documented by books and interviews.

Let’s dive into detail of what Tyson did for boxing, strength, mental training, and conditioning.

Mike Tyson Boxing Training

Mike Tyson’s boxing routine was one of mastery. His coaching team consisted of Cus D’Amato who was his head coach, with Kevin Rooney and Teddy Atlas assisting. The focus was always on perfecting each punch, each motion, with a large focus on defensive movements and simulating the fight.

Let’s break down each exercise.

Shadow Boxing

Cus believed that shadow boxing is the most important exercise a fighter can partake in. He mentioned that it is where a fighter builds his habits and that is why it is important to focus during this exercise. Because of this, he believed you should shadow box how you fight, throwing each punch with extreme intensity and to your full potential.

Cus would make Mike throw one punch for rounds on end to make sure he perfected it and through it as fast, as hard, and with a perfect of a form as he could each time. Another exercise that the Tyson camp was known for while shadow boxing is moving their head two to three times after each punch or combo.

Cus’s mentality was that you are a good fighter when “you can hit, and not be hit, but at the same time be exciting...that’s when you’re a fighter.” That is exactly what their training camp focused on.

Mike Tyson Heavy Bag Workout

For most fighters, the heavy bag is usually just a conditioning workout. In Mike Tyson’s camp, this was not the case. Conditioning was certainly a part of it, but when Mike worked the bag, early in his career it was mainly about three things:

1. Form
2. Combinations
3. Power

Cus made sure to give Tyson feedback after every punch and combo thrown and get him as close to perfect as possible. He also made him do a defensive move after every punch and combo to ingrain it in him as a habit. This is a good practice for any fighter. Every time you throw a combination, before and after, you want to do a defensive move. For Mike, it was head movement.

Cus would also call out number combinations and get Mike to perfect the flow, speed, and timing of each of punch. They had their own unique number system, this way when they call out the combination in a fight, their opponents didn’t know what they were about to throw.

Some of Mike’s favorite combos include:

1. Left hook to the body, left uppercut to the head
2. Jab to the body, right hand to the head
3. Left hook to the body, right hook to the head
4. Left and right hook to the body, left hook and right to the head
5. Right Hand left hook

As you can see a lot of body/head combos. This was Mike’s trick to distract his opponents:

Lastly, Mike often attributed the heavy bag to his power and not strength training. He would always say that power comes from working on the snap of your punches on the heavy bag. As Tyson got older, Cus would increase the weight of the bags and have him hit heavier bags, going up to a rumored 300 lb punching bags. Because Mike would develop his power as time went on, he was able to swing bags that grown men couldn't budge, by the time he was 16.

The heavy bag is one of the best tools to increase your punching power. Per Tyson’s advice, work on your form, snap, and most importantly, the intensity. Mike never held punches back on the heavy bag and always hit it as fast and as hard as he could.

Sparring

When it came to sparring there really was none in Cus D'Amato's gym. By that I mean there was no “practice fights,” there were just fights. When Mike sparred, it was a fight. Cus didn't believe in taking it easy in sparring. They would bring in seasoned heavyweight pros to spar with Tyson and a lot of them didn't want to stick around because the sparring sessions were so damaging. Mike was a scary guy to spar because he would punish and hurt everyone he stepped into the ring with. Cus also didn’t like headgear because he thought it gave the fighter’s a false sense of security. How you train is how you fight, so Cus made sure every sparring session as close to a real fight as possible for Mike. During the Cus D’Amato days, very rarely would you see Mike with a headgear during sparring.

Mike Tyson Defense Training

Despite being the aggressor in the ring, Mike Tyson was actually a defensive fighter. He rarely got hit clean and was a master at evading punches. This also allowed him to be an excellent counter puncher.

In the words of the great Cus D’Amato:

With Mike, Cus was able to achieve creating this fighter.

Here are some of the things they did to work on defense.

Mike Tyson’s Mitt Work Routine

Kevin Rooney was the main person tasked with helping Mike on the pads. There are a few clips floating around of Mike training, knocking the pads off Kevin’s hand. One of their main focuses on the pads was slipping and countering. A lot of it revolved around Mike dodging the punches coming at him. It seemed that a large part of CUs’s training revolved around slipping shots after each combination.

Slip Bag

The slip bag was made famous by Mike Tyson and is one of the best tools out there to get better at slipping punches and timing it right. Cus had this in his gym all the time and many of his fighters practiced with it. This is a good tool to get the timing right of when to move your head. This because it forces you to time the slip motion without seeing it. This can work your peripheral vision as well as time shots that are looping around your line of sight. Just like with all of his training exercises, he made sure to move his head after each combination, and throw a combination after he moved his head.

Here is Mike on the slip bag:

Head Movement

It didn't matter if he was on the heavy bag, working the pads, shadow boxing, sparring, or just about any exercise, you can find Tyson moving his head. Cus, Kevin Rooney, and Teddy Atlas all made sure that Tyson was constantly moving his head. It was ingrained into his style and was basically a habit to mix defense and offense into one fluid exercise. His hands were at his chin, his chin was tucked, his shoulder snapped to defend his chin and he moved his head before and after each combination. He was about a clean as a fighter as they come.

