If you’re Irish and you’re also a boxing fan, then you know the name McGuigan. First there is Barry McGuigan. At the age of just 17 he won a gold medal at the 1978 Commonwealth Games, and seven years later he was Featherweight Championship of the World. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005.
Continuing the family legacy of success is Barry’s son, Shane McGuigan. A level 3 PICP coach, Shane is a boxing trainer and strength and conditioning coach at KX Gym in Chelsea, London. KX is a luxury gym and spa with a small client base. If you want the best facilities and training staff, and your billfold is pretty thick, KX is where you want to be.
Barry inspired his son to become a boxer, and he became his trainer. And he trained Shane well. Shane started boxing in 2006, and the following year he won the National Senior Novice Championships at 69 kilos. Shane was the Ulster Senior champion the following year, and that same year he became the Irish Under 21 Champion in the 71-kilo bodyweight division. In 2010 he became a personal trainer.
Shane believes the greatest boxer of all time – other than his father – is Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao’s career includes 54 wins (38 knockouts), three defeats and two draws, and he is the only boxer ever to win world titles in eight different weight divisions. Shame admires Pacquiao’s boxing tactics as an aggressive, “forward fighter.” Barry’s hero is Roberto Duran.
Shane says there is a bigger interest in MMA than in boxing, but that boxing trainers are often recruited to help MMA fighters with their stand-up attack. He also says that although there is money in MMA fighting, the bulk of that money goes to the elite fighters; the average MMA fighter makes little money. “In MMA,” says Shane, “you could say that the poor get poorer and the rich get richer.”
Trainer of Champions
Shane’s clients range from working mothers to CEOs to athletes. “I believe I have found my vocation in life,” says Shane. “As my passion for strength and conditioning training and my understanding of nutrition continue to grow, getting the best out of my clients and increasing their performance in every aspect of their lives is now my daily goal.”
Specifically on that last point, his most famous client is professional boxer Carl “The Jackal” Frampton. Frampton’s training and nutrition approach enabled him to compete at under three percent bodyfat, once at 2.4 percent. Frampton won all 11 of his professional fights, seven being knock-outs. He won the Celtic and Commonwealth championships and is ranked among the top five in Europe.
Shane says that there are coaches –“dinosaurs” he calls them – who do not believe in weight training. “My dad used to get up and run seven to ten miles, five to six times a week. I am lucky to be Carl’s boxing coach as well as his strength and conditioning coach. I don’t have him run more than twice a week, and nothing beyond 400-meter sprints – anything further than that is not specific to the sport. And the science is available to show this.” Shane adds that boxing “is a boxer-endurance sport,” such that often it’s not the boxer with the biggest punch who wins. “A boxer needs to be able to hit with power, but for many repetitions.”
Regarding the questionable practice of dehydration, Shane says he only has Carl do this a few days before a fight, and they are careful about rehydrating properly. As such, between the weigh-in and the fight, Carl can regain all his water weight without fear of cramping.
Regarding nutrition, Shane says that “like anywhere else, you can choose to eat clean or choose to eat dirty,” and that most of his clients respond best to a low-carb approach to eating. As for supplements, he often recommends what he calls “The Basics.” “Fish oil, magnesium, zinc, De and a multi – but I will recommend a specific supplement according to a client’s BioSignature assessment.”
Shane passed his level 3 PICP certification in November 2011, after making the long flight from London to the Poliquin Strength Institute in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. He found that the strongman section of the course “was tough, very tough – my lungs were burning.”
Asked what sets Coach Poliquin’s courses apart from others, Shane replies, “What you can learn in a week in his courses would take you a year through other means. The information is applicable to all types of clients, not just athletes, and he has the research to back up his methods – Charles can answer every question.”
Shane is an avid reader, devoting one day a week “to learn more to earn more,” and plans on continuing to take more courses from Poliquin Performance. “I highly recommend Charles Poliquin’s courses – they are brilliant.”
Like his father Barry, Shane has enjoyed a successful career as a boxer and is now making a name for himself as a strength coach and personal trainer. What’s next? “My goal is to eventually own my own strength and conditioning facility with a boxing gym. I want to offer my clients the whole package.”