Here is a helpful video on head movement:

Mike Tyson Strength Training Routine

This is what most really want to know when they are searching "Mike Tyson's Workout." Everyone wants to know how Mike developed that power and physique. Most people don’t want to believe it but Mike did not, in fact, lift weights early in his career. He was quoted saying in the build-up to the Frank Bruno fight that Bruno had a “nice physique” but weights had to do as much with boxing as “cheesecake.” By that, we think he meant it is not a recipe for success, nor is it a recipe for failure.

Here is Mike Tyson’s strength training routine while under Cus D’Amato’s tutelage.

Mike Tyson Calisthenics Routine

There is a rumored routine going around the internet that Mike Tyson did the following daily:

• 500 dips
• 500 pushups
• 500 shoulder shrugs
• 2,000 situps
• 30 minutes of neck bridges

While most called this routine “fake news” it is actually not far from the truth. In terms of quantity, he did in fact do that daily. He just did not do it all at once, not during camp at least.

What he did was do a few sets between boxing workouts.

For example, he would spar, then do a few sets of a calisthenics circuit. He would hit the bag, then proceed to do a few more sets of each exercise above. The cumulative total is what that legendary workout floating around the internet amounted to.

However, that is just what he did in the gym and during training camp.

Mike did much more than that based on the man himself. In his book “Iron Ambition” he talked about how he used to wake up in the morning before school, go for a 4 mile run, come home and do 400 pushups and 400 squats. So his strength training routine was not limited to what he did in the gym.

He also said in an interview that him and his friends used to bet pushups instead of money and that they would “do them all the time.” In the same interview he referred to a time when he ran 4 miles, walked 10 miles and then did 2,000 situps. Mike’s routine was definitely one that was fluid but yet focused on the same principles. He built his strength over time, saying himself that he started at very low rep numbers and built up as time went on.

Its safe to say that these are for sure:

• Mike did 500+ pushups a day
• Mike Tyson did a ton of squats and roadwork
• 2,000 sit ups daily has been a consistent number he has openly discussed.
• He did work his neck everyday by doing wrestler neck bridges 10 minutes per set.

Mike Tyson Neck Workout

Mike Tyson’s neck is the 9th wonder of the world. Everyone that’s ever seen a picture of it was amazed. His neck was between 20 and 22 inches, which is huge for someone his size.

He achieved this neck with two exercise:

• Wrestler bridges
• Shoulder shrugs

He did shoulder shrugs with either a 75kg or 30kg barbell. And he did about 500 reps throughout the day.

With neck bridges he worked his way up to be able to do 10 minutes straight of the exercise, usually about 3 sets a day. If you ever did neck bridges, you know how beast what he did is.

He didn't use the neck harness that Maywaether and many other fighters of today use, although they do work for neck strength as well.

Mike Tyson Leg Workout - Did Mike Tyson Do Squats?

Mike Tyson was known to do 400 squats a day before school. However, one interesting squat workout that he did was when he was in prison. It is now referred to as the “Tyson Squat Workout” which he talked about in his autobiography “Undisputed Truth.”

The workout is simple, there are no weights required.

Mike grabbed ten cards from a deck and laid them all out on the floor side by side a few inches apart.

Then he stood in front of the first card and did a squat to pick it up.

The he took a horizontal step in front of the next card and did a squat to put the card down on top of the card thats on the floor. Now he would squat twice more to pick each card up.

Then he stepped to the next card and squat down twice to put the cards down, then did three more squats to pick all three cards up, and continued doing that until he picked up all the cards. 

These add up pretty quickly and will hurt like hell. If you can handle it, you can go back in reverse and put the cards back down or add the amount of cards you lay down in the first place.

Everytime you squat you put down or pick up one card.

That is an intense leg workout.

Did Mike Tyson Lift Weights?

Mike Tyson did NOT lift weights until AFTER he got out of prison. 

Prior to prison and in prison, all he did for strength training was calisthenics and conditioning training like road work and jump roping.

Once he got out of prison he started lifting because, in his words, “all the fighters had strength and conditioning guys so it was something you did.” This was a little noticeable in his physique and also his fighting style as he was not as fluid post-prison. Could've been the rust, could’ve been the weights, or both.

Here is a direct quote when asked about lifting weights:

“No way. Only hitting the bag and boxing all the time. I did lift later in my career when I came back in ’95. I started lifting weights because that’s what everybody was doing. Everybody had strength-and- conditioning guys at that time.”

There was once when Mike was a teen that they were messing around on the bench and he was able to do 225lbs, repping it easily. So he was always a strong kid, but his physique was not achieved with weight lifting.

You can also find some footage of Mike lifting some weights in his later years leading up to his retirement. I called this the “lazy Mike” workout routine.

Conditioning Training

For stamina, Mike did the typical boxing workouts. This included running, jump roping and all other boxing exercises.

He would wake up at 4 am every day and run 4 to 5 miles and mentioned he would walk 10 miles after. Not sure for the purpose of the walking or how often he did it.

But just like his strength training, he would also go for a run randomly, so it wasn't just isolated to what he did in the morning.

Other than that he jumped roped often pre and post-jail. Mike has one of the most explosive jump rope routines and is not a fighter who jumps passively when he is on it. His jump rope routine was is intense.

Here it is below:

Mike Tyson’s Mental Training

Between Cus D’Amato and Mike Tyson, both of them believed that fighting was 90% mental. Mike said that “everyone was in shape” and that is not what made the difference in the ring. Cus went out of his way to train Mike’s mind in both boxing IQ and character.

To build his boxing IQ Mike would watch a lot of tapes. Every night, once training was wrapped up for the day, Mike would go in the attic and watch tapes of legendary fighters. He would watch fighters of all sizes and grab what they did well as well as try and find holes in their game.

Deliberate Practice - The Feedback Loop

In his book “Talent is Overrated” Geoff Colvin talks about mastery being the result of “Deliberate Practice” rather than just practice. In boxing, practice would be throwing punches, deliberate practice, however, would be throwing punches with the intent of perfecting each one and having someone there to give you feedback on what you did wrong. Tyson had this 24/7 and 365 days a year.

Not only did he have direct feedback from the legendary Cus D’Amato as he trained, but also from Teddy Atlas, and Kevin Rooney. On top of that, when they got home, they would sit and watch his training and sparring footage to improve the holes in his games.

This was deliberate practice at its finest and its how Mike trained his mind to train his body to be a perfect fighting machine.

Surrounded by Fighters

On top of that, Mike lived in Cus’s houses surrounded by other fighters. At the dinner table they would sit and talk boxing and Cus would ask Mike all types of questions and boxing related trivia to keep his mind sharp and make him reach into his memory banks of fighter’s he studied. It was this constant exposure to boxing that helped him fine-tune his mental ability. He studied boxing as much as he trained for it and made sure he had enough ring IQ to defeat crafty, more experienced fighters.

Affirmations

When it came to building the mindset and character of Tyson, Cus was a master. As soon as he brought Tyson in, he told him he would be a world champion. Mike Tyson called it “brainwashing” but really Cus was trying to instill confidence in him. Cus knew what scientist learned only later, which is that being confident that you can do a task, will actually make you better at doing it.

Because Cus knew this he would tell him how great he is going to be every day and why.

He also would instill in him that he had to be scary and intimidating. He would tell him every day that he had to put fear into his opponents.

He also had Mike repeat affirmations to himself daily like these:

“Day by day, I’m getting better and better. The best fighter, nobody in the world could beat me, the best fighter in the world, nobody in the world could beat me.”

Mike is quoted saying:

“The more I said it, the more I believed it.” Eventually, he felt he could beat all 6 billion people in the world in a fair fight. We don't disagree, Mike. 

And then there was …

Hypnosis

Something we learned recently in the book “Iron Ambition” Mike discussed Cus taking him and the other fighters to a hypnotist.

When put under hypnosis, Cus would tell Mike that he had a “powerful jab” that he “timed it well” and he could beat anyone he faces.

Cus would say, “You're a fighting machine, Mike. You’re the best fighter that God has created. The world has never seen a fighter like you because when you throw your punches in combination, you are ferocious. Ferocious. Your intention is to inflict as much pain as possible.”

“Your jab is like a weapon. Like a battering ram. Your objective is to push his nose into the back of his head. You throw punches with bad intentions. You move your head after every punch. You are a scourge from God—the world will know your name from now to the eons of oblivion. I’m not telling you all this because you are incapable of doing these things. This is not a séance. This is what you are capable of doing. I need you to relax, this is going to help you.”

These were no joke. Mike mentioned that they did not work for everyone but I don't know about you, if I had Cus D’Amato saying these things to me daily, I’d crush it every day.

What Matters is the Discipline

Cus and Mike both talked about the importance of discipline so I’ll leave you off with a quote from Mike Tyson in regards to it.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what you know about his training routine if you don't apply yourself the way he did. Whether you want to look like him or perform like him, it all comes down to the work put in.

Get to Work

Whether you want to fight like Mike, look like Mike, or just challenge yourself, it’s time to get to work.

His style was created by vicious repetition. What made Mike Tyson look and perform the way he did was not genetics, it was the results of discipline, and a grueling work ethic. 

Thank you, Mike, for being an inspiration to millions out there

Share your thoughts on Mike Tyson's workout and drop me a comment below.

Brawl all day!

Mike Tyson FAQ

This was a long post, so here I’m adding a quick FAQ section for the most popular questions asked about Mike Tyson, his training, and his physique